Radiation Contamination by Depleted Uranium

High Tech Weaponry used in Gaza: Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium

by Peter Eyre, Global Research, August 14, 2009
I am a Middle East Consultant living in the UK and would like all people living in or near areas of conflict to understand the High Tech Weaponry used by many military establishments worldwide, especially the US (the manufacturers) and other NATO forces.

The reason for pointing this out to you is as a response to my research on the terrible rise in cancer related deaths. This is not only confined to military personnel in the battle zone but also the indiscriminate contamination of civilians, field crops and water supplies in the immediate area as well as the adjacent areas/countries. Below is my report:

Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries.

The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight.

Both DU and heavy metals have the ability to kill indiscriminately subject to how such weapons are used and if those weapons are used in densely populated areas. In the case of the latter and in the context of the Geneva Convention it would be illegal to use such weapons in populated areas like Lebanon and Gaza.

The National Academy of Sciences in their BEIR VII report, regarding low level radiation, stated that there “is no safe level of exposure”. The report also finally admitted that very low levels are more harmful per unit of radiation than higher levels of exposure; also know as the suppralinear effect.

The European Parliament has expressed grave concerns on the use of such weapons………………………

Other nations are also currently using these weapons (NATO) especially in Afghanistan and over the border in Pakistan. One must accept that this is also a crime if civilian populations are involved. However, it doesn’t match up to using them on such dense enclaves as Gaza.

If government are allowing their own troops to become victims of such weapons then they also should be held to account. More importantly the country of origin (namely the US) and their respective arms developers are equally to blame for this inhumane use of DU weaponry.

I hope you appreciate my way of thinking and agree that it doesn’t really matter how people are dying. They are dying without just cause in the most terrible way and that is an act against mankind……………………
……….All of my research experts state it is radiation alpha particles from uranium atoms that cause the problem, and this type of contamination can be measured very precisely. It is the alpha particle that once inside your body runs rife and the rate and type of “Cancer” is subject to if it was inhaled or ingested. The latter is caused mainly in areas where DU dust has spread in the atmosphere and returned to earth in precipitation.

High Tech Weaponry used in Gaza: Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium

August 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: failure and cover-up

The NRC’s ghastly failure

It and the Veterans Affairs Department papered over cancer treatment errors.

Philadelphia Inquier, 12 August 09 By Peter Crane

When news broke of the bungled radiation treatments given to prostate cancer patients at the Philadelphia VA hospital, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was quick to deflect responsibility. The agency said it learned of the problems only in May 2008 and then moved “aggressively and decisively” to correct them.

The Department of Veterans Affairs took a similar line. Testifying before a Senate committee in June, acting VA Undersecretary for Health Gerald Cross expressed regret that “this problem went undetected for nearly six years.”

But the NRC’s own records tell a different story. Documents readily accessible on its Web site show it knew of Dr. Gary Kao’s pattern of errors in 2003, saw it recur in 2005, and did nothing about it until 2008. Far from “undetected,” this problem was papered over by the two agencies……………………

the doctors and hospitals licensed by the NRC are a powerful lobby, relentless and all too successful in demanding less regulation. In recent years, the agency has dismantled much of the system of regulations that used to protect patients and the public.

For example, the NRC used to have a rule requiring safety checks that might have prevented the Philadelphia disaster. But, yielding to the industry, the NRC abolished that rule in 2002………..

…..decisions affecting the medical care of Philadelphia’s veterans or anyone else should not be entrusted to an agency of nuclear engineers – certainly not one with the NRC’s record of failure. This would require a change in the law, which Congress should make after thoroughly investigating the NRC’s medical program.In the meantime, President Obama has two vacancies to fill on the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Recent reports say he is preparing to name two more reactor experts, to the jubilation of the nuclear-power industry. This would only make a bad situation worse.

Obama should instead nominate someone – perhaps a current or former state regulator – with the expertise and will to end the NRC’s long neglect of its medical responsibilities.

