Ghana Can Produce Nuclear Weapons ?

According to an article in the Boston Globe, Ghana has enough enriched uranium to produce a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

Entitled “We're still vulnerable”, the writer speculates that, the orphaned research reactor at Kwabenya contains highly enriched uranium sufficient to make a number of nuclear weapons.

The main aim of the writer is to access if Americans are actually safer from terrorist attacks today than 12 months ago. He writes:

“….the campaign to prevent a nuclear or biological 9/11 is failing. Despite lots of talk, North Korea is today producing plutonium that could be sold to terrorists for use in a nuclear attack. Russian and Pakistani nuclear weapons and materials remain as vulnerable to theft as they were last year. Orphaned research reactors in a dozen countries around the world, including Libya and Ghana, contain highly enriched uranium sufficient to make a number of nuclear weapons ..”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never accused Ghana of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, and the IAEA has on a couple of occasions inspected Ghana’s “atomic plant” and the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor.

Since Ghana became a Member State of the Agency on 28 September 1960, its nuclear programme has spanned a wide spectrum of activities, which in turn has brought the country to the forefront in many areas of the applications of nuclear techniques. Over the years from 1968 the IAEA has provided support amounting to some US $ 8 million to nuclear development in Ghana - of this about 36% has gone to nuclear techniques in agriculture, 16% in medicine, 14% in industry and hydrology and 9% in nuclear engineering and technology.