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Commentary

Nature 317, 213-217 (19 September 1985) | doi:10.1038/317213a0

Production and destination of British civil plutonium

K.W.J. Barnham*, D. Hart†, J. Nelson‡ & R.A. Stevens§

  1. *K. W. J. Barnham is at the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ, UK;
  2. †D. Hart is in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK;
  3. ‡J. Nelson is at London New Technology Network, London NW1 9ES. UK;
  4. §R. A. Stevens is at Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, California 05051, USA.
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The amount of plutonium produced by the Magnox reactors belonging to the CEGB and SSEB is estimated using three different methods which give similar results for total plutonium production. The difference between this total and the UK civil plutonium inventory is 6.3 plusminus 0.8 tonne. This balance was apparently sent to the United States in exchange for fissile material for UK military requirements. The US destinations published by the UK government appear to accommodate significantly less plutonium.