Pentagon says Russia supplies enriched plutonium to China

MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The US Department of Defense has indicated on Wednesday that the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom would be supplying enriched plutonium to China.

The Undersecretary of Defense for Space Policy, John Plumb, has stated that "it is very worrying to see Russia and China cooperating on this," according to a Pentagon statement.

"They can have points of contention about it, but you can't get around the fact that breeder reactors are plutonium, and plutonium is for weapons. So I think the (Defense) Department is concerned," Plumb said.

"And, of course, it coincides with our concern about the increasing expansion of Chinese nuclear forces, because more plutonium is needed for more weapons," the US official added.

Likewise, he has regretted that China and Russia have placed nuclear weapons at the center of their strategies to counteract the power of the United States and its allies. He has also lamented that Beijing is engaged in significant and accelerated expansion and diversification of its nuclear forces.

As for Moscow, Plumb has stressed the importance of nuclear deterrence as the basis of national security in the context of "Russian President Vladimir Putin's irresponsible nuclear saber rattling."