U.S. Scientist Urges Action on Legacy of Nuclear Arsenals

A prominent U.S. scientist called Saturday for urgent international action to deal with the mountain of nuclear explosives building up as weapons are dismantled following the end of the Cold War.

Stanford University Prof. Wolfgang Panofsky said the dismantling of arsenals would free up 200 tons of plutonium and 1,000 tons of highly enriched uranium, which risk falling in the hands of terrorists or contaminating the environment.

“I want to pass on to the international community a sense of urgency over the burden we are leaving future generations,” he said.

Uranium and plutonium give nuclear arms a destructive power millions of times that of dynamite.

Plutonium is one of the most poisonous substances known to humans and remains highly radioactive for thousands of years.

Panofsky said large nuclear powers like the United States and the Commonwealth of Independent States, which have pledged deep cuts in their arsenals, must draw up a clear plan to get rid of the material.

Possible options included blowing it up in underground explosions, storing it or sending it in orbit around the sun. But he said each was fraught with problems.