Pakistan causing an impasse at UN nuclear disarmament talks
The UN chief lamented that the practice of deciding by consensus “is currently used as a de facto veto power to stall every attempt to break the impasse.”
Pakistan’s stonewalling could sink UN nuclear disarmament talks: Ban Ki-moon National Post, Agence France-Presse Jan 24, 2012 GENEVA — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday that the UN Conference on Disarmament could fail because of a three-year stalemate over Pakistan’s reluctance to discuss nuclear power. Read more »
Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan’s treacherous nuclear deals with India
The Secret Treachery of A.Q. Khan, PLAYBOY, January 12, JOSHUA POLLACK “…… By now Khan has made nearly every possible claim about who bears responsibility for selling Pakistan’s centrifuge technology. He did it at the behest of the military. He acted purely on his own. The military was solely responsible. It was all done by foreigners. Khan lost many things during his ordeal, including his freedom and his credibility. But throughout, he retained one crucial secret: the identity of a fourth country, after Iran, Libya and North Korea, to which he had provided the shortcut to a nuclear weapon. Read more »
Pakistan, India, exchange nuclear site information and hold peace talks
Pakistan, India swap nuclear lists Courier Mail, AFP January 02, PAKISTAN and India have exchanged lists of their nuclear sites. The two countries did so under an accord which prohibits both sides from attacking these locations, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said
yesterday.
Under the 1988 agreement, the nuclear-armed neighbours are required to submit the lists of all their respective nuclear installations and facilities – civilian and military – on January 1 every year.
“In accordance with the aforesaid agreement, a list of requisite facilities in Pakistan was given to the Indian high commission official at the foreign office today,” a statement from Pakistan’s
foreign ministry said.
The Indian side also handed over its list to the Pakistan high commission official at the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi, it added…… As part of the resumed dialogue process, experts from the two countries recently held peace talks in Islamabad on nuclear
confidence-building measures… http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/pakistan-india-swap-nuclear-lists/story-fn6ck55c-1226234513906
Pakistani and Indian experts co-operate in nuclear weapons safety talks
Pakistan, India Call for Extending Agreement on Preventing Nuclear Accidents Voice of America, December 27th, 2011 Pakistan and India say officials from both sides have called for
extending an agreement on reducing the risk of nuclear accidents relating to their countries’ atomic weapon stockpiles. Pakistani and Indian government experts discussed nuclear confidence-building measures in Islamabad on Tuesday, the second day of a two-day dialogue between the nuclear-armed rivals. The talks are part of a peace process that resumed in February following a two-year break.
In a joint statement, Pakistan and India said the experts agreed to advise their foreign ministries to prolong the existing agreement on preventing nuclear weapon-related accidents by five years. The statement described the talks as “cordial” and “constructive.”
In Monday’s talks, Pakistan proposed that both sides relocate their heavy weaponry at least 30 kilometers away from the Line of Control, a de facto border that divides Pakistani- and Indian-controlled Kashmir. India made no immediate public response to the idea of demilitarizing the Line of Control….. http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/27/pakistan-india-call-for-extending-agreement-on-preventing-nuclear-accidents/
If India gets Australia’s uranium, Pakistan wants it, too
Pakistan says it should be allowed to buy uranium, ABC Radio National PM Michael Edwards , November 15, 2011, MARK COLVIN: Pakistan says that if Australia sells uranium to India, it too should be eligible for exports of the product. India’s chief rival is also a nuclear power and, like India, a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Pakistan says it could use Australian uranium to boost its civilian nuclear power program. And its High Commissioner to Australia says itwould be discrimination to sell to India and not to Pakistan… http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3367265.htm
The danger of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons situation
Which sinks the U.S. into the nadir of absurdity. It funds a terrorist-sponsoring state while conducting a massive undeclared war on part of that state’s territory. It wants that state’s assistance to end the Afghanistan war while that state’s soldiers help insurgents wage it. And seeking a world without nuclear weapons while its “Major Non-NATO Ally” drastically increases the probability that terrorists will acquire a the most dangerous weapon of all.
