Frustrated China Delays Diplomatic Visit to North Korea

China has delayed the visit of a high profile emissary to North Korea because of Pyongyang’s stance on nuclear weapons development, Kyodo News Service reported today (see GSN, Sept. 25).

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, was invited by North Korea and was expected to visit before the end of September.  Chinese officials reportedly visited Pyongyang to arrange the trip, but North Korea’s intransigence on the nuclear issue has put Beijing in a tough position, Kyodo News reported.  North Korean officials were reportedly upset by the six-nation talks in Beijing last month and have not yet agreed to future talks (Kyodo News Service/BBC Monitoring, Sept. 26).

Chinese diplomats are attempting to “narrow differences” over the format of future talks on the nuclear crisis, according to Fu Ying, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s director general for Asian affairs.

“I think it’s a bit early to thing about a date.  We need to work on the substance to narrow the differences,” she said (Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, Sept. 26).

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Bush Tries to Rally World Against Iranian Nuclear Development

U.S. President George W. Bush has appealed to world leaders to press Iran on its controversial nuclear activities.  Bush met face-to-face with several leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session that began this week in New York, (see GSN, Sept. 25).

“It is very important for the world to come together to make it very clear to Iran that there will be universal condemnation if they continue with a nuclear weapons program,” Bush told reporters yesterday.  “And I will tell you, the response was very positive,” he added.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan recently said that the U.N. mandated Oct. 31 deadline to determine the nature of Tehran’s nuclear program is “one last chance for Iran to comply” (David Sands, Washington Times, Sept. 26).

Bush said that he intends to discuss Russian assistance to Iran’s nuclear development when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Camp David presidential retreat for a two-day summit beginning today.

“You bet I’ll talk to President Putin about it this weekend,” Bush said (Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, Sept. 26).

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said yesterday that Iran is willing to sign the Additional Protocol to its international safeguards agreement, which would allow for more intrusive monitoring of its nuclear activities.  His comments came before a scheduled trip by U.N. officials to Iran today for inspections and talks that will begin Sunday and last until Oct. 31.

“Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program nor does it intend to embark on one,” Kharazi said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.  “Thus we have nothing to hide and, in principle, have no problem with the Additional Protocol,” he added (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 26).

Kharazi also said that Iran should not be prevented from developing civilian nuclear power.

“There should be a more severe monitoring system to make sure no nuclear arms are produced, but that doesn’t mean countries should be deprived of the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes,” he said.  In a reference to Israel’s widely acknowledged nuclear arsenal, Kharazi also said “a single standard should be applied to everyone” (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, Sept. 25).

New Find Causes Controversy

A nuclear weapons expert today said that reports that U.N. inspectors had found traces of enriched uranium at the Kalaye Electric Co. near Tehran could in fact validate Tehran’s earlier claims.  David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said the find could lend support to Iran’s contention that it imported contaminated equipment.  The contaminated equipment was reportedly assembled at the electrical facility.

“It would have been very shocking if they had not found HEU (highly enriched uranium) there,” Albright said.  “But Iran has to prove its point that it did not enrich uranium at all,” he added.

Kharazi that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is facing domestic “pressure to pull out of the NPT [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty].”

Khatami is “in the middle of two sides of pressure.  You could imagine what could be the result of that,” Kharazi added.

He said, however, that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “believes it (a nuclear bomb) is haram, it is forbidden.  We do not think have a bomb would create security for us.  It would create more problems” (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Sept. 26).

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Japan to Construct Nuclear Testing Monitoring Facilities

Japan plans to build 10 nuclear test monitoring facilities by 2007, sources said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 24).

The facilities will be part of an international network of more than 300 monitoring stations established by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, according to the Daily Yomiuri.  The Japanese monitoring facilities are set to monitor seismic waves, atmospheric pressure and airborne nuclear substances (Daily Yomiuri, Sept. 26).

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Afghanistan Signs, Ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Afghanistan signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Wednesday, according to a CTBT Organization press release (see GSN, Aug. 13).  To date, 169 nations have signed the treaty and 105 have ratified it, including 32 of the 44 nations whose ratifications are necessary for the treaty to enter into force (CTBT Organization release, Sept. 25).

