Sir

The German government is keenly interested in diminishing the dangers arising from the enormous stocks of plutonium no longer required for nuclear weapons and still held by certain states. It has taken an active part in all efforts to find ways of finally disposing of this material and is well acquainted with the ideas put forward by Frank N. von Hippel in your Commentary, “How to simplify the plutonium problem” (Nature 394 415–416; 1998 ).

I categorically reject the author's outrageous and totally spurious charge that Germany has “pursued the development of nuclear weapons under the cover of ‘civilian’ plutonium programmes”. I refute his association of Germany with nuclear pariah states such as Iraq, North Korea or Pakistan and his insistence that “the danger is not past”. Comments of this nature fly in the face of all Germany's declarations, commitments and treaty obligations since its accession to the Western European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Moreover, they completely disregard decades of Euratom and International Atomic Energy Agency reports and safeguards inspections confirming the absolutely peaceful character of Germany's activities in nuclear research and power generation. These allegations are entirely devoid of foundation.