Zionist Nuclear Weapons

Israel's Military Plutonium Inventory*

By David Albright

November 20, 2015

Israel developed its first nuclear weapon shortly before the 1967 Six Day War, making it the sixth nation to develop nuclear weapons. To this day, Israel maintains an ambiguous posture about its nuclear weapons, despite the declassification of formerly secret U.S. government documents which assert the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons. In addition, the revelations of Mordechai Vanunu in 1986 revealed a larger nuclear weapons program than commonly assessed at that time.

Israel's source of plutonium is a reactor at Dimona. Before plutonium is usable in a nuclear weapon, it must be chemically separated from the irradiated reactor fuel. Vanunu's revelations have provided the public with its only detailed glimpse into Israel's plutonium separation program.

As of the end of 2014, Israel is estimated as having a total military plutonium stock of about 660 ± 115 kilograms.

---

[*] This work was generously funded by a grant from the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). This work builds on earlier work done at ISIS.  It is one report in a large set of national and worldwide fissile material stock estimates that will be released by ISIS in installments in the coming weeks.

Read the full report here.