Joining the Club

Now there are ten members

Scarcely three weeks before the inauguration of a new civilian government, the head of Argentina's atomic energy commission, Rear Admiral Carlos Castro Madero, made an announcement that U.S. experts had been warily expecting for some time: Argentina has become the tenth nation capable of producing enriched uranium and thus of making an atomic bomb. The others: the U.S., the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China, which have bombs, plus West Germany, The Netherlands, Japan and South Africa.

Argentina has steadfastly refused to sign the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty or to submit most of its atomic facilities to international inspection. It has always insisted that it would use atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Even so, its new-found nuclear prowess inevitably will give Argentina added clout in its disputes with Britain over the Falkland Islands and with Chile over the Beagle Channel at the tip of South America. U.S. intelligence sources estimate that Argentina, should it choose to do so, would be able to produce a nuclear weapon in one to five years. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.