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Northrop Grumman Wins Modifications for ICBM-Related Contracts

The U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman has won an Air Force contract modification worth more than $130 million to help sustain U.S. ICBM systems, the U.S. Defense Department announced yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 12, 2002).  Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide a number of maintenance activities for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper ICBMs, including systems and sustaining engineering, testing, hardware and software contract modification and contract repair.

The company has also been awarded a contract modification worth more than $7 million for the sixth option year of a 15-year contract for the lease and infrastructure payment for the ICBM prime team facility, according to the Pentagon.  The prime team is required to be consolidated at one facility due to a need to vacate buildings at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah (U.S. Defense Department release, Sept. 25).

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IAEA Detects Uranium at Second Iranian Site

The International Atomic Energy Agency has discovered evidence of weapon-grade uranium at a second site in Iran, diplomats said today (see GSN, Sept. 24).

Inspectors discovered the uranium at the Kalaye Electric Company in Tehran, to which the IAEA had once been denied access.

Diplomatic officials were divided over whether the find validated Iran’s claim that it had imported previously contaminated equipment, or supported U.S. contentions that Tehran is attempting to secretly enrich uranium in violation of its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty commitments (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Sept. 25).

Meanwhile, Tehran is willing to discuss its controversial nuclear development with Washington if U.S. officials “change their approach and bring in a new environment for cooperation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said Tuesday.

Kharazi said also that Iran is willing to sign the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement — which would allow for more intrusive IAEA monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear activities — if U.S. President George W. Bush drops his objections to Iran’s nuclear program.

“We want to make sure the Additional Protocol would be enough and would solve the problem,” Kharazi said.  “We don’t have anything to hide because we do not have a program for producing nuclear weapons.  Therefore, we are ready to be quite transparent.  But we cannot let others deny our rights,” he added (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Sept. 25).

Kharazi said that Iran would not be willing to abandon its nuclear power development.

“No, by no means, because this is right, it is legal, this is based on our commitment to the NPT,” he said.  “This is a big difference — between having the technology to enrich uranium needed for power plants as fuel and the technology to actually make a bomb,” Kharazi added (Mable Chan, CNN.com, Sept. 24).

The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran would “hopefully not” withdraw from the NPT, as some Iranian officials have suggested (Peter Spielmann, Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 24).

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran is sending “worrying signals” about its nuclear program.

If Tehran pulled out of the nonproliferation treaty, “then the matter would go to a much higher level of confrontation,” ElBaradei said yesterday (Reuters/Planet Ark, Sept. 25).

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Pakistan Proposes “Action Plan” to Resolve Kashmir Dispute With India

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday said he has proposed an “action plan” to help resolve the dispute between Pakistan and India over the region of Kashmir — a potential flashpoint between the two nuclear rivals (see GSN, Aug. 7).

During a press conference yesterday at U.N. headquarters in New York, Musharraf outlined his plan to resolve the issue of Kashmir, which he described as the “core dispute” between the two South Asian rivals.  Musharraf’s plan includes a cease-fire on the Line of Control dividing the province; Pakistani aid in facilitating a cease-fire between the Islamic militant groups operating in the Indian side of Kashmir and New Delhi along with pledges by India to cease military action in the province; and the enlargement of the U.N. force currently deployed on the Line of Control.

Musharraf said yesterday that he was unsure if India would accept his proposal, which he hoped would begin a dialogue between India and Pakistan.

“I only can hope optimistically that good sense prevails, and they come forward, and we sit down and talk and move towards resolution of disputes to the benefit of not only the people of India and Pakistan, but also … to the benefit of the whole region, the south Asian region,” Musharraf said.

Musharraf also said he had asked U.S. President George W. Bush during a bilateral meeting yesterday for assistance in facilitating a dialogue between India and Pakistan.  In addition, any such dialogue should also involve the people of Kashmir as well, Musharraf said.

“It should be a trilateral dialogue, if possible, between Pakistan, India, and people of Kashmir, representatives of Kashmiris,” Musharraf said.  “In any case, the solution that we are talking of has to be a solution which is acceptable to India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir,” he added.

India has often accused Pakistan of providing support for cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, a charge Musharraf vigorously denied yesterday.

