An ambitious federal project to convert weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel is one of the most troubled, technically complex, costly, and controversial efforts to secure nuclear material, according to the first in a series of MacArthur-support reports by the Center for Public Integrity. The center's reporting found the $1 billion Energy Department project has overshot its budget by 600 percent and now a U.S.-Russia agreement to dispose of 34 tons of plutonium taken from nuclear weapons is close to collapse.
