Washington (August 22, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, today released a statement in response to media reporting that the Trump administration plans to give up to 20 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium—enough for approximately 2,000 nuclear bombs—to U.S. power companies. Senator Markey has long been a champion of keeping weapons-usable plutonium out of the civil power sector.

“The Department of Energy is planning to give up to 20 tons of weapons-usable plutonium to private industry for commercial use, trashing long-standing bipartisan U.S. policy and raising serious concerns about the spread of nuclear weapons to additional states or terrorist groups. This would also undermine the economic viability of nuclear energy. There are no upsides here to Trump’s dangerous plan.

“We might as well just sell nuclear weapons at Costco,” continued Senator Markey. “President Trump should treat this plan as he should treat plutonium—not as a valuable resource, which it is not, but as waste to be disposed of safely and securely.”

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