Disarmament report means well, but no dates set

Nuclear report fails to name weapons eradication date news.com.au  By Sandra O’Malley * From: AAP * December 15, 2009 A LANDMARK report calls for a massive cut in atomic warheads but stops short of setting a deadline for their abolition, which is seen as a critical challenge for this century. The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), initiated by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year, wants the global arsenal cut from 23,000 to 2,000 by 2025 but doesn’t set a time frame to get rid of all nuclear weapons.

The targets would see Russia reducing its stockpile from 13,000 to 500, with the United States slashing its arsenal from 9,000 to 500 over the next 15 years.

“Twenty years after the end of the Cold War there are at least 23,000 nuclear warheads still in existence, with a combined blast capacity equivalent to 150,000 Hiroshima bombs,” says the report, released in Tokyo today………….Anti-nuclear groups have welcomed the initiative but have criticised the ICNND for continuing to promote nuclear power and squibbing on a deadline for getting rid of all atomic weapons………………..

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) believes the report falls short on eliminating the nuclear threat.

ICAN Australia chair Tilman Ruff said there needed to be a clear road map to eliminating and outlawing nuclear weapons.

“ICAN, along with many other civil society organisations around the world, advocates a Nuclear Weapons Convention, a comprehensive global treaty to get the world to zero nuclear weapons,” Professor Ruff said.

Nuclear report fails to name weapons eradication date | News.com.au

December 16, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, Copenhagen, nuclear, nuclear weapons