“There is no government patronage or anything that is happening across the Line of Control,” Musharraf said.  “And this is the guarantee that I gave to [Indian] Prime Minister [Atal Behari] Vajpayee, and it should suffice.  And therefore, we need to start talking,” he added.

Growing Military Imbalance

In addition to his proposal to resolve the Kashmir dispute, Musharraf said yesterday that he had also proposed a restraint regime between India and Pakistan on conventional and unconventional weapons.  A number of recent reports have indicated India’s interest in purchasing several types of conventional weapons systems, including ballistic missiles and missile interceptors (see GSN, Sept. 22).  Israel has often been mentioned as a possible supplier of military equipment to India, which Musharraf said yesterday was a “cause of concern” to Pakistan (see GSN, Sept. 11).

Musharraf said he discussed the growing imbalance between the Indian and Pakistani militaries during his meeting with Bush.  The Pakistani newspaper DAWN reported today that Musharraf called yesterday for countries to restrain from supplying major military systems to India.

“Those powers which desire peace, stability and security in South Asia and oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction must review their decisions to offer such major strategic weapons systems to India.  They must contribute to maintaining arms restraint and a military balance in South Asia,” the newspaper quoted Musharraf as saying.

Musharraf yesterday pledged to maintain Pakistan’s strategy of deterrence, which includes the country’s nuclear arsenal, in the face of India’s arms purchases. 

“If we want to prevent war in South Asia between India and Pakistan, through the strategy of deterrence, we create a no-win situation for India.  And that is how war is deterred.  And we maintain that level.  We will always maintain this deterrence level, for our own security,” he said.

As part of that strategy, Musharraf indicated yesterday that he raised the issue of F-16 fighter purchases with Bush during their meeting.  In the late 1980s, Pakistan paid for F-16s from the United States, but the planes were never delivered after the United States imposed sanctions on Pakistan for its nuclear weapons activities.  While Bush has lifted the arms embargo to reward Pakistan for its assistance in the war on terrorism, there has been no indication that the F-16 sale will go forward.  Aviation Week and Space Technology reported earlier this month that Pakistan has indicated an interest in purchase F-16s from Belgium, but such a sale would still require U.S. permission to proceed (see GSN, Sept. 3).

The topic of U.S. military assistance to Pakistan also came up last week during a meeting of the U.S.-Pakistani Defense Consultative Group in Washington, according to a U.S. Defense Department press release.  During the three-day meeting, U.S. and Pakistani officials began initial discussions on the military component of a $3 billion, five-year U.S. aid program to Pakistan that Bush and Musharraf announced during a meeting at Camp David in June (see GSN, June 24).  The United States confirmed at last week’s meeting its commitment to provide information on the availability of new weapons “as soon as possible,” the Pentagon statement said.  Bush has said, however, that the aid package will not include the sale of F-16s.

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Congress Allocates $45 Million for New Long-Range Bomber Development

A project to consider the next-generation U.S. strategic bomber is set to receive $45 million in the 2004 defense appropriations bill passed by the House and the Senate yesterday, Aerospace Daily reported (see related GSN article, today).

The House of Representatives initially proposed $100 million for the new bomber effort and the House-Senate conference committee later agreed on $45 million in its report publicly released yesterday.  In that report, lawmakers suggest that the technologies developed for the new bomber “can also be demonstrated and incorporated in the existing bomber fleet” (see GSN, Aug. 22).

The conference report also provided an $80 million boost to the Missile Defense Agency’s $65 million request for the Israeli Arrow missile defense system (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Sept. 25).

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U.S. Navy Museum Follows Arms Treaty Rules in Displaying Trident Missile

The U.S. Navy Museum has received a training model of a Trident 1 sea-launched ballistic missile, which is set to be included in a planned submarine exhibit, the Navy newsletter The Dolphin reported today (see GSN, Aug. 20).

The Trident 1 Training Model of Missile, set to be put on display, will not have to be reported under the U.S.-Russian START agreement because it has been disabled according to treaty rules.  The missile has a hole drilled through the aft dome of the first stage motor, according to the Dolphin, and museum personnel must ensure that the hole remains visible and not filled, the Dolphin reported. 

A previous exhibit of a Poseidon missile was required to be reported under START as a static display because it had been similarly disabled, the Dolphin reported (Marie Dumontet, The Dolphin, Sept. 25). 

