In the history of nuclear weapons there has been only one country that voluntarily gave up its weapons and the program that produced them, and that is South Africa.
.. The South African program was unusual in several ways. It used a method of enriching uranium that had never been tried on an industrial scale, injecting hexafluoride gas at very high velocity into a tube to separate out the fissile bomb-making isotope, uranium 235.
.. South Africa had managed to manufacture six bombs and had one under construction when, in 1989
.. Libya is often cited as having given up its nuclear program. But it was an entirely different case.
.. Colonel Qaddafi bought a very expensive package of material from the Pakistani nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who ran an illicit nuclear proliferation network.
This Uranium Deal Was No Scandal
Uranium ore is mined in many countries. But about 70 percent of world production comes from just three countries: Kazakhstan (almost 40 percent), Canada (over 20 percent) and Australia (nearly 10 percent). Of 68,000 tons mined annually, most goes to nuclear power utilities in some 30 countries.
American utilities buy nearly one-third of global uranium output. But mining in the United States accounts for only 2 percent of that total. That means that operators of American nuclear reactors get about 90 percent of their nuclear fuel from foreign sources.
.. Because American mining yields only 2 percent of world output, and under 10 percent of that comes from the Uranium One license, the allegation that this was a major prize for the Russians turns out to be absurd: Less than one-fifth of 1 percent of global output comes from Uranium One’s holdings in the United States.
.. Under a plan called “Megatons to Megawatts,” the Russian government took uranium for 20,000 Soviet-era nuclear warheads, converted it for nuclear power generation, then sold it to American utilities as fuel for some 100 reactors that produce nearly 20 percent of domestic electricity.
The plan ran for 20 years, and in most of that period provided nearly half of the uranium used in United States reactors. This meant that one out of every 10 American light bulbs were powered by fissile material once contained in nuclear warheads aimed at the United States and its allies.
North Korea Parades New Long-Range ‘Frankenmissile’
Pyongyang displays military hardware, including apparently new intercontinental ballistic missile
The U.S. believes North Korea’s first five tests have been plutonium bombs. But if uranium is used in the next test, it could suggest the North has a much larger arsenal than initially believed. Current estimates are that the country has between 20 and 40 atomic weapons.
.. North Korea has also said it’s seeking to develop hydrogen bombs
.. The North also paraded two missile canisters that hadn’t been seen before and which appeared to be able to accommodate larger missiles than the North has ever displayed publicly. While the canisters may not contain missiles, experts said the display indicated the North’s intentions to build larger ICBMs.
.. “A lot of this may be intimidation or bluffing, but it’s potentially a sign of things to come,”
.. North Korea also paraded a submarine-launched ballistic missile
.. The march came a day after Beijing urged the U.S. and North Korea to tone down their rhetoric, saying no one would win if there was a war.