India’s nuclear expansion source of concern for neighbour:
WASHINGTON: India is, so far, the only country after the United States to have tested a nuclear device made of reactor-grade plutonium, which makes its unsafeguarded civilian nuclear facilities a source of concern for others, says a research paper released this week.
The paper — “India’s Nuclear Exceptionalism”
— released by the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs,
Harvard Kennedy School, points out that in its submission to the IAEA in
2008, the Indian government acknowledged the unique nature of its
nuclear programme, admitting that it has three distinct categories of
nuclear facilities, civilian safeguarded, civilian unsafeguarded and
military.
The Indian nuclear stockpile includes over 5.1 ±
0.4 tons of separated reactor-grade plutonium designated as strategic
reserve; eight indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Power Reactors or
PHWRs; India’s Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FTBR) and Prototype Fast
Breeder Reactors (PFBR).
Other facilities include uranium
enrichment facilities; spent fuel reprocessing facilities; the 100 MWth
Dhruva-I production reactor; the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor; three
heavy water production plants; and various military-related plants.
The study points out that in 1962, the United States
conducted a successful test of a nuclear explosive device that used
fuel-grade plutonium in place of weapon-grade plutonium, and produced a
yield of less than 20 kilotons
The only other country
besides the United States that has recently used reactor-grade plutonium
in manufacturing and testing a nuclear explosive device is India.
“India
is still actively engaged in completing a full nuclear triad and
modernising its conventional and strategic nuclear forces to
simultaneously face the prospect of a two-front war with China and
Pakistan,” says the paper’s author, Mansoor Ahmed.
“India
is (also) expanding and improving its existing reprocessing capability
for its unsafeguarded civilian and military research, power and breeder
reactors,” he adds.
According to influential Indian
strategists and defence ministry officials, this requires a force of at
least 350-400 weapons, including thermonuclear warheads.
The
paper claims that India is the only non-NPT nuclear weapon state that
is engaged in a large-scale expansion of its reprocessing capacity,
primarily rationalized by plans to construct a growing fleet of breeder
reactors that are to be fuelled by MOX initially and eventually metallic
plutonium.
The primary source of India’s nuclear
capability is the weapon-grade plutonium and HEU being produced in its
steadily expanding fissile material infrastructure.
The
second source is the stockpile of unsafeguarded separated reactor-grade
plutonium and unsafeguarded HEU in excess of India’s naval propulsion
program. This has the potential of being diverted to the weapons program
on short notice.
The third source is India’s large and
growing stockpile of unsafeguarded spent fuel containing reactor-grade
plutonium, coupled with its increasingly efficient and expanding
reprocessing capacity. This also offers the potential for future
expansion in India’s arsenal.
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