Pakistan Carts Its Nukes Around In Delivery Vans, Wired.com By Spencer Ackerman November 4, 2011 Pakistan is taking nuclear paranoia to a horrifying new low. And it’s making the world a vastly more dangerous place in the process. Read more »
Low security of Pakistan’s nukes
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons vulnerable to theft: report, Google News, 5 Nov 11 WASHINGTON — Pakistan has begun moving its nuclear weapons in low-security vans on congested roads to hide them from US spy agencies, making the weapons more vulnerable to theft by Islamist militants, two US magazines reported Friday.
The Atlantic and the National Journal, in a joint report citing unnamed sources, wrote that the US raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May at his Pakistani compound reinforced Islamabad’s longstanding fears that Washington could try to dismantle the country’s nuclear arsenal.
As a result, the head of the Strategic Plans Divisions (SPD), which is charged with safeguarding Pakistan’s atomic weapons, was ordered to take action to keep the location of nuclear weapons and components hidden from the United States, the report said. Khalid Kidwai, the retired general who leads the SPD, expanded his agency’s efforts to disperse components and sensitive materials to different facilities, it said.
But instead of transporting the nuclear parts in armored, well-defended convoys, the atomic bombs “capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads,” according to the report. The pace of the dispersal movements has increased, raising concerns at the Pentagon, it said…..http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hl_vZqjJHYTQL-3LlinxBrEl8oJQ?docId=CNG.d8a458444a1f0fb688322c8410b26047.431
leak from nuclear reactors in Pakistan
Leak at Pakistani nuclear plant, no radiation damage reported yet, National Post, Reuters Oct 20, 2011 By Faisal Aziz KARACHI — A Pakistani nuclear power plant imposed a seven-hour emergency after heavy water leaked from a feeder pipe to the reactor, but no radiation or damage has been reported, an official said on Thursday. Read more »
Pakistan pushes for nuclear disarmament
Pakistan calls for talks on nuclear disarmament, Business Recorder, OCTOBER 15, 2011 Pakistan has urged “some major powers” to commence negotiations on the larger issue of nuclear disarmament instead of pushing for a treaty to ban production of fissile material used as fuel for atomic weapons, saying the treaty was a limited non-proliferation goal.
Speaking in the General Assembly’s main committee, Raza Bashir Tarar, the deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, said besides nuclear disarmament, his country was ready to start talks on two other outstanding agenda items negative security assurances for non-nuclear-weapon-states and preventing an arms race in outer space in the Conference on Disarmament, the Geneva-based UN negotiating body.
“After all, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is not there to only negotiate an FMCT (Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty),” he said in the course of a thematic debate on nuclear weapons. Over the past couple of years, Pakistan has been blocking the launching of negotiations on the proposed treaty at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on the ground that it is prejudicial to its national security interests…… http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/single/599/172/1242266/
USA’s secret efforts to prevent Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal
Pakistan wants to join the nuclear power cartel
Pakistan wants to join Nuclear Suppliers Group, The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2011., By Zia Khan, ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has offered to join four nuclear export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group, if the international community recognises it as a nuclear weapons state, but remains unwilling to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
At a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday, the country’s top political and military leadership said Pakistan wished to be part of global non-proliferation efforts but only if it was accepted as a nuclear weapons state…..
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua later told The Express Tribune that Pakistan was willing to join four ‘technology cartels’ that control the international trade of nuclear and missile technologies: the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Australia and the Wassenaar groups.
The MTCR and the NSG deal with the international trade of missile and nuclear technologies while the Australia and the Wassenaar groups manage trade in conventional small weapons and various materials used in the manufacturing of arms respectively.
Janjua said Pakistan’s ‘principled’ position on Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was the same. About NPT, she added that Islamabad considered it as a ‘discriminatory’ arrangement and will not sign the CTBT unless the United States and India do the same….http://tribune.com.pk/story/210107/pakistan-wants-to-join-nuclear-suppliers-group/
Allegations of corruption against Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Khan
Pakistani nuclear scientist Khan accused of graft, The National, Tom Hussain, Jul 9, 2011 ISLAMABAD The disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, allegedly embezzled money from the country’s clandestine programme, and sought to sabotage technology acquisition deals for personal financial interest, a former chief diplomat said.
