Planet in Peril: An Atlas of Current Threats to People and the Environment

civilian and military uses International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) there were only 24 nuclear power stations under construction in May 2005. ������� ������ ������� �������

tary uses make increasingly little sense technically and often provide an excuse for disregarding measures to control proliferation. In all the countries pos- sessing nuclear weapons, progress in civil nuclear science has benefited arms development, and vice versa. Although civil nuclear power plays a relatively minor role in energy pro- duction, the strategic potential of the materials involved and the inherent risk of amilitary or terrorist attack have steadily increased. The stock of “civil” plutonium exceeds 230 tonnes world- wide and it is increasing. It represents at least twice the amount contained in the 30,000 nuclear warheads thought to exist. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty calls on its signatories (China, the US, France, the UK and Russia, the acknowledged nuclear-weapon states) to negotiate “general and com-

Some nuclear materials, in parti- cular highly enriched plutonium and uranium, may be used for civil purpo- ses or in explosive devices. Attempts to distinguish between civil and mili-

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Serving the mining industry

> Centre de documentation et de recherche sur la paix et les conflits (CDRPC): www.obsarm.org > Federation of American Scientists (FAS): www.fas.org/nuke/ > Arms Control Association (ACA): www.armscontrol.org > Power Reactor Information System (PRIS): www.iaea.org/programmes/a2/ > Plutonium Investigation (WISE-Paris): www.wise-paris.org On the web

plete disarmament”. In practice they have never stopped developing new weapons. The US and Russia have substantially reduced the number of deployed warheads, but most of these weapons were considered obsolete. A genuine initiative for disarmament would involve resumption of nego- tiations for a treaty banning the pro- duction of enriched plutonium and uranium.

The two sides to an industry

Novaja Zeml´a

Aleutian Islands

Kapustin Yar

Lira

Semei (ex-Semipalatinsk)

Nevada

Say-Utes

Hiroshima

Lop Nor

Nagasaki

Reggane

PACIFIC OCEAN

Bikini

Christmas Island

Eniwetok

INDIAN OCEAN

ATLANTIC OCEAN

PACIFIC OCEAN

Monte Bello Islands

Emu

Mururoa

Maralinga

15 000

In tonnes (end of 2002)

10 000

Ackowledged nuclear-weapon states Suspected nuclear-weapon states Main nuclear explosions since 1945

500

NB: figures for India, Israel and Pakistan are estimates.

80 40 10 2.5

Sources: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005; International Nuclear Safety Centre, 2002; Christian Bataille, Henri Revol, Les incidences environnementales et sanitaires des essais nucléaires effectués par la France entre 1960 et 1996 et éléments de comparaison avec les essais des autres puissances nucléaires, French National Assembly (report no 3571) and Senate (report no 207), Paris, 2002.

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