Plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) are the basic materials used in nuclear weapons. Plutonium also plays an important part in the generation of nuclear electricity. Knowing how much plutonium and HEU exists, where and in which form is vital for international security and nuclear commerce. This book is a thorough revision of the World Inventory of Plutonium and highly Enriched Uranium, 1992. It provides a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of the amounts of plutonium and HEU in military and civilian programmes, in nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states, and in countries seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. The capibilities that exist for producing these materials around the world are examined in depth, as are the policy issues raised by them. Containing much new information, this book is indispensable to all those concerned with the great contemporary issues in international nuclear relations: arms reductions in the nuclear weapon states, nuclear proliferation, nuclear smuggling, the roles of plutonium and enriched uranium in the nuclear fuel-cycle, and the disposition of surplus weapon material.

A comprehensive databook of technical and institutional facts about the Soviet and Russian nuclear arsenal.

Includes technical glossary, descriptions of weapons physics; postwar technological innovations in fission weapons design; a history of American thermonuclear weaponry; individual warhead histories; a history and description of warhead arming and fuzing techniques and equipment, plus three detailed appendices summarizing the objectives and results of U.S. nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962; warhead specifications, and typical nuclear weapons accidents between 1950 and 1986. Also includes issues 1-6 of the newsletter: The cutting edge.

From the John Holmes Library collection.