IPFM International Panel on Fissile Materials

FISSILE MATERIALS ATLAS

ABOUT IPFM

FISSILE MATERIALS &
NUCLEAR WEAPONS

INVENTORIES

LATEST NEWS

Tue - Jan 10th, 2012
Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production
download (PDF, 2,7 MB)

Mon - Oct 17th, 2011
NEW REPORT: Managing Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors: Experience and Lessons from Around the World
download (PDF, 5,1 MB)

Fri - Jun 3rd, 2011
Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, Draft for Discussion
download (PDF, 746 KB)

Wed - Dec 29th, 2010
Global Fissile Material Report 2010: Balancing the Books
download (PDF, 8 MB)

Mon - Dec 13th, 2010
IPFM Research Report #9: The Uncertain Future of Nuclear Energy
download (PDF, 1,7 MB)

Fri - Jun 18th, 2010
NEW IPFM REPORT: Reducing and Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: Country Perspectives on the Challenges to Nuclear Disarmament
download (PDF, 2 MB)

Wed - Feb 17th, 2010
IPFM RESEARCH REPORT: Unsuccessful "Fast Breeder" is no solution for long-term reactor waste disposal issues.
See press release (PDF, 131 KB)

Thu - Oct 29th, 2009
JUST RELEASED: Global Fissile Material Report 2009: A Path to Nuclear Disarmament
download (PDF, 9,2 MB)

Wed - Sep 9th, 2009
September 2009 draft of the IPFM Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty (including an article-by-article discussion)
download full text (PDF, 182 KB)

Thu - May 28th, 2009
IPFM Research Report #7: Consolidating Fissile Materials in Russia's Nuclear Complex, by Pavel Podvig
download (PDF, 709 KB)

Thu - Feb 19th, 2009
IPFM Research Report #6: The Safeguards at Reprocessing Plants under a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, by Shirley Johnson
download (PDF, 542 KB)

Fri - Feb 13th, 2009
IPFM Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
download full text (PDF, 256 KB)

Fri - Feb 13th, 2009
IPFM Releases Draft International Treaty to Ban Production of Fissile Materials For Use in Nuclear Weapons: Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
read more

Sat - Oct 11th, 2008
Global Fissile Material Report 2008, Scope and Verification of a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
download (PDF, 7,6 MB)

Wed - Oct 1st, 2008
Available for download: the IPFM briefing on Global Fissile Material Report 2008:
Scope and Verification of a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, 52nd IAEA General Conference, Vienna, Austria
read more

Tue - Jul 8th, 2008
IPFM Research Report #5: The Legacy of Reprocessing in the United Kingdom, by Martin Forwood
download (PDF, 940 KB)

Thu - May 8th, 2008
IPFM Research Report #4: Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing in France, by Mycle Schneider and Yves Marignac
download (PDF, 2,7 MB)

Mon - May 5th, 2008
Available for download: the IPFM briefing on A Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty and Its Verification, United Nations Office at Geneva, Palais des Nations, 2008 NPT Preparatory Committee Meeting
read more

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New Report: Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production

The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) has published Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production.

The report provides updated estimates for global and national stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium, the key ingredients in nuclear weapons and recent developments in military and civilian fissile material production capabilities in nuclear weapon states and in the non-weapon states. Accurate information on highly enriched uranium and plutonium production and stocks is necessary to support progress on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

more...

New Report: Managing Spent Nuclear Fuel - October 2011

The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) has released a new report, Managing Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors: Experience and Lessons from Around the World. The report provides an overview of the policy and technical challenges faced internationally and learning over the past five decades in efforts at long-term storage and disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors.

The spent fuel from nuclear power reactors, and the high-level wastes produced in the few countries where spent fuel is reprocessed to separate plutonium, must be stored in a manner that will minimize releases of the contained radioactivity into the environment for up to a million years. Safeguards also will be required to ensure that any contained plutonium is not diverted to nuclear-weapon use. This report analyzes the efforts to manage and dispose of spent fuel by ten countries that account for more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear power capacity: Canada, Finland, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. It also provides an overview of the technical issues relating to interim storage and transport of spent fuel, geological repositories, and the challenge of the associated international safeguards.

The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) was founded in January 2006 and is an independent group of arms-control and nonproliferation experts from both nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states.

The mission of the IPFM is to analyze the technical basis for practical and achievable policy initiatives to secure, consolidate, and reduce stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. These fissile materials are the key ingredients in nuclear weapons, and their control is critical to nuclear weapons disarmament, to halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and to ensuring that terrorists do not acquire nuclear weapons.

Both military and civilian stocks of fissile materials have to be addressed. The nuclear-weapon states still have enough fissile materials in their weapon stockpiles for tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. On the civilian side, enough plutonium has been separated to make a similarly large number of weapons. Highly enriched uranium is used in civilian reactor fuel in more than one hundred locations. The total amount used for this purpose is sufficient to make about one thousand Hiroshima-type bombs, a design well within the potential capabilities of terrorist groups.

The Panel is co-chaired by Dr. R. Rajaraman, Professor Emeritus, of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and Professor Frank von Hippel of Princeton University. Its members include nuclear experts from sixteen countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This group of countries includes six nuclear-weapon states and ten non-weapon states. Short biographies of the panel members may be found in the Appendix.

IPFM research and reports are shared with international organizations, national governments and nongovernmental groups. It has full panel meetings twice a year at capitals around the world in addition to specialist workshops. These meetings and workshops are often in conjunction with international conferences at which IPFM panels and experts make presentations.

Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security provides administrative and research support for the IPFM.

IPFM’s initial support is provided by a 5-year grant to Princeton University from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago.