Chapter 12 - Nuclear Energy: Weapons for War or a Power for Peace?

The Issue

Do the peaceful applications of nuclear energy encourage or deter the production of nuclear weapons?

The issue of nuclear weapons is discussed under the following headings:

Factual Summary

In an issue characterized by polarized opinions, there are several statements beyond dispute:

Now that how to make nuclear weapons is widely known there is no way to erase this knowledge from human consciousness.
Any independent country could produce a nuclear weapon, should it decide to devote resources to that end. Availability of uranium, the raw material for weapons, and of the necessary technologies are not insuperable barriers to producing an unsophisticated weapon.
This capability would exist even if all peaceful applications of nuclear energy were banned worldwide.
A country wishing to acquire a nuclear arsenal would require a sophisticated technological infrastructure, large plants for producing fissile material, overt testing of prototypes and an efficient delivery system.
Most countries, 187 of them, have signed the UN's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) whereby the Big Five agree to reduce their stock of weapons and the others agree not to acquire them.
The UN's "safeguards" are intended to detect, and hence deter, the diversion of fissile material from peaceful purposes but, on their own, they cannot prevent it.
If terrorists were to steal CANDU-reactor fuel they would still have to transport and process it, giving security services some weeks for counter-measures.

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