Why does Trump want to transfer Cold War-era plutonium to nuclear start-ups?

File photo of a billboard of the Los Alamos Study Group taking aim at the US government's plans to ramp up production of plutonium cores taken near Bernalillo, New Mexico on February 17, 2021. © Susan Montoya Bryan, AP

The Trump administration has announced that it has selected several nuclear start-ups to participate in a project that would allow them to use plutonium stockpiles inherited from the Cold War. This plan has alarmed nuclear non-proliferation specialists.

Cold War-era nuclear technology is making a major comeback in the US. The Trump administration has selected several nuclear start-ups that could be granted the right to tap into stocks of military-grade plutonium that were produced until the early 1990s for use in nuclear weapons. This plutonium will then be repurposed as fuel to power small modular reactors.