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Sea levels, extreme weather, and the effects of climate cahnge

It turns out if you add up all the rain that occurred there, it is equivalent to taking 2.5mm out of the global ocean and dumping it on Australia. The consequence was there was a big lake that was formed in the middle of Australia which you call Lake Eyre. This is pretty remarkable that you can actually lower the global sea level by this amount just by dumping so much water on land.”

Trenbeth on extreme weather and its links to climate change

The lecture is well worth watching in full as Trenbeth explains changes in the climate system and impacts on extreme weather events.

Kevin Trenbeth on the 2011 sea level bump and Australia’s wettest 2 year period,Indymedia 1 April 13“……….Here is what Trenbeth had to say on the sea level bump and Australia’s rainfall in 2010 and 2011:

“…….sea level goes up with warming both because the ocean is expanding and because there is more ice on land melting going into the ocean to fill the ocean up. Overall it is going up at a rate of 3.1mm per year. So a steady rise overall for this record.”

“Something like 55mm since the record began and this is when we launched into space a series of satellites in the different colours here that are looking down making measurements of the global sea level to millimetre accuracy using an altimetre…….

“What actually happened in this period. Looking now at January to April of 2011 versus 2010…. all this rain that occurred in Australia. Continue reading

April 3, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Nuclear lobby getting jittery?

Half-Hearted Nuclear Energy Cannot Continue, Leaders be “All In Energy Collective, Rod Adams, 31 Mar“…..leaders need to be “all in”; they cannot engage in a half-hearted attempt to make nuclear somewhat competitive by following all of the existing rules and making only marginal changes in heat source and heat engine designs that work well when the fuel is coal, oil, or natural gas. They also need to make friends with others who have made the same basic technical choice and not engage in destructive competition against other nuclear energy entrepreneurs who do not have much market share to take anyway….

[quoting Helm] “after a decade of unprecedented mergers and acquisitions—coupled with a good dose of financial engineering—most of the big players are in poor shape to do much investing anyway.” Helm is not talking specifically about nuclear here, but I think that the thought process applies. ……  They must be willing to use new paradigms and techniques and to adopt good ideas that may have been invented somewhere else.

The leaders must also recognize the political aspects of the technology and be unafraid to take advantage of skillful marketing that takes direct aim at the long line of dark grey suits that represent the established energy industry. ….

Focused leaders who have a deep understanding of nuclear technology, politics and human nature need to be willing to throw hammers that may result in some blowback. They must keep pressing forward to develop the energy supply products that their customers want – even if they don’t yet know it….

[again quoting Helm[ ” a revealing commentary on solar energy as a scam that is making a certain type of investor rich] . -.. http://theenergycollective.com/rodadams/203536/dieter-helm-nuclear-saga-cannot-go-leaders-must-push-happy-ending

April 3, 2013 Posted by | marketing | Leave a comment

Dumping Radioactive Waste at Sea (Radiation Legacy)

MsMilkytheclown·

Uploaded on 8 Nov 2011

Uploaded by 007bratsche on Nov 8, 2011
This is a report about the nuclear waste that was dumped into the sea around Europe between 1967 and 1982.
All 114.726 tons are still there – thousands of barrels, corroding or even rusted through by now.
It was broadcast on Nov.1, 2011

For informations about Schacht Asse, have a look at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schacht_…

Interesting how this information is JUST NOW being reported on… do you think it has anything to do with FUKUSHIMA? What are the chances? Thank the IAEA next time you see them.

April 3, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Nuclear Board Warns of Hanford Tank Explosion Risk – Video

 ….The problems identified by the board show that the plant schedule will be delayed further and the cost will keep rising, Wyden said, adding: “There is a real question as to whether the plant, as currently designed, will work at all.”…..

 

Image

By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press
YAKIMA, Wash. April 2, 2013 (AP)

Underground tanks that hold a stew of toxic, radioactive waste at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site pose a possible risk of explosion, a nuclear safety board said in advance of confirmation hearings for the next leader of the Energy Department.

State and federal officials have long known that hydrogen gas could build up inside the tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, leading to an explosion that would release radioactive material. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommended additional monitoring and ventilation of the tanks last fall, and federal officials were working to develop a plan to implement the recommendation.

