U.S. plutonium disposition policy: Bombs for everybody forever

摘要

The US policy on the disposition of weapons and commercial plutonium by geologic storage is examined and compared with destruction in reactors or accelerator-driven systems. The close coupling with Russian weapons plutonium is considered. Strong emphasis is placed on the preference by terrorists and rogue states for commercial plutonium over weapons plutonium for fast and simple nuclear weapons acquisition. US policy faces now the issue of whether the plutonium is going to be with us essentially 'forever' or whether several technical options for total destruction will be supported. Accelerator-driven transmutation technology is proposed as a safe, affordable, and complete solution to this problem.