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Iran Conducts Uranium Enrichment Experiments

Iran has begun uranium enrichment experiments, Iran’s top diplomat at the International Atomic Energy Agency announced in an interview published Monday (see GSN, Sept. 23).

“The factory at Natanz has been in operation at an experimental level for several weeks,” said Ali Akbar Salehi.

The announcement comes despite a recent resolution from the IAEA Board of Governors that called on Iran to stop enrichment activities (see GSN, Sept. 12).  The United States has alleged that Iran’s nuclear program is being used to develop nuclear weapons but Tehran insists that the effort is only to generate power for its burgeoning civilian population.

Some diplomats at IAEA headquarters in Vienna said the enrichment announcement could be a sign that Iran has no intention of meeting an Oct. 31 deadline to prove that its nuclear program is not geared toward weapons development.

“This was expected to happen.  It was not desired.  It is not the best answer to what we have requested,” a Western diplomat said (Siavosh Ghazi, Agence France-Presse/Jordan Times, Sept. 24).

Salehi also said that Iran is still open to signing the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, which would allow more intrusive monitoring of its nuclear activities.

“We have decided to fulfull our obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and not beyond that,” he said.  “It doesn’t mean that we are rejecting the Additional Protocol or are not prepared to talk on that,” Salehi added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Washington Post, Sept. 24).

Suggesting Iranian interest in the protocol, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh said earlier this week that Iran can only benefit from signing the protocol.

“If we wanted to build a nuclear bomb, then transparency wouldn’t be in our interests, but if we don’t want to build a nuclear bomb, which is the case, then signing the protocol and preserving our civil nuclear capacity is in our interests,” Aminzadeh said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 24).

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Early Retirement of Russian Nuclear Scientists Could Ease Proliferation Concerns, Paper Recommends

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — International funding for the early retirement of Russian nuclear weapons scientists could help efforts to reduce the size of Russia’s nuclear complex, according to an academic paper released today.

The paper suggests that as many 10,000 Russian nuclear weapons experts could be persuaded to retire early in exchange for receiving additional annual pensions as small as $500.

The proposal was made by Jean Pierre Contzen, professor at the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon and Maurizio Martellini of the University of Insubria and LNCV in Como, Italy.  Martellini participates in an international consortium of 20 research groups focused on helping implement the Group of Eight’s $20 billion effort to secure WMD materials and promote nonproliferation measures in the former Soviet Union.  The consortium, called Strengthening the Global Partnership, is administered by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry has decided to cut 35,000 nuclear weapons workers by 2010, according to the report.  To aid the downsizing effort, several U.S.-Russian and multilateral programs are working to provide civilian jobs for scientists and technicians, the report says, but it says the success of these programs has been “very limited.”

To help accelerate the downsizing process, the report proposes creating an early secure retirement buyout program for Russian nuclear weapons scientists.  About 20 percent of Russian nuclear weapons workers are over 50 years old and 5 percent are over 60 years old, the report says, noting that the retirement age in Russia is 55.  Many Russian nuclear weapons workers are continuing to work beyond retirement, however, because pensions are too low, according to the report.  For example, the average pension in the closed Russian city of Sarov in 2001 was about $37 per month, less than one-fifth of the wage the laboratory’s active employees.

According to the report, if a system were established to provide adequate pensions for Russian nuclear weapons personnel, then about 10,000 workers could be persuaded to retire by 2010.  The report also says that such a system “would be by far the cheapest way to address the problem of excess nuclear scientists and workers.”  It notes that the director of one Russian nuclear weapons facility has said that he could persuade 2000 workers of retirement age to retire early if provided an additional pension bonus of $500 annually per person for 10 years. 

“An early secure retirement buyout program over 10 years for 10,000 workers might cost only $50 million, rather than the $100 million needed only to start 10,000 new civilian jobs in the territories of the RNCs [Russian nuclear cities],” the report says.

An early retirement program would have to include several provisions to ensure that nonproliferation objectives are met.  For example, workers who choose to accept early requirement may need to give up their security clearances and access to Russian nuclear weapons facilities to ensure that they do not return to work, the report says.  It also proposes that those who accept early retirement also be required to live within the restricted area of the closed cities so that they do no become private consultants for rogue states or terrorists groups seeking to obtain nuclear weapons.

