Project Islero

Project Islero
Proyecto Islero
José María Otero de Navascués (second from left) and Guillermo Velarde, December 27, 1958
Active	1963–1981
Disbanded	1987
Country	Spain
Branch	Defence High Command
Type	Nuclear Weapons Project
Headquarters	Vandellós, Tarragona
Commanders
Notable commanders	Luis Carrero Blanco Agustín Muñoz Grandes Guillermo Velarde [es] Manuel Díez-Alegría

Project Islero was an attempted Spanish nuclear program. Named after Islero, the bull which fell the famous bullfighter Manolete, the program was created by Generals Agustín Muñoz Grandes and Guillermo Velarde [es] in 1963. Although Spain possessed the second largerst uranium deposits in the world at the time,^[1] it was not until the Palomares Incident of 1966 that Spain would gain the technological breakthrough to conduct serious hydrogen bomb research. By reverse-engineering the Teller-Ulam process, the project was able to shift to usage of plutonium-239 . After a Franco paused the military research in 1966, efforts shifting to nuclear reactor construction and plutonium production. However, the program was resumed in 1971, with help from Charles de Gaulle's France to refine the material and fund the nuclear facilities.^{[1]: 497–498}

Lasting from the middle stages [es] of Francisco Franco's rule into the beginning of the democratic transition, the project was prematurely cancelled due to American pressures in 1981,^[2] although it only formally ended in 1987 under Felipe González. Although the project never developed a nuclear weapon, the country possessed the capabilities to both design and manufacture the necessary components needed for a hydrogen bomb, with the Spanish Foreign Minister, José María de Areilza, declaring in 1976 that Spain would be able to manufacture the bomb "in seven or eight years if we set our minds to it."^[3][4]