“He siphoned off a lot of money from every deal,” said Akram Zaki, the secretary general to Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs from 1992 to 1993, and a former senator.
“And the deals in which he didn’t get his finger, he tried to scuttle … even if they were national-interest [projects].”
His comments, in a recent interview with The National, were made before a Washington Post report on Thursday saying Mr Khan had leaked 1998 documents purporting to show Pakistani generals accepted more than $3.5 million (Dh12.9m) in bribes to allow the export of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea.
Mr Khan, the founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was arrested in December 2003 after a shipment of nuclear weapons-making equipment, bound for Libya, was seized off the coast of Egypt. He was pardoned after making a televised apology to Pakistanis, but kept under house arrest until 2009.
International investigators and Pakistani officials have said Mr Khan had illegally exported some 200 uranium enrichment centrifuges to Iran and North Korea…….http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/south-asia/pakistani-nuclear-scientist-khan-accused-of-graft.
The problem of Pakistan’s risk of nuclear terrorism
Pakistan nuclear terror: an interview with Stanford’s Scott SaganA leading expert on South Asian nuclear security discusses the risks of terrorists seizing materials from Pakistan’s arsenal.Global Post,David CaseJune 13, 2011“…… To get a better sense of the risks that the arsenal could fall into terrorist hands, GlobalPost spoke with Scott D. Sagan, one of the world’s leading authorities on Pakistan’s nuclear program….. “I think that the security of both Pakistani nuclear weapons and Pakistani fissionable will remain a serious concern for the United States and all international actors….. Read more »
Fears of terrorist nuclear jihad, following Taliban raid on Pakistan naval base
Signalling the launch of nuclear jihad!, The Pioneer , May 30, 2011 Kanchan Gupta After the Taliban’s daring raid on PNS Mehran, a heavily guarded naval base in Karachi, the world, and not only the US, has reason to worry, if not be alarmed. This is not just another incident of radical Islamists demonstrating their ability to strike terror with the help of brainwashed young men desperate to die in the hope of frolicking with 72 nubile nymphets in the other world; it signals enhanced capability on part of Pakistan’s terrorists to attack high security targets. Read more »
Fears of Al Qaida attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilitues
Attack on naval base raises fresh nuclear fears, gulfnews, 27 May 11A serious breach of the security perimeter could lead to calls for a unilateral American move to secure the atomic weapon, Islamabad: A raid by militants on a Pakistani naval base this week has raised fresh anxiety about Pakistan’s ability to protect its nuclear sites. Although Western governments and analysts agree there is little chance militants could succeed in stealing nuclear material in an assault like the one in Karachi, attacks by Al Qaida or the Taliban against a nuclear facility remain a possibility…..gulfnews : Attack on naval base raises fresh nuclear fears
1 THIS MONTH
Uranium mining in Namibia http://namibian.me/group/canwin2?commentId=4103091%3AComment%3A47391&xg_source=msg_com_group
Nuclear industry is moribund, despite 2 new reactors licensed in USA http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3428147.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3413882.htm Is the world facing a groundwater crisis?
of the week http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/
and another WEBSITE : - New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution http://www.necnp.org/
EVENT
February 18 Hindsdale, Chicago American Association of University Women - nuclear disaster preparedness H.OB.aauw.reservations@gmail.com.
March 2012 is “March Against Nuclear Madness” and Beyond Nuclear has created a new March Against Nuclear Madness Facebook page.
March 8th & 9th – Cape Town, South Africa - The Global Conference: Nuclear Power For Africa? http://koebergalert.org/npfree/
May 31 USA - Portland, Maine, Bonnie Raitt benefit concert for New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
Nuclear power and water – theme for February 2012
FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT and WATER – present state
That nuclear core is in direct contact with tons of water. And that containment, while not leaking down, is leaking out the sides. That contaminated water is going into every other building on site. And there is literally thousands and thousands of tons of water in other buildings. That water contains radioactive cesium, radioactive strontium, and it also contains nuclear fuel. There will be uranium in that water and plutonium in that water as well. We know for sure that that water is leaking into the ground water and into the Pacific Ocean. So while it is important to know that we are not going to release the nuclear core directly into the center of the earth, the problem is not over. And as a matter of fact, the problem will last for tens, perhaps even as long as 30 years because this contaminated water is in the basements of all the buildings on site. And not only does it contain cesium (that hangs around for 300 years), strontium (hangs around for 300 years), but it also contains plutonium and uranium and they have half lives of tens of thousands of years.
