Almost 15,000 unused nuclear fuel rods in N Korea: officials
Almost 15,000 unused nuclear fuel rods in N Korea: officials ABC News 21 Jan 09 By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy A delegation of South Korean officials which has just returned from North Korea says the communist state has almost 15,000 unused nuclear fuel rods.Officials say North Korea gave them detailed briefings about the nuclear fuel.The South Korean team of diplomats and nuclear experts spent five days in Pyongyang meeting with regime officials.They were also taken to a plant used to make nuclear fuel rods, the country’s main nuclear reactor and a reprocessing facility.The head of the delegation Hwang Joon Kook says the North Koreans were cooperative and gave detailed briefings, and acknowledged they had nearly 15,000 unused nuclear fuel rods.The disposal of the North Korean nuclear fuel was part of a disarmament-for-aid deal signed two years ago.
Ex-chiefs: scrap UK nuclear missile program
Ex-chiefs: scrap UK nuclear missile programBy DAVID STRINGER – 17 Jan 09 LONDON (AP) — Three retired senior military chiefs made an unlikely appeal Friday for Britain to scrap its 20 billion-pound ($30 billion) nuclear missile program, claiming it is unnecessary and no longer independent of the United States……………………”Nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely useless as a deterrent to the threats and scale of violence we currently face or are likely to face, particularly international terrorism,” the men wrote in their letter………………………….
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said that Bramall, Ramsbotham and Beach had brought into question the government’s entire justification for replacing the nuclear fleet.
“This statement debunks the myth that nuclear weapons are necessary for our security. These generals are no pacifists — they are purely practical about Britain’s needs and have concluded that we are better off without them,” the campaign’s director Kate Hudson said.
The Associated Press: Ex-chiefs: scrap UK nuclear missile program
U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site – NYTimes.com
U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site
WASHINGTON — President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.
White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located.
The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama.
U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site – NYTimes.com
Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view
Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view –By Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsäcker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher. 9 Jan 09 “………………
We unreservedly support the call by Messrs. Kissinger, Schultz, Perry and Nunn for a turnaround on nuclear policy, and not only in their country. This applies in particular to the following proposals:
– The vision of a world free of the nuclear threat, as developed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, must be rekindled.
– Negotiations aimed at drastically reducing the number of nuclear weapons must begin, initially between the United States and Russia, the countries with the largest number of warheads, in order to win over the other countries possessing such weapons.
– The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) must be greatly reinforced.
– America should ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
– All short-range nuclear weapons must be destroyed.
From Germany’s point of view it must be added:
-The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expires this year. Its extension is the most urgent item on the agenda for Washington and Moscow.
– It will be vital to the credibility of the 2010 NPT Review Conference that nuclear-weapon states finally keep their promise under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
– The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty must be restored. Outer space may only be used for peaceful purposes…………………………………Germany, which has renounced the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, has every reason to call on the nuclear-weapon states not to use nuclear weapons against countries not possessing such arms. We are also of the opinion that all remaining U.S. nuclear warheads should be withdrawn from German territory.
Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view – International Herald Tribune
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Former Pentagon chief predicts Iran crisis soon
Former Pentagon chief predicts Iran crisis soonBy ROBERT BURNS
– 9 Jan agoWASHINGTON (AP) — William Perry, who headed the Pentagon during a 1994 nuclear standoff with North Korea, predicted on Thursday that President-elect Barack Obama will soon face a nuclear crisis with Iran.Iran is “moving inexorably toward becoming a nuclear power,” with ominous implications for the Middle East, Perry said.”It seems clear that Israel will not sit by idle while Iran takes the final steps toward becoming a nuclear power,”
The Associated Press: Former Pentagon chief predicts Iran crisis soon
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Call for Action to Stop Nuclear Arms Buildup in Europe
Call for Action to Stop Nuclear Arms Buildup in Europe
by arn specter
Tags: nuclear
On Faith: Guest Voices: The End of WMDs
The End of WMDs
The Washington Post 19 Dec 08 Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan,This month I was privileged to join a distinguished group of 100 international political, military, business and civic leaders in Paris to launch Global Zero, a campaign to mobilize decisive momentum for the global elimination of nuclear weapons. Global Zero is combining public outreach with high-level policy work to develop a step-by-step plan for phased, verified reduction of the world’s estimated 27,000 nuclear weapons down to zero…………………..In recent months, a growing chorus of world leaders of nuclear nations including U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin have called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia are among 189 countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Not surprisingly, the idea has overwhelming public support. A recent Global Zero poll of 21 nuclear and non-nuclear countries found that an average 76 percent of respondents favor an international agreement that would achieve zero nuclear weapons according to a set timetable that would include compliance monitoring.
