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Nuclear Ban Treaty Members to Meet in November

Arms Control Association, November 2023, By Shizuka Kuramitsu

States-parties to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will hold their second meeting in New York on Nov. 27-Dec. 1. Amid the crisis facing the international arms control and disarmament regime, they are expected to review and continue implementing their plans for a total ban on nuclear weapons.

The TPNW, which entered into force on Jan. 22, 2021, bans states-parties from involvement in any nuclear weapons activities, including the use, threat of use, production, development, possession, and stationing of these weapons. Spearheaded by non-nuclear-armed states and civil society groups, the treaty originated from their frustration over the long stalemate among nuclear-weapon states to engage in serious nuclear disarmament as called for by the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

At their first meeting, in June 2022, TPNW states-parties produced two documents aiming to advance the treaty, a 50-point action plan and a political statement. (See ACT, July/August 2022.)

They established three informal working groups to make progress during the intercessional period on important topics such as nuclear disarmament verification, victim assistance, environmental remediation, and universalization of the treaty. In addition, the action plan agreed to create a scientific advisory group, to implement gender provisions in the treaty, and to promote TPNW complementarity with existing treaties.

For the November meeting, each working group is preparing reports on their respective intersessional activities. The meeting is expected to issue a final document, according to the provisional agenda and government officials……………………………………………………… more https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-11/news/nuclear-ban-treaty-members-meet-november #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 3, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia must lobby US for ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons, says ex-minister Gareth Evans

 Former foreign minister says it is ‘sheer dumb luck’ that arms have not been used in the past 78 years and urges leadership on control measures

Daniel Hurst, Guardian, 1 Nov 23

Labor luminary and former foreign minister, Gareth Evans has urged Australia to lobby the US to promise “no first use” of nuclear weapons, warning that global arms control agreements “are now either dead or on life support”.

Evans says that in the wake of sealing the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal, the Albanese government should give “some comfort to ALP members and voters that we are really serious about nuclear arms control”.

Evans told Guardian Australia it was “sheer dumb luck” that the world had avoided a nuclear attack in the 78 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and “it is utterly wishful thinking to believe that this luck can continue in perpetuity”.

Evans joined arms control experts and former senior diplomats in urging the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to take “a leadership role in addressing the rising nuclear threats in our region”.

Australia should appoint “a high-level envoy to engage our regional partners on an agenda of nuclear confidence building and preventive diplomacy measures”, according to a letter from the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN).

While the group’s letter to Albanese is not specific about policy measures, Evans offered his own view that Australia’s status as a close US ally “gives us a particularly significant potential role” in pushing to reduce nuclear risks.

“The most immediately useful step we could take would be to support the growing international movement for the universal adoption of No First Use doctrine by the nuclear-armed states,” Evans told Guardian Australia…………………………………….

In a stark warning about the security environment, Evans said the risk of nuclear weapons being used through human error, miscalculation or system error was “greater than ever, not least given new developments in AI and cyber-offence capability”.

“Nearly 13,000 nuclear warheads are still in existence, with a combined destructive capability of close to 100,000 Hiroshima- or Nagasaki-sized bombs, and stockpiles, especially in our own Indo-Pacific region … are now growing again,” he said.

“The taboo against their deliberate use is weakening, with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, talking up this prospect in language not heard since the height of the cold war.”

In addition to seeking universal support for “no first use”, Evans said other potential risk-reduction measures include cutting the number of weapons ready for immediate use……………………………………………….

The APLN letter gained support from high-powered experts including John Carlson, the former head of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, and Ramesh Thakur, a former UN assistant secretary general.

Other signatories included John Tilemann, a former diplomat and international civil servant with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Gary Quinlan, a former Australian ambassador to the UN.

The leader of the Greens in the Senate, Larissa Waters, backed the letter with the former Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja and the former Labor minister for international development Melissa Parke.  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/01/australia-must-lobby-us-for-no-first-use-of-nuclear-weapons-says-ex-minister-gareth-evans #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 3, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel in Search of Its Hiroshima: Massive Bomb Wipes Out 20 Apt. Buildings, Kills, Wounds 400 Civilians

The flaw in the Israeli government stance is that we are not living in 1943. After World War II, the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions and other international instruments were enacted by the nations of the world to prevent the atrocities of WW II from being repeated. It was to this “rules-based international order” that the Biden administration appealed when it tried to rally the world to oppose Russian war crimes in Ukraine. In a gob-smacking act of supreme hypocrisy, the Biden administration has decided to throw the same rules-based international order on the garbage heap of special pleading when it comes to Israel.

By Juan Cole / Informed Comment

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In one of the biggest massacres it has so far committed, the Israeli Air Force on Tuesday bombed the Jabaliyaa refugee camp in Gaza, killing or wounding at least 400 persons and destroying the Block Six residential complex, felling 20 buildings. More victims are believed to be under the rubble.

An Israeli military spokesman said that the strike was directed at Hamas leader Ibrahim Biari, a mastermind of the October 7 attack on Israel. Although Israeli authorities proclaimed that they had succeeded in killing Biari, Hamas announced that he was still very much alive.

Killing and wounding 400 noncombatants and destroying 20 residential buildings to get at one target, even if the target is a wanted terrorist, is strictly forbidden under the post-World War II laws of war and International Humanitarian law. These laws are codified in the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute that underpins the International Criminal Court.

For instance, Rome Statute:

Art. 8 (2) (b) (iv) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated. (4th Geneva Convention Art. 85 (3) (b) of AP I.)

Art. 8 (2) (a) (iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly (mirrored from Geneva Conventions Art. 50/51/147 of GC I, II and IV).

Art. 8 (2) (b) (i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities (4th Geneva Convention Art. 85 (3) (a), plus Art. 51(2) AP I).

Art. 8 (2) (b) (v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives. (4th Geneva Convention, Art. 85 (3) (d) of AP I).

The presence of one senior Hamas commander, or even a platoon of them, among hundreds of noncombatants clearly would not justify recklessly endangering innocent civilians on the scale of Jabaliyaa. This is a war crime pure and simple.

In a CNN interview by Wolf Blitzer of an Israeli military spokesman, Blitzer is clearly astonished that he straightforwardly admitted that the Israelis knew that the strike would kill the refugees in the camp, but did it anyway.

The complete disregard of Israeli authorities for the laws of war and International Humanitarian Law enacted after World War II — intended to prevent atrocities of the sort committed during that war — was manifest in remarks to the New York Times, reported Monday:

“It became evident to US officials that Israeli leaders believed mass civilian casualties were an acceptable price in the military campaign. In private conversations with American counterparts, Israeli officials referred to how the United States and other allied powers resorted to devastating bombings in Germany and Japan during World War II – including the dropping of the two atomic warheads in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to try to defeat those countries.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

this claim, of killing noncombatants in self-defense, which the German officers resorted to, is precisely the claim some Israeli officials are making today, that all Palestinians in Gaza are terrorists, all are dangerous to the survival of Israel, and therefore slaughtering them en masse is permissible. These arguments were rejected by the war crimes tribunal after WW II, and they should be rejected today. Of course, extremist Israelis really mind being compared to Nazis. But there is an easy way to avoid that: don’t act like Nazis.

The flaw in the Israeli government stance is that we are not living in 1943. After World War II, the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions and other international instruments were enacted by the nations of the world to prevent the atrocities of WW II from being repeated. It was to this “rules-based international order” that the Biden administration appealed when it tried to rally the world to oppose Russian war crimes in Ukraine. In a gob-smacking act of supreme hypocrisy, the Biden administration has decided to throw the same rules-based international order on the garbage heap of special pleading when it comes to Israel.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration is letting the fascist government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu get away with mass murder. As a result, no one in the global South will ever listen to Biden or Secretary of State Antony Blinken say the words “rules-based international order” again without falling down laughing. The US attempt to cut Russia off from the world economy will now completely fail.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/01/israel-in-search-of-its-hiroshima-massive-bomb-wipes-out-20-apt-buildings-kills-wounds-400-civilians/ #Israel #Palestine #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
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November 2, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | 6 Comments

U.S. QUIETLY EXPANDS SECRET MILITARY BASE IN ISRAEL

Government documents pointing to construction at a classified U.S. base offer rare hints about a little noted U.S. military presence near Gaza

The Intercept, Ken Klippenstein, Daniel Boguslaw, October 27 2023,

TWO MONTHS BEFORE Hamas attacked Israel, the Pentagon awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to build U.S. troop facilities for a secret base it maintains deep within Israel’s Negev desert, just 20 miles from Gaza. Code-named “Site 512,” the longstanding U.S. base is a radar facility that monitors the skies for missile attacks on Israel. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

On October 7, however, when thousands of Hamas rockets were launched, Site 512 saw nothing — because it is focused on Iran, more than 700 miles away.

The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Qeren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a “life support facility”: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel.

Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing. 

The $35.8 million U.S. troop facility, not publicly announced or previously reported, was obliquely referenced in an August 2 contract announcement by the Pentagon. Though the Defense Department has taken pains to obscure the site’s true nature — describing it in other records merely as a “classified worldwide” project — budget documents reviewed by The Intercept reveal that it is part of Site 512. (The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)…………………….

Rare acknowledgment of the U.S. military presence in Israel came in 2017, when the two countries inaugurated a military site that the U.S. government-funded Voice of America deemed “the first American military base on Israeli soil.” Israeli Air Force’s Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch called it “historic.” He said, “We established an American base in the State of Israel, in the Israel Defense Forces, for the first time.” 

A day later, the U.S. military denied that it was an American base, insisting that it was merely a “living facility” for U.S. service members working at an Israeli base

The U.S. military employs similar euphemistic language to characterize the new facility in Israel, which its procurement records describe as a “life support area.” Such obfuscation is typical of U.S. military sites the Pentagon wants to conceal. Site 512 has previously been referred to as a “cooperative security location”: a designation that is intended to confer a low-cost, light footprint presence but has been applied to bases that, as The Intercept has previously reported, can house as many as 1,000 troops.

Site 512, however, wasn’t established to contend with a threat to Israel from Palestinian militants but the danger posed by Iranian mid-range missiles.

The overwhelming focus on Iran continues to play out in the U.S. government’s response to the Hamas attack. In an attempt to counter Iran — which aids both Hamas and Israel’s rival to the north, Hezbollah, a Lebanese political group with a robust military wing, both of which are considered terror groups by the U.S. — the Pentagon has vastly expanded its presence in the Middle East. Following the attack, the U.S. doubled the number of fighter jets in the region and deployed two aircraft carriers off the coast of Israel…………………………………………………. more https://theintercept.com/2023/10/27/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512/

November 2, 2023 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US announces deadly new nuclear weapon days after China announced warhead expansion

msn.com by Sarah Hooper  , 1 Nov 23

The United States has proposed plans for a new nuclear weapon 24 times stronger than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The proposed B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb will cost £569 million to produce and could kill a city of one million almost instantly with a 3.5 mile blast radius.

With a range of 6,000 miles and a 360 kiloton blast, the radioactive fallout would be significantly more devastating than that in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The bombs dropped in Japan had a yield of only 15 kilotons, and still killed nearly 200,000 people.

The new weapon has yet to be signed by Congress but is expected to have backing from the Republican party.

The Pentagon said: ‘The B61-13 will strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies and partners by providing the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.’

America’s new nuclear bomb would be delivered by the high tech B-21 Raider stealth bomber and could destroy underground targets with higher accuracy.

The announcement came only days after China announced it would double its nuclear arsenal to nearly 1,000 warheads.

Washington currently has about 1,400 nuclear warheads, while Russia has around 1,500 – but China said it plans to double its current stockpile of 500 warheads within a decade.

China also announced it is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system that could allow it to strike the continental US……………………………………..

The announcement from both China and the US comes just a few weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden are set to meet face-to-face at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in mid-November.  https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/us-announces-deadly-new-nuclear-weapon-days-after-china-announced-warhead-expansion/ar-AA1j8RQI #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 2, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

China agrees to nuclear arms-control talks with US -WSJ

Reuters, November 2, 2023

China and the United States will discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday after a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Washington that the two countries would hold “consultations on arms control and non-proliferation” in the coming days, as well as separate talks on maritime affairs and other issues.

Those arms talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior State Department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms-control department at China’s Foreign Ministry, the Wall Street Journal report said.

The U.S. State Department and China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests by Reuters for comment on the timing or format of the talks.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in 2021 that the Chinese and U.S. presidents had agreed to “look to begin to carry forward discussion on strategic stability”, a reference to Washington’s concerns about Beijing’s nuclear weapons build-up.

But the White House was quick to say at the time that the discussions would not resemble formal arms reduction talks, like those the U.S. has had with Russia.

Since then, U.S. officials had expressed frustration that China showed little interest in discussing steps to reduce nuclear weapons risks.

China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in October. But Beijing has long argued that the U.S. already has a much larger arsenal. The arms talks would occur before a likely meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November, although a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday important details have yet to be hammered out…………………………………more https://www.reuters.com/world/china-agrees-nuclear-arms-control-talks-with-us-wsj-2023-11-01/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 2, 2023 Posted by | China, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

America’s strategic nuclear posture review is miles off the mark

has the report exaggerated the threats of China and Russia? While America is obsessed with the prospect of a Chinese World War II-like amphibious invasion of Taiwan, China does not now and for the foreseeable future have that capability.

And there is no reason why Russia would attack NATO

BY HARLAN K. ULLMAN, – 10/30/23,  https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4282404-americas-strategic-nuclear-posture-more-deterrence-and-more-weapons/

Most Americans are unaware of the congressional commission that just released its report on America’s strategic posture, or of the complicated business of nuclear deterrence. After identifying what it calls the unique threats posed by two peer adversaries, China and Russia, the report lays out a comprehensive, all-of-government approach for the nation’s future security, with a clear emphasis on strategic nuclear issues.  

What does this mean in simple English?

During the Cold War, U.S. nuclear deterrence was predicated on maintaining enough weaponry to destroy the Soviet Union after surviving a USSR first strike. To understand the power of these weapons, one kiloton is the explosive equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. A megaton is equal to 1 million tons of TNT.

In the late 1960s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara arbitrarily set the requirement for deterrence as being able to strike the USSR with 400 megatons of explosives. By comparison, the Hiroshima nuclear weapon was rated at less than 20 kilotons — or 1/20,000 of the McNamara standard. To ensure the survival of its strategic deterrent, the U.S. maintained the triad divided among sea-based nuclear ballistic submarines, land-based intercontinental missiles and manned bombers.

Until China began to expand its nuclear deterrent force, deterrence was a bilateral U.S.-Soviet/Russian relationship. Because of arms control agreements of the New START Treaty, the U.S. and Russia are now limited to 1,550 nuclear and thermonuclear warheads each. Now, with China, the strategic balance is becoming “triterrence” and not deterrence.

The report states that the U.S. strategy must plan to deter and defeat “simultaneous Russian and Chinese aggression in Europe and Asia using conventional forces.” If the U.S. and its allies’ conventional forces aren’t enough, “U.S. strategy would need to be altered to increase reliance on nuclear weapons to deter or counter opportunistic or collaborative aggression.”

Its major recommendations are based on the urgent need to expand and modernize our conventional and nuclear forces as well as capabilities across all of government including the defense industrial base. This will cost a great deal of money. Unfortunately, the report does not provide any cost analysis of what the nation must spend in this process. And, unfortunately, there are other unanswered questions the report did not address.

The first is to define deterrence in specific terms and what is needed to discourage China and Russia from taking what actions. China has not been deterred from threatening Taiwan or aggressively expanding its presence in the various Chinese seas to expand its influence and control. Russia has not been deterred from invading Georgia and Ukraine and threatening the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 

Second, why was a strategic framework for a triterrence and not a deterrence-based world to incorporate China not considered as well as other force-level options such as a dyad that emphasizes submarines and bombers over nuclear missiles?  

Third, has the report exaggerated the threats of China and Russia? While America is obsessed with the prospect of a Chinese World War II-like amphibious invasion of Taiwan, China does not now and for the foreseeable future have that capability. Other options such as a blockade or seizure of Taiwan’s offshore island are more effective and likely.

According to United Kingdom Chief of Defense Admiral Tony Radakin, Russia has lost about half of its military capability in Ukraine. Currently, NATO maintains a large conventional military advantage over Russia. The accession of Finland surely complicates Kremlin thinking. And there is no reason why Russia would attack NATO.

Costs are a critical factor. In fiscal 2024, the U.S. could spend nearly $900 billion on defense. And the force still continues to shrink. This is the contradiction of uncontrolled real annual cost growth of about 5 percent to 7 percent plus inflation of 3 percent to 7 percent. About 8 percent to 14 percent increases a year in defense are needed just to stay even. The irony is that the more America spends, the more the force contracts, quantitatively and qualitatively. 

To meet the recommendations for increasing conventional forces and modernizing the triad’s forces with strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, an annual increase of one-fifth to a quarter in defense spending ($1.08 trillion to $1.12 trillion a year) is needed. Given the debt and deficits and nearly $700 billion for annual interest payments, will Congress approve that short of war?

Before this report becomes policy, perhaps answering these questions is a good idea. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 1, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Atoms for Peace was never the plan

And while all four groups considered dual-purpose reactors to be technically feasible, they all agreed that: “no reactor could be constructed in the very near future which would be economic on the basis of power generation alone.” 

Uneconomic, then, and still today.

Early reactors were primarily intended as producers of plutonium

By Linda Pentz Gunter, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/10/29/atoms-for-peace-was-never-the-plan/—

Atoms for Peace had a nice ring to it. But it was a fantasy at best, at worst, a lie. Atoms for Peace was never the intention. Atoms for war, as it turned out, was brewing in the background even before Dwight Eisenhower became president of the United States.

After summarily tossing aside the Paley Commission report delivered to his predecessor, President Truman, and which advocated the US choose the solar pathway for energy expansion, Eisenhower embraced a very different report. In 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) delivered a series of studies on Nuclear Power Reactor Technology from four groups of private industry companies

On the cover of the report is a familiar rogues’ gallery of corporations, including Dow, Monsanto, and Bechtel.

These reports, an initiative of the companies themselves, were designed to find a way to bring private industry into the nuclear power sector. Hitherto, the nuclear sector — almost entirely focused on weapons of course — was firmly under the control of government and the military.

Whose idea was it? Says the AEC:

“Accordingly, when Dr. Charles A. Thomas, of Monsanto Chemical Co., in the summer of 1950 proposed that industry might with its own capital design, construct and operate nuclear reactors for production of plutonium and power, the AEC gave the suggestion interested consideration.”

Plutonium and power. Note which came first.

Before long there were four groups all vying to come up with the best proposal for a dual-purpose reactor — and that’s what they called them — that would make plutonium for the nuclear weapons sector, and oh yes, as a by-product, also generate electricity.

This was a stated pre-requisite, directly from the AEC. Even if Dow and Monsanto and others had wanted just to explore using nuclear power for electricity generation, the AEC required that the designs it would consider were: “not necessarily those which would have been selected had the studies been directed toward power-only reactors with the plutonium produced having but fuel value.”

They had to be dual-purpose.

And while all four groups considered dual-purpose reactors to be technically feasible, they all agreed that: “no reactor could be constructed in the very near future which would be economic on the basis of power generation alone.” 

Uneconomic, then, and still today.

The four groups of companies had completed their reports in the summer of 1952. So even as the Truman government commissioned and submitted the Paley Commission to Congress — which had flagged nuclear power as having limited utility — behind the scenes, the AEC and this private industry cabal was already trying to cement in place a scheme that would legitimize nuclear power by giving it a dual-purpose, the more important one being its role in further building up the US nuclear weapons arsenal.

This determination, to tie civil and military nuclear reactor technology together; to say that reactor technology should serve primarily to produce plutonium; effectively gave nuclear power an immovable seat at the energy table.

And all of this eclipsed and supplanted renewable energy development, despite what the Paley Commission had recommended, because of course renewable energy had no utility to the military sector.

None of the reactors presented by the four groups in the AEC report was ever built. In fact, no commercial, civilian-owned reactors were ever built in the United States that adopted the dual power production and plutonium production concept.

Instead, the US was already opening the way for private industry to develop, own and operate commercial nuclear power plants for the purpose of generating electricity. This effectively obviated the need to pursue the dual-purpose reactor path.

If the Paley Commission path had been taken, and the US had decided to lead the world in solar energy, we might not have had climate change at all.

Instead, we got Atoms for Peace and nuclear power retained its seat at the nuclear weapons table. Not because it was the most economical, most abundant and most sustainable choice for energy production. It was none of these. But because of that special caché —it’s connection to nuclear weapons.

Despite the national pride at the time about Atoms for Peace, it was a fatal step in the wrong direction, miring the country in vast costs and an enormous inventory of radioactive waste.

The connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons remains unbroken, cemented in place by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), specifically, by Article IV which reads:

“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.” 

Unfortunately, these words were lifted verbatim and inserted into the otherwise excellent Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Article IV of the NPT even encourages the development of nuclear power in “non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.”

So, when a non-nuclear weapons country signs the Treaty, thereby declaring it will not develop nuclear weapons, its reward is not only permission, but encouragement to develop nuclear power, regardless of that country’s energy needs, climate, demographics, topography or political volatility.

Thus, you have a country like Saudi Arabia — along with others in the now ever more volatile Middle Eastern region — eager to develop nuclear power. Saudi Arabia’s argument is that this will allow it to export more oil rather than burn it, thus reducing its carbon emissions. All good for climate change, it says.

But if Saudi Arabia really needs a home-grown energy source, why would it embark on a long, slow and expensive program of building nuclear power plants? Surely a sunny and windy place like Saudi Arabia would be developing solar and wind power if this was really about electricity needs?

It’s quite obvious why Saudi Arabia wants nuclear power. It at least opens the option for a pathway to nuclear weapons, and it sends a message to its enemies in that region — most notably Iran — about that capacity to do so.

Allowing for the “inalienable right” to nuclear energy leaves the drawbridge to the peace castle perpetually down, an open invitation to marauders to charge in bearing the means to develop nuclear weapons. What began as a bad idea in 1953 should not be enshrined in laws meant to make the world nuclear-free.

This essay was derived from a January 31, 2021 talk given by the author at the Beyond Nuclear conference hosted by Helensburgh, Scotland Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear and writes for and curates Beyond Nuclear International. #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes

October 31, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | 2 Comments

US to build new nuclear gravity bomb

Defense News, By Stephen Losey Oct 28,

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced the government is moving forward with developing a new version of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb.

The bomb, designated B61-13, would have a yield similar to the B61-7 and replace some of those older gravity bombs, the Pentagon said in its announcement. The B61-7′s yield is higher than the B61-12, the most recent bomb being added to the military’s arsenal…………………………………………………..

Former President Barack Obama sought to get rid of the 1.2-megaton B83-1 — the last megaton bomb left in the country’s nuclear arsenal and one that would explode with 80 times the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. But his successor, former President Donald Trump, reversed that decision……………………………………………………………………..

The Pentagon said in its announcement that modern aircraft would be able to deliver this bomb.

In a follow-up statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said that will include the B-21 Raider stealth bomber the Air Force now has in development with Northrop Grumman……………………..  https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2023/10/27/us-to-build-new-nuclear-gravity-bomb/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes

October 31, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Russia says Ukrainian drone rammed nuclear waste storage facility of Kursk nuclear power plant

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman calls attack ‘nuclear terrorism’

AA, Elena Teslova  |29.10.2023 – MOSCOW 

A Ukrainian drone rammed a nuclear waste storage facility of the Kursk nuclear power plant, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday.

Ukrainian armed forces purposefully attacked the Kursk nuclear power plant with three drones. One armed with explosives, crashed into the wall of the storage facility and two fell on the plant’s administrative buildings, Zakharova said in a statement.

According to preliminary data, components used to build drones were supplied by Western countries, she said, adding that such actions “could not be carried out without approval if not direct instruction of the Western supervisors.”

Zakharova criticized Kyiv and said, “What happened proves that it has no boundaries,” even in issues of acts of nuclear terrorism……………………………..more https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/russia-says-ukrainian-drone-rammed-nuclear-waste-storage-facility-of-kursk-nuclear-power-plant/3036552 #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation

October 30, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

AUKUS nuclear submarine deal triggers accusations over cost and construction

SMH, By Daniel Keane 30 Oct 23

South Australia’s premier remains insistent that the nation’s future nuclear-powered submarines should be constructed in Adelaide, despite a prominent call for the vessels to instead be built by, and purchased from, another AUKUS nation in order to save taxpayers “billions and billions of dollars”.

Key points:

  • Alexander Downer has called for all of the nation’s future nuclear subs to be built overseas
  • But SA premier Peter Malinauskas says Australia should build them “for national security reasons”
  • Mr Downer also said the question of storage of AUKUS nuclear waste needs to be addressed

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer has described the AUKUS project’s $368 billion price tag as “eye-watering”, and said he expects a future federal government to abandon the local construction element of the deal.

“We’re just going to wreck Australia if we keep promising to spend money on any manner of projects and have no idea where the money is going to come from,” Mr Downer told the ABC on Sunday.

“I don’t think the existing federal parliament or the next one is going to make a decision on this, but I think down the years, in the end, the federal government will decide that this is just too expensive, and they will buy the submarines from overseas.

“I’d be almost certain of that.”

Responding to similar comments Mr Downer made in The Weekend Australian, SA premier Peter Malinauskas said it is vital that Australia develops the ability to build the vessels “for national security reasons”, but also because “neither the US nor the UK in the long term have the capacity” to construct Australia’s entire fleet.

“They are struggling to meet their own demand,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Under the current terms of the AUKUS pact, Australia will get three US-made Virginia-class submarines while it builds up to eight nuclear-powered submarines of its own.

Mr Malinauskas accused Mr Downer of “misunderstanding” the intentions and expected outcomes of AUKUS…………………………………………………………..

But Mr Downer has rejected the premier’s comments, and in turn accused Mr Malinauskas of failing to understand the economics of AUKUS.

“I have a challenge to the premier — to explain where all this money is going to come from, and why does the premier think it’s better we spend eye-watering amounts of money on building nuclear submarines in Adelaide rather than investing … in other parts of our economy?” Mr Downer said……………………

“Peter Malinauskas and [SA opposition leader] David Speirs will be well and truly retired by the time this project comes about.

“It’s easy for them to make any manner of promises about times in the future, which will be way beyond their political life span — we can all make promises about the Second Coming.”

Mr Downer also said the question of storage of nuclear waste from the subs had not been satisfactorily addressed.

“There’s some elements of the Labor Party who have reservations, or are opposed to, nuclear-powered submarines and any association with nuclear power, and so I part company with them on that,” he said.

“But you’re going to have to store the waste somewhere. I’m not sure where that will be stored.”  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-29/sa-premier-defends-aukus-after-alexander-downer-questions-cost/103036822

October 30, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Experts fear Ukraine will run out of ammo in 2024 – Le Monde

Rt.com 29 Oct 23

Russia has a distinct arms production advantage, multiple European analysts told the newspaper

The Ukrainian military will run out of ammunition next year, and Kiev’s Western backers won’t be able to fully restock it until 2025, European military experts told Le Monde on Friday. With Russian arms production in full swing, Moscow is better prepared for a war of attrition, the analysts warned.

In a lengthy article dissecting the failure of Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive, the French newspaper highlighted three key factors: Russia’s decision to voluntarily withdraw from Kherson and construct an elaborate line of defenses in late 2022, Ukraine’s insufficient tactical prowess, and Russia’s “greater strategic depth” – or its ability to replace lost men and materiel.

“2024 is going to be fraught with danger for the Ukrainians,” risk consultant Stephane Audrand told Le Monde. “The equipment that has already been delivered to them will be depleted, but they will only be able to partially reconstitute it, as Western production capacities will not be optimal until 2025.”…………….

Meanwhile, the Pentagon emptied its stockpiles of 155mm ammunition in South Korea and Israel to keep Kiev’s guns firing. With Israel also asking for this increasingly rare ammo, Washington has reportedly diverted tens of thousands of shells back into its Israeli depot, having originally set them aside for Ukraine…………………

Even if the entire Western world were to mobilize its entire arms production capacity exclusively for Ukraine, “that will be not enough for this war,” Ukrainian Strategic Industries Minister Aleksandr Kamyshin told Politico on Monday.   https://www.rt.com/russia/585972-ukraine-run-out-ammunition/

October 30, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

With Hamas gone, Gaza still wouldn’t be free

As a classic settler-colonial state, Israel is doing the only thing it knows how to do. So long as the West keeps cheerleading, that includes genocide

JONATHAN COOK, OCT 28, 2023

“……… First, settler colonial movements are distinguished from standard colonialism – like British rule in India – by the fact that the settler population wishes not just to steal the native population’s resources but to replace the native population itself.

There are lots of examples of this: European settlers dispossessed native peoples in what we today call the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for example.

The definition of genocide in international law exactly describes what those Europeans did to the local population: mass killings; inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of all or part of the native community; preventing births within the local population; and forcibly transferring native children to the settler population.

European settlers who today call themselves Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders never had to account for their crimes against those native peoples. Which possibly explains why European countries and their settler colonial outgrowths are today lining up against the rest of the world to support Israel as it intensifies industrial genocide in Gaza.

The truth is the “western” world order was built on genocide. Israel is just following in a long tradition…………………………………………………

The final model for a settler colonial population is to drive the native population over the border, in an act of ethnic cleansing. This was Israel’s preferred option in 1948 and again in 1967, when it decided to expand its borders by occupying the remaining Palestinian lands in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

The Palestinians in Gaza are an object lesson in the various ways a native population can be abused by a settler colonial movement……………………………..

Unlike white South Africa, Israel is not looking for peace and reconciliation. It is revisiting other settler colonial options.

In the current attack on Gaza, it is implementing a mixed model: genocide for those who remain in Gaza, ethnic cleansing for those who can get out (assuming Egypt finally relents and opens its borders).

None of that has anything to do with Hamas. The most one can say is that Hamas’ resistance has forced Israel’s hand. It has had to abandon its siege-apartheid model – the long term imprisonment of a population with no resources, no freedom of movement, no clean water, no jobs.

Instead, it has returned to the tried-and-tested formulas of genocide and ethnic cleansing……………………….

Palestinians overthrowing Hamas, or Hamas surrendering, would not turn Gaza into a Dubai-on-the-Mediterranean. Palestinians there would still be prisoners, though possibly allowed slightly better conditions.

If you doubt that, look to the West Bank, which is ruled not by Hamas but by the supine Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. He calls security cooperation with Israel – suppressing on Israel’s behalf the Palestinians’ craving for freedom – a “sacred” duty. His biggest aspiration is a diplomatic solution that creates a severely circumscribed Palestinian mini-state.

If Israel can’t allow freedom to the West Bank under Abbas, how is it ever going to give freedom to tiny Gaza, even without Hamas, especially after the United Nations declared the enclave as fundamentally “uninhabitable” in 2020?

Israel could never allow the Palestinians out of their Gaza prison because their rapid growth in numbers is seen as a threat to Israel’s Jewish majority.

Remember: settler colonial populations are there to replace the native population, not to make peace with them, not to shares resources, not to give them their freedom.

Israel is doing the only thing it knows how to do. And as long as the West is cheerleading, that includes genocide.
 https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/with-hamas-gone-gaza-still-wouldnt #Israel

October 30, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel-Palestine: Names released of 7,028 Palestinians killed, 2,913 of which are children, after Biden questions death toll

Health ministry says US administration ‘devoid of human standards, morals’ for ‘shamelessly’ questioning validity of figures

Middle East Eye, By MEE staff, 26 October 2023 

The Palestinian health ministry on Thursday released the names of 7,028 people killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, a day after US President Joe Biden questioned the death toll since the war began on 7 October. 

Biden told reporters at the White House that he has “no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth” about the number of people killed by Israel so far. “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” he added.

In response, the health ministry published a 210-page report, detailing the names, ages, genders, and ID numbers of every person killed in the enclave. The ministry said an English version of the report will be published soon. 

Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said the US administration was “devoid of human standards, morals and basic human rights values” for “shamelessly” questioning the validity of the death toll. 

“We decided to go out and announce, with details and names, and in front of the entire world, the truth about the genocidal war committed by the Israeli occupation against our people,” he said. 

