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1 Pavel Podvig, Disposition of Excess Military Nuclear Material 1 (2012)

handle is hein.unl/dispoex0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Disposition of Excess Military Nuclear Material Pavel Podvig UNIDIR Nuclear material in military stockpiles is the largest category of nuclear fissile material that has been produced in the world. In 2012 the global stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) was estimated to be about 1440±125 tonnes and of separated plutonium 495±10 tonnes.1 Most of this material was produced as part of military programmes and a large fraction of it remains available for military purposes. About 940 tonnes of HEU and almost 140 tonnes of plutonium are in nuclear weapons or weapon components or available for warhead production. This amount of material is equivalent to more than 55,000 nuclear weapons. Verified and irreversible elimination of weapon-usable nuclear material is one of the essential elements of the nuclear disarmament effort. The Action Plan adopted at the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference calls on nuclear-weapon states to declare fissile material designated as no longer required for military purposes, and to place this material under safeguards to ensure that it remains permanently outside military programmes.2 All states are also encouraged to develop verification arrangements that would ensure irreversible elimination of military materials.3 In addition to supporting the nuclear disarmament process, these steps could also be a stepping stone towards a fissile material control regime that would stop production of new military material and begin elimination of the existing stocks. After the end of the cold war, the United States and Russia, the two states that possess the largest stockpiles of military fissile materials, declared more than 700 tonnes of HEU and almost 100 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium as excess to military requirements. They also have made significant progress in setting up programmes to eliminate the excess material-more than 550 tonnes of military HEU had been eliminated by the end of 2011.4 The United Kingdom is the only other state that declared some of its military material as excess to 1 International Panel on Fissile Materials, Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production, 2012, pp. 2-3. 2 2010 NPT Action Plan, action 16. 3 Ibid., action 17. 4 International Panel on Fissile Materials, Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production, 2012, pp. 8-9, 17. * A I A A

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