Proliferation

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency is dedicated to the worldwide expansion of nuclear power, but is also meant to be the watch-dog for illegal nuclear weapon development. That contradiction has been a key reason the proliferation of such arms has been unstopable.

Greenpeace wants to halt the spread of nuclear power across the globe

It is a simple fact that every state that has nuclear power capability, has nuclear weapon capability. So out of the current 44 nuclear powerstates, we could potentially have 44 nuclear weapons states. Several nations have used their civil nuclear-operations to develop weapons capability, including India, Pakistan, and North Korea.

It is not just us saying this, Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, the Director General of the IAEA said: "Should a state with a fully developed fuel-cycle capability decide, for whatever reason, to break away from its non-proliferation commitments, most experts believe it could produce a nuclear weapon within a matter of months."

The world's growing stockpile of civilian-use plutonium is a cause of proliferation concern. By the end of 2003, approximately 238 tons of plutonium had been separated in commercial reprocessing facilities, compared to 250 tons, which were generated for nuclear weapons. Some 103 tons of this military plutonium has been declared 'excess' and willbe added to the 'civil' plutonium stockpile.

Most of the military plutonium belongs to Russia (130 tons) and the US(100 tons). While military plutonium production has almost stopped completely after the end of the cold war, commercial reprocessing continues.

Considering that only five kilograms of reactor plutonium is enough to fabricate a crude nuclear warhead - the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945 and killed 50,000 people contained 6.1 kilograms of plutonium - the security of the plutonium stockpiles is paramount.

Civil Stockpiles

There are civil stockpiles stored in France, Britain, Russia, Japan, India, Belgium, Germany, and the US. Yet Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and India continue to produce more civil plutonium. Itis expected that by the end of 2010, the stockpile of separated plutonium will further increase from 238 to 286 tons.

A program borne in the wake of 9/11 will spend US $20 billion over 10 years in a global effort to prevent terrorists and other would-be proliferators from acquiring nuclear weapons. But the only way to address the issue is to simply stop all reprocessing and plutonium production.

Civil nuclear programmes lead to nuclear arms - visit our disarmament section.

Find out more:

Remember that renewables are the future!

 

Read about the Real Face of the IAEA's Multilateral Nuclear Approaches, the proliferation of nuclear weapon material & environmental contamination report.

Download our Nuclear Glossary.

The latest updates

 

Hiroshima survivors' legacy persists

Blog entry by jmckeati | 6 August, 2010 11 comments

Events are being held around the world this Friday to mark the 65 th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. The scale of the disaster that overtook the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 is still difficult...

Interactive nuclear Debategraph

Blog entry by jmckeati | 25 May, 2010

Via the UK government Foreign Office website we found this interactive Debategraph that has a lot of useful information about nuclear states, treaties and the issues involved. All the latest news on the 2010 Review Conference of...

The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference Greenpeace urges delegations...

Blog entry by jmckeati | 21 May, 2010

The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is undergoing its latest five-yearly review at the United Nations in New York right now. Yesterday Greenpeace held an official NPT side event where independent experts highlighted the growing...

Open Democracy: United States at the NPT: how far will the 'good guy' go?

Blog entry by jmckeati | 13 May, 2010

Rebecca Johnson rounds up the end of the first week of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference at the United Nations... Unless the role and value assigned to nuclear weapons in deterrence is challenged among the...

Stop Nuclear Madness, no more MOX shipments

Feature story | 5 March, 2009 at 1:00

The largest shipment of deadly plutonium in history is about to leave the French port of Cherbourg - final destination Japan. We’ve taken action to send the message that this is yet another glaring example of the unacceptable risks posed by...

1 - 5