I am personally committed to Global Zero as an international public servant, a Muslim, a citizen of the Middle East, and as a mother and grandmother………………As a Muslim, my faith strengthens my resolve to eradicate these evil indiscriminate killers. The Islamic Laws of Just War, first enunciated in the 7th Century CE, share with international humanitarian law the fundamental principles of non-initiation of war, and of the sacrosanct protection of non-combatants and civilians even in defensive conflicts (especially including women, children, the elderly and the sick), as well as the forbidding of wanton destruction of animals, the natural environment, medical institutes and places of worship. Thus nuclear weapons and other WMD are in every sense inherently un-Islamic weapons of war in Islamic thought, as they do not distinguish between military and civilians and non-combatants, and they destroy and kill en masse indiscriminately………………………
All Arab countries have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and over the past 30 years have pursued intensive diplomatic efforts to bring Israel into the treaty.
My husband King Hussein, a Hashemite direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), steadfastly called for removing nuclear weapons from the Middle East, calling them “One of the most dramatic examples of the gaps between the world’s technological progress and moral rectitude.” “Nuclear war is not a military problem. It is a moral dilemma,” he said……………………….So I add my humble voice to so many others around the world, citizens of all nations, devout followers of all faiths, in declaring that now is the time to renew our collective commitment to a nuclear-weapon free world. We truly have no other choice.
On Faith: Guest Voices: The End of WMDs
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, urasium, radioactive
“Nuclear arms race will trigger nuclear terrorism” | Interview | Down To Earth magazine
“Nuclear arms race will trigger nuclear terrorism”
Down to Earth 19 Dec 08 Nuclear power is not a long-term solution to electricity shortage. There is a limited stock of uranium and other radioactive metals on the planet. At the current rate of extraction, this stock will last barely a few decades. Radioactive minerals either go into the making of nuclear bombs or end up as waste. There is no scientific method to manage nuclear waste. This waste will harm the environment for billions of years
Solar and wind power are more viable options.Isn’t Australia the second largest producer of uranium? Yes it is. But in Australia people rejected the previous government that pushed for nuclear energy. They voted for a government that has made its anti-nuclear stance quite evident. But a lot needs to be done. Australian activists have emphasized time and again that uranium extraction is not worth the risk it poses to human life.
There is widespread belief that uranium mining is lucrative. Contrary to that, Australia’s uranium export is just 0.28 per cent of its total mineral export. Australia earns just $400 million (US $258 million) from it out of a total export earning of over $100 billion (US $64.5 billion).
One of the bitter truths of nuclear armament is that if one country arms itself, its neighbours follow suit. Nuclear technology is easily available in the international nuclear black market. We have seen nuclear rackets like the one run by A Q Khan of Pakistan. He was involved in the clandestine international nuclear technology proliferation a few years ago. More and more countries are trying to procure nuclear technology. They have completely stalled the nuclear disarmament process. It’s becoming easier by the day to procure nuclear technology. This will eventually trigger nuclear terrorism.
How do you see the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (npt) and nuclear disarmament?NPT has turned into a non-performance treaty that has been rejected by many countries. Many nations have not complied with the treaty even after signing it. India, Israel and Pakistan are freely developing nuclear weapons. North Korea has nearly walked out of the treaty. Lately some actions of the International Atomic Energy Agency have created an imbalance. I am referring to the agency’s approval of the Indo- US nuclear deal.
Hasn’t India already agreed over no first use of nuclear bombs?
That is true but the 123 Agreement gives too much discount to India and it will have a far reaching impact. Other nations that have signed the 123 Agreement with the us have been barred from using their collaboration for nuclear tests. But amendments have been made to exempt India. Such exceptions made for a new signatory are bound to offend previous signatories.
What is the situation in Jadugoda?The situation in Jadugoda is extremely dangerous. I have never seen human settlements so close to a Uranium mine, tailing or waste pond and tailing pipe. In the Dugridih village of Jadugoda a tailing pipe—carrying radioactive waste to the tailing pond of the corporation—burst on August 3 this year, and people have since been living amid the radioactive waste. Nowhere else in the world do people live amid such danger.