The board expressed those concerns again Monday to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and had sought the board’s perspective about cleanup at Hanford.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It spends billions of dollars to clean up the 586-square-mile site neighboring the Columbia River, the southern border between Washington and Oregon and the Pacific Northwest’s largest waterway.

Federal officials have said six underground tanks at the site are leaking into the soil, threatening the groundwater, and technical problems have delayed construction of a plant to treat the waste for long-term safe disposal.

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April 3, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Against the odds! Birgitta Jonsdottir will attend Art exhibition in support of Bradley manning!

[NEW YORK, NY]  On Friday, April 5, 2013 Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir will host an evening of art and dialogue in support of jailed Iraq war whistleblower, Pfc. Bradley Manning, at Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Sq. South MAP). A 6pm benefit informal art auction & film screening will be followed by a panel discussion at 8pm.

http://www.sparrowmedia.net/2013/04/birgitta-jonsdottir-visit-to-the-usa-despite-wikileaks-grand-jury-investigation/

Birgitta Jonsdottir

The panel discussion will feature Jonsdottir in conversation with Alexa O’Brien and Kevin Gosztola, journalists who each have provided extensive coverage of the Manning pretrial proceedings at Ft. Meade, MD, along with Peter Hart, a critic with the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. The panel will be moderated by Sam Seder, host of the political talk show, The Majority Report.

Jonsdottir’s visit comes on the heels of a February 2013 revelation by Iceland’s Justice Minister that, in August 2011, Icelandic lawmakers expelled several FBI agents from the country. An Alexandria, VA Grand Jury Probe is seeking information about Jonsdottir, among others, in relation to Wikileaks, its developers and managers, and Pfc. Bradley Manning. Despite advice from the Icelandic Government not to visit the US until the closure of the Grand Jury, Jonsdottir has chosen to schedule her visit amidst this still-active Grand Jury, citing the urgency of Pfc. Manning’s plight. As Manning’s court-martial trial is scheduled to begin on June 3, 2013, he faces a potential life sentence, if convicted on all counts.

Jonsdottir was instrumental in facilitating Pfc. Manning’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, both in 2012 and again in 2013, with wider support. “I nominated Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace prize for the first time in 2012 ,with a couple of fellow MPs from Iceland,” said Jonsdottir, “In 2013, I did it again with the same MPs, members from the European Parliament and a former Minster from Tunisia. It is very encouraging to see the growing support for Manning around the world, but most importantly, within the USA.”

Jonsdottir is also suing president Barack Obama over the indefinite detention powers within § 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In September 2012, Judge Katherine Forrest of New York’s Southern District Court enjoined the President from using § 1021(b)(2) in a landmark ruling in favor of Jonsdottir and six other plaintiffs, citing that their work in activism, academia, and journalism could potentially put them at risk of detention under § 1021(b)(2). The Obama administration is currently appealing Judge Forrest’s ruling.

Bradley Manning Print by Molly Crabapple

Limited-edition 17″ x 22″ giclée prints by celebrated social justice artist and illustrator, Molly Crabapple, will also be sold as part of the benefit. For those who want to support the benefit but cannot attend the New York City event on April 5th.  Crabapple’s prints are currently available online to bid upon HERE.  The first 200 highest bids will receive these prints.

April 3, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Russian NGOs undergoing unprecedented Kremlin sweeps! Report from a worried Bellona, NGO

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/weeklong_ngo_crackdowns

Charles Digges, 02/04-2013

Bellona

stalin-dance

“…..Churchill himself wrote in 1935 that “[History] is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, and even frightful methods but who, nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler.”……”   🙂

Image and quote ; http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/12/03/stalin-bashing-the-new-orientalism/

Russian authorities are raiding non-governmental organizations to make sure they comply with a law intended to stem foreign meddling in Russian politics, President Vladimir Putin said last week, eliciting cries from the US State Department that the Kremlin’s repressive new regime in on a “witch hunt.” 

