Mexico and weapons of mass destruction

Last updated

Mexico has no nuclear weapons, but it possesses the technical capability to manufacture nuclear weapons. [1] However, it has renounced them and has pledged to only use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes following the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1967. [2] In the 1970s, Mexico's National Institute for Nuclear Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, or ININ) successfully achieved the creation of highly enriched uranium, which is used in nuclear power plants and in the construction of nuclear weapons. However, the country agreed in 2012 to downgrade the high enriched uranium used on its nuclear power plants to low enriched uranium. This process was carried out with the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. [3] [4]

Contents

Nuclear energy in Mexico through history

Mexico has been using technologies such as X-rays since the late 19th century. Evidence of the use of various radiations and radioisotopes for medical activities since the 1920s exists, practices that strengthened during the next decades alongside the use of industrial scintigraphies. Given its huge importance, the investigation of nuclear sciences formally began in the late 1940s with two fields of interest: energetic and non-energetic applications and the study of nuclear sciences.

The CNEN (Mexico's Nuclear Energy National Committee) started nine programs: nuclear physics, education and training, seminaries, reactors, radioisotopes, industrial applications for nuclear energy, agronomy, genetics and radiologic protection.

During the sixties, the most relevant scientific project on the country was the construction of the Salazar Nuclear Center in the state of Mexico, which started in 1964. Two years later, the center already possessed a tandem Van de Graaff particle accelerator and in 1968 a TRIGA Mark III. In 1972, the CNEN changed its name to ININ (National Institute for Nuclear Research). However, regardless of the new name, its objective remains the same until today. [5]

Official attitude to nuclear weapons

In 1961 the Mexican government argued that the use of nuclear weapons could not be justified under the right to self-defense in the UN charter. [6] Seven years later the country would sign the Treaty of Tlatelolco in which Mexico and several other Latin American countries agreed not to manufacture nuclear weapons and to limit its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only. [2] [7]

In 2000, Mexico was one of 7 nations launching a declaration "Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World: The Need for a New Agenda" calling for further action to implement the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. [8]

In April 2010, the Mexican government reportedly reached an agreement to turn over its highly enriched uranium to the United States. [3] [4] The US would help convert highly enriched uranium stored at Mexican research facilities into a less enriched form unsuitable for weapons, thus eliminating all highly enriched uranium in Mexico. [9] Later in March 2012 Rachel Maddow reported that all highly enriched uranium had been removed from Mexico. [10] [11]

In October 2010 Mexico signed a contract with the Russian uranium supplier Rosatom, which will supply low enriched uranium (3%, a level of enrichment unsuitable for weapons) for the Mexican nuclear power plant Laguna Verde. [12]

In 2012 Mexico was admitted into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as an observer state, which the US claimed as an achievement in preventing nuclear proliferation. [13]

Mexico signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on September 20, 2017, and ratified it on January 16, 2018. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons</span> International treaty

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty intended to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. A central premise of the NPT is that NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear proliferation</span> Spread of nuclear weapons

Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT. Proliferation has been opposed by many nations with and without nuclear weapons, as governments fear that more countries with nuclear weapons will increase the possibility of nuclear warfare, de-stabilize international or regional relations, or infringe upon the national sovereignty of nation states.

Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238, uranium-235, and uranium-234. 235U is the only nuclide existing in nature that is fissile with thermal neutrons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center</span> Nuclear facility site near Baghdad, Iraq

The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility adjacent to the Tuwaitha "Yellow Cake Factory" or Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center contains the remains of nuclear reactors bombed by Iran in 1980, Israel in 1981, and the United States in 1991. It was used as a storage facility for spent reactor fuel and industrial and medical wastes. The radioactive material would not be useful for a fission bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the facility was heavily looted by hundreds of Iraqis, though it is unclear what was taken.

Iran has research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Africa and weapons of mass destruction</span>

From the 1960s to the 1990s, South Africa pursued research into weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons under the apartheid government. South Africa’s nuclear weapons doctrine was designed for political leverage rather than actual battlefield use, specifically to induce the United States of America to intervene in any regional conflicts between South Africa and the Soviet Union or its proxies. To achieve a minimum credible deterrence, a total of six nuclear weapons were covertly assembled by the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazil and weapons of mass destruction</span>

In the 1970s and 1980s, during the military regime, Brazil had a secret program intended to develop nuclear weapons. The program was dismantled in 1990, five years after the military regime ended. Brazil is considered to possess no weapons of mass destruction but does have some of the key technologies needed to produce nuclear weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research reactor</span> Nuclear device not intended for power or weapons

Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion.

A nuclear fuel bank is reserve of low enriched uranium (LEU) for countries that need a backup source of LEU to fuel their nuclear reactors. Countries that do have enrichment technology would donate enriched fuel to a "bank", from which countries not possessing enrichment technology would obtain fuel for their power reactors.

