US, Russia agree to dispose of nuclear weapons material

Jul 13, 2011, 21:06 GMT

Washington - The United States and Russia signed an agreement Wednesday requiring both sides to dispose of 34 metric tonnes of weapons-grade uranium - enough to build 17,000 nuclear devices.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signed the agreement, along with several others, at the State Department. Clinton and Lavrov worked out the nuclear material deal last year.

The agreement came months after the US and Russia ratified a new nuclear-arms reduction treaty known as New START, which obligates the two countries to reduce their deployed nuclear warheads by one-third.

Clinton and Lavrov signed a second document allowing business executives to travel to and from each country on the same visa for a three-year period. Lavrov said that measure will go into effect by the end of the year.

Another agreement increases the monitoring process for Americans who adopt Russian children. In April 2010, Lavrov threatened to halt all adoptions after a US family sent a 7-year-old back to Russia alone on a flight to Moscow, carrying only a note and some snacks. The legislatures of both counties must approve the pact.

The two countries also reached a deal to increase cooperation on air-traffic control.

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