Abduction victim: I was bound, gagged and told ‘if you don’t answer our ­questions, your children will be killed’

Image and quote ; http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/vladimir-putin-crackdown-is-like-a-return-1403193

The swoops on NGOs began on March 19, when Bellona’s St. Petersburg office, the Environment and Rights Center (ERC) Bellona, was the focus of a so-called unannounced inspection by an array of officials from the Russia Prosecutor General to the health department and fire officials.

The Prosecutor General gave ERC Bellona a mere three days to produced requested documents that would have taken months to assemble ranging from financial documents, the groups honorary titles, medals, and certificates of merit, as well as documents on whether ERC Bellona employees receive regular chest x-rays. On Wednesday, ERC Bellona’s director, Nikolai Rybakov, will appear at the Prosecutor General’s office in St. Petersburg, where it is hoped he will learn of ERC’s status following the raid.

The participation of the fire, labor and health departments in many reported checks beginning with Bellona ­– groups with no affiliation with the NGO ­– baffled Pavel Chikov, a member of the presidential human rights council, he said in an interview with Bellona Tuesday.

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April 3, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Letter From Hiroshi Hoshi the Japanese man arrested for helping animals from radiation!

(Source)
https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-hachiko-coalition-page/letter-from-hiroshi-hoshi/542703292441060

Friday, 29 March 2013

(PETITION) The Hachiko Animal Federation       
Image source ; http://hachiko-coalition.org/post/6966960429/the-australian-activist-hiroshi-hoshi-defies-fallout

http://www.change.org/petitions/free-hiroshi-hoshi-and-leo-hoshi-fukushima-animal-rescuers  

This letter is from Hiroshi Hoshi who  wanted to share it on Facebook

Image source ; http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article2946282.ece

“….We were transferred from Nihonmatsu police station to the Fukushima prison custody section on March 21, 2013. Our trial will start on March 27th.

It is involuntary for us but we will admit what we have done but we will also defend the legitimacy of our activities. 

We heard that there was somebody, who had worked with Hoshi family before, who said that “the Hoshi’s were arrested because of their own fault”.

I am shocked  by this person’s comment who had worked with the Hoshi family.  It is something comparable to abandoning a comrade. It is not only about Fukushima, but I feel many Japanese people are in a fog about many issues. 

Image source ; http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/wol/dy/opinion/society_101012.htm

 

We are very grateful to the people who signed the petition (more than 2500 people), to those who donated to us and to those who made a supporting group. The custody section has no heating system and it is very cold,  but we want to thank our supporters here.

(P.S. The Hachiko team does the best in translating from Japanese to English considering time factors and volunteers in translating. If you find we missed something in translation, by all means email us.  Thank you.)

Original letter appeared in FB page Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Animals.

Here is the Japanese Version:

星 広志氏からの手紙です。FBに公開するよう要望がありましたのでお知らせします。

—————————————————————-

3/21に二本松警察署から福島刑務所拘置区に移動になりました。1月末に逮捕されてからもうすぐ4月になろうとしていますが、3月27日から福島地裁で裁判が始まります。私達親子にとって不本意な裁判ですが、罪状を認めながらも、その行為の正当性は主張するつもりです。

私 達親子が逮捕されてから、FBでは、「星親子は勝手に捕まったんだから自業自得だ」と発言があったと聞いております。しかもそれを言うのが、以前一度は星 ファミリーと行動した人が言っているのですから、なおさら驚きます。もしこれが戦争ならば戦友を平気で見捨てるという事です。福島の問題に限らず、この国 の民の多くが天然ボケなのでしょうか。

星親子が逮捕された事を知り、既に2500名以上の方が釈放のためのサインや募金を下さっていると聞き、星親子を支える会を立ち上げてくださった有志の皆さんには大変感謝しております。暖房もない寒々とした拘置所の中からではありますが、皆様の応援にお礼申し上げます。

星 広志

 (Reference)
http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/free-hiroshi-hoshi-and-leo-hoshi.html

http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/police-arrest-animal-rescuers-inside.html

April 3, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Noam Chomsky in conversation with Jonathan Freedland concerning state and media manipulation

britishlibrary

Published on 28 Mar 2013

Philosopher, cognitive scientist and political activist Noam Chomsky discusses the roles of the state and the mass media, 25 years on from his essential work Manufacturing Consent.

