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BETTER PLAN

Radiation monitors at U.S. ports are insufficient for preventing terrorists from amassing highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. We maintain that the country should therefore enhance protective actions, some now under way. Chief among them:

  • Identify and round up nuclear smugglers.

  • Secure known sources of poorly guarded HEU and ship it back to its country of origin for elimination.

  • Blend down excess Russian stocks of HEU into low-enriched uranium.

  • Replace HEU fuel in research reactors with low-enriched fuel.

  • Seek a global ban on the commercial uses of HEU, such as medical applications, most of which can be pursued with low-enriched uranium

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Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

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