Nuclear Proliferation
Opponents of heavy water reactors suggest that such reactors pose a much greater risk of nuclear proliferation because of two characteristics: (1) they use unenriched uranium as fuel, the acquisition of which is free from supervision of international institutions on uranium enrichment. (2) they produce more plutonium and tritium as by-products than light water reactors, these are hazardous radioactive substances that can be used in the production of modern nuclear weapons such as fission, boosted fission, and neutron bombs as well as the primary stages of thermonuclear weapons. For instance, India produced its plutonium for Operation Smiling Buddha, its first nuclear weapon test, by extraction from the spent fuel of a heavy water research reactor known as "CIRUS".
Read more about this topic: Heavy Water Reactor, Purpose of Using Heavy Water
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