India has fissile material for 2,000 warheads

[Nilgiri]

Number of warheads are just speculation, we have never disclosed the number of warheads that we have.

Full disclosure is not needed. One can easily do the calculation from the production rate of the military reactors times time factoring in the enrichment rate - numbers which are well known.....numbers such as the breeding/conversion ratios for breeder reactors. Refer to: http://www.princeton.edu/~aglaser/2007aglaser_sgsvol15.pdf

The larger reactor grade material only comes into play if one is to assume India has developed the technology and expertise to develop this material into a bomb. IIRC only one such reactor grade Pu test was done by the US in 1962 and the results are secret to this day. Changing the reactor grade material to weapons grade is not a simple case like that of Uranium given the inverted difference in burnup time and reprocessing costs involved with this...since there is no cheap way to remove the Pu-240 and other isotopes found in reactor grade Pu. Basically from the base state Uranium, the longer the irradiation time the greater the build up of "undesirable" Pu-240. So it is always way more feasible to specifically produce weapons grade Pu.

Basically:

Uranium ---irradiation + reprocessing + short time-----> Weapons grade Pu

Uranium-------irradiation+reprocessing + much longer time-----> Reactor grade Pu

It is not easy to change reactor grade to weapons grade because of this....unlike fissile uranium where you simply enrich to the weapons grade level from a reactor grade.

 

[Ind4Ever]

SLAMABAD: Pakistan has assessed that India has enough fissile material for more than 2,000 warheads, a media report said on Thursday.

The National Command Authority (NCA) on Wednesday concluded that India's growing nuclear programme and absence of a conflict resolution mechanism were upsetting strategic stability in the region and the situation was forcing Pakistan to maintain 'full-spectrum deterrence capability', reported Dawn.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the apex policy-making body for the country's strategic programme reviewed in its meeting the regional security environment and was briefed on fast-paced strategic and conventional capability developments taking place in the neighbourhood.

The media report said that contrary to international estimates, Pakistani assessment is that India has enough fissile material, both reactor and weapon-grade plutonium, for more than 2,000 warheads.

International Institute of Strategic Studies noted in a paper: "New Delhi's plutonium stocks also continue to pile up; according to one Pakistani assessment, by the end of 2013 India had produced enough weapons and reactor-grade plutonium (0.8-1tn and 15tn respectively) for 2,000 warheads."

The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Rashad Mehmood, the three services chiefs and the director general of the strategic plans division.


India has fissile material for 2,000 warheads: Pak media - The Times of India

"according to one Pakistani assessment, by the end of 2013 India had produced enough weapons and reactor-grade plutonium (0.8-1tn and 15tn respectively) for 2,000 warheads."

0.8 Tn for weapons

15 Tn for our reactors . Complete expose

 

[dilpakistani]

yes even Japan have fissile material for more than 10000 war head...

 

[Hindustani78]

What will we do with 2000 warheads ?

I think its just to create problems for Uranium supplies from other nations. Indian reactors are under IAEA safeguards.

December 29, 2014
So far 20 facilities have been placed under IAEA safeguards. These reactors are now eligible to use imported uranium and India has ratified the Additional Protocol with the IAEA in June last year.