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Nuclear weapons and power-reactor plutonium

Nature volume 283, pages 817–823 (1980)Cite this article

Abstract

With modest design sophistication, high-burn-up plutonium from power reactors can produce powerful and predictable nuclear explosions. There is no way to ‘denature’ plutonium. Power reactors are not implausible but rather attractive as military production reactors. Current promotion of quasi-civilian nuclear facilities rests, dangerously, on contrary assumptions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consultant Physicist, c/o Friends of the Earth Ltd, 9 Poland Street, London, W1V 3DG, UK

    Amory B. Lovins

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  1. Amory B. Lovins
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Lovins, A. Nuclear weapons and power-reactor plutonium. Nature 283, 817–823 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/283817a0

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