The START* process (and resulting disarmament) has resulted in plutonium excess to national security needs.

• Disarmament will give rise to an estimated 200 tonnes (metric tons) of weapons-grade plutonium, over half of it in the former U.S.S.R.

• The U.S. Government has declared 38 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium to be surplus; it will decide at the end of 1996 what to do with it.

*Strategic Arms Reduction Talks

 

What is Plutonium?

• A hard, brittle metal (like cast iron)

• A toxic material
  1. heavy metal toxicity: similar to mercury, cadmium.
  2. chemical toxicity: similar to arsenic, cyanide, caffeine.
  3. radioactive toxicity:
     • emits a relatively weak alpha radiation (like smoke detectors) which can be blocked even by a sheet of paper.
     • fine (less than 10 microns) particles, lodged in the lungs can cause lung cancer.

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