ISRAEL: Science against nuclear proliferation

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For the last several years, Israel has been keeping a watchful eye on the evolution of Iran’s nuclear program and warning the international community that it’s not an exclusively Israeli problem. For now, the new U.S. administration is seeking opportunities for dialogue with Iran. This week Israel outlined to visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the red lines it would like the U.S. to incorporate in this dialogue. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warns that ‘time is running out,’ and a new report suggests Israel might not wait for a diplomatic solution.

But science might succeed where diplomacy fails.

Engineers from Ben-Gurion University have developed a technique to ‘de-claw’ plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. The addition of americium, a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors, ‘denatures’ the plutonium, ensuring it can be used for peaceful purposes only. Americium is meant for pressurized water reactors, like the one being built in Iran.

The news release explains this method could take the sting out of more than a dozen countries currently developing nuclear reactors if the U.S., Russia, Germany, France and Japan agree to add the denaturing additive to all plutonium, because these countries also provide the nuclear fuel for the reactors they sell. Among those developing reactors are Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Namibia and Libya. The client countries would then ‘have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare,’ says Professor Yigal Ronen of Ben-Gurion University, who headed the project. However, countries that make nuclear fuel could decide not to denature it for themselves, he says.

And, of course, the technique won’t help when it comes to the countries suspected of selling nuclear know-how.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem