The first nuclear explosion in history took place on the 16th of July 1945, in the desert of Alamogordo, in the American state of New Mexico. The experiment got the name "Trinity". The religious connotation suggests the kind of ideas the scientists had about the purpose of their work. This bomb contained plutonium.
The second nuclear explosion on the 6th of August 1945 over the people of Hiroshima came from a bomb containing fissile uranium.
The third explosion destroying the town of Nagasaki, took place on the 9th of August 1945. Like the first one, this bomb contained plutonium.
All this plutonium had been obtained from a military nuclear reactor in Hanford, Washington state.
Alfred Nobel believed he could bring eternal peace with his dynamite. Some nuclear physicists also believed that they could prevent war with such horrifying devices. Indeed, the atomic bomb is so terrible that every sane statesman would refrain from risking the use of this device by making war. The Cold War was supposed to prove this theory, but the many wars since 1945 do not support this point of view.
By 1945 all the plutonium produced came from military nuclear reactors and was called "weapon-grade". This comprised more than 90% of a certain kind (isotope) of plutonium, plutonium-239. In the early fifties the exploitation of peaceful nuclear energy was started under the name: "Atoms for Peace". The waste from it contains a mixture of several plutonium isotopes, called: "civil-" or "reactor grade plutonium". For the sake of simplicity in this brochure the word "plutonium" is used in a broad sense, comprising both weapon-grade and civil (reactor grade) plutonium.
It had always been common knowledge that it would be impossible to make an atomic bomb from reactor grade plutonium.
However, in 1962 a successful underground nuclear test was conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the US, using civil plutonium in the nuclear explosive. This fact was declassified and made public in 1977.
Thus, plutonium is in principle available for military purposes for any country that has nuclear waste and a reprocessing plant.
Because it can be more easily acquired than pure fissile uranium, plutonium is a problem for the authorities responsible for the safeguards against untoward military use, theft and terrorism. They have to prevent a single kilo of plutonium, out of the hundreds of thousands present in the world, from falling into the wrong hands.
The word "proliferation" is used for the spread of nuclear weapons. To prevent this, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.) was framed by the United Nations in 1968. The five official nuclear weapons states are: the United States of America, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and China. All five of them promised not to sell nuclear techniques to countries that did not sign the N.P.T. and at the same time they promised to get rid of their own nuclear weapons (article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty).
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna is charged with the safeguards for the Treaty. However, this task is complicated by the fact that at the same time this Agency is mandated to stimulate peaceful nuclear energy in the non-nuclear weapons states. This is a serious problem since civil plutonium can be used for atomic bombs.
The expression "Siamese Twins" regarding civil and military use of nuclear energy is often used to suggest the "intertwining" of the two.
Because pure plutonium emits a radiation with a very short range it can be handled without serious health risks. Detection is difficult. Therefore theft is a problem for the authorities in terms of prevention of nuclear disasters.
It is possible to make a "home-made" atomic bomb. It is plausibly argued that such a device can go off. Even if it does not explode it might still be very dangerous because plutonium can set itself on fire spontaneously (see under: "Medical Look At It, Plutonium dust and criticality"). Clouds of smoke contain microscopic particles of plutonium oxide which may affect thousands of people.
The waste from a nuclear power plant, including its plutonium, can be transported to its "eternal" repository site or to a reprocessing plant.
The location of waste dumping is still a matter of great embarrassment for both the governments and the people. Reprocessing of waste may result in the postponement of dumping.
In reprocessing plants the plutonium is separated (reprocessed, recovered, purified) from nuclear waste. The pure plutonium is then transported to countries that are allowed to receive it. These countries are the nuclear weapons states and the countries that guarantee the peaceful use of plutonium, like Japan.
Because of the risks of theft during transport of pure plutonium, these transports are escorted.
* A Japanese ship, the Akatsuki Maru, transported 1700 kilograms of plutonium from France to Japan in November 1992.
The plutonium was pure, i.e. reprocessed. It can be handled safely. Therefore this material can be stolen when security fails. Accordingly, the ship was accompanied by the Navy.
* In 1996 a Belgian aircraft, about to take off with a cargo of plutonium, was seized by Greenpeace just to show how easy it is to get near it.
A great many planes have been, or still are, carrying plutonium.
Ships transporting normal nuclear waste are not escorted by military ships, because theft is practically impossible: the penetrating radiation of the fission products is deadly within an hour.
* Plutonium was the material used in the first atomic bomb in history, exploded on July 16 1945. "Fat Man" exploded on August 9, 1945 over Nagasaki; the bomb at Hiroshima was a uranium bomb.
* Peaceful nuclear power cannot be separated from the possibility of the military use of plutonium. Civil plutonium (originating in commercial nuclear power plants) is, after reprocessing, suitable for nuclear bombs.
* Theft of plutonium which is inadequately guarded is only possible when other components of nuclear waste, fission products, have been removed in reprocessing plants. These fission products are so vigorously radioactive that the material is untouchable.
* The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) see to it that all fissile material is kept in a peaceful way.