A significant concern with nuclear energy development is the potential misuse of energy technology. It can be used as a stepping stone to building nuclear weapons. Concerns over proliferation, or more nations possessing nuclear weapons, have influenced international efforts toward limiting how many countries have nuclear technology.
Nuclear energy typically uses uranium that is not as concentrated, or enriched, as fuel used for weapons. When a nation wants to develop nuclear energy, it is required to agree to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and pledge that it will only use nuclear fuel for energy, not weapons, and commit to not enriching uranium any further than is needed for energy purposes. Critics argue that these regulations can be difficult or impossible to enforce and point to Iran and North Korea as examples of nations that have used their nuclear energy programs to advance military nuclear development.
Click the button to read excerpts from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Highlight the sentences that show how the treaty aims to limit the use of nuclear technology to peaceful purposes.
Even for a nation with nuclear energy technology, one challenge to creating a viable nuclear weapon system involves transporting a nuclear explosive to its destination. Complex delivery systems include missiles launched from land or submarines as well as weapons dropped from airplanes.
Watch this video to learn more about the similarities between nuclear weapons and energy and why nuclear weapon technology is so difficult to develop.
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Fill in one additional risk of nuclear energy in your graphic organizer and answer the questions below.
Using information from your graphic organizer, the NPT excerpt, and the video, answer the following questions: