Curbing Russian Plutonium

摘要

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union built a total of 27 nuclear reactors to produce weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons. Although all nuclear reactors produce plutonium as a byproduct of their operation, plutonium production reactors are specifically designed to produce a concentrated isotope of plutonium that is more readily used in nuclear weapons. The United States constructed 14 plutonium production reactors of which only one, the N-reactor at Hanford, Washington, produced electricity in addition to weapons-grade plutonium. This reactor was shut down in 1987 for safety upgrades following the Chernobyl accident and never resumed operation. The United States shut down all of its plutonium production reactors by 1989.