Word: avignon
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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...though little noticed, France has developed a solid and tidy atomic capability. The fissionable substance in the French bomb was plutonium. The French have been producing plutonium since 1948, now get their supply from three reactors located at Marcoule, near Avignon in southern France. Together the three turn out about 100 kilograms of plutonium a year. In anyone's nuclear language, this is a respectable amount of plutonium, and with it France can turn out an estimated twelve atomic bombs a year, in the 20-200 kiloton range. By the end of 1961, when two reactors now under construction...