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Worldwide Weapon-Grade Nuclear Material Stockpiles Growing, Institute Study Says
Stockpiles of weapon-grade plutonium and uranium are growing around the world, despite efforts to curtail the proliferation of nuclear materials, Reuters reported yesterday. “At the end of 2003, there were more than 3,700 metric tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, … enough for hundreds of thousands of nuclear weapons, in about 60 countries,” Kimberly Kramer and former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright wrote in an article to be published in the next issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Reuters obtained an advanced copy of the article. Most of the weapon-grade material is in Russia, followed by the United States, Reuters reported. Most of the plutonium is in civilian hands, and the uranium is largely in military stockpiles. The fact that nations not party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty continue to produce weapon-grade nuclear material emphasizes the need for “an international ban on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons,” according to Albright and Kramer. “Civil plutonium stocks are not expected to decrease in the next 15 years,” they write. “This is worrisome not only because the world has yet to come up with an accepted method of plutonium disposition but also from a security standpoint — how safe is that plutonium and HEU?” (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Oct. 3).
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