Taiwan Denies Reports of 1980s Plutonium Experiments

A Taiwanese official said today that his nation’s nuclear weapons program did not involve separating plutonium before being shut down in the 1980s, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Oct. 13).

Diplomats in Vienna said yesterday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has discovered evidence that plutonium experiments were conducted about 20 years ago in Taiwan. A senior Taiwanese nuclear official said today, though, that the experiments never happened.

Plutonium from nuclear reactors must be separated and purified for use in nuclear weapons, according to AP.

“We never made any plutonium separation experiments, not in the 1980s, and not earlier,” said Yang Chao-yie, deputy chairman of the Taiwanese Cabinet’s Atomic Energy Council. “The program was just research.”

Taiwan follows a policy of full cooperation with the U.N. agency, Yang said, adding that Taiwan next year plans to install remote-control monitoring equipment at sensitive sites.

“The inspectors will be able to find the information they want from their seats in Vienna,” he said (Stephan Grauwels, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 14).

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