Decisions affecting the medical care of Philadelphia’s veterans or anyone else should not be entrusted to an agency of nuclear engineers – certainly not one with the NRC’s record of failure. This would require a change in the law, which Congress should make after thoroughly investigating the NRC’s medical program.

In the meantime, President Obama has two vacancies to fill on the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Recent reports say he is preparing to name two more reactor experts, to the jubilation of the nuclear-power industry. This would only make a bad situation worse.

Obama should instead nominate someone – perhaps a current or former state regulator – with the expertise and will to end the NRC’s long neglect of its medical responsibilities.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090812_The_NRC_s_ghastly_failure.html

August 13, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

USA – double standards on India, Iran – in spread of nuclear technology

When narrow national interests obstruct a noble cause

The Economist 7 August 09

“………….The Obama administration, unlike its predecessor, talks of ratifying the test-ban treaty. America and Russia are busy cutting warheads. Nuclear officials from America, Russia, Britain, France and China will meet in London next month to explore ways to build confidence for future disarmament.

Yet all will be in vain unless better ways can be found to deal with a practical problem as old as the nuclear age: how to stop nuclear technologies that can be used legitimately for making electricity from being abused for bomb-making. Efforts to tackle it are in a muddle.

………………..the Obama team may have done itself no favours either by agreeing to open early talks with India, under a controversial 123 deal negotiated by the Bush administration. This will eventually allow India to extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel of American origin. India, which has never signed the NPT, does not yet have any American-built reactors, let alone the spent fuel from them to reprocess. America is creating a muddle by giving India such rights now, when it is telling Iran than it should suspend its work and others that they had better not start.

……………..A quiet change: In the confusion, few will have noticed that the Obama administration has dropped its predecessor’s plans to restart commercial plutonium reprocessing—because it makes no economic sense, even for rich America, and is a proliferation risk.

August 7, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Revealed: Burma’s nuclear bombshell

Revealed: Burma’s nuclear bombshell
Sydney Morning Herald Hamish McDonald Asia-Pacific Editor August 1, 2009

BURMA’s isolated military junta is building a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facilities with North Korean help, with the aim of acquiring its first nuclear bomb in five years, according to evidence from key defectors revealed in an exclusive Herald report today.

The secret complex, much of it in caves tunnelled into a mountain at Naung Laing in northern Burma, runs parallel to a civilian reactor being built at another site by Russia that both the Russians and Burmese say will be put under international safeguards……………………………..

Washington is increasingly concerned that Burma is the main nuclear proliferation threat from North Korea, after Israel destroyed in September 2007 a reactor the North Koreans were apparently building in Syria.

Revealed: Burma’s nuclear bombshell

August 1, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, ASIA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Extreme secrecy on U.S. Nuclear Weapons impedes democracy

The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons

mil.news.sohu.com 29 July 09
“……………………The extreme secrecy surrounding almost everything concerning nuclear weapons impeded effective democratic debate for decades. During the earliest years of the program, the AEC simply presented a budget to Congress with little or no detailed justification for how the money would be spent and why. The fundamental issue of how U.S. nuclear weapons would be used and how the requirements for deterrence were developed was never adequately explored during the early years when the basic framework for the program was being established. One result of this is that U.S. officials systematically failed to anticipate how the Soviet Union would perceive the U.S. buildup and how it would drive the Soviets to respond with its own provocative programs.　　Finally, pork barrel politics (the use of government programs by elected representatives to enrich their constituents) was an important underlying factor as well…………………

………..Funding something connected to the defense of the nation required less justification and was more immune to careful scrutiny than a non-military program. Nuclear weapons programs became an important means of support for the otherwise poor and mostly rural communities where production facilities were located. In time, these communities became dependent, to varying degrees, on their local nuclear facilities, to the extent that local officials (and many workers) often downplayed the health and environmental risks they posed……………..

