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NEW IPFM REPORT: Reducing and Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: Country Perspectives on the Challenges to Nuclear Disarmament
download (PDF, 2 MB)
Wed - Feb 17th, 2010
NEW 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)
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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
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IPFM Research Report #5: The Legacy of Reprocessing in the United Kingdom, by Martin Forwood
download (PDF, 940 KB)
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IPFM Research Report #4: Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing in France, by Mycle Schneider and Yves Marignac
download (PDF, 2,7 MB)
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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
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Nine Tons of Plutonium
posted by Frank von Hippel on Oct 22nd, 2007 [10:28h]
under: plutonium, stocks
last edited on Oct 22nd, 2007 [14:33h]
under: plutonium, stocks
last edited on Oct 22nd, 2007 [14:33h]
On 17 September 2007, Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman announced that the U.S. will remove 9 metric tons of plutonium from its weapon stockpile. This most recent declaration is a 20 percent reduction of the amount of plutonium in the U.S. stockpile of plutonium assigned to the weapon program: the remaining inventory of weapon-grade plutonium is now 37.8 tons (see updated bar chart below).
Click here to enlarge
Assuming a fissile material inventory of 4 kg in an average pit, the 9 tons would be equivalent to more than 2,000 nuclear warheads and the 36 tons remaining in U.S. pits that has not been declared excess would be equivalent to almost 10,000 warheads.
In 1995, the U.S. declared 45 tons of separated plutonium excess. Of that, 38.2 tons was weapon grade, of which 21.3 tons was actually in excess weapons or components at Pantex. This left 44.9 tons of weapon-grade plutonium in weapons and components at Pantex plus 1.9 tons of weapon-grade plutonium in other locations not declared excess. All this data is summarized in the DOE's 1996 publication Plutonium: The First 50 Years.
For a recent discussion of plutonium disposition efforts, see Chapter 3 of the Global Fissile Material Report 2007, Disposition of Excess Plutonium, lead-authored by Matthew Bunn (Managing the Atom, Harvard University).
Click here to enlarge
Assuming a fissile material inventory of 4 kg in an average pit, the 9 tons would be equivalent to more than 2,000 nuclear warheads and the 36 tons remaining in U.S. pits that has not been declared excess would be equivalent to almost 10,000 warheads.
In 1995, the U.S. declared 45 tons of separated plutonium excess. Of that, 38.2 tons was weapon grade, of which 21.3 tons was actually in excess weapons or components at Pantex. This left 44.9 tons of weapon-grade plutonium in weapons and components at Pantex plus 1.9 tons of weapon-grade plutonium in other locations not declared excess. All this data is summarized in the DOE's 1996 publication Plutonium: The First 50 Years.
For a recent discussion of plutonium disposition efforts, see Chapter 3 of the Global Fissile Material Report 2007, Disposition of Excess Plutonium, lead-authored by Matthew Bunn (Managing the Atom, Harvard University).
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