PARIS, Jan 25: Scientists in the United States are testing a prototype device that could help detect whether a country is secretly harvesting plutonium from its civilian nuclear programme with the goal of making a nuclear bomb, a magazine says. The device could greatly help combat proliferation of weapons-grade plutonium among states that turn to nuclear power in the coming decades to meet their energy needs, the report in next Saturday’s New Scientist says.

But it is still being tested and thus cannot be used to defuse the present row embroiling Iran.

And if it works, it still could not thwart states that refuse deals with nuclear inspectors or hide their reactors, it says.

Plutonium is a man-made element created by the fission of uranium fuel. It is itself fissile, capable of producing energy either for generating electricity or for a bomb.—AFP