India has one of the largest nuclear power programs among developing nations, a report by a United States-based think tank revealed.
The report also said that by the end of 2014, India had produced sufficient weapon-grade plutonium to possess an estimated stock of atomic weapons in the range of 75-125. It has been estimated that India made 100-200 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons.
“An estimate of India’s nuclear arsenal can be derived by considering its weapon-grade plutonium stock. The resulting estimate has a median of 138 nuclear weapons equivalent with a range of 110 to 175 weapons equivalent,” a report released by Institute for Science and International Security said.
“However, the actual number of nuclear weapons India built from its stocks of weapon-grade plutonium must be less. When accounting for the amount of plutonium in the weapons production pipelines and in reserves, it is reasonable to assume that only about 70 per cent of the estimated stock of weapon-grade uranium is in nuclear weapons,” the report said.
“Thus the predicted number of weapons made from its weapon-grade plutonium at the end of 2014 is about 97 with a range of 77-123. These values are rounded to 100 nuclear weapons with a range of 75-125 nuclear weapons,” the report co-authored by David Albright and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini said.
“Faced with a lack of information but evidence that India has produced HEU (highly enriched uranium) for nuclear weapons, it is assumed that India has made 100-200 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons. Of course, this estimate is highly uncertain,” the report said.
The report ‘India’s Stocks of Civil and Military Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium, End 2014’ concludes that India has “one of the largest nuclear power programmes among developing nations”.
