Nukes on a Blog

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Jimmy Carter in Defense of Arms Control
2007-09-12 23:06:00
In a September 12, 2007 article in the Taipei Times titled, ?Nuclear Steps Undermine Peace,? former President Jimmy Carter argues ?By abandoning many of the nuclear arms agreements negotiated in the last 50 years, the US has been sending mixed signals to North Korea , Iran and other states with the technical knowledge to create nuclear weapons.?
More About: Defense , Jimmy Carter , Arms

Senator Roche on the Need for Resilience on the Path to a Nuclear Weapon Fr
2007-09-12 22:07:00
This weekend, former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche , OC, who advises the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations on issues related to nuclear disarmament, made a stand out presentation to a conference co-hosted by the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.He encouraged listeners to recover the absolute horror of the subject of the use of nuclear weapons and to awaken to the fact that half of the world?s population lives in a nuclear weapon state and that $12 trillion has been spent on nuclear weapons. He called for new resilience in response to nuclear dangers, observing a paradox of momentum and indifference with regard to these dangers, emphasizing that ?by adopting a resilient attitude we can withstand the power politics that force nuclear weapons upon us.? Recalling the Hibakushas? warning that ?no one else should suffer as we did,? he held out hope that an emerging global consciousness would subvert t...
More About: Weapon , Resilience

Three Cheers for the Dominican Republic!
2007-09-05 22:25:00
The Associated Press reports (and the website of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization [CTBTO] confirms) that the Domin ican Republic has ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, becoming the 140th state to have done so. This is particularly great news two weeks ahead of the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT (also called Article XIV Conference, which will take place from 17 to18 September 2007 in Vienna, Austria).Six months ago, the Committee on Hemispheric Security of the Organization of American States held a special meeting celebrating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. The D ominican Republic was represented at this meeting commemorating the establishment of the first nuclear weapon-free zone in a populated region. CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Tóth, Randy Rydell of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, President of the Global Security Institute Jonathan Gra...
More About: Bahamas

Accidental Airborne Alert
2007-09-05 17:38:00
Michael Hoffman of the Military Times reports that:?A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30.? While Dean Steve Fetter of the University of Maryland observes in Mr. Hoffman?s story that there was no specific risk of detonation or diversion associated with this incident, it does once again underscore the question: why does the U.S. retain so many nuclear weapons?
More About: Alert , Airborne , Cide

Indian and American Doctors Agree: Nuclear Deal is Bad
2007-08-28 22:33:00
On August 17, Physicians for Social Responsibility and India n Doctors for Peace and Development, respectively U.S. and Indian affiliates of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, issued a Joint Statement on the U.S.-India nuclear deal.
More About: American

The very predictable slippery slope of the US-India deal
2007-08-22 17:40:00
Reports that Pakistan and China are discussing the prospects for a nuclear deal similar to the one that the Bush administration has negotiated with India comes as no surprise to those familiar with how the global non-proliferation regime works. It further highlights how harmful the US-India nuclear initiative is for nuclear non-proliferation efforts.Already last fall, only days after the Senate approved changes to U.S. law to allow an exception for India, China expressed its intention to follow suit.The U nited States seems to have opened the floodgates with this deal as France, Australia, and now Japan, are also leaping at the opportunity to sell their nuclear goods to India as the United States is pushing for an exception for India in international guidelines.France signed an agreement with India in February 2006, and Australia recently announced its intent to sell uranium to India, reversing its long-standing policy not to sell uranium to non-NPT countries. Japan is also jumpin...
More About: Deal , Predict , Slip

Obama, Hagel introduce non-proliferation bill
2007-08-17 16:11:00
Before leaving town for the Congressional August recess, Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) introduced S.1977, a bill?to provide for sustained United States leadership in a cooperative global effort to prevent nuclear terrorism, reduce global nuclear arsenals, stop the spread of nuclear weapons and related material and technology, and support the responsible and peaceful use of nuclear technology.? The bill builds on the recommendations outlined in the January 4, 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed, A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn.It emphasizes that"securing nuclear weapons and weapons-usable material at their source is the most direct a reliable way to disrupt efforts by terrorist organizations to acquire such material.?and urges that?nuclear weapon states should reaffirm their commitment to Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?The bill authorizes:-$50 million for an international nuclear fuel ...
More About: Senate , Bill

