China’s Nuclear Advance Sparks New Arms Race Fears

The productive reactor developed on the Chinese island of Changbiao, one of the most guarded nuclear facilities in the world, has scared the United States. US intelligence officials believe that Beijing can develop plutonium to be used in nuclear weapons through the CFR-600, which will go into operation this year.

The CFR-600 is part of China’s ambitious $440 billion nuclear program to overtake the United States as the world’s largest supplier of nuclear power in the coming years. Unlike conventional light water reactors, these reactors can produce enriched uranium and plutonium that can be used in weapons.

China is also building a plant in Gansu province designed to extract plutonium from CFR-600 spent fuel. Experts are also frightened by the fact that Beijing has stopped reporting its plutonium reserves to the International Energy Agency since 2017.

GREAT EXPORT FROM RUSSIA

The expanding nuclear partnership between Russia and China could also have a significant impact on the nuclear arms race, Bloomberg reported. The data shows that, between September and December, Russia exported nearly seven times more uranium enriched to CFR-600 to China than any material mined in the past three decades under US and IAEA auspices.

Intelligence experts believe that with the developed technique, China could increase its arsenal of nuclear warheads by up to four times in the next 12 years. If Beijing does this production, the Chinese state’s nuclear inventory will be equal to the nuclear arsenals deployed by the US and Russia.

Relations between China and the United States are tense

Notably, this race coincided with tense relations between China and the US. Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to pay an official visit as part of efforts to de-escalate the China-China trade war. and the United States.

However, Blinken’s trip was canceled after a warplane shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over US airspace. This situation further increased the tension between the two countries. China described the US decision to launch the balloons as “hysterical”, while Blinken warned Beijing not to supply Russia with lethal weapons.

In addition, it was announced that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Agreement (New START), which was signed between Russia and the US last week and stipulates the limitation of intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile capabilities, was suspended by Russia in the last days.

CHINA IS TRYING TO CATCH UP WITH RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES

Alexei Arbatov, a Russian arms control expert, commented on behalf of the Kremlin-established Russian Council on International Relations: “In the past, China has limited itself to what it calls a ‘minimum nuclear deterrent.’ This potential was much less than that of America. “It seems that the Chinese have decided to catch up with the United States and Russia in terms of the number and quality of their nuclear forces,” he said.

Pavel Podvig, a nuclear analyst at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said: “It is possible that this training program is purely civilian. What worries me is; China stops reporting plutonium stocks. “This does not mean direct weaponry, but it is certainly not a good sign,” he said.

Pentagon officials, for their part, believe that the supply of 6.5 tons of uranium by the Russian state company Rosatom on December 12 fuels a nuclear program that will destabilize military balances in Asia, where tensions are rising.