COLD WAR II: With an assist from Russia, China’s plutonium reactors fuel strategic arms buildup.

The two fast neutron reactors under construction are located on an island off the coast of China’s Fujian Province opposite Taiwan. One reactor under construction since 2017 reportedly was set to begin producing electricity late last year and the second is set to go online in 2026, the analysis said.

Both reactors will produce plutonium that “could be used to produce weapon-grade plutonium for China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal,” the report by the Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute states.

Suspicions that the reactors are part of China’s rapidly expanding nuclear weapons program were raised the same year that construction on the first reactor began. In 2017, China stopped reporting its plutonium stockpiles to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog agency.

Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency delivered 6.5 tons of uranium to the China National Nuclear Corp. for the Fujian reactor, Bloomberg News reported in February.

Background: China Is Engaged in a Massive Nuclear Missile Buildup. “The addition of 230 nuclear use-them-or-lose-them ground-based missiles will fundamentally alter the nuclear calculus between the U.S. and China/Russia.”