nuclear-news

Urgent need for Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to become law

Nuclear test ban body’s new head to seek compliance of key powers  Oct 23, 2012 By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) – A 183-nation body set up to monitor a ban on nuclear bomb tests elected a new head on Tuesday to face the tricky task of helping convince the United States and other hold-outs to finally turn the landmark treaty into global law.
After four rounds of voting to separate the five candidates, Burkina
Faso geophysicist Lassina Zerbo was picked as new executive secretary
of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Seen as a cornerstone of efforts to free the world of atomic bombs,
the pact, negotiated in the 1990s, enjoys wide support around the
world but still needs to be ratified by eight more so-called nuclear
technology states to come into force.

Backers of the CTBT say it has already had a major impact in reducing
the number of nuclear tests in the world but that this achievement may
be jeopardised if it does not take legal force….. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama – who is up for re-election next month – has said it is preparing a new push for Senate approval, arguing the country no longer needs to conduct atomic tests but does need to stop others from doing so.

More than 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out between 1945 and 1996,
when the CTBT opened for signature, most of them by the United States
and the then-Soviet Union. Since then, only India, Pakistan and North
Korea have conducted such blasts. …. “But until the CTBT enters into
force, the door to testing is still open,” said Daryl Kimball of the
Arms Control Association, a Washington-based advocacy and research
group.

REPUBLICANS “STILL UPSET”

The United States is one of eight countries – together with China,
India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, North Korea and Egypt – whose
ratification is needed for the pact that has so far been ratified by
157 states to take effect.

Proponents say U.S. ratification of the pact, rejected by Washington
lawmakers in 1999, could encourage others to follow.

They say a global test ban would make it more difficult both for
non-nuclear states to acquire atomic bombs and for nuclear powers to
develop even more advanced weapons.

The United States and China are two of the world’s five officially
recognised nuclear weapons states, together with Britain, Russia and
France.

India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel are outside the separate
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the 1970 pact meant to prevent the
spread of nuclear arms. Iran is part of the NPT but the West accuses
it of seeking covertly to develop a capability to build atomic bombs.
Tehran denies the charge.

October 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war