How grave is the threat of an impending nuclear catastrophe?
The gravity of the situation can be predicted from the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic clock maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, which conveys how close the planet is to catastrophe. In 1991 the clock was 17 minutes to midnight, wherein midnight represents ‘catastrophic destruction’. Now it has moved five minutes to midnight. The bulletin has specifically mentioned that a nuclear catastrophe is imminent.
“Nuclear arms race will trigger nuclear terrorism” | Interview | Down To Earth magazine
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, urasium, radioactive
Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons
Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons ”
scitizen 15 Dec 08 Can the plutonium recovered from spent civil nuclear-power reactor fuel elements (civil plutonium) be used to fabricate nuclear weapons with significant explosive powers?
…………………..nuclear weapons could be fabricated using reactor-grade plutonium. �The difficulties of developing an effective design of the most straightforward type is not appreciably greater with reactor-grade plutonium than those that have to be met for the use of weapons-grade plutonium�.
More reactor-grade plutonium than weapon-grade plutonium would be required for a nuclear weapon. The bare sphere critical mass of reactor-grade plutonium is about 13 kilograms; that of weapons-grade plutonium is 10 kilograms……supported by Richard L. Garwin, another leading American nuclear-weapon expert expert, who wrote that reactor-grade plutonium is usable in nuclear weapons, whether by unsophisticated proliferators or by advanced nuclear-weapon states (2). Garwin was a consultant for the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1950 to 1993, mostly involved with nuclear weapon design,manufacture and testing……………………………….In 1953, the British exploded a nuclear weapon at the nuclear test site in South Australia made from plutonium of a quality considerably below that of weapons-grade (6). In 1962, the United States conducted a similar nuclear-weapon test (7). The actual amount of Pu-239 in the plutonium used in these tests has not been made public but it was apparently about 19 per cent. The tests were made to prove that reactor-grade plutonium can be used in an effective nuclear weapon.
�� �Given all this evidence, it is, to say the least, surprising that some people still deny that reactor-grade plutonium can be used to fabricate nuclear weapons with significant explosive powers?.
Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons – Scitizen
This is Obama’s chance to leave the world a lasting legacy – Opinion – Editorial – General – The Canberra Times
This is Obama’s chance to leave the world a lasting legacy
12/12/2008 US President-elect Barack Obama has shown he has the power to change hearts and minds. Soon he’ll also have the power to render the planet dead and uninhabitable for the rest of time with just the press of a button.Despite the end of the Cold War, the United States still maintains a supersized arsenal of 10,000 nuclear warheads, more than half of them deployed, and about a quarter of them on hair-trigger alert. They come at a whopping cost of $US50 billion ($A76 billion) a year, roughly the amount needed to pay for universal health care for every US citizen.
Most of America’s nuclear weapons are hundreds of times more powerful than the two atom bombs that obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Each of them directly threatens global security and human survival. No doubt Barack Obama will find it more than a tad discomforting when, come January, he’s granted this incredible power. Unlike the last three Oval Office occupants, he believes that the world would be better off without nuclear weapons…………………..Commendably, the Australian Labor Party promised before last year’s federal election that in government it would ”drive the international agenda for a nuclear weapons convention”. But it hasn’t followed through, choosing instead to continue the usual mantra of countries with powerful nuclear-armed allies like the US: it’s too soon to be thinking about an abolition treaty……………This October, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lauded the idea of a new treaty in his UN Day speech, and the Dalai Lama had earlier said that a nuclear weapons convention is ”feasible, necessary and increasingly urgent”. Indeed, if we’re to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and avert nuclear catastrophe elimination through a binding treaty is our only option. Now is the time to pursue it.
All countries have a legal obligation, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law, to achieve nuclear disarmament. It cannot be postponed indefinitely. This is the ruling of the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice……………………………History will judge Barack Obama, the next American leader, by his success or failure on this crucial issue. Ridding the planet of nuclear weapons the ultimate instruments of terror could be his single most important legacy.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Family Security Matters » Publications » Israel Going Through the Motions of Planning Iran Attack?
Israel Going Through the Motions of Planning Iran Attack?
