The Plutonium Genie
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3448705 |
|---|---|
| Authors | George Perkovich (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 153 |
| Publication date | 1993-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Foreign Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/20045629 |
| OpenAlex | W197772467 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
Plutonium is one of the most dangerous materials on earth. Ten pounds are enough to make a crude nuclear weapon; one-thirty thousandth of an ounce will cause cancer if inhaled. Plutoniums lethality is measured in millennia, not decades or days. Its most prevalent form has a half-life of 24,000 years. With plutonium, the odds are against humankind. If nation states continue the costly production and use of plutonium, they risk weapons proliferation, environmental devastation and human health damage. These odds should banish plutonium as too dangerous to continue being produced. Building on the international nonprolifer ation regime and current practices in the nuclear industry, a more comprehensive and specific regime must be constructed to manage plutonium and speed its elimination. All forms of plutonium can be made into weapons, although some mixes of isotopes are less desirable to weapons designers. The release of plutonium into the environment poses health and environmental risks. These risks might be more tolerable if plutonium held unques tionable economic value in the foreseeable future. But no proven technology exists to generate electricity from plutonium at econom ically competitive costs. Countries determined to remain on the commercial nuclear path need not use plutonium; fuels made of low-enriched uranium suffice. Unlike plutonium or highly enriched uranium, these fuels are not
Plutonium · Political science · Radiochemistry · Chemistry · Nuclear and radioactivity studies · Radioactive contamination and transfer
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,23 |
| Citation span | 1995 - 2025 (31) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |