Hiroshima Day plea to stop expensive Trident nuclear weapons project
Hiroshima Day, an apt time to question Trident, Cathy Jamieson, guardian.co.uk, 6 August 2011, While the government slashes public services and conventional military forces, billions are being poured into nuclear projects
Defence experts have spoken out publicly and former ministers, includingLord Browne of Ladyton, are now actively involved in top level groups on disarmament…………
Trident was excluded from the defence review, its funding guaranteed, when many other public spending commitments were cut back…..
USA Republicans want to cut nuclear weapons spending
Republican Revolution on Nuclear Weapons? Huffington Post, Joel Rubin: 7/25/1, Will Republicans, during these debt-ceiling negotiations, do the unthinkable and support cutting defense spending to avoid raising taxes on the uber-wealthy? The answer is yes, as it should be, and there is an answer to their angst.
The answer is that we should dramatically reduce the nuclear weapons budget. Doing so will do no harm to our national defense. But don’t take my word for it. Take Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.). His proposal this week to lop off $9 trillion from the national debt over the next decade would halve the total number of nuclear warheads in our combined active and reserve stockpiles from about 5,000 to nearly 2,500.
This would save nearly $80 billion over the next decade. Compare that to our biggest potential threat, China, who has 175 warheads, and the Coburn vision still leaves us with 14 times more warheads…….http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-rubin/republican-revolution-nuclear-weapons_b_907533.html
Nuclear submarines for Brazil
Brazil to build nuclear submarines which will dramatically alter balance of power in South America, By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 17th July 2011, The Brazilian government has started work on a submarine programme which will include the construction of South America’s first nuclear subs.
The move will boost Brazil’s claim to be the strongest force in the region, and strengthen the country’s military assertiveness….http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015731/Brazil-build-nuclear-submarines-dramatically-alter-balance-power-South-America.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
20,000 nuclear weapons – all illegal
July 8 marked the 15th anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s landmark advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. The court unanimously held that nations have a legal obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control. …..
Today there are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of eight or nine countries, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2011.
Nukes Are Illegal – But Still Around, By Neena Bhandari, IDN-InDepth NewsFeature, 15 July 11, SYDNEY (IDN) – Junko Morimoto was 13 years old when the United States of America dropped the first atomic bomb on her hometown of Hiroshima. She was only 1,700 metres away from the hypocentre and if it weren’t for a stomach bug that confined her to home, she would have been amongst the 360 students who died at her city centre school on August 6, 1945.
France rejects compensatioin for its Pacific atomic test victims
France says no to Pacific compensation, VIDEO from Australia Network News, Nuclear veterans disappointed, Radio Australia News, Geraldine Coutts, 06 Jul 2011
French Polynesia’s nuclear test veterans say they are shocked and disappointed at France’s decision to reject their compensation claims.The rejection comes two years after Paris formally acknowledged that nuclear weapon tests in French Polynesia were not clean and there was an obligation to pay compensation.
There was legislation passed to allow for compensation, but now France has rejected seven out of eight compensation claims filed by veterans. In the 30 years to 1996, France carried out almost 200 nuclear tests in French Polynesia, including 42 atmospheric tests held despite opposition from residents.
President of French Polynesia’s nuclear test veterans organisation, Roland Oldham, has told Pacific Beat the rejections show France is not committed to compensating the veterans.
“As far as we’re concerned, it is clear that the French government does not [plan] to take any responsibility in compensation,” he said.
“[It] is only some sort of masquerade to make the world believe that France is making a big speech, that France is paying compensation for the victims.
“But the matter of fact is France is not really going to pay compensation – that’s a feeling we have from this result.”
Mr Oldham said the French Government was triying to “delay as much as we can to discourage first the victims, and secondly, to hope that in five or 10 years time there will be no former workers alive and it will be even harder for the family to get the paper together.”
“That’s what they’re trying to do.” http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/story.htm?id=41838
Israel’s nuclear weapons – a threat to Middle East peace?
Israel: An Impediment To A Nuclear-Free Middle East,By Kourosh Ziabari ,The Public Record,Jun 20th, 2011 “……–According to the Federation of American Scientists, Israel now possesses up to 200 nuclear warheads and since it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), it cannot be held accountable over its military nuclear program. ….Since Israel started the development of nuclear weapons in early 1950s, it adopted a so-called policy of “deliberate ambiguity” and concealed its nuclear activities under this counterfeit label to enjoy immunity and avoid responsibility over its nuclear program, meaning that it neither confirms nor denies the possession of nuclear weapons, while even the U.S.-based scientific and research organizations have admitted that it has a perilous nuclear arsenal which is potentially able to evaporate the whole Middle East in a matter of seconds. Continue reading
$1000 billion on nuclear weapons to be spent by Big Powers over a decade
Nuclear powers expected to spend $1,000bn FT.com, By James Blitz in London June 19 2011 The world’s nine nuclear-armed powers are set to spend a total of $1,000bn on the procurement and modernisation of atomic weapons programmes over the next decade, according to an anti-nuclear weapons group whose cause has won high-level US support.
Global Zero, which is campaigning for abolition of the world’s nuclear arsenals by 2030, will host a London conference this week attended by senior Russian, Indian, US and Chinese figures, among others. It aims to highlight how the cost of nuclear weapons is becoming ever more unaffordable for states whose defence budgets are hard pressed by the financial crisis.
According to the organisation, the nine nuclear states – the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea – are set to spend $100bn between them on nuclear arms programmes this year.
The figure comprises the cost of researching, developing, procuring and testing nuclear weapons.Global Zero calculates that the states will spend the same amount in every year of this decade.
