India has 75-125 nuclear weapons: US report

Washington, Nov 3: Suggesting that India has a sizeable nuclear weapons effort, a US think tank estimated India's nuclear arsenal at around 75-125 weapons made from weapon-grade plutonium and perhaps some thermonuclear weapons. "India has a substantial stock of nuclear weapons made from weapon-grade plutonium, and perhaps some thermonuclear weapons that rely on both weapon-grade plutonium and weapon-grade uranium," according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). "An estimate of India's nuclear arsenal can be derived by considering its weapon-grade plutonium stock," it said. "The resulting estimate has a median of 138 nuclear weapons equivalent with a range of 110 to 175 weapons equivalent." However, the actual number of nuclear weapons India built from its stocks of weapon-grade plutonium must be less, ISIS said. "When accounting for the amount of plutonium in the weapons production pipelines and in reserves, it is reasonable to assume that only about 70 percent of the estimated stock of weapon-grade uranium is in nuclear weapons," it said. "Thus, the predicted number of weapons made from its weapon-grade plutonium at the end of 2014 is about 97 with a range of 77-123," ISIS said. "These values are rounded to 100 nuclear weapons with a range of 75-125 nuclear weapons."