TERRORISTS could easily make a crude atomic bomb from MOX fuel produced at
British Nuclear Fuels鈥� new plant in north-west England, according to a
confidential report submitted to the British government and seen by New
快猫短视频. The report comes as the state-owned company is trying to get the
government鈥檚 go-ahead to make MOX, a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxide, for
reactor operators in Europe and Japan.
Although the MOX plant, at Sellafield in Cumbria, was completed in 1996, the
government has postponed authorising its start-up because of doubts over its
economic viability. Last week, as a fourth consultation exercise on the MOX
plant ended, Friends of the Earth lodged papers at the High Court in London
calling for a judicial review of the consultation, accusing the British
government of skewing the process in favour of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). The
environmental group alleges that the 拢462 million invested in the plant so
far has been disregarded in calculating its financial prospects, and that the
results of an independent audit have been withheld from the public.
But now the confidential report submitted to the government highlights
another potential problem for the plant. Written by Frank Barnaby, a physicist
who worked at the nuclear weapons laboratory at Aldermaston, Berkshire, in the
1950s and later headed the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, it
spells out exactly how easy it is to make MOX fuel into a bomb.
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Barnaby says that terrorists intent on mass destruction would need no more
technical know-how than that used to make the Lockerbie bomb. The expertise
required is less than the equivalent skill used in 1995 by the Japanese cult,
Aum Shinrikyo, to prepare sarin nerve gas for release into the Tokyo subway, he
says.
It would be 鈥渟heer irresponsibility鈥� for the government to allow the new
plant to open, Barnaby warns, as the theft of MOX fuel pellets would then become
a 鈥渢errifying possibility鈥�. His report, which was commissioned by the Oxford
Research Group, an independent body of scientists studying nuclear issues, comes
in the wake of mounting concern about the poor security arrangements for
radioactive materials worldwide
(快猫短视频, 26 May, p 10).
Barnaby reveals three ways of chemically separating the plutonium dioxide
from the uranium dioxide in MOX fuel. One, involving lanthanum nitrate as a
carrier, was used in 1941 by the atomic pioneer Glenn Seaborg at the University
of Chicago. The other two methods鈥攐ne of which is currently used at the
University of Kiev in Ukraine鈥攄epend on reactions with resins. The
chemistry is less sophisticated than that required for the illegal manufacture
of designer drugs, he says. All the details terrorists need are in the published
literature or on the Internet, says Barnaby.
A primitive bomb could be made with 35 kilograms of plutonium dioxide, or
terrorists could use hydrofluoric acid to precipitate out the pure metal,
Barnaby says. Only 13 kilograms of pure metal would be needed to create an
explosion with a yield of 100 tonnes of TNT鈥�50 times the size of the
largest terrorist bomb to date, in Oklahoma City six years ago.
BNFL points out, however, that MOX fuel would be difficult to steal because
it travels under armed guard. The security arrangements 鈥渁re mature,
comprehensive and robust鈥�, says a company spokeswoman. 鈥淲e are 100 per cent
confident in the physical protection measures we have.鈥�
The company points out that turning plutonium into MOX fuel and burning it in
reactors could reduce the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation by cutting
plutonium stockpiles. Some plutonium also has to be returned to foreign
customers because they own it. The risk of MOX fuel falling into the hands of
terrorists is 鈥渕inimal鈥�, BNFL insists.
An atomic explosion in a city centre is 鈥渆veryone鈥檚 worst nightmare鈥�, says
Frans Berkhout, a nuclear expert from SPRU (formerly the Science Policy Research
Unit) at the University of Sussex, Brighton. But although turning fresh MOX fuel
into a bomb is 鈥渢heoretically possible鈥�, he thinks that in practice terrorists
might find cheaper and easier ways of causing mass destruction.