The organisation says spending on atomic weapons accounts for about 9 per cent of total defence spending in these countries – a proportion set to rise because budgets for conventional military hardware are being cut back in many countries….FT.com / World – Nuclear powers expected to spend $1,000bn
U.S. House Appropriations panel cuts funding for new nuclear weapons facility
The House Appropriations subcommittee that approves funding of the weapons complex, run by the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA), just whacked almost $500 million from the weapons program.
House panel whacks funding for nuclear complex, Washington Post, 18 June 11 By Walter Pincus Remember the ones demanded by Republican senators as the price for passage of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) last December? Back then, senators succeeded in getting the Obama administration to pledge to spend billions more to upgrade the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and modernize the country’s stockpile of deployed weapons.
Problem is, members of the House weren’t involved in the discussions.
Now, led by Republicans, lawmakers are cutting into the funds that the Obama administration had pledged for upgrades and modernization.
The House Appropriations subcommittee that approves funding of the weapons complex, run by the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA), just whacked almost $500 million from the weapons program. A slice of $100 million came out of a $200 million pot that is supposed to finance early steps in the coming year to build a new facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory….. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/house-panel-whacks-funding-for-nuclear-complex/2011/06/15/AGPrLAXH_blog.html
US General’s advice on how to reduce spending on nuclear weapons
Brent Scowcroft’s Suggestion on the Nuclear Arsenal, HUFFINGTON POST, Rizwan Ladha, 17 June 11 For over sixty years, the United States has maintained a large and costly nuclear arsenal, composed of heavy bombers, submarine-launched missiles, and intercontinental missiles. But Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft thinks it’s time for a change.
In a talk Thursday at National Defense University, Gen. Scowcroft suggested that the U.S. nuclear force should be restructured, eliminating the air- and sea-based legs of the triad and only maintaining 1,000 to 1,500 single-warhead ICBMs. He argues this would provide a credible deterrent to adversaries, while guaranteeing security to U.S. allies……..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rizwan-ladha/brent-scowcrofts-suggesti_b_879507.html
Huge and expanding costs of USA’s nuclear arsenal
Nuclear Paradox: Shrinking U.S. Arsenal Requires Huge New Expenditures, Forbes, Jun. 13 2011 by Loren Thompson “…..The anti-nuclear rhetoric coming out of the White House during Obama’s early days in office was so persistent that some senior military officers worried the new president was taking America in the direction of unilateral disarmament, even though the candidate had explicitly ruled out that possibility during the campaign. But the military need not have worried, because the way things are turning out, Barack Obama is likely to spend more money on the U.S. nuclear arsenal than any U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. Continue reading
India – another nuclear-capable missile test
India tests nuclear-capable missile Express Tribune , 10 June By AFP BHUBANESWAR: India tested a short-range nuclear-capable missile along its eastern coast on Thursday, an official said, as part of the country’s efforts to build up its atomic deterrent.
The surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile was fired from a range in the eastern state of Orissa and hit its target in the Bay of Bengal successfully, the defence ministry official said.The Prithvi, which is domestically built and developed, can carry nuclear or conventional payloads and has already been inducted into the armed services.
India’s Defence Research Development Organisation is developing a series of missiles as part of the country’s deterrent strategy against neighbouring Pakistan and China which also have nuclear weapons…..http://tribune.com.pk/story/185422/india-tests-nuclear-capable-missile/
Iran’s nuclear program still a nuclear weapons concern
Goldberg: Iran Wants the Bomb, and It’s Well on Its Way Bloomberg, By Jeffrey Goldberg Jun 7, 2011 The Iranian government, which is known neither for transparency nor candor, has insisted for many years that the goal of its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. And for many years, the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose motto is “Atoms for Peace,” has tended to give the ayatollahs the benefit of the doubt on this question.
The agency’s former chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, now a candidate for the presidency of Egypt, seemed to take the attitude that anxiety about Iran’s nuclear objectives was motivated by the strategic self-interest, even the paranoia, of the U.S., Israel and the Arab states near Iran, rather than by the reality-based worry that bloody-minded mullahs bent on dominating the Middle East aren’t the sort of people who should have the bomb.
The new chairman of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano of Japan, seems more skeptical of Iran’s claim of nuclear virginity. He is, by many accounts, preparing a comprehensive indictment of Iran’s nuclear program to be issued later this year. As an interim step, his agency recently issued a report on Iran’s nuclear activities that might help concentrate the attention of a world that has lately been preoccupied by the revolutions in Libya, Yemen and Syria………http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/iran-wants-the-bomb-and-it-s-well-on-its-way-jeffrey-goldberg.html
Little hope for disarmament as states increase nuclear weapons
“nuclear weapons states are modernising and are investing in their nuclear weapons establishments (it) seems unlikely that there will be any real nuclear weapon disarmament within the forseeable future.”.Depleted uranium and other nasty secrets about Libya battle
There have been reports of depleted uranium, cluster bombs and other illegal substances in the capital city Tripoli, despite NATOs denial of depleted uranium used in its humanitarian efforts in Libya. ……..The American people are not told the truth about what happens in the Middle East, we are not told the truth about all these wars.
West uses depleted uranium in Libya, Press TV Jun 5, 2011 Interview with Randy Short, a human rights activist in TripoliThere is a “significant difference” between what is being covered on the Libyan intervention by Western media outlets and what is happening in the North African country, human right activist says. Continue reading
Doubts about any evidence for Iran developing “nuclear triggers”
IAEA Accuses Iran Over ‘Nuclear Triggers,’ But Where Is Evidence? — News from Antiwar.com Past Allegations Centered Around Forged Documentby Jason Ditz, May 25, 2011 The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Iran report featured a totally unsourced allegation that Iran had conducted work on “nuclear triggering technology” that could only be used for nuclear weapons. Continue reading
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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