Worldwide Plutonium Stockpile Continues to Grow

By David Francis
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Enough plutonium and uranium exist in stockpiles around the world to build more than 300,000 nuclear weapons, according to an assessment released yesterday by a Washington think tank (see GSN, Aug. 24).

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and co-author of Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials warned that the plutonium supply is unlikely to decrease in the coming decades.

“Plutonium is going to be with us for a long time in a nuclear explosive form,” Albright said yesterday in a presentation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Security at civilian and military nuclear sites around the world needs to be improved to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials, he said. While “Russia emerges as the biggest concern,” Albright warned that nuclear stockpiles in South Africa and other countries without weapons programs are also vulnerable (see GSN, July 19).

South Africa is “a place that you don’t really think about that has highly enriched uranium and could be vulnerable,” Albright said.

Uranium enrichment in areas such as the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, whether for peaceful or military purposes, should be banned, Albright argued. “The momentum supports those things more than ever in the past,” he said.

The report finds that at the end of 2003, 35 countries had 1,830 tons of plutonium — enough for 225,000 weapons — and 50 countries had 1,900 tons of highly enriched uranium. 

Of the plutonium supply, 1,675 tons were in civilian stocks produced in power reactor programs, while 155 tons were dedicated for use in the military and nuclear weapons programs. The largest stockpiles belonged to the United States with 502 tons of plutonium, Russia with 271 tons and France with 236 tons, according to the report. 

Stocks of civilian plutonium grow by 70 tons each year, according to the report.

Efforts to reduce the plutonium supply are not going well, Albright said. The report estimates that civilian power plants will continue to create 5 tons of plutonium each year even as mixed-oxide fuel conversion facilities in the United Kingdom and Japan reach full operational capacity.

MOX plants convert plutonium into a safer fuel for use in nuclear power reactors (see GSN, July 21).

While the total amount of plutonium is expected to grow, the stocks held for military purposes are expected to decrease slightly in coming years, Albright said, from 333 tons in 2003 to 315 tons in 2020. 

Supplies of weapon-grade uranium have also been on the decline due to blending down of the material to low-enriched uranium, Albright said (see GSN, Feb. 23). However, the 1,900-ton worldwide stockpile is enough to create 75,000 bombs. While most of this uranium is in the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon states, many countries without nuclear weapons programs possess the material. He urged the United States to play a greater role in securing the substance.

“The United States should consider on a case-by-case basis permitting other HEU forms of U.S.-origin to be returned,” the report says. “In addition, the United States needs to be prepared to accept the transfer of several stocks of non-U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, including South Africa’s stock, that otherwise would remain in countries that may not be able to provide adequate long-term physical protection.”

The United States and Russia have by far the largest stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, respectively holding 124 tons and 15 to 30 tons.

Albright also warned that the world supply of neptunium 237 and americium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, totals 141 tons. This could be used for more than 5,000 weapons, he said.

Ed Fei, senior policy adviser at the U.S. Energy Department’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative, praised the report, calling it “the most authoritative, thorough set of information out there.”

Fei said the Global Threat Reduction Initiative works to “clean up leftovers” of large nuclear supplies that are accounted for to prevent terrorists from obtaining them (see GSN, Aug. 22).

“It’s very small amounts of material we’re after,” Fei said.

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.