Group offers plan to eliminate nukes by 2030
Group offers plan to eliminate nukes by 2030 Google News By ROBERT BURNS 30 June 09 WASHINGTON (AP) — A group committed to eliminating nuclear weapons presented on Monday a four-step plan to achieve that goal by 2030, while acknowledging that Iran could be a “show stopper.”The plan by the nonpartisan Global Zero Commission calls for the United States and Russia — the world’s largest nuclear powers — to agree to reduce first to 1,000 warheads each, then to 500 each by 2021.The U.S. is believed to have about 2,200 active strategic nuclear warheads and Russia about 2,800. Each has thousands more in reserve as well as large numbers of non-strategic, or tactical, nuclear arms.During the second phase of cuts to 500, all other nuclear weapons countries would have to agree to freeze and then reduce their warhead totals. Those other countries are China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan and Israel but not North Korea, which has conducted nuclear tests but may not have a useable weapon.In a third phase, from 2019 to 2023, a “global zero accord” would be negotiated to include a schedule for the phased, verified reduction of all nuclear arsenals to zero total warheads. In the last period, from 2024 to 2030, the reductions would be completed and a verification system would remain in place.The Global Zero Commission includes former and current senior officials from all existing nuclear powers.
The Associated Press: Group offers plan to eliminate nukes by 2030
Still no closure for Fiji nuclear test victims
Still no closure for Fiji nuclear test victims ABD Radio Australia
Fijian servicemen and their families who were affected by British nuclear tests in the fifties and sixties have been fighting for compensation from the British Government, and court ruling on Friday seems to have still brought no conclusion. Two hundred and eighty nine Fijian servicemen – along with Australian and New Zealanders – took part in the program on Christmas island. The majority of Fijians have since died after years of sickness – many of their children and grandchildren also suffer a variety of illnesses. …………..Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Neil Sampson from the British legal firm Rosenblatt
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Israel gives mixed signals on any attack on Iran
Israel gives mixed signals on any attack on Iran
Wed Jun 3, 2009 By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Israel issued contradictory signals on Wednesday on whether it might bomb Iran, with its foreign minister saying there were no such plans and the defense minister saying all options were on the table.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran’s uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence.
“I have been asked by Saudi journalists about when Israel plans to bomb Iran. We are not planning to bomb Iran,” far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Russia.
“We do not have a need” to carry out attacks on Iran, Lieberman told reporters in Russian when asked about a possible strike against Iran. “Israel is a strong country and we can defend ourselves.”
Israel has in the past said all options were on the table in preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons, and this was repeated later by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who refused to rule out a military strike on Iran.
……………………………..Lieberman, who grew up in the Soviet Union, said if Iran gained nuclear bombs it would trigger an arms race in the Middle East region.
“This is not an Israeli problem,” he said. “This is a threat to the entire world order and entire world community. So we do not want this global problem to be solved (only) by our hands.” http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55239U20090603
Arab nuclear ambitions embolden spurs nuclear renaissance
Arab nuclear ambitions spur nuclear renaissdance
The Huffington Post Ahmed Shihab Eldin 25 May
The nuclear deal with the UAE would allow joint ventures with US firms to assist the UAE in building several civilian nuclear power plants and has been signed despite the UAE’s record as a transshipment port for weapons-related materials to Iran.The “123 agreement”, as it is known, includes an “exchange of scientific and technical information and documentation…an exchange and training of personnel…technical assistance and the transfer of material, equipment and components.”……………..
………………..Israel is the only country in the Middle East that currently has nuclear weapons, estimated at between 100-200 warheads. Unlike its Arab neighbours, Israel has yet to sign the NPT………………. The Middle East is filled with various elements of unresolved conflict. Israel possesses formidable nuclear weapons capabilities and Iran has latent potential and appears to be set on advancing its enrichment capabilities.
The Arab world sits anxiously between the two foes, making plans for its own nuclear ambitions and energy programmes inextricably linked to the reality of being wedged between Iran and Israel.