So the problem is, what do we do with all that water that is contaminated? It is already leaking into the groundwater. It is already leaking into the ocean. TEPCO is frantically catching it and putting it into tanks. But just today, TEPCO announced that they are running out of tank space on site, and eventually they are going to have to release those tanks into the Pacific Ocean. Now they will try to clean up some of the isotopes like cesium. But they have been unable to capture all the strontium. Strontium is a bone seeker that causes leukemia… http://fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-could-it-have-china-syndrome
NUCLEAR REACTORS - WATER USE : Per megawatt existing nuclear power stations use and consume more water than power stations using other fuel sources. Depending on the cooling technology utilised, the water requirements for a nuclear power station can vary between 20 to 83 per cent more than for other power stations.”- Dep of Parliamentary Services research note, 4 December 2006, no. 12, 2006–07, ISSN 1449-8456 Water consumption figures:
Nuclear: 2.3 L/ kWh
Solar (PV): 0.110 L/ kWh
Wind: 0.004 L/ kWh
(American Wind Energy Association estimate & US DOE)
A typical 1000-megawatt pressurized-water reactor (with a cooling tower) takes in 20,000 gallons of river, lake or ocean water per minute for cooling, circulates it through a 50-mile maze of pipes, returns 5,000 gallons per minute to the same body of water, and releases the remainder to the atmosphere as vapor. A 1000-megawatt reactor without a cooling tower takes in even more water–as much as one-half million gallons per minute. The discharge water is contaminated with radioactive elements in amounts that are not precisely known or knowable, but are biologically active.
Some radioactive fission gases, stripped from the reactor cooling water, are contained in decay tanks for days before being released into the atmosphere through filtered rooftop vents. Some gases leak into the power plant buildings’ interiors and are released during periodic “purges” and “ventings.” These airborne gases contaminate not only the air, but also soil and water. http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/routineradioactivereleases.htm
NUCLEAR REACTORS -IONISING RADIATION to GROUNDWATER In USA the nuclear industry has contaminated groundwater with radioactive tritium at nuclear power plant sites all across the country. Nuclear plants that have admitted leaking tritium into the groundwater include:
- Braidwood, Byron, Dresden and Quad Cities in Illinois;
- Indian Point and Fitzpatrick in New York;
- Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim in Massachusetts;
- Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania;
- Callaway in Missouri
- Catawba in South Carolina
- Oyster Creek in New Jersey
- Hatch in Georgia
- Palo Verde In Arizona
- Perry in Ohio
- Palisades in Michigan
- Point Beach in Wisconsin
- Salem in Delaware
- San Onofre in California
- Seabrook in New Hampshire
- Shearon Harris in North Carolina
- Watts Bar in Tennessee
- Wolf Creek in Kansas
- Connecticut Yankee in Connecticut
- Vermont Yankee in Vermont
URANIUM MINING – OPEN CUT or UNDERGROUND It is very difficult to find figures on the amounts of water used. All mining is water intensive, but uranium mining is the greatest guzzler Water is extensively used to suppress airborne dust levels, to try to reduce the radioactive clouds that would otherwise emanate constantly from the uranium tailings.IN SITU LEACHING – Uranium Mining Process in-situ leaching uses a hydrogen peroxide mixture to strip the uranium from the rock, which kills tissue and destroys cells in human and animal life. The addition of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate called oxygenates causes uranium and other radioactive substances and trace metals to be liberated from the rock into the groundwater.
.. judges have too often taken the stance that they are judges who know nothing of the mining industry and accept the data of corporations, claiming the corporations are in the know.
..the water taken from the extremely pristine Westwater Canyon Aquifer near Crownpoint for uranium mining and used for flushing out chemicals would not be replaced in our lifetimes.
It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to transform aquifer water back into a drinkable condition. Virginia Against Uranium Mining: Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water
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