Stichting Laka

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Fissile Materials in Glass, Darkly: Technical and Policy Aspects of Disposition of Pu and HEUranium (1994)

Auteur	Arjun Makhijani, Annie Makhijani, IEER
Datum	november 1994
Classificatie	6.01.5.51/49 (AFVAL - OPSLAG OP LAND (oa ZOUT/KLEI))
Opmerking	Also available in Russian 6.01.2.56/13
Voorkant

Preface

Disposing of plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) has become a vexing
problem at the end of the Cold War as nuclear weapons are dismantled in large
numbers and more and more of these materials become surplus to military
requirements even in official terms. Further, non-nuclear weapons states are
demanding more insistently that nuclear weapons states take more seriously the
spirit of their commitment, under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to
create and implement a timetable for nuclear disarmament. It is therefore possible
that all or almost all of these materials, once thought essential for national
security by the nuclear weapons states, will become surplus. The possibility that
they will be re-used in nuclear weapons by the nuclear weapons states themselves
or sold illegally for such use by others will continue to pose grave dangers to
global security. Effective reduction of nuclear weapons, to say nothing of effective
disarmament, will require that these materials be put into a form that cannot be
easily reused in nuclear weapons.

This study addresses the disposition of plutonium and highly enriched uranium
(HEU) as it relates to putting these weapons-usable materials into non-weapons-
usable forms in the short- and medium-term. We also consider some long-term
aspects of plutonium disposition. Since plutonium separated from spent fuel
originating in civilian power plants can also be used to make nuclear weapons,
we also consider this material. The report describes how the necessity of putting
military surplus plutonium into non-weapons-usable forms can be used to decrease
the threat arising from civilian reprocessing. We have also suggested how policies
for plutonium and HEU disposition can be more effectively linked to achieve non-
proliferation goals.

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