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin: Arab nuclear ambitions embolden spurs nuclear renaissance
US nuclear accord with a Persian Gulf state raises concerns about proliferation
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
US nuclear accord with a Persian Gulf state raises concerns about proliferationBackers says the agreement with the United Arab Emirates is a model for other countries in the region. But critics worry about the UAE’s ties with Iran.
from the May 23, 2009 edition
Washington – The Obama administration, anxious to demonstrate America’s willingness to deepen relations with reliable partners in the Muslim world before the president’s much-heralded speech to that community early next month, has signed a controversial nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates.
The nuclear accord, negotiated by the Bush administration but left for President Obama’s sign-off, is touted by the new administration – as it was by the former – as a model for future civilian nuclear cooperation with Arab countries……………………..opponents of the accord blast it as a short-sighted plan designed to secure lucrative contracts for US corporations that build nuclear reactors, yet one which may result in a string of plants producing nuclear fuel across a very volatile region.
“The US does not have a strategy to deal with this very real issue of proliferation, all they have is a sale,” says Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization that promotes a nuclear-weapons-free world. “We shouldn’t be sprinkling the Middle East with nuclear power reactors until we figure out how to stop them from turning out nuclear bombs.”……………………………………Ploughshares’ Mr. Cirincione says….”What got these countries scrambling for nuclear technology was the summer of 2006, the war in Lebanon and Iran’s support for Hizbullah in that conflict.
US nuclear accord with a Persian Gulf state raises concerns about proliferation | csmonitor.com
Obama lying about nuclear warhead
Barack Obama is lying about the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Warhead
Examiner.com by Ann Garrison May 20, 2009 Barack Obama is lying about the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Warhead (RRW). He says that it’s not in his budget.
However, the RRW is in the $50 billion Pentagon “black budget,” and this is Commander-in-Chief Obama’s budget too.
- Obama and the rest of the Pentagon are free to use the black budget at will, because Congress would rather not know or take responsibility for it.
In January 2009, the London Guardian reported that the RRW is still being developed at Britain’s nuclear weapons laboratory, Aldermaston.
Neither President and Commander-in-Chief Obama, nor Energy Secretary Chu, nor any Pentagon spokesperson denied the report.
As Director of the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory, Energy Secretary Chu oversaw the development of the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Wahead from 2006 until 2008, when Congress finally defunded it, under pressure in an election year.
It is inconceivable that Energy Secretary Chu does not know that the RRW’s development proceeds at Aldermaston, but, Chu was at least telling the truth, in a very deceptive sense when, earlier this year, he said that it would not be in his Energy Department budget.
Barack Obama, however, is lying. He is President and Commander-in-Chief Obama, with Constitutional, and military executive authority over the Pentagon. The Pentagon’s $50 billion black budget is Obama’s budget, first and foremost. He is lyiing when he says that his budget does not include the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Warhead .
Russia Especially Concerned About Threat of Nuclear War in Asia
Russia Especially Concerned About Threat of Nuclear War in Asia DIGITAL JOURNAL By Carol Forsloff.Published yesterday by ■ Carol Forsloff 19 May 09
Russian newspapers, like those in the West, are concerned about the ratcheting up of violence in Asia. They see the Russian – American nuclear armament race and potential outcome as a stalemate. Pakistan and India, however, play by different rules.Front page news in Russia declares the concern that country has about the possibility of nuclear war between two powers that don’t play by the same rules as other nations have done. This is seen as having serious catastrophic consequences for the entire world, given the threats involved and the extreme political views held by certain factions, especially within Pakistan……………….
………..India already has enormous potential since it expanded its capabilities in 2001 given the fact that the country never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The government of India believes it is entitled to have the same privileges as Russia, the USA, China, Great Britain and France with nuclear weapons.
Here’s the terrible problem. It is recognized that Pakistan and India are enemies and have been so for decades. China and India have had border clashes that could easily manifest into war. Whereas Pakistan could attack India, it doesn’t have the capability of destroying most of India’s nuclear arms. Pakistan is smaller in size, and India has a greater nuclear capability. Add to that the Aghanistan War and the problems on the border with Pakistan. The chief, however, is China that has enormous capacity compared to either India or Pakistan; and if that sleeping giant enters the fray, the facts are this: war indeed will be hell, as newspapers in Russia detail.
