Possibilities on nuclear terrorism in Belgium have catapulted nuclear security into the headlines. An international nuclear security summit was just held in Washington, D.C. Plutonium is generated in nuclear power plants. If it is extracted from spent nuclear fuel and purified, it can be used to create fuel for use in nuclear power plants. However, it can also be used in the construction of nuclear weapons. Plutonium separation is a major concern for nuclear security.
Japan recently shipped seven hundred pounds of weapons-grade plutonium to the U.S. for storage but the Japanese prime minister has publicly stated his intention to fund the construction of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant to separate hundreds of tons of plutonium for nuclear fuel. China is in the process of purchasing a plutonium reprocessing plant from France. South Korea has stated that it believes that it has the right to reprocess plutonium from its nuclear reactors. In the Nuclear Security Summit of 2012, the U.S. President pointed out that a small amount of plutonium the size of a baseball could be used to create an atomic bomb that could kill hundreds of thousands of people. He said that the nuclear nations should not be creating and stockpiling huge amounts of plutonium while terrorists are seeking nuclear materials to create bombs.
Common nuclear reactors are powered by low-enriched uranium which cannot be used to make nuclear weapons. The world has spent over a hundred billion dollars in the last fifty years pursuing the dream of a "breeder" reactor using plutonium that could create nuclear fuel. It has turned out to be more difficult that originally thought and all such attempts have not yet resulted in a commercial breeder reactor, although work continues and Russia is committed to developing a breeder reactor industry to produce plutonium for nuclear fuel.
It is possible to mix plutonium with uranium to create mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX which can be used to fuel conventional nuclear reactors. However, without cheap plutonium from breeder reactors, the creation of this MOX fuel costs about ten times as much as the creation of regular nuclear fuel based on low-enriched uranium. In spite of the fact that plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons and any fuel made from plutonium is too expensive for wide use, nuclear nations continue to separate and stockpile plutonium from nuclear fuel. It is estimated that there is about two hundred and fifty tons of plutonium currently stockpiled around the world.
While some nations continue to separate plutonium simply because they have the means and have been doing it for some time, other nations are interested in the weapons potential of plutonium. South Korea's recent enthusiasm for plutonium production seems to be tied to nuclear testing in North Korea. In Japan, the security establishment is concerned about nuclear weapons in North Korea and China and see plutonium separation as a hedge against nuclear aggression by its neighbors. The interested in and potential development of nuclear weapons by North Korea, South Korea and Japan are seen as a destabilizing force in southeast Asia.
The U.S. and Japan have an agreement with respect to civilian uses for nuclear power. From 2018 on, it can be cancelled by either party. The U.S. hopes to use the agreement to exert pressure on Japan to dispose of its more than fifty tons of plutonium. The U.S. and South Korea recently completed a similar agreement on peaceful use of nuclear power. The agreement calls for a ten years study on the "feasibility" of a South Korean plutonium reprocessing project. The U.S. is also hoping that it can convince France and China to set up the planned reprocessing factory to only produce plutonium for immediate conversion into fuel. This would prevent stockpiling plutonium. The U.S. has been concerned about plutonium reprocessing since 1974 when India used their reprocessing facility to develop nuclear weapons. European countries have abandoned plutonium reprocessing and it would improve global nuclear security if the U.S. can convince the three southeast Asian countries to do the same.
