SIPRI Policy Brief: South Ossetia and Abkhazia
Algeria
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Country Profile 3: Algeria
By Jeffrey Fields and Jack Boureston
FirstWatch International (FWI)
Overview
In 1981 Algeria announced its intention to launch a nuclear programme that would supply up to 10% of its electricity. In 1985, Algeria purchased a 1-MW(th) research reactor along with 20% enriched U-235 fuel from Argentina and subsequently considered purchasing a 350- to 400 MW pressurized heavy water reactor from Argentina.
In 1991 U.S. intelligence agencies discovered a 15-MW(th) heavy water reactor being constructed with Chinese assistance. Algeria—not at that time a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)—only admitted the ongoing construction after international pressure mounted. Algeria maintained that it had no interest in pursing a nuclear weapons programme and was persuaded to join the NPT in 1992. Algeria acceded to the NPT in 1995 and signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.
The Spanish intelligence service Cesid declared unequivocally in a 1998 report that Algeria’s intention was “to produce military grade plutonium, the material necessary to be able to build a nuclear weapon.”
Sources
1. “Algeria Is Planning to Launch a Nuclear Program,” Nucleonics Week, March 12, 1981.
2. David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, “Algeria: Big Deal in the Desert?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2000.
3. Nucleonics Week, March 12, 1981.
4. Richard Kessler, “Argentina Announces Sales of Research Reactor and Fuel to Algeria,” Nucleonics Week, May 30 1985.