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Nuclear Security Summit failed to tackle nuclear disarmament

Obama’s Nuclear Summit: The Big Truth That’s Missing | Mother Jones, David Corn, 13 April 2010, “………there is an important connection the president neglected to mention. Nuclear security is not the path to nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament is the path to nuclear security. The nuclear weapons complex depends on highly-enriched uranium. As long as there are nuclear weapons, there will be HEU. As long as there is HEU, there will be the possibility of HEU theft and smuggling.
The most effective way—really, the only way—to block nuclear terrorism is to stop terrorists from obtaining HEU……Reduce the demand for HEU—that is, get rid of nuclear weapons—and there will be less HEU that could fall into the wrong hands.

This demand reduction would also have to include an effort to end the use of HEU in civilian research reactors and medical isotope production. (Nearly 800 kilograms of HEU are used each year for these civilian functions, and that’s enough for 40 Hiroshima-style bombs.)….

former Ambassador Richard Burt, who was President George H.W. Bush’s chief arms negotiator and a Reagan State Department official, pointed out that the “elimination of all nuclear weapons world-wide” is essential to nuclear security….the world cannot be free of nuclear terrorism unless it is free of nuclear weapons Obama’s Nuclear Summit: The Big Truth That’s Missing | Mother Jones

April 14, 2010 - Posted by | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | , , , , ,

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