nuclear-news

Britain’s top scientist calls for nuclear disarmament laboratories

Martin Rees calls on UN to establish nuclear disarmament laboratoriesThe president of the Royal Society, Sir Martin Rees, wants the UN to set up the laboratories to verify that countries are keeping their promises on nuclear disarmament,  Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 May 2010
Britain’s most senior scientist has called on the United Nations to establish a network of laboratories specialised in detecting and dismantling nuclear weapons.

The labs would take a central role in policing countries’ efforts to reduce their stockpiles of warheads, a move experts see as crucial for building trust with other states that are thinking about developing their own nuclear weapons.

Sir Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society, said scientists needed to develop verification technologies now so they are in place when agreements to cut nuclear stockpiles are reached.

The call comes as UN diplomats meet in New York to review the “grand bargain” of the organisation’s nuclear non-proliferation treaty, in which five states with nuclear weapons – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain – agree to negotiate nuclear disarmament and other states resist acquiring the weapons.

Last month, the US and Russia renewed a bilateral arms reduction treaty that limits the number of warheads they deploy, but there are no procedures in place to check that the warheads have been decommissioned.

Martin Rees calls on UN to establish nuclear disarmament laboratories | Science | The Guardian

May 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, disarmament, nuclear, nuclear weapons