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS December 9, 2008 Rick MoranWould Israel attack Iranian nuclear facilities without the cooperation and approval from the United States?……………………………….As for statements by the current regime in Iran speaking to their intent; while mouthing nonsense about using their knowledge and technology for “peaceful purposes” they have, out of the other side of their mouths, been a little more forthcoming in their desire to “wipe Israel off the map” and make Iran “a great power.”
Put one and one together and you are left with the unmistakable impression that Iran wants to build a nuke. It would be the height of folly and wishful thinking to believe anything else.
From the Jerusalem Post The IDF is drawing up options for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that do not include coordination with the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.While its preference is to coordinate with the US, defense officials have said Israel is preparing a wide range of options for such an operation.“It is always better to coordinate,” one top Defense Ministry official explained last week. “But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination.”……………..They and the rest of the world have time, but not much. Postulating that Iran has someplace they could enrich the uranium they already have to bomb making levels, it would still take many months at their current level of technology to accomplish the task. Unanswered questions are whether they have a workable bomb design and more importantly, have been able to configure the bomb to fit atop one of their Shahab missiles. But I doubt whether Israel is going to wait to discover the answers. More likely, once the Iranian nuclear program has passed a certain point of no return, they will consider acting. Right now, Israeli intelligence pegs that point as the end of 2009.
Family Security Matters » Publications » Israel Going Through the Motions of Planning Iran Attack?
AFP: UN watchdog chief says Iran anti-nuclear efforts failed: report
UN watchdog chief says Iran anti-nuclear efforts failed: report
8 Dec 08 WASHINGTON (AFP) — The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said that international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear activity have been a failure, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times.”We haven’t really moved one inch toward addressing the issues,” said Mohamed ElBaradei who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an interview published Saturday.”I think so far the policy has been a failure.”……………………Iran has faced three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment activities, but over the past five years Tehran has pressed on with its controversial nuclear work.
The United States and other western powers suspect that the Islamic republic’s nuclear program is a cover for an atomic weapons-making program…………….The IAEA reported last month that Iran now has more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in operation.
AFP: UN watchdog chief says Iran anti-nuclear efforts failed: report
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
The Hindu : Front Page : Mega uranium deal with Russia
Mega uranium deal with Russia
THE HINDU Sandeep Dikshit 6 Dec 08 Two sides agree to set up four more nuclear power plants at Kudankulam……………….At a summit meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev put the final touches on a mega agreement to supply nearly 2,000 tonnes of uranium. ……………..……..Significantly, Mr. Medvedev said he discussed the development and leasing of nuclear powered submarines. He admitted that the military relationship had both problems and prospects
Obama’s nuclear problem — Plenty Magazine
Obama’s nuclear problem
PLENTY 6 Dec 08 Earlier this week, Senate leader Harry Reid presented Barack Obama with what might just be the first ultimatum of his presidency. Speaking to reporters, the Nevada Democrat lavished praise upon the incoming president – then announced that he’d work to block the appointment of any Energy Secretary who backed the construction of a controversial national nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, a rocky bluff a few dozen miles from Las Vegas…….
…….It may not be easy for Obama to duck the nuclear issue altogether, though. America’s domestic nuclear problems are deeply entangled with the equally thorny issue of international nuclear proliferation – an issue made all the more pressing by a new congressional report warning that terrorists will likely launch an attack using WMD by 2013. Preventing proliferation will require the President-Elect to work to secure loose nukes overseas, of course, but it will also require him to clarify the role of nuclear power in America’s own energy revolution.
At present, about 50 countries around the world are interested in acquiring civilian nuclear technology. That’s something of a nightmare scenario for the nonproliferation crowd: with dozens of countries processing atomic fuel, it would be all too easy for nuclear materials to fall into the wrong hands.
Panel debates bombing Iran nuclear sites
Panel debates bombing Iran nuclear sites
FinalCall.com News By Ali GharibUpdated Dec 1, 2008, – WASHINGTON (IPS/GIN) – At this year’s National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East’s ethnic Persian neighbor to the east: Iran.A question-and-answer session of a panel on Iraq and Iran in late October was a microcosm of the chatter around Washington all year long about the ebbing and flowing likelihood of a potential U.S. bombing run against alleged secret Iranian nuclear sites.
No one on the panel—a collection of a statesman, military brass, and experts—thought an attack on Iran was imminent, or even would likely happen in a longer view, but that did not stop the debate about the merits and drawbacks of a U.S. strike.
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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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