Russia Especially Concerned About Threat of Nuclear War in Asia – Digital Journal: Your News Network
Foreign Policy: Electing the Nuclear Pope
Foreign Policy: Electing the Nuclear Pope
NPR 14 May 09by Charles D. Ferguson
………………………..the ElBaradei legacy weighs heavily. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the IAEA in 2005, vindicating the director-general’s belief that he is on a mission to prevent war. Although some countries welcomed ElBaradei’s activist approach — he passionately disputed the Bush administration’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, for example — others would surely prefer someone less controversial. That difference of opinion often falls along economic lines, with richer countries pushing for a technocrat and the developing world advocating a peacemaker…………………. Whoever finally gets the nod will have to continue ElBaradei’s work of building the agency up from a traditionally underfunded and understaffed one to an international powerhouse of legitimacy and technical capability.
‘Useless’ Trident is an obscene waste of money
“………………………..In the bloated, overfunded world of nuclear “defence” (now there’s an oxymoron if every I heard one) plans to replace the Trident nuclear-armed submarine fleet continue apace, as if nothing has happened.The current estimate for replacing Trident starts at about £20 billion (the government figure) and rises to £75bn (the figure from groups such as Greenpeace). And yes, I did say “billion” with a “B”, not million.The government is absolutely committed to replacing Trident. Supposing we were all starving in the gutter, the government would still press ahead…………………….
The fact of the matter is this. Trident is useless, in the sense that it can never be used. If it was used, the retaliation would be so massive that it is unlikely there would be any life left on the planet afterwards.
The world has enough nuclear weapons to kill every person on the planet. I guess they want to allow for the possibility of resurrection, because the level of overkill is such that we have enough nuclear weapons to kill every person on the planet not just once, but several times over……………………in the current financial climate, the idea of spending such enormous sums of taxpayers’ money on replacing Trident is simply obscene.
‘Useless’ Trident is an obscene waste of money – The Inverness Courier
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible On Line Opinion by Bill Williams 28 April 9
Not such a crazy proposition really. The detonation of a small, “primitive” uranium fission weapon, concealed in a shipping container in one of Australia’s harbour cities, for instance, would obliterate the CBD, causing up to a quarter of a million fatalities and an enormous radiotoxic legacy. Meanwhile, the explosion of even a small portion of the currently available 26,500 nuclear weapons would mean global catastrophe.
New evidence from climate and vulcanology specialists suggest a “nuclear winter” could result from the detonation of less than 100 smallish nukes (i.e. Hiroshima-size) on large urban centres. Think Krakatoa meets Hiroshima and multiply accordingly. All this is well within the arsenal capacities of Russia, America, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, France and the UK.
How could such scenarios fade from the public consciousness? And what could an informed, concerned public do about it? There is an urgent need to call for a credible, universal treaty to abolish nuclear weapons.
A draft for such a treaty already exists: the “Model Nuclear Weapons Convention” (NWC) was prepared by an international consortium of legal and technical specialists, and was released and circulated by the United Nations (UN) in 1997. It was revised and published in 2007 as a key project of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN). The document, Securing our Survival, lauded by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and available at www.icanw.org – sets out in detail the essential steps to abolition…………………..Clearly, we will have to push the politicians if they are to instruct the diplomats to negotiate and implement a convention. Otherwise they’ll muddle on for decades, shuffling up the “incremental steps”, plastering over cracks in the disarmament edifice, wavering in the shadow of annihilation.
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible – On Line Opinion – 28/4/2009
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites
TimesOnLine The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government…………………. An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.
Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.