Palau Steps Up for Disarmament
2007-08-08 01:06:00
Palau is asserting its sovereignty in new ways (perhaps as confidence wanes in the value of their 2003 inclusion in the Bush Administration?s ?Coalition of the Willing?).The Associated Press reports that Palau has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing the number of states who have ratified the Treaty to 139.Also of note, Radio New Zealand International reported on August 1, 2007 that Palau was elected as one of 21 Vice-Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly, the smallest country every to hold that post, according to Marianas Variety. Let?s hope that Palau uses this important moment for small state diplomacy to advance the universality of the CTBT. If Palau campaigns to bring small states into the CTBT at the General Assembly, they will be successful. More small states ratifying the Treaty would mean less political cover for those that remain outside, advancing the cause of early entry-into-force. In this way, Palau could make a historicall...
More About: Palau , Disarmament , Sarm , Steps , Arma

Is Disarmament Still "On the Level" at the UN?
2007-08-07 20:17:00
In a statement delivered in Hiroshima yesterday on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of atomic bombing of that city, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared:?Nuclear proliferation is one of the most pressing problems confronting our world. Tens of thousands of nuclear weapons remain, many of them on ?hair-trigger? alert. The emergence of a nuclear black market and attempts by terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons and materials have compounded the nuclear threat. Today, our challenge -- as it was for the founders of the United Nations -- is to make the world safer for succeeding generations. This requires us to continue to work towards a world free of nuclear dangers and, ultimately, of nuclear weapons.? The Secretary General?s words are laudable, but there is reason to believe the UN?s institutional commitment to disarmament could use added support.The statement was delivered by Sergio de Queiroz Duarte of Brazil who was appointed last month as the United Nations Hi...
More About: Disarmament , The U , Sarm

Rice Skips, Disarmament Advances at ASEAN Regional Forum
2007-08-03 16:34:00
Leon T. Hadar of the CATO Institute observes that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ?s decision to ?prioritize? Middle East diplomacy over attendance at the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum may tend to marginalize U.S. influence in the region; noting that this is only the second time a U.S. Secretary of State has missed the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting since they began in 1994 (the first time was also Secretary Rice in 2005). But the decision may have an unintended consequence for efforts to promote progress toward a nuclear weapon free world.Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte did attend and made a proprosal on nonproliferation to the 27 foreign ministers in attendance. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Chris Hill briefed the press yesterday in Manila, saying of ARF nonproliferation efforts that:?we believe that this is the type of issue for which the ARF is ideally suited -- and we had a very good tete-a-tet...
More About: Indonesia , Asean

Southeast Asia Contributes to Nuclear Disarmament
2007-07-31 22:16:00
On Monday, Foreign Ministers at the Association of Southeast Asia n Nations (ASEAN) ministerial in Manila issued a Joint Statement on the Commission for the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ). The Treaty was signed in 1995 by Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia , Laos, Malaysia , Myanmar, Philippines , Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam .The Joint Statement pledges the State Parties to work to ensure compliance, work toward accession of the nuclear weapon states, cooperate with international bodies and others, and develop a specific workplan.This is a great step forward, and a great opportunity to offer some suggestions for steps the Commission might take to broaden and strengthen the contribution SEANWFZ makes to international peace and security:An official acknowledgment of the changing political climate suggesting the possibility of progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons signaled by a January 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed by George Schultz, Willi...

Missed Opportunities in Nuclear Material Security
2007-07-25 18:30:00
Several recent reports underscore the need to account for and secure nuclear material as our best chance to reduce the risk of theft or diversion of fissile material, and the resulting risk of nuclear terrorism.The Government Accounting Office’s recent discovery of lax security procedures for controlling access to nuclear materials in the United States draws attention to a broader problem worldwide, as Doug writes in a letter published in yesterday’s Washington Post:“The GAO's startling undercover work reminds us that this is exactly what we do need: more effective lists and verification measures to ensure that all nuclear weapons and materials are accounted for. This means we need presidential leadership to tighten domestic regulation of nuclear materials, accelerate cooperative threat reduction and extend START.�Taking the goal of a nuclear weapon free world seriously, as George P. Schultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn argued in a January Wall Street...
More About: Security , Nuclear , Opportunities , Material , Rial

