 Weapons-grade nuclear material

For nuclear weapons you need a certain level of isotope purity of either plutonium-239 or uranium-235.

And the easiest way by far to achieve this purity is to produce plutonium-239 in a breeder reactor, which allows you to get it out with much cheaper chemical processes rather than costly isotope separation methods.

fissilematerials.org/ summarizes stockpiles and production status. 20224 Archive.