Stuttgart
SWITZERLAND maintained the option to develop its own nuclear weapons
until 1988, according to a detailed account released by the Swiss government.
The country鈥檚 atomic bomb programme, which ran for 43 years, included a secret
stockpile of uranium, an attempt to buy weapons-grade plutonium and plans for
400 nuclear warheads.
A report was prepared in response to media speculation by Jurg Stussi, the
Swiss government鈥檚 senior military historian. It confirms that Switzerland
seriously considered acquiring the bomb in order to deter perceived threats from
Germany and the Soviet Union. 鈥淚n an anarchic world we were prepared in case we
needed it,鈥� he says.
Advertisement
Stussi, who was given free access to the government鈥檚 internal documents on
the weapons programme, reveals that until 1981 the Swiss maintained a military
store of uranium ore in Wimmis, 35 kilometres southeast of Bern. It was not
covered by the international safeguards meant to prevent the spread of nuclear
weapons.
He says that the government favoured using uranium to make nuclear bombs and
discussed building a centrifuge plant to enrich the ore to weapons grade. In
1963 defence advisers estimated the total cost of producing a uranium bomb at
720 million Swiss francs (拢400 million at current rates). The alternative
route using plutonium was costed at 2 billion Swiss francs.
Nevertheless Stussi points out that in 1969 the Swiss government tried and
failed to buy 3 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium from Norway. In 1968 an
internal defence committee estimated that it would cost between 100 and 175
million Swiss francs a year over 15 years to develop and produce 400 uranium
warheads for aircraft, artillery and guided missile systems.
Defence officials considered poaching specialists from Switzerland鈥檚 civil
nuclear power programme, says Stussi. A government scientific working group on
nuclear weapons known as AAA was not disbanded until 1988, 19 years after
Switzerland signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
鈥淚t was never our intention to build a bomb at any price but it was an
option,鈥� Stussi says. 鈥淚f the monopoly enjoyed by the nuclear powers was broken,
if Germany developed nuclear weapons, then we would have built one to keep
ourselves alive.鈥