A prelude to Propaganda: Power and Persuasion – a major British Library exhibition lifting the lid on the ways governments across the planet have attempted to influence your thoughts for over 100 years.

April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Just released! – Japanese maritime research finds evidence of nuclear undersea dumps contamination!

Off shore waste dumping sites hit by recent multiple earthquakes off coast of Japan

……Regardless of how it got there, “there must be some loaded organic material somewhere in the sediment”, Kanda says…….

Extracts from December  2012 article

Capture9

Capture7

There has been another 7 earthquakes reducing in intensity over the last couple of hours reducing to the 4.6 level so far..

“…..These dump areas have been getting a lot of strikes from off shore earthquakes during the last nearly 2 years. Why doesnt anyone talk about them?

The areas with dark hatchings are “special” waste sites likely for nuclear and biological wastes and the larger areas for lesser hazardous waste..

What effects are the effected dumps having on the sea life in the areas?

How much damage to the seabed is occurring near these off shore dumps?

watch the visualisation video next to the above pictures to match hits on the dumps…..”

2011年の日本の地震 分布図 Japan earthquakes 2011 Visualization map

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKp5cA2sM28

Follow this link for details and supporting documentation for above

https://nuclear-news.net/2012/12/07/off-shore-waste-dumping-sites-hit-by-recent-multiple-earthquakes-off-coast-of-japan/#more-33941

Horizontal distribution of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in
zooplankton in the northwestern Pacific Ocean
Received: 31 December 2012 – Accepted: 27 February 2013 – Published: 2 April 2013
…The Kuroshio extension seemed to prevent the southward dispersion of radioactive cesium. The vertical distributions of radioactive cesium off the coast of northern Japan around FDNPP revealed complex patterns mainly due to the water mass interaction between Oyashio water and Kuroshio water…. Hideki Kaeriyama 2011 December
…..134 Cs in zooplankton was detected in all stations and ranged from 1.9 to 10.5Bqkg-dw−1 (Table 1). The highest activity concentration was recorded in subtropical station 68 while the lowest one was in subarctic station 106. 137 Cs was also observed in all zooplankton samples and ranged from 2.2 to 14.9Bqkg-dw−1 (Table 1). High 137Cs activity concentrations were observed at stations 68 and 71, 137Cs in other 10 stations were one order of magnitude lower than that in the two stations, and the lowest activity concentration was detected in station 106. 134Cs was lower than137Cs in all the stations because of faster decay of 134 Cs during the 10 months after the accident and the pre-existing bomb-produced 137Cs……
Image
134Cs and 137Cs were detected in zooplankton and seawater samples collected from 20 western North Pacific (500− 2100km from the FNPP1) 10months after the FNPP1 accident. Because of its short half-lives, detected 134Cs could only be derived from the
accident.
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April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Germany: electricity exports much higher than imports last year despite faster nuclear exit

2 April 2013

The Winnepeg Free Press

AP

Image source ; http://www.renewables-made-in-germany.com/en/start/windenergie.html

BERLIN – Germany exported much more electricity than it imported last year, with the surplus rising to its highest in four years despite the government’s decision to accelerate its exit from nuclear power.

The Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday that Germany exported 66.6 billion kilowatt hours to other European countries in 2012 and imported 43.8 billion. The surplus of 22.8 billion was up from the previous year’s figure of 6 billion, and was worth €1.4 billion.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government shut down the eight oldest of Germany’s 17 atomic reactors after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011.

The rest are to be gradually phased out by 2022, with the government focusing on increasing use of renewable energy sources to fill most of the gap.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/germany-electricity-exports-much-higher-than-imports-last-year-despite-faster-nuclear-exit-201007931.html

April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

ADHD seen in 11% of US children as diagnoses rise! – Stress or something else?

I am unable to post this article??  because its press tv??

i will leave you the links if that works

http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/296061.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/might-ionizing-radiation-contribute-to.html

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/motion/the-unique-brain.html

http://blogs.longwood.edu/mrut/2012/03/30/adhd-and-art-therapy/

 

April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Iraq Veteran’s Dying Words, Zeitgeist Revisited, Importance of Whistleblowers

Published on 1 Apr 2013

Guest host, Manuel Rapalo Breaks the Set on the Zeitgeist Movement, An Iraq War Veteran’s Last Words, & the Importance of Whistleblowers.