Separation of isotopes by laser excitation (SILEX) is a process for enriching uranium to fuel nuclear reactors that may also present a growing nuclear weapons proliferation risk. It is strongly suspected that SILEX utilizes laser condensation repression to excite a vibrational mode of the uranium-235 isotope in uranium hexaflouride (UF6), allowing this lighter molecule to move more rapidly to the outer rim of a gaseous jet and resist condensing compared to the heavier, unexcited 238UF6. This differs greatly from previous methods of laser enrichment explored for their commercial prospects: one using atomic uranium (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS)) and another molecular method that uses lasers to dissociate a fluorine atom from 235UF6 (Molecular Laser Isotope Separation (MLIS)), allowing the enriched product to precipitate out as a solid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Nuclear Energy Corporation</span>

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) was established as a public company by the Republic of South Africa Nuclear Energy Act in 1999 and is wholly owned by the State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulgaria and weapons of mass destruction</span>

Bulgaria has developed weapons of mass destruction, most notably chemical weapons. Chemical weapons production was concentrated in Smyadovo. As of 2016, Bulgaria does not possess any weapons of mass destruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romania and weapons of mass destruction</span> Usage of weapons of mass destruction in the history of Romania

Romania started pursuing nuclear technology, according to some scholars, as early as 1967. In the 1980s, during the long rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania had a secret program intended to develop nuclear weapons, violating its word on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1970. The program ended after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Romania is considered free of weapons of mass destruction, using nuclear power only for civilian purposes.

President Adly Mansour announced on 7 November 2013 that Egypt was restarting its nuclear power program in El Dabaa; a deal was reached with the residents in which it was agreed that a residential area will also be built. The Egyptian minister of electricity, Ahmed Emam, has called the project "necessary" because of a small amount of renewable energy sources and not enough fuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Nuclear Security Summit</span> Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC

The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit was a summit held in Washington, D.C., on April 12 and 13, 2010. The Summit focused on how to better safeguard weapons-grade plutonium and uranium to prevent nuclear terrorism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear power in Venezuela</span>

The nuclear energy programs of Venezuela started during the 1950s but currently there are no active nuclear power facilities. Most of Venezuela's nuclear science activities are carried out at Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC).

Nuclear energy accounts for about 3% of Brazil's electricity. It is produced by two pressurized water reactors at Angra, which is the country's sole nuclear power plant. Construction of a third reactor begun on 1 June 2010, but it is currently stalled. The sole Brazilian company in charge of nuclear energy production is Eletronuclear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978</span>

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, 22 U.S.C. § 3201, is a United States federal law declaring that nuclear explosive devices pose a perilous threat to the security interests of the United States. The law restricts U.S. export of civil nuclear programs to other nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazakhstan and weapons of mass destruction</span>

The Republic of Kazakhstan, once a republic of the Soviet Union, was a primary venue for Soviet nuclear weapon testing from 1949 until 1989. Following the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, Kazakhstan became the fourth-largest nuclear power in the world and hosted a considerably large weapon support infrastructure due to its reliance on the Soviet nuclear program as a means to develop its own local economy. Besides the nuclear program, Kazakhstan was also a prominent site of Soviet programs of biological and chemical weapons.

The Es-Salamresearch reactor, also known as the Aïn Oussara nuclear reactor is a nuclear research reactor in Algeria. The reactor can produce 15 megawatts-thermal and its primary uses are radiopharmaceutical production, neutron activation analysis, neutron radiography, and training. The reactor was supplied by China and built in the region of Aïn Oussera, nearly due south of the capital city of Algiers. It reached criticality in February 1992 and began operation in late 1993.

References

  1. ↑ "Nuclear Capabilities And Potential Around The World". NPR website. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Text of the Treaty of Tlatelolco". Opanal.org. 1963-11-27. Archived from the original on 2011-04-30. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
  3. 1 2 "Mexico to slash weapons-grade uranium". UPI.com. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
  4. 1 2 "Russia and US to dispose of tonnes of surplus plutonium". BBC News. 2010-04-13. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
  5. ↑ "History". ININ. 2013-07-23. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  6. ↑ Burroughs, John (1998). The Legality of Threat Or Use of Nuclear Weapons. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 129.
  7. ↑ "Latin American and Caribbean Nuclear-Weapons-Free-Zone Treaty Nears Half-Century". International Atomic Energy Agency website. Feb 15, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Mexico and Six Other Countries Launch Declaration on Nuclear Weapon Free World". People's Daily (China). 2000. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "Obama: 'Real progress' at nuclear summit". CNN. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Mexico". MSNBC. March 21, 2012. Archived from the original on December 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ "NNSA Highly Enriched Uranium Removal Featured on The Rachel Maddow Show". Energy.Gov. US Department of Energy. March 22, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Russia boosts nuclear fuel exports". World Nuclear News. 2010-10-06. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  13. ↑ "Ambassador Wayne Praises Mexico's Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Nuclear Weapons and Technology". Embassy of the United States in Mexico website. June 25, 2012. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013.
  14. ↑ "UNODA Treaties". treaties.unoda.org. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.