Inadequate facilities for disposal of nuclear warheads
Name(s):
Inadequate safety of fissile materials from dismantled warheads
Nature
Agreements to reduce nuclear arms means that ways of safely neutralizing some 12,000 high yield atomic warheads have to be found. There are four things governments cans do: (a) Keep the warheads intact, violating the treaty or at least violating the intent of the treaty. (b) Use the fissionable material for a new generation of weapons, which would achieve exactly the opposite of a nuclear arms treaty. (c) Store the plutonium, which would become the target of terrorist and tempt weapons makers for tens of thousands of years. And (d) burning the material in nuclear power generating reactors, producing nuclear waste. All but the last option would be a waste of resources and the latter would produce nuclear waste threatening the environment.
Aggravates
Strategy(ies)
Value(s)
Type
(E) Emanations of other problems