The Plutonium Legacy

Abstract

Now that the Americans and Russians are beginning to dismantle many of their nuclear weapons under disarmament agreements, increasing amounts of military plutonium are being removed from nuclear weapons and stored under civilian control. More and more plutonium from civilian reactors is being chemically separated from spent reactor fuel elements in commercial reprocessing plants and kept in civilian plutonium stores. The main problem with plutonium is that it is an extremely efficient explosive. There are no economically viable peaceful uses of plutonium, at least until breeder reactors are demonstrably economical. This is unlikely to happen for several decades. Most separated plutonium will, therefore, have to be stored or permanently disposed of. Because the theft of plutonium could have serious global consequences, the international community needs to be confident that plutonium is being stored securely. It will be confident only if the stores are under strict international management rather than the current system of national ownership and storage.