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Pro nuclear push discredits Nuclear Non Proliferation meeting

The serious proliferation risks associated with peaceful nuclear programs will be studiously ignored at the five-yearly Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York next month…..the task of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not only to carry out safeguards inspections to assess NPT compliance, but also to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It would make as much sense to ask drug enforcement agencies to promote the cultivation of poppy seeds.

The Myth Of The Peaceful Atom, newmatilda.com, By Jim Green, 20 April 2010, Recent nuclear talk-fests have quietly ignored the fact that even so-called ‘peaceful nuclear programs’ — like power generation — can be used for proliferation, writes Jim Green

Last week, the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington issued a communiqué expressing the resolve of the 47 participating nations to strengthen nuclear security and thus reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism.

There’s a strange caveat in the communiqué. It calls on nations to “support the implementation of strong nuclear security practices that will not infringe upon the rights of States to develop and utilize nuclear energy for peaceful purposes…” The Nuclear Security Summit seems to have it the wrong way around: surely preventing nuclear terrorism comes first and peaceful nuclear development is a subordinate “right” — assuming it’s a right at all.

The caveat reveals the fundamental contradiction that always exists when governments say they are reducing the security threat of nuclear weapons while they ignore the risks that come from promoting the “peaceful” purpose of power generation using almost interchangeable technology.

The same blind-spot is evident with the recent US-Russia agreement for each country to get rid of 34 tonnes of excess plutonium (the total being enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons). The agreement doesn’t mention the ongoing production of plutonium in power reactors — amounting to six tonnes in Russian reactors each year and between 25-30 tonnes of plutonium in the US.

In what is presented as a positive move, Russia has also agreed to close its last military plutonium production reactor. But Russia plans to “dispose” of its 34 tonnes of plutonium by using it as fuel in fast breeder reactors that are ideal for producing weapon-grade plutonium and can produce (“breed”) more plutonium than they consume. To add to the irony, Russia’s fast breeder program is being propped up by US and European largesse under the plutonium disposition program. Meanwhile, the very fact that the now-deactivated Russian military plant was thought to be last active military reactor in the world reflects just how easily ordinary reactors can do the same job.

The serious proliferation risks associated with peaceful nuclear programs will be studiously ignored at the five-yearly Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York next month. The NPT has its own version of the NSS’s caveat: “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination”.

The contradiction is magnified by the fact that the task of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not only to carry out safeguards inspections to assess NPT compliance, but also to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It would make as much sense to ask drug enforcement agencies to promote the cultivation of poppy seeds. The Myth Of The Peaceful Atom | newmatilda.com

April 20, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, reactors