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EPISODE BREAKDOWN: On this episode of Breaking the Set, guest host Manuel Rapalo revisits an interview with Peter Joseph, social activist and director of the Zeitgeist film series, about war as a symptom of military empire, and the need for a revolution of values. Manny then talks to Claudia Cuellar, wife of Iraq War veteran, Tomas Young, about his devastating injuries, the message behind his scathing letter to former President George Bush. BTS wraps up the show with a quick look at a few notable whistleblowers, and their importance in maintaining a free society.

April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Arkansas Nuclear Accident-One Death, Fukushima update 4/1/13

Published on 1 Apr 2013

Environment Pollution in USA on Saturday, 30 March, 2013 at 04:34 (04:34 AM) UTC.

Description
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pa…
Authorities are working to clean up an oil spill in central Arkansas after a crude oil pipeline ruptured. Mayflower Police Chief Robert Satkowski said an ExxonMobil pipeline sprung a leak Friday afternoon in the small city about 20 miles northwest of Little Rock. Satkowski says the pipeline has since been shut off. The spill forced authorities to evacuate dozens of homes Friday. Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Brandon Morris said earlier Friday that oil reached nearby Lake Conway, but he later said that information was incorrect. Oil spilled onto the road and lawns, but it’s not clear exactly how much. ExxonMobil says it’s working with emergency responders and local authorities to respond to the oil spill. The company says the incident is under investigation.

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April 2, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Smoke from Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant triggers alarm in neighbouring villages

At Idinthakarai, the epicentre of a prolonged anti-nuclear struggle, protesters decided to lay siege to the plant’s township on April 3. Villagers complained that for the last three days they could see smoke billowing out of the plant with a strong odour. “There is a foul smell of burnt tyres, causing irritation to the eyes,”

TNN | Apr 2, 2013, 02.29 AM IST

CHENNAI: Smoke emanating from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant on Monday set off an alarm among villagers in the areas.

As tests for operationalising unit 1 are underway, residents of Kudankulam and Idinthakkarai villages panicked when they saw smoke billowing out of the plant. Villagers were convinced that the unit had begun to generate power, forcing the company’s site director R S Sundar to clarify that steam was let out as part of the process of testing the plant parameters. The smoke scare comes a few days after a copper smelter plant in Tuticorin shut down, following leak of poisonous gas.

“As part of the commissioning of the unit 1, the relief valves on the steam lines are being tested. These tests are conducted only during day time and only steam is released as part of the test. No tests are being conducted at the plant, which are harmful to the environment and public,” Sundar clarified in an effort to quell rumours.

At the time of testing, more than 1,000 employees of the plant and around 3,000 contract employees were on the premises, Sundar said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had conveyed to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Durban on march 27 that unit 1 of the Russian-built Kudankulam nuclear power plant would be operationalised some time this month.

At Idinthakarai, the epicentre of a prolonged anti-nuclear struggle, protesters decided to lay siege to the plant’s township on April 3. Villagers complained that for the last three days they could see smoke billowing out of the plant with a strong odour. “There is a foul smell of burnt tyres, causing irritation to the eyes,” said R Mildred from Idinthakarai. The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy has called for the demonstration near the township at Chettikulam.c

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Smoke-from-Kudankulam-Nuclear-Power-Plant-triggers-alarm-in-neighbouring-villages/articleshow/19333849.cms

April 1, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Do Unto Others: Toward a Defensible Nuclear Doctrine in the USA?

George Perkovich April 1, 2013

Carnegie Endowment

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/01/do-unto-others-toward-defensible-nuclear-doctrine/fvbs#

City_Ruins

Image source ; http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/01/03/writing-the-unthinkable-narrative-the-bomb-and-nuclear-holocaust/

The debate surrounding U.S. nuclear policy focuses too narrowly on reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the American arsenal toward zero. More important is preventing the use of nuclear weapons in whatever numbers they exist. President Barack Obama should articulate a narrowed framework for the legitimate use of nuclear weapons that the United States believes would be defensible for others to follow as long as nuclear weapons remain.