………..As a result of the Cold War and the imperatives of the nuclear standoff, this aspect of the American economy resembled the economy of the Soviet Union, in which decisions were made on a planned basis by a remote government, without reference to market forces, behind closed doors, for reasons that would not be made public

The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons-搜狐军事频道

August 1, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Nuclear Disarmament More Urgent Than Ever

Nuclear Disarmament More Urgent Than Ever
IPS by By Mikhail Gorbachev 31 July 09 “………………. Nothing fundamentally new has been achieved in the area of nuclear disarmament in the past decade and a half. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the arsenals of the nuclear powers still contain thousands of weapons, and the world is facing the very real possibility of a new arms race………………..

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has not entered into force. The quantities of nuclear weapons held by Russia and the United States still far exceed the arsenals of all other nuclear powers combined, thus making it more difficult to bring them into the process of nuclear disarmament.

The nuclear non-proliferation regime is in jeopardy. While the two major nuclear powers bear the greatest responsibility for this state of affairs, it was the U.S. that abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty), has failed to ratify the CTBT, and refused to conclude with Russia a legally binding, verifiable treaty on strategic offensive arms.

Only recently have we seen indications that the major nuclear powers understand the current state of affairs is untenable…………………………….
The use and the threat of force, which, of course, are illegal under the UN Charter, were reasserted as a “normal” mode of solving problems. Official documents rationalized doctrines of pre-emptive strike and the need for U.S. military superiority.

Humanity must be wary of a new arms race. Priority is still being given to financing of military programmes, and “defence” budgets far exceeding reasonable security requirements keep growing, as does the weapons trade. U.S. military expenditures are almost as high as those of the rest of the world combined.

Disregard for international law and for peaceful ways of settling disputes, for the United Nations and its Security Council, is being proclaimed as a kind of policy………………….

……. If the holders of the largest stocks of nuclear weapons embark upon real reductions, others will no longer be able to sit it out and conceal their arsenals from international control. This is an issue that we must raise now if we are to have the kind of trust without which common security cannot be achieved.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES: OPINION: Nuclear Disarmament More Urgent Than Ever

July 31, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Uranium weapons – Does anyone care?

Peter Eyre Middle East Consultant USA, July 29, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)- Our planet is truly a wonderful place but under the umbrella, that we call our atmosphere, lies a cocktail of uranium aerosols waiting to claim its next victim. Many countries donate to this contamination such as the US, UK, Israel, NATO member states, China and Russia etc

Why would the UN, WHO, US, UK, NATO and IDF allow this to happen and why do they continue manufacturing and using weapons containing uranium?…………………

A conference took place in Sweden: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WAR – The examples of Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium – Stockholm • 23-24 April 2004 in which various experts gave speeches, two of those being Doug Rokke and Tedd Weyman.
Dr Douglas L. Rokke, Ph.D. Former Head of U.S. Army Radiological Laboratory and Former Director U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project, U.S. Army major (retired), and former Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Jacksonville State University, Florida, USA. During an interview with John Pilger, Doug gave a summary of his work experience: “Prior to the Gulf War, I was responsibility for the training and educating of all the medical professionals and combat soldiers on the effects of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. More importantly what type of medical care and treatment was required and what decontamination is needed for those that may be injured or wounded during the war”.

After the ground war he was tasked as a health physicist responsible for cleaning up the depleted uranium or uranium 238 contamination…………………………..- what we’re seeing now are respiratory problems, breathing problems, kidney problems, and cancers. We have individuals of our team that were actually known exposed and they have died of cancer. We have other individuals right now that have cancer. We have rashes, neurological problems. A lot of people – and again this is out of the whole complex toxic battlefield where DU contributes – lost fine motor function, individuals have neural psychology problems, short term memory losses. The uranium is a heavy metal poison and also a radiological poison, so we have to look at a conglomeration of potential health effects that then mix with other causes to create serious problems”…………….

