Weapons of mass reduction

By J.S. and P.K.

The vulnerability of nuclear-arms materials

THE world is slightly safer. Over the past two years, seven countries have reduced their stockpiles of weapons-usable nuclear materials to less than 1kg, which is insufficient to make a bomb. However the danger of theft persists. Around 2,000 tonnes of highly enriched uranium, separated plutonium and mixed oxide fuel are stored in hundreds of sites scattered around the world. Many sites are poorly guarded by civilian contractors—and thus offer tempting pickings for terrorists. A new report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based organisation, and the Economist Intelligence Unit (our sister company), shows the progress and problems. In an index of countries with at least 1kg of weapons-usable materials, over half of the 25 countries have improved security since the inaugural index two years ago, in particular Japan, Canada and Belgium. Of course the best form of security is to have nothing to steal: Ukraine and Mexico have eliminated their stockpiles.