United States and Russia request safeguards for their excess plutonium

The United States and Russia submitted a jointly signed letter to the IAEA Director General, in which they requested the IAEA to engage in effort to establish verification measures with respect to their weapon-grade plutonium disposition programs. The letter was distributed by IAEA as an INFCIRC/806 document.

The U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, signed in its final form in April 2010, calls on the parties to undertake all "necessary steps to conclude appropriate agreements with the IAEA to allow it to implement verification measures with respect to each Party's disposition program." In their letter to IAEA, the United States and Russia set the goal of "preparing the necessary legally-binding verification agreements in 2011."