"In the years before it's first nuclear test in May 1974, India's top
nuclear officials posed a significant challenge to U.S. nonproliferation
policy when they insisted that they could freely use plutonium produced in
their nuclear reactors for a peaceful nuclear explosion (pne). For
Washington, the production of pne's was tantamount to producing nuclear
weapons."
- nsarchive.gwu.edu Dec 9, 2022
/////////////
"There is a commonplace conception that reactor grade plutonium cannot be
used in nuclear weapons. This argument is incorrect. Reactor grade
plutonium can, in fact, be used in nuclear weapons, according to a 1997
report published by the US Energy Department; "Reactor grade plutonium is
usable, whether by unsophisticated proliferators or by advanced nuclear
weapons states."
...India has an extraordinary large stockpile of reactor grade plutonium.
About five metric tons of reactor grade plutonium has already been
separated.
Admittedly, this stockpile is most likely intended for India's prototype
fast breeder reactor and not for nuclear weapons.
But what if, for whatever reasons, at some time in the future, under
conditions we cannot foresee right now, the stockpile were to be
repurposed. How many nuclear weapons is it possible for India to produce
from this supposedly second-rate collection of fissile material?"
- thebulletin.org Nov 2, 2022
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