Troubled Disposition: Next Steps in Dealing With Excess Plutonium

Matthew Bunn argues that plutonium disposition—physically transforming it into a form that would be difficult and costly to recover for use in nuclear weapons—if carried out on a large scale would “mark a key step toward deeper and less-reversible nuclear arms reductions.” But, as he documents, delays, costs, and obstacles have plagued plutonium disposition plans in both the United States and Russia.