To attract the confidence of Russian nuclear weapons workers, funding for an early retirement program should be independently managed, according to the report.  It proposes that a fund of $50 million over the next 10 years be created to provide additional pension bonuses.  Such a fund could be managed by either the G-8 partnership or the U.S.-Russian International Science and Technology Center (see GSN, July 2).

Several nonproliferation experts told Global Security Newswire today that while an early retirement program would be helpful in reducing the number of Russian nuclear workers, it would not fully solve the problem.  Kenneth Luongo, executive director of the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, said that while some workers are at, or near, retirement age, new workers are also being employed at the closed cities who would not be affected by an early retirement program.

Luongo also said that there would be implementation concerns in any early retirement program, including determining eligibility and ensuring that retired workers were either not being re-employed or being hired by other countries or terrorists groups.  In addition, a multilateral funding mechanism might also hinder implementation, he said. 

It is also still unclear as to Russia’s position on any type of early retirement program for its nuclear weapons workers, Luongo said.

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Abraham Thanks Senate for Maintaining Nuclear Weapons Funding

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham Monday praised the U.S. Senate for preserving the full Bush administration request for funding nuclear weapons research in the fiscal 2004 energy and water appropriations bill (see GSN, Sept. 17).

In a letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Abraham lauded Domenici’s efforts against a Democratic amendment to the bill that that would have eliminated funds for research into low-yield and earth-penetrating nuclear weapons and would also have prevented other nuclear weapons activities.  The Senate last week approved the bill with the Bush administration’s funding request intact.

“Your committee and the Senate have twice overcome challenges from those who do not understand the importance of acting to maintain an effective nuclear deterrent,” Abraham wrote.

Abraham also called on Domenici to work to maintain the nuclear weapons research funding in the final version of the bill when its goes into conference with the House of Representatives.  In his letter, Abraham criticized the House for failing to include the full White House weapons research-funding request in its version of the bill.

“The House version of the appropriations act precludes us from even investigating options for modest transformation of the stockpile and increases the risk we will be unable to respond to unforeseen technical problems.  It thus represents a risk that the United States simply cannot afford to take,” Abraham wrote (U.S. Energy Department release, Sept. 22).

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Senior Chinese Official Readies for Visit to North Korea

The second highest ranking official in China’s Communist Party is scheduled to visit North Korea this week to discuss the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula (see GSN, Sept. 23).

Wu Bangguo, chief of China’s parliament, would be the highest ranking Chinese official to visit Pyongyang in recent years, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I think he will go tomorrow or Friday,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said today.

Wu’s visit is an indication of China’s determination to peacefully settle the standoff between North Korea and the United States, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Sept. 24).

U.S. President George W. Bush, meanwhile, yesterday praised Beijing’s involvement in the North Korean crisis.

“U.S.-China relations are full of energy, and this is important for both sides,” Bush told visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing at the White House (Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN.com, Sept. 24).

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NNSA to Appoint Official to Oversee Sandia Security Improvements

The U.S. Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will appoint a senior official to oversee security improvements at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks announced yesterday (see GSN, July 2).

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Neary, who has experience with the U.S. nuclear arsenal, has agreed to take the temporary position, which will expire in six months, Brooks said.  Neary will oversee efforts by the NNSA’s Sandia Site Office and the facility itself to implement new Energy recommendations, according to a NNSA press release.  Neary will also help improve security oversight conducted by the Sandia Site Office.

“The best way to achieve our objective in a timely fashion is to bring in a topflight manager whose sole responsibility is to make sure this important job is done well and completely,” Brooks said (NNSA release, Sept. 23).

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New Zealand to Build Nuclear Test Monitoring Station

New Zealand announced today that it would build a nuclear test monitoring facility in Fiji, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, April 15).

New Zealand Health Minister Annette King has signed a contract with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization to build the station, AFP reported.  The facility will become part of a global network of 321 stations to monitor treaty compliance (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 24).

In addition, New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff today criticized the failure of full nuclear disarmament worldwide, citing concerns of North Korea, Israel and Iran possibly possessing nuclear weapons.

