‘Extremists can get atomic weapons’

Press, 3 May 1977, Page 9

‘Extremists can get atomic weapons’

NZPA-Reuter Salzburg A 20-nation anti-nuclear conference has issued a ! warning that political ex-'; tromists could easily make an atomic bomb with stolen plutonium. “The relative ease with which stolen plutonium! could be fabricated into ah weapon adds a new dimen- > sion to terrorism,” a state- h ment issued at the end of I; the three-day conference inh Salzburg said. The 100 scientists and environmentalists attending the conference condemned the use of plutonium as a fuel to power nuclear making electricity. Their statement, issued on the eve of a big conference) organised by the Inter-)

national Atomic Energy Agency, added that international safeguards could never prevent a determined government from exploding an atomic bomb. Countries such as the; United States, France, Britain, and West Germany have sent parties of more than! TOO members each. i The meeting’s stated I objective : s to “discuss and ; assess the over-all role to be j jplayed by nuclear energy,; I making particular reference I to the nuclear cycle and the ■need for its integration.” I

More than 370 technical papers will be read. The statement said that nuclear weapons could be made from a few kilograms. of plutonium. It called for | the immediate closing of reactors such as the fastbreeder, which separates out plutonium during its operation. “No level of international i safeguards which is remoI tely feasible can prevent a I determined government from diverting fissile material ; into weapons manufacture,” lit said.