Report: Algeria able to produce plutonium within two years
Algeria, Politics, 8/24/1998

The Spanish daily El Pais reported on Sunday, quoting Spanish intelligence sources, that Algeria is carrying out a nuclear program which would enable it to produce military-grade plutonium within two years.

The paper published excerpts from a report by the Higher Council for Defense Information delivered to the Spanish government during July. The report said that the Algerian nuclear program continues the building of necessary facilities to conduct all processes relating to producing plutonium, which constitutes a main element of a nuclear armament program. The report added that Algeria is completely committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty for nuclear weapons.

The report stated that Algeria's joining the NPT did not change the research programs it had started at the beginning of the 1980s for nuclear armament, a matter which accelerates Algeria's nuclear capacities much more than its actual civil needs.

The Algerian nuclear reactor some 250 KM south of the capital city has a theoretical capacity to produce up to 3 kilos of plutonium every year, the report said, adding that only few grams could be turned aside for military use without the international agencies, that monitor the site, not being able to detected it.

Algeria depends on external sources for raw Uranium as with the purchase of 150 tons of the material from Niger in 1984. This dependency the report claims may change with the discovery of Uranium deposits in Hoggar, in the Southeastern part of the country, the report said.

Previous Stories:
  Zeroual: Security conditions in Algeria improve   (8/21/1998)
  Secret negotiations between Algerian government and Islamic Salvation Army   (8/17/1998)
  Algeria, Sudan deny stocking of Iraqi nuclear weapons   (2/17/1998)

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