European Union grant funds African nuclear security, misses NPT opportunity
2007-07-23 23:49:00
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports that the European Union (EU) has provided a nearly 7 million Euro grant “to upgrade physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities in the countries, secure vulnerable radioactive sources, and combat illicit trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials, with much of this funding to go to African states.�The EU is to be commended for providing this support, the IAEA for its important work to enhance nuclear security globally, and recipient nations for their willingness to collaborate productively with international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation or misuse of nuclear materials.But all parties have missed an important opportunity to declare their renewed support for their obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons:Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race a...
More About: Security

Securing Africa's moral authority toward a world free of nuclear weapons
2007-07-17 23:18:00
African political commentator and poet Mukoma Wa Ngugi surfaces some interesting points in his July 16, 2007 piece on Znet, ?Africa and Nuclear Weapons .?Recalling the anxieties of the Cold War and emphasizing a nuclear dimension in contemporary international politics, Ngugi lauds the Treaty of Pelindaba which establishes the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone:?Today the question is whether the continent will become the theater of a nuclear dance between two predator nations - a growing and hungry China and the ever expansionist United States. It is therefore a great relief that Africa has arguably the most advanced non-proliferation treaty: the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (ANWFZ) also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba which came into effect in 1996. According to the African Union, 22 countries have thus far ratified it.?22 ratifications is still short of the 28 needed to bring the Treaty into force, twelve years and five days after it was opened for signature in Cairo. The...
More About: World , Authority

Mr. Bolton had his Chance
2007-07-16 23:27:00
As International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors prepared to re-establish international verification of North Korea?s nuclear program last week, Leonor rebutted John Bolt on's delicately titled opinion piece "Pyongyang Pussyfooting" in a letter to the editor published in The Wall Street Journal on July 12, 2007:?Attempting to negotiate in good faith with a country that is hostile to the U.S., as distasteful as this may be to Mr. Bolton , is a process inherent to effective diplomacy; it was used successfully by the Reagan administration with the "Evil Empire" and helped usher an end to the Cold War, and it remains the most effective way to stop Kim Jong Il's nuclear weapons program. Failing to do so will result in significant cost to national security.?
More About: Chance , Chan

The Prodigal State Party
2007-07-11 17:25:00
Yoo Cheong-mo of Yonhap reports that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Mohammed El Baradei called for North Korea to return to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the Inchon International Airport in Seoul on Wednesday: “Now is a very crucial time for the IAEA, Korea and the entire world. North Korea has just returned to a verification process. I wish it would lead to North Korea's return to the NPT and complete scrapping of its nuclear weapons program.�This is an important step toward reigning in the North Korean breakout from the NPT. Some observers have contested the legal force of North Korea’s asserted departure from the NPT on January 10, 2003.The argument that North Korea’s withdrawal is illegal because it was asserted to have immediate effect is weak. Complex negotiations following the DPRK’s original assertion of its intention to withdraw from the NPT around March 9-11, 1993 (Wit, Poneman, Gallucci, Going Critica...
More About: Party , State , Stat , Prod

Highlights of more plutonium-related news from LANL this week
2007-07-06 20:38:00
Highlights of other plutonium news out of Los Alamos this week include:Julie Ann Grimm of Santa Fe?s The New Mexican reports that a ?project to divert Rio Grande surface water for use in the Santa Fe area is designed to handle possible contaminants that drain into the river from Los Alamos National Laboratory, planners said Thursday.? Andy Lenderman of The New Mexican reports that on June 26, 2007 a LANL employee who works at the lab?s plutonium facility was stopped with 30.5 grams of cocaine in his car, while another 1.3 grams of cocaine and electric scales were seized from his home.
More About: News , Highlights , Week , Late , Related

Plutonium Pit Party Points a Path to the Past
2007-07-06 20:28:00
On Monday, July 2, Senator Pete Domenici , Representative Heather Wilson and others gathered at Los Alamos National Laboratories to ?celebrate? the production of the first plutonium ?pit? certified for use in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile since the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado in 1989. Noticeably absent were 1) a clear vision for the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, 2) a sustainable vision for the future of the national laboratories, and 3) the application of the best science and technical expertise to the real problems urgently facing the United States.At the event, Senator Domenici reportedly said:?The only thing that would keep [Los Alamos] from being the permanent pit manufacturing center would be if we don't get the physical facilities.? But bricks and mortar are not the only consideration in scoping the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, as Sam Nunn and other national leaders have argued, an informed and careful national ...
More About: Party , Past , Points , Luton

