Word: plutonium
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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WEAPONS PROLIFERATION. Antinuclear forces charge that the spread of nuclear plants will accelerate the proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly in unstable nations. Opponents are even more concerned that the introduction of breeder reactors, which produce more plutonium than they consume, could make it easier for terrorists to steal fissionable materials for do-it-yourself bombs. Finally, they charge that safeguarding nuclear materials would require the creation of a police state that would also mean the end of civil liberties...
Tsongas told the interviewer, however, that he opposes the breeder reactor because the radioactive plutonium it produces could be used by nations not now possessing nuclear capability to make nuclear weapons. The Congressman expressed the fear that the "breeder is slipping through Congress while everyone is concerned about the light water reactor...
...have to safeguard access to plutonium materials" to prevent nuclear blackmail by terrorist groups or unstable emerging nations, he said...
...hope to kill the breeder is the dawning understanding that the majorities that make up that guiding force are not comprised solely of members responding to special interests. Neither is it a conservative coalition. To the chagrin of anti-nuke activists, not even the breeder and its hated plutonium--much less the conventional, safer reactors--can shake up the moderates who control Congress. "We are not going to, pell-mell, rush into a 'breeder age' or 'plutonium economy' or anything else," argued classic middle-of-the-roader, Rep. John Anderson (D-Ill.) recently in an attempt to discredit the catch...
Well, I was still afraid. I had read, though not on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, that .000001 grams of plutonium will cause lung cancer if inhaled, that each nuclear reaction produces about 200,000 grams of plutonium every year, and that plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. The record of America's 67 licensed plants is replete with accounts of major spills, leaks, material unaccounted for, and narrowly averted catastrophic accidents...