Between 7 October and 3pm local time on 26 October, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children, the report stated.

A total of 3,129 females and 3,899 males were killed. The number of unidentified people killed stands at 218, but they are not included in the final death toll. 

The report also excludes those buried without being brought to hospital, those for whom hospitals were unable to complete registration procedures, and people missing under the rubble, who number around 1,600, with many of them feared dead. 

As such, the ministry said the actual death toll is likely to be much higher than the report stated. 

“We confirm that the doors of the Ministry of Health are open for all institutions to have access,” Qudra said in a statement. 

“Let the world know that behind every number is the story of a person whose name and identity are known. Our people are not nobodies who can be ignored.”

Despite Biden questioning the accuracy of the death toll, the HuffPost revealed that the State Department recently cited the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza in nearly 20 “situation reports”. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Biden’s remarks were “shocking and dehumanising” and urged him to apologise.

“Countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children – and entire city blocks levelled to the ground,” Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, said.

“President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither.”

Many experts consider figures provided by the Palestinian ministry reliable, given its access, sources, and accuracy in past statements.

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, told the Washington Post earlier this week the ministry’s figures are “generally proven to be reliable”………………………

more https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-death-toll-names-killed-released-biden-questions #Israel #Palestine

October 29, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | 1 Comment

They Let Humanitarian Aid In. Then They Bombed It So That Gaza Would Starve.

One of the bakeries that Israel bombed in Nuseirat refugee camp had just received a shipment of flour from UNRWA meant to cover the food needs of the entire camp. Israel waited to bomb it once all the flour was unloaded.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj / Mondoweiss October 27, 2023  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/27/they-let-humanitarian-aid-in-then-they-bombed-it-so-that-gaza-would-starve/

The following report is a consolidation of voice recordings sent by Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj on October 25.

The situation is more terrifying than any previous day. People have been standing in long lines outside bakeries to get a small bag of bread for hours — six hours, seven hours, every day. But in the last few days, over ten bakeries have been targeted in the south, the so-called “safe zone” where the Israeli army told us to go. But it was a trap. They wanted to cram us into one place and start bombing us again. They’re targeting bakeries, and we don’t even hear reports of Hamas members among the dead.

One of the bakeries targeted in Nuseirat refugee camp had just received a huge shipment of flour from UNRWA, which had agreed with the bakery to sell the bread from the flour at half-price for the camp residents. UNRWA had just finished unloading the shipment, which was meant to cover the needs of the entire Nuseirat area, when the bakery was bombed and completely destroyed. They aren’t only targeting people and homes. They’re letting in aid, and then they destroy it before it reaches the people who need it. It’s calculated and deliberate. It’s meant to exterminate the civilian population.

By now, we know what kinds of missiles are being used to target us. There are kinds whose sole purpose is destruction, and there are other kinds that are designed to kill and are launched at crowds — people are calling them “killing missiles” because they’re designed to kill every living thing within a wide radius. People have started congregating at barber shops and hair salons to charge their cell phones because most of those salons use solar energy to charge the batteries that provide those shops with electricity, so now those shops are also being targeted by these kinds of “killing” missiles. The Israeli army bombed two of the salons, one in Khan Younis and one in Nuseirat refugee camp. They hit the salons only, not the areas near them. It wasn’t collateral damage; it was a deliberate strike on civilians.

These missiles explode inside the salon and killed everyone inside, but the building is left standing. Those who don’t die are ripped into pieces, their wounds critical in almost every case. A person can lose half their body. The sounds of these missiles are the scariest because the missile relies on the force of the explosion itself to kill its target. The other day, I started hearing other bombs being dropped that I’ve never heard before in Gaza. The bomb would be preceded by a long pronounced whistle, but when it explodes, its sound is lower than the other bombs. Artillery strikes have also become routine in the south, coming from the eastern side of the Gaza Strip. But the most prevalent missiles are the ones that are designed to destroy wide areas and level buildings. It depends on where the targeted areas are, but you can see the evidence of their use by looking at the scale of the destruction in Gaza.

All of this means that people are afraid to leave their homes even for basic necessities. When people stand in line for bread, they’re terrified. When they move in the streets, they’re terrified. The missiles target the markets, places where there are a lot of people, and they are all killed. We never hear that a Hamas operative was killed in these strikes. It’s always women, children, random people walking through the market. People aren’t leaving their homes anymore for any reason. In the house where I’m staying, not one of us is prepared to go stand in line at a bakery because we know that, at any moment, the bakery might be targeted. It doesn’t matter if you’re a civilian or not. But I have to venture out on many days, whether it’s to get baby formula for my son, diapers, or medicine. And every moment, I keep thinking that this is the day I’m going to die.

#Israe; #Palestine

October 28, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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