The recent Iraqi field samples collected by UMRC were analysed by plasma mass spectrometer by Dr Axel Gerdes, Institute of Petrology and Geochemistry, JW Goethe University, Frankfurt. The human and environmental samples have been found to contain Depleted Uranium and abnormally high levels of the artificial transuranic isotope, 236U. The isotope composition of Depleted Uranium found in civilians as well as in surface soils and water courses shows the weapons used in Iraq were manufactured from two and perhaps three different metallurgical sources (stockpiles of uranium metals). The soil and water samples indicate DU was deployed in both mechanized battlefields and urban neighbourhoods where aerial bombing took place………………………

For almost 40 years we have all been let down a path of total deception by the US Government, US Department of Defense, US Military and the Nuclear Industry. This deception later extended to the US Institute of Medicine, UN (especially the UNEP), WHO, NATO and their respective Governments and many other institutions that all failed in their duty of care for our planet and its inhabitants…

..http://www.paltelegraph.com/world/world-news/1620-uranium-weapons-does-anyone-care-about-our-planet

July 30, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, uranium | Leave a comment

Unholy trinity

Unholy Trinity
ON LINE opinion by Bill Williams 28 July 09
“……………………..We have just entered the 65th year of humanity’s troubled relationship with nuclear arms, the world’s worst weapons of terror. So it’s a good time to be promoting their retirement and for Australia to be using every tool in its diplomatic kitbag to encourage the nine Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) to negotiate and implement a global treaty that eliminates their nukes once and for all.

On July 16, 1945 the Americans detonated their first nuclear weapon – the “Trinity” test – in the New Mexico desert, prompting its mastermind Robert Oppenheimer to recall the words of Vishnu in the Bhagavad-Gita: “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

This fantastic power was unleashed upon the residents of the Japanese city of Hiroshima just three weeks later, at 8.15 on the morning of August 6, when the uranium-bomb – “Little Boy” – exploded above the city: by nightfall about 70,000 people were dead and since then an estimated further 180,000 have died. The cancer rates among the ageing survivors continue to rise even today.

But we all still live in the shadow of nuclear Armageddon. There remain 23,000 nukes in the arsenals of the nine Nuclear Weapons States (NWS): Russia, USA, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and now North Korea. Two thousand five hundred of these weapons are retained on high-alert status, capable of launch within 15 minutes – and there’s no bringing them back. Meanwhile the risk of other nations joining the “club” is on the increase, with the current focus being on Iran. Bear in mind, however, that at least 44 nations have nuclear bomb-making capabilities, including all those states with civil nuclear power plants, which are producing plutonium as a fission byproduct in those reactors.

Unholy trinity – On Line Opinion – 28/7/2009

July 28, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Waste storage is dark cloud over nuclear power industry |

Burlington Free Press By Crea Lintilhac • July 20, 2009 –

“……………decommissioning of civilian nuclear reactors has been performed only seven times in the industry’s 60-year history and there is a shortage of data to make projections. Moreover, in recent times, the decommissioning of Connecticut Yankee ran half a billion dollars over budget and Yankee Rowe of Massachusetts ran four times over the projected costs. Since the financial collapse, I think we all believe that forecasting our financial future is ever more challenging…….

…….The lack of a disposal site is the dark cloud hanging over the entire enterprise of nuclear power. Until a deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel opens, existing spent fuel should be stored in dry casks; the 150-ton concrete and metal cylinders each holding 10 tons of spent fuel and placed at the 104 reactor sites throughout the U.S…………

…………here are some of the critical points about the dangers of reprocessing and why it’s not the way to go as a waste disposal solution. To “reprocess” spent fuel, different elements like plutonium, are separated so they can be used in new fuel. The problem is, separated plutonium can be readily used to make nuclear bombs…………..

……….The Ford administration, and later the Carter administration, concluded that reprocessing was both uneconomic and dangerous.

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……………..In June 29, President Obama decided to scrap nuclear reprocessing in the United States. It is an encouraging first step towards building an international consensus on reducing the threat from nuclear weapons.Even if no new reactors are built, it is estimated that by mid century, the amount of spent fuel will double………..

