Curbing the spread of nuclear weaponsWith the 2005 Review Conference of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in the background, this book provides a fully detailed but accessible and accurate introduction to the technical aspects of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons for the specialist and non-specialist alike. It considers nuclear weapons from varying perspectives, including the technology perspective, which views them as spillovers from nuclear energy programmes; and the theoretical perspective, which looks at the collision between national and international security – the security dilemma – involved in nuclear proliferation. It aims to demonstrate that international security is unlikely to benefit from encouraging the spread of nuclear weapons except in situations where the security complex is already largely nuclearised. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 40
... difficult metal to handle and work – for one thing it is highly poisonous. Secondly, care has to be taken over its composition. Like uranium, plutonium occurs in a number of isotopic forms, of which plutonium-239 is the best suited to ...
... difficult to handle and has such a short half-life (138 days) that fresh supplies need to be on hand constantly.3 In both sorts of bomb, the fissile material is surrounded by a heavy metallic casing (or 'tamper', as opposed to being ...
... difficult, partly because the presence of other plutonium isotopes increases the risk of premature detonation. While there does not exist such a thing as a 'proliferation-proof' design of reactor, diverting a PWR type from its normal ...
... difficulty. Their original charge of fuel, as uranium already enriched, say, to 50 per cent uranium-235, is almost as useful for bomb purposes as any plutonium produced, provided some means of further enriching the uranium is at hand ...
... difficult to gainsay an official justification for this along the lines of wanting security in fuel supplies, but it adds to the opportunities for the diversion of fissile material away from peaceful uses. Oppositely, where the types of ...
Contents
The International Atomic Energy Agency and safeguards | |
Understanding nuclearfree zones | |
United States policy on nonproliferation and the Nuclear Non | |
Bargaining for test ban treaties | |
A The Baruch Plan | |
B Atoms for Peace | |
Treaty of Tlatelolco documentation and texts | |
E Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean | |