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Preface
In approaching Walter C. Patterson to write The Plutonium Business, Nuclear Control Institute had
one basic objective in mind: to simplify and de-mystify for the general public the evolution of
plutonium from the rare stuff of atomic bombs to a plentiful civilian fuel that may yet be used in
nuclear power plants throughout the world.

The danger is enormous - all the more so because most of the world's citizens are unaware of it. By
the turn of the century, less than two decades away, there may be plutonium fuel being trafficked in
commerce sufficient to build about 100,000 atomic bombs. This will be the situation if those who
would make a business out of plutonium get their way.

Who are these people? How did the material used in the Nagasaki bomb become their fuel of the
future? How did elected governments in the free world, and the centrally managed governments of
the Communist world, come to embrace such a dangerous idea? What is the potential for 'civilian'
plutonium being made into weapons by nations or by terrorists? Walt Patterson is ideally suited to
answer these questions. He is a physicist and safe-energy specialist long associated with Friends of
the Earth UK, who has written extensively on the industrial use of plutonium and has been active in
public-interest efforts to block such use throughout the world. He brings to the subject a vast
knowledge and first-hand experience, as well as a sense of humour and a point of view.

It will become apparent to the reader that The Plutonium Business is not another academic tract on
plutonium and nuclear proliferation. This report is intended to engage the reader, overcome apathy
and provide some practical suggestions on how to stop the global spread of plutonium before it gets
out of control. At the same time, Patterson's study is well documented, including appendices with
key documents on plutonium policy and an extensive bibliography for those wishing to pursue the
subject.

Nuclear Control Institute is a Washington-based non-profit organization that develops studies and
strategies for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. Curbing the production and use of plutonium
is essential to all meaningful nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Yet plutonium proves to be the most
intractable proliferation problem, largely because of the mystique that has come to surround this
man-made element, as detailed in Patterson's study.

Among the members of the Board of Directors of Nuclear Control Institute is Dr Theodore T.
Taylor, once the foremost designer of nuclear fission bombs in the United States arsenal, now a
developer of advanced solar-energy technology and a leading advocate of stronger safeguards and
controls on civilian nuclear technology to prevent misuse for nuclear weapons. Dr Taylor, in the
foreword to this report, describes the 'life or death' implications of the widespread use of plutonium.
Dr Taylor, who knows as well as anyone how plutonium can be used or misused, is clearly worried.
The point of this report is that we all should be worried, lest we perish in our ignorance.

Paul Leventhal
President
Nuclear Control Institute
Washington, DC
May 1984

Auteur	W.Patterson
	-
Datum	mei 1984
Classificatie	6.03.0.00/37 (PROLIFERATIE - ALGEMEEN)
Opmerking	Available for download at www.waltpatterson.org
Voorkant

Stichting Laka

Documentatie- en onderzoekscentrum kernenergie

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The plutonium business (1984)

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:The plutonium business (1984)

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The plutonium business (1984)