Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials

In an exemplary exercise of what might be termed "public
intelligence," the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS) has published a new account of nuclear explosive
materials around the world.

The ISIS database provides estimates of national inventories of
plutonium and highly enriched uranium (as well as neptunium-237
and americium) for countries from Argentina and Armenia to
Vietnam through the end of 2003. More than 50 countries were
found to possess five kilograms or more of these materials.

Such information is ordinarily very closely held, not only by the
foreign governments themselves but also by U.S. government
agencies.

"Some agencies would classify all of this stuff," observed a
State Department intelligence official seated next to me at the
ISIS briefing on September 7 presenting the new estimates.

But of course classification renders information unavailable for
public deliberation.

The purpose of the ISIS publication, in contrast, is "to create a
set of data that everyone can use," said ISIS President David
Albright.

"We need a common language to discuss this," he said,
particularly in light of the threat of diversion of nuclear
materials by terrorists.

"There is a lot of fissile material in the world," Albright said,
noting that ISIS had estimated the production of nearly 4000
tonnes of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, enough for more
than 300,000 nuclear weapons.

See "Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials," Institute for
Science and International Security, published September 2005:
link to website


<Information thanks to SECRECY NEWS from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, Volume 2005, Issue No. 86, September 9, 2005>