Response by Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, published in the June 17 Ottawa Citizen:


Jeremy Whitlock, who does not identify himself as a physicist working for AECL, corrects some errors in Paul McKay's June 7 article, "Why CANDUs are Bomb Kits." While doing so, he commits some of his own.

For example, he writes that "Plutonium produced in ... power reactors is highly inefficient as weapons material." This is wrong. Top US nuclear officials and weapons designers have pointed out, for more than 20 years, that plutonium produced in power reactors can be used to make reliable, predictably powerful nuclear weapons at all levels of sophistication.

He also writes that Paul McKay "quotes a single source of information - Norm Rubin of Energy Probe." It seems obvious to me that Mr. McKay's sources of information were diverse. His articles are provocative, have a definite point of view, and may contain some terminological errors. But this is part of a healthy public debate.

Gordon Edwards, president,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear
Responsibility, Montreal