……We have only a temporary solution with dry cask storage. In the meantime we should at least shut the faucet off and stop generating more waste for the sake of our children’s future.

My Turn: Waste storage is dark cloud over nuclear power industry | burlingtonfreepress.com | The Burlington Free Press

July 22, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

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

June 30, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

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

June 4, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Sarkozy to meet Iran’s foreign minister

Sarkozy to meet Iran’s foreign minister Jun 2, 2009

By Emmanuel Jarry

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program, in rare talks between a leader of a major power and a senior Iranian politician…………………………

Bilateral encounters at such a senior level between Iran and one of the countries involved in the nuclear issue are highly unusual. It will be the first time Sarkozy has met a top Iranian minister since he took office in 2007.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The West accuses Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, denies the charge and says it only wants nuclear power to generate electricity………………………………..Sarkozy is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday in France and Iran is certain to be on the agenda.

Sarkozy to meet Iran’s foreign minister Wednesday | International | Reuters

June 3, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, Iran, politics | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium

Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The Palestine Telegraph By Peter Eyre 1 June 09 The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight…………………………..

The European Parliament has expressed grave concerns on the use of such weapons as follows:

having regard to UN General Assembly resolution of 5 December 2007, highlighting serious health concerns about the use of depleted uranium weapons, having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas (depleted) uranium has been widely used in modern warfare, both as ammunition against hardened targets in rural and urban environments and as hardened armoured protection against missile and artillery attacks,

B. whereas, ever since its use by the allied forces in the first war against Iraq, there have been serious concerns about the radiological and chemical toxicity of the fine uranium particles produced when such weapons impact on hard targets; whereas concerns have also been expressed about the contamination of soil and groundwater by expended rounds that have missed their targets and their implications for civilian populations,

C. whereas, despite the fact that scientific research has so far been unable to find conclusive evidence of harm, there are numerous testimonies as to the harmful and often deadly effects on both military personnel and civilians,

D. whereas the last few years have seen great advances in terms of understanding the environmental and health hazards posed by depleted uranium, ………………

………………………..All of my research experts state it is radiation alpha particles from uranium atoms that causes the problem, and this type of contamination can be measured very precisely. It is the alpha particle that once inside your body runs rife and the rate and type of “Cancer” is subject to if it was inhaled or ingested. The latter is caused mainly in areas where DU dust has spread in the atmosphere and returned to earth in precipitation.

Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium

June 3, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, environment | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

France, Pakistan seek nuclear cooperation deal

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – France and Pakistan are negotiating a partnership including nuclear cooperation and French President Nicolas Sarkozy could travel to Pakistan in the autumn to sign a deal, a source close to Sarkozy said on Monday.

The source said talks were ongoing on a wide variety of issues including nuclear security, an extremely sensitive question since a Pakistani scientist was at the centre of the world’s biggest nuclear proliferation scandal in 2004…………….Sarkozy met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Paris on May 15 and was reported by the Pakistani foreign minister as saying that France wanted Islamabad to obtain a wide-ranging deal to buy nuclear equipment like the one granted to India……………..Pakistan, which has also not signed the NPT, has dismissed concerns about the safety of its nuclear arsenal and its proliferation history.

Scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, revered by many Pakistanis as the father of the country’s nuclear bomb, confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39876720090525?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

May 28, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Pakistan, politics | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Pakistan’s n-assets may fall into terrorist hands: US report

Thaindian News By Arun Kumar 28 May 09
Washington, May 28 (IANS) Chronic political instability in Pakistan and the current offensive against the Taliban has raised fears that Islamabad’s strategic nuclear assets could be obtained by terrorists or used by elements in the Pakistani government, US lawmakers have been told.

While US and Pakistani officials have expressed confidence in controls over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, continued instability in the country could impact these safeguards, according to a new US Congressional Research Report on “Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues.”