How States Can "Go Nuclear"

Frank C. Barnaby
Additional contact information
Frank C. Barnaby: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1977, vol. 430, issue 1, 29-43

Abstract: As indicated by this article, the processes of nuclear fission are well known, the technology for building nuclear reactors is highly developed, and the demands for energy are inducing the construction of more (and more widely distributed) power reactors. Since each reactor is a source of plutonium, this means that the material needed for atomic weapons will be available in large quantities to many countries. Moreover, the technical information needed to fabricate nuclear weapons can be found in unclassified literature, the experts needed to do this are available, the equipment required can be bought in the open market, and the costs are comparatively small. Hence, any state wishing to "go nuclear" can readily do so, and the means of prevent ing (or even hampering) this are few indeed.

Date: 1977
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627743000105 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:430:y:1977:i:1:p:29-43

DOI: 10.1177/000271627743000105

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().