Special nuclear material is a term used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the United States to classify fissile materials. The NRC divides special nuclear material (SNM) into three main categories, according to the risk and potential for its direct use in a clandestine nuclear weapon or for its use in the production of nuclear material for use in a nuclear weapon.
- Strategic SNM (SSNM)
- SNM of moderate strategic significance
- SNM of low strategic significance
Read more about Special Nuclear Material: Category I, Category II, Category III, Uranium-235, See Also, Source
Famous quotes containing the words special, nuclear and/or material:
“A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.”
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962)
“The reduction of nuclear arsenals and the removal of the threat of worldwide nuclear destruction is a measure, in my judgment, of the power and strength of a great nation.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces—in the beginning, there was spice.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)