The surplus of plutonium in the world is both an important security issue, and a fact with implications for nuclear energy and environmental policy internationally. The two perspectives are inextricably intertwined in considering options for dealing with the plutonium surplus. It was for this reason that two research programmes at the Royal Institute of International Affairs - respectively on Energy and Environment, and on International Security - jointly approached NATO with a view to organising a work shop on the issue. It was most welcome then to learn that the NATO Science Programe was already supporting plans for a workshop on the issue, initiated by Richard Garwin, and we were pleased to accept the resulting invitation to host that workshop. DrGarwin prepared the initial agenda and established contacts and initial approaches to many of the participants; we were able to develop the agenda further and extend participation in some complementary ways. The result was a most lively and broad-ranging internation al and inter-disciplinary discussion. As the hosts, the RIIA was also given lead responsibility for producing the pro ceedings of the workshop as a publication for NATO. Many of the papers to the work shop are more technical than usually involved in a workshop at the Royal Institute. Yet this is an area in which the policy options are unusually dependent upon a good under standing of the technical issues. which themselves are often a matter of dispute.

Klappentext

Superpower arms reduction, nuclear reprocessing and the abandonment or deferral of plans for fast breeder reactions have combined to produce a worldwide surplus of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. Both materials pose security and safety problems, and plutonium poses particular dilemmas for disposal or other ways of consuming the surplus. But new studies and technical developments have opened up new possibilities for managing the plutonium surplus. br/ To highlight the issues raised and to assess these options, the Royal Institute of International Affairs hosted a NATO sponsored Advanced Research Workshop to examine technical aspects of the worldwide surplus of separated plutonium. These proceedings examine the state of knowledge about the amount, form, location and characteristics of separated plutonium, and the many and varied proposals for disposing of or consuming the surplus. With a total of 24 papers and commentaries from leading experts in a dozen countries, it provides an unprecedented overview of the state of research on ways of dealing with one of today's most pressing security problems, and the potential implications for nuclear energy strategies. br/

Inhalt

1. Technical Interpretation.- Session 1: Explosive Properties of Various Types of Plutonium.- 2. Explosive Properties of Various Types of Plutonium.- 3. Commentary.- Session 2: Amount, Location and Form of Weapons and Reactor Plutonium.- 4. World Inventories of Plutonium.- 5. Problems of Russian Plutonium Utilization.- 6. World Inventories of Civil Plutonium.- Session 3: Direct Disposal Options for Separated Plutonium.- 7. Direct Disposal Options for Separated Plutonium.- 8. Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium.- Session 4: Use of Plutonium in Light-Water Reactors.- 9. The Use of Weapon and Reactor Plutonium in WWER and BN Type Reactors.- 10. Pu Utilisation: Recycling in PWRs and Fast Neutron Reactor Perspective.- 11. Use of MOX (R-Pu and W-Pu) fuel in VVER-1000.- 12. Disposition of Plutonium from Nuclear Weapons.- 13. Commentary: Recycling Warhead Plutonium in Light Water Reactors: The Civil Nuclear Industry Can Help.- Session 5: Energy from Nuclear Fission over the Very Long Term U-238 and TH-232.- 14. Energy over the centuries: the IFR options.- 15. Commentary.- 16 Commentary.- Session 6: Burning up Actinides and Long-Lived Fission Products?.- 17. Weapons and Commercial Plutonium Ultimate Disposition Choices Destroy Completely or Store Forever.- 18. Burning Actinides and Long-lived Fission Products.- 19. Plutonium: Secondary Raw Material or Radwaste.- Session 7: Environmental Impacts and Constraints.- 20. Plutonium and its Chemical Compounds: The Problem of Nuclear Weapon Non-Proliferation.- 21. Effects of Transmuting Long-lived Radionuclines on Waste Disposal in a Geological Repository.- 22. Commentary: Environmental Impact and Constraints.- Session 8: Costs of Transport and Safeguards Regimes.- 23. Requirements for PlutoniumTransportation, Storage and Accounting Systems.- 24. Commentary: Security/Safeguard Costs.- Appendix: List of Participants.- Biographies.- Glossary of acronyms and abbreviations.