A More Defensible Nuclear Doctrine

Threat assessment: The first use of nuclear weapons is unnecessary or irrelevant to defeat threats to the territory of the United States today. However, some U.S. allies face potential threats that they rely on the United States to deter, including via possible first use of nuclear weapons. The United States and other states tend to exaggerate the threats that justify their reliance on first-use nuclear deterrence, but all nuclear-armed states can do more to clarify that they will not seek or employ capabilities that could cause others legitimately to use nuclear weapons in self-defense.

The proposed policy in a nutshell: The United States should declare that it possesses nuclear weapons only to respond to, and thereby deter or defeat, threats to its survival or that of its allies, particularly stemming from any use of nuclear weapons.

Differences from existing policy: This policy would raise the threshold of nuclear use to “threats to survival” instead of “extreme circumstances.” The first use of nuclear weapons would be allowed only in response to existential threats to the United States or its allies, eschewing attempts to conduct disarming first strikes against Russia or China. The policy would be more consistent with U.S. interests in strategic stability and more consonant with just war doctrine and international law.

Objectives of Nuclear Policy

  • Contribute to overall deterrence of threats to the survival of the United States and its allies.
  • Minimize probability of any nuclear use and escalation.
  • Reduce incentives for other states to acquire or expand nuclear arsenals.
  • Enhance credibility of the deterrence policy by making it a model that the United States would recognize as morally and legally defensible if other nuclear-armed states copied it.

Guidelines for Implementation

  • If non-nuclear means fail, nuclear weapons could be used to defeat, through direct destruction of military forces and demonstration of escalatory risks, any existence-threatening incursion into the territory of the United States or that of an ally, and eliminate the adversary’s will to continue the war.
  • Disarming first strikes against Russian or Chinese nuclear forces would be eschewed because they are not feasible, and if they were feasible, or were perceived to be feasible, they would drive Moscow and Beijing to seek countervailing capabilities and policies that would make the United States less secure.
  • U.S. retaliation for an adversary’s nuclear first use would be directed to destroy the military and security apparatus and leadership of the attacking state.

Concrete Steps Forward

  • This policy could be conveyed in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Posture Review, which is due in 2014.
  • The policy could be central to the debate on reducing the role of nuclear weapons at the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

More Than Numbers: Preventing Use

In Prague on April 5, 2009, President Obama declared that the United States is committed to seeking “the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” All presidents since Truman had said more or less the same thing, except George W. Bush. Obama was perceived to really mean it.1  But he added a caveat that proponents and opponents of Obama and of disarmament tend to neglect2 —as long as nuclear weapons exist, “the United States will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary.”Over the next twenty months, the Obama administration achieved a number of objectives in what became known as the Prague agenda.3  The administration released a new Nuclear Posture Review that acknowledged the decreasing contingencies in which the United States might need nuclear weapons to defend itself and its allies. Obama convened leaders of 46 other countries, including 38 heads of state, in a Washington summit to strengthen cooperation in preventing nuclear terrorism. U.S. leadership helped broker agreement by 191 states in May 2010 to reaffirm their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). And in December 2010, the U.S. Senate ratified the New START Treaty, further verifiably reducing the number of strategic weapons to be deployed by the United States and Russia.

Then progress stopped.

Four years after the Prague speech, Iran continues to defy the United Nations (UN) Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency by refusing to clarify its past nuclear activities and to take steps to increase international confidence that it will not build nuclear weapons. North Korea, the only state that has ever violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and acquired nuclear weapons, remains intransigent. China, expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal, competes with its neighbors with increasing intensity over uninhabited islands in the South and East China Seas. Factions in Japan and South Korea, mindful of North Korea and China, urge greater defense preparedness and privately caution the United States against further reductions in the role and numbers of its nuclear weapons. Pakistan is developing battlefield nuclear weapons.

Russian military and political leaders exaggerate threats from the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and trumpet new programs to muscle-up Russia’s nuclear arsenal. NATO’s easternmost members seek clearer commitments of American military power and resolve, urging retention of U.S.-NATO nuclear weapons in Europe. France remains ready to block any initiatives within NATO to reduce the role of nuclear weapons.

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April 1, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment