Word: uranium
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...significant margin, acknowledged. We knew Saddam Hussein had a nuclear-weapons program, and the status of his centrifuge uranium effort. But we missed his Colutron development...
...have struck a blow for world peace with his nuclear- weapons-reduction speech last month, but he has also handed a heavy burden to the atomic-arms industry. By the latest calculation, there are over 3,000 warheads headed for early retirement, containing about 25 tons of enriched uranium and 10 tons of plutonium -- both radioactive and both difficult to dispose of. Moreover, the Department of Energy's Pantex bomb-assembly facility near Amarillo, Texas, which was expecting to build some 3,500 warheads over the next few years, suddenly has to reverse gears and begin dismantling weapons. Says Thomas...
...back into their original, customized packing crates and, if overseas, flown back to the U.S. Under heavy guard, they are then shipped to Pantex by truck or train, along routes that are constantly changed and always kept secret. The most sensitive part of disassembly comes not in handling the uranium and highly toxic plutonium, which are shielded in metal, but in dealing with the conventional explosives needed to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. Disassembly therefore takes place in underground bunkers known as "Gravel Gerties," whose roofs are mounded with gravel to contain any accidental blasts...
...aside from some uranium that will be recycled for use in nuclear-powered submarines, most of the fuel will have to be stored or dumped as waste. Unfortunately, the nation does not have a reliable, long-term plan for disposing of this deadly material. Most will probably be stockpiled at weapons plants, but there is a danger of loss, theft and environmental damage from mishandling...
...gunrunners, B.C.C.I. may have financed the illicit development of nuclear weapons programs. The U.S. last week pressed efforts to extradite Inam ul-Haq, a retired Pakistani brigadier, on charges that he masterminded an abortive 1987 plot to smuggle to Pakistan an American speciality steel used to enrich weapons-grade uranium. B.C.C.I reportedly provided credit for the deal. But Pakistan, home of B.C.C.I. founder Agha Hasan Abedi, denied -- as it has in the past -- that it seeks to develop nuclear arms, and said the government had no connection with Inam, who was arrested by German authorities in Frankfurt last month...