Take a Sunday drive in your RRW
2007-07-03 22:17:00
The Bush Administration appears to be using new talking points to convince Congress and the public that developing a new nuclear warhead is good policy. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy have been using a new analogy, likening the new thermonuclear warhead that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos are designing to? a restored 1965 Mustang!From the Department of Defense, General James Cartwright, Commander of US Strategic Command (nominated to become Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) stated during his testimony at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee on March 28, 2007:?You also want to ensure that they [nuclear warheads] are the most secure that they can be. And we, in the 1950s, 60s and 70s as we put these weapons together, did not have the technologies that we have today for safety and security. We have learned a lot. And we use this example of the 1966 Mustang. Sure, I'd like to have it, but ...
More About: Drive , Sunday

Outgoing UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett wri...
2007-06-28 16:09:00
Outgoing UK Fore ign Secretary Margaret Beckett writes in today?s Jerusalem Post:"Mine is a generation that has always lived under the shadow of the bomb. But there is a danger in familiarity with something so terrible. If we allow our efforts on disarmament to slacken, if we allow ourselves to take the non-proliferation consensus for granted, the nuclear shadow that hangs over us will lengthen and it will deepen. It may, one day, blot out the light for good. We cannot allow that to happen."Likening the effort to abolish nuclear weapons to William Wilberforce?s efforts to abolish slavery and suggesting that the United Kingdom should become a ?disarmament laboratory? and:??concentrate on the complex but pivotal challenge of creating a robust, trusted and effective system of verification that does not give away national security or proliferation sensitive information.?This op-ed highlights a major policy address in the same vein given at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace I...
More About: Gordon Brown , Reign , Going

We'll always have Votkinsk
2007-06-28 00:33:00
Reuters reports that on Tuesday Russia?s First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted by Interfax in remarks in Votkinsk, Russia that his country has begun mass producing Topol-M inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs): "we are now entering a new and crucial stage of reequipping all of the strategic nuclear forces and operational and tactical systems."Verification fans will recall Votkinsk fondly as the site of the first on-site inspections for verification of negotiated limits on nuclear arms agreed to by the former Soviet Union under the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty ? a Treaty Russia threatened to leave in February. Although U.S. and Russian on-site inspection rights under the Treaty ended in 2001, continued observance of the Treaty?s limitation reflects both the shared interest in avoiding a resumed arms race and a hopeful model for global limitations on intermediate range missiles.Both purposes appear to have lost their charm for President Vladimir ...
More About: Vladimir Putin , Always

Trust, but verify with the Washington Times
2007-06-21 16:38:00
Here?s an excerpt from Doug's letter to the editor in today?s Washington Times :?nuclear weaponry and strategic deterrence no longer receive the serious national deliberation they should. Mr. Gaffney's call for a national debate is doubly important because he is wrong about everything else.?Click here for the full letter (it?s the second one down, after the sexeducrats).
More About: Washington Times , Trust , The Washington Times

There's Nothing Like Being There
2007-06-19 19:44:00
Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy Newspapers reported on Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence community is concerned about the Bush Administration?s intention to allow the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to expire.?The intelligence agencies have outlined their concerns in classified reports that were delivered to Congress last week, said an expert who asked to remain anonymous because the matter is classified.?Bush Administration officials have argued that arms control verification is a relic of the Cold War, but this is no more true of the intrusive on-site inspection procedures imbedded in START than it is of arsenals of thousands of nuclear weapons themselves.Soviet negotiators stonewalled inclusion of on-site inspection provisions in nuclear arms control until the waning days of the Cold War when Mikhail Gorbachev came to office and the late President Reagan insisted that we should ?trust, but verify.? The 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was the first arms con...
More About: Bein , Like , There , Thing , Being

Forgotten Costs of Plutonium Pit Production
2007-06-15 16:43:00
As Los Alamos National Laboratories prepare a July 2, 2007 commemoration of the production of the first plutonium pit certified for the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile since the prior plutonium pit facility at Rocky Flats was closed by an FBI raid in 1989, not all plutonium workers have something to celebrate.Dan Frosch of the New York Times reports that a federal advisory panel has rejected the petition of workers employed at the Rocky Flats Plant since 1966 to be classified as a Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. This classification would provide them more rapid access to compensation if they have any of 22 types of cancer related to radioactive and other hazardous materials exposures known to have occurred at the facility. Workers employed at Rocky Flats before 1966 are already part of a Special Exposure Cohort.Expedited compensation is particularly urgent as one in ten workers so far approved for compensatio...
More About: Production , Luton , Prod , Gott , Costs