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Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons

Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons ”

scitizen 15 Dec 08 Can the plutonium recovered from spent civil nuclear-power reactor fuel elements (civil plutonium) be used to fabricate nuclear weapons with significant explosive powers?

…………………..nuclear weapons could be fabricated using reactor-grade plutonium. �The difficulties of developing an effective design of the most straightforward type is not appreciably greater with reactor-grade plutonium than those that have to be met for the use of weapons-grade plutonium�.

More reactor-grade plutonium than weapon-grade plutonium would be required for a nuclear weapon. The bare sphere critical mass of reactor-grade plutonium is about 13 kilograms; that of weapons-grade plutonium is 10 kilograms……supported by Richard L. Garwin, another leading American nuclear-weapon expert expert, who wrote that reactor-grade plutonium is usable in nuclear weapons, whether by unsophisticated proliferators or by advanced nuclear-weapon states (2). Garwin was a consultant for the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1950 to 1993, mostly involved with nuclear weapon design,manufacture and testing……………………………….In 1953, the British exploded a nuclear weapon at the nuclear test site in South Australia made from plutonium of a quality considerably below that of weapons-grade (6). In 1962, the United States conducted a similar nuclear-weapon test (7). The actual amount of Pu-239 in the plutonium used in these tests has not been made public but it was apparently about 19 per cent. The tests were made to prove that reactor-grade plutonium can be used in an effective nuclear weapon.

�� �Given all this evidence, it is, to say the least, surprising that some people still deny that reactor-grade plutonium can be used to fabricate nuclear weapons with significant explosive powers?.

Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons – Scitizen

December 15, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war