“The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran’s programme by two to four years,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6115903.ece
Nuclear Test Downwinders
RECA, clinic help Nuclear Test Downwinders
“…………………..From 1951 to 1958 and for the month of July 1962, an estimated 22,000 people living in Southern Utah, northern Arizona and southeastern Nevada received a large amount of fallout from above-ground nuclear testing conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
These Downwinders, as they have come to be known, show abnormally high rates of malignant and non-malignant thyroid disease and leukemia and over the last decade have shown a higher then expected incidence of lymphoma, breast and thyroid cancers, according to the Utah Cancer Registry……………
Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University
Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University,
Part II by WIll & Darwin Sunday Apr 12th, 2009
“……………………………………………The military exists in a constant state of mobilization and preparation for warfare, a process that increasingly involves experimentation with toxic pollutants, dumping of hazardous wastes, and militarization of previously thriving ecosystems. The US military is responsible for over one-third of the US’ toxic waste, more than that generated by the top five pollution corporations housed in the US combined. The pollutants it has introduced into the total environment – with consequences that remain relatively unknown and unpredictable — have included pesticides and defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel), lead, mercury, and of course depleted uranium. Within the U.S., one out of every ten Americans lives within ten miles of a military site that has been listed as a Superfund priority cleanup site.
………………………………..It is here that we come to another particularly important point: Most humans targeted by military production’s “Universal Soldier” — pollution — are working class and impoverished people of color and, even more disproportionately, indigenous people. Thus, the military’s environmental wreckage is out of sight, out of mind for the most privileged of our planet, such as the vast majority of mainstream US environmental activists, especially students and graduates of elite universities…………
……….The primary source of environmental degradation in Iraq, however, is of course depleted uranium — a bi-product of the same radioactive processes that have created the vast “national sacrifice areas” and “clans of one-breasted women” in the United States, Russia, and elsewhere.
Barack Obama nuclear weapons ban
No nukes, vows Obama Sydney Morning Herald Jonathan Pearlman Foreign Affairs Correspondent * April 6, 2009THE US President, Barack Obama, has begun a push to rid the world of nuclear arms in a landmark speech that called for a ban on testing and a global summit to prevent criminals or terrorists acquiring weapons.As North Korea fired a missile over Japan, raising fears of proliferation, Mr Obama said the US was the only nation to have used a nuclear bomb and had a “moral responsibility” to seek a world without nuclear arms…………………….
“The threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up,” Mr Obama said.
“Testing has continued. Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear material abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one … The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons … I am not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly – perhaps not in my lifetime.”……………
……………..Mr Obama said nuclear energy could help combat climate change and every country had the right to develop peaceful programs. (This is a worry – Is Obama falling for the “nukes for peace” con idea of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership – setting up a cartel to expand the nuclear industry – Christina Macpherson))
Militarisation of Science and Nuclear Policy
Militarisation of Science and Nuclear Policy
Web Newswire April 1, 2009 <!–
–> Dhirendra Kumar – “………………………………..Pro-nuclear pundits have, however, claimed that the N-power programme is now a peaceful civil industrial activity, eco-friendly, and necessary for the country’s energy requirement for futuristic development. Also that the engineering of nuclear reactors had reached high levels of safety of “one in the millionth” chance of an accident or radiation leaks. If that were the case, our civic administration and population around nuclear establishments should be provided with possible risks warnings and as with normal industrial activities, the public should be provided with adequate Insurance coverage against radiation damage and injury. Radiation accidents should be covered in Insurance Policies. Presently all Insurance Policies carry a special “ exclusion” clause that the policy excludes any radiation damage to life and property…………………
……………..Science and Public Policy principles cannot and must not be ignored in formulating the nuclear power policy. Political expediency, and narrow chauvinistic aspiration to have the Bombs must not be the basis of Science policy……………..
…………….the fission process suffers from genuine technological infirmities resulting from radiation and there is no fail-safe reactor system to guarantee absolute safety for our oncoming generations. Notwithstanding the Right to Information Act, the Department of Atomic Energy is free from any public and parliamentary scrutiny…………
………………..There is no constitutional protection for a whistleblower or informer who dare to report any radiation leaks or nuclear accident.Concerned scientists’ opposition to nuclear power primarily centers on how and how soon N- technology can resolve problem of waste disposal. Sufficient scientific data exist to indicate potential biological hazards from actinides, including potential genetic effects of exposure and high probability of migration of radioactivity through the food chain……………
……………..Technical problems of de-commissioning of dead reactors and the long-term waste storage cannot be ignored. For, to keep the large amount of radioactive waste material would requ
Militarisation of Science and Nuclear Policy | webnewswire.com
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Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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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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