
It will cost about $20 billion to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium by burying it in the New Mexico desert, compared with almost $50 billion to convert the material into commercial reactor fuel using an unfinished facility in South Carolina, Energy Secretary Rick Perry told Congress on Thursday.The preliminary life-cycle cost figures, offered without much further explanation in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, were part of Perry’s official —…