“The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination and the assurance that they will never be produced again,” Goff said at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

New Zealand is the only country that prohibits nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered vessels from entering its territory (Associated Press, Sept. 24).

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Russia to Create New ICBM Unit in December

Russia plans to deploy in late December a new regiment armed with Topol-M ICBMs, ITAR-Tass reported Monday (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2002).

The Russian military is working to arm a missile division based at Tatishchevo in the Saratov region with the silo-launched version of the Topol-M, according to ITAR-Tass.  The unit will be the fourth to be armed with the missile (ITAR-Tass, Sept. 22 in FBIS-SOV, Sept. 22).

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Iran Set to Receive IAEA Friday, Will Offer Required Cooperation Only

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced today that it would send a team of nuclear experts to Iran Friday to discuss the current standoff over Tehran’s nuclear activities (see GSN, Sept. 22).

“We have a detailed list of requirements covering all of the areas outlined in our reports (on Iran) — including uranium conversion and uranium enrichment,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.  “October will be a period of very intensive inspections and talks in Iran,” she added (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Sept. 23).

The agency set an Oct. 31 deadline for Tehran to prove it has only civilian nuclear intentions.  In response to that ultimatum, however, Iran’s IAEA representative said yesterday that Tehran would scale back its cooperation with the agency.

Ali Akbar Salehi said U.N. inspectors have been taken to visit non-nuclear sites and allowed to collect environmental samples.

“This has been beyond our obligations, but from now on we will act according to the current regulations,” he added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 22).

Iranian leaders are still debating, however, on how to ultimately respond to the IAEA deadline, according to the BBC (BBC News, Sept. 23).

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U.S., Russia Advance Joint Nonproliferation Efforts

The United States and Russia are “on the brink” of a new agreement to provide U.S. funding to transfer Russian-origin, highly enriched uranium fuel from research reactors worldwide back to Russia, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday (see GSN, Sept. 22).

The first operation under the new program, the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Initiative, occurred Sunday when a joint U.S.-Russian operation recovered stockpiles of highly enriched uranium from a Romanian research reactor facility.  The new program is intended to complement a U.S.-effort to recover highly enriched uranium provided by the United States to foreign research reactors, Energy Daily reported (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Sept. 23).

Abraham also announced U.S. funding for a new project to construct a $9 million nuclear imaging center in the closed Russian city of Snezhinsk as part of the Nuclear Cities Initiative (see GSN, Sept. 22).

“I am proud of NCI’s accomplishments and recognize that it serves a vital nonproliferation goal by assisting in the transition of Russian nuclear scientists and engineers to nondefense, commercial efforts,” Abraham said.

The NCI program has expired because of U.S. concerns over a lack of liability protections for U.S. officials and workers involved in activities conducted through the initiative.  U.S. and Russian energy officials last week, however, signed an agreement to continue 69 NCI projects until completion (U.S. Energy Department release, Sept. 19).

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Bush, Putin to Discuss Nonproliferation During Camp David Summit

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss nuclear nonproliferation and the threat of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction during a two-day summit scheduled to begin Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, according to ITAR-Tass (see GSN, Sept. 19).

“The mounting threat that WMD may get into the hands of terrorists and the growing number of countries that seek to possess them require further joint moves by Russia and the U.S. to increase interaction in efforts to combat proliferation of the WMD,” said Putin deputy Sergei Prikhodko.  He added that such nonproliferation efforts include the need “to raise the effectiveness of the existing multilateral mechanisms.”

During their meeting, Bush and Putin are also expected to discuss Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, which centers on the Bushehr nuclear reactor that Moscow is constructing for Tehran, ITAR-Tass reported.  Putin said Russian intelligence has information that “very many West European and American companies maintain cooperation with Iran, including that on dual-purpose technologies.”  Putin also said he did not want suspicions that Russian may be aiding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program to be used as a pretext for unfair competition in international markets (ITAR-Tass, Sept. 23).

Putin said Sunday that he believes the United States and Russia “are becoming strategic partners and allies” on some issues, including nuclear nonproliferation (Dina Pyanykh, ITAR-Tass, Sept. 22).

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow said last week that he has seen “considerable convergence” between the United States and Russia on a number of issues.

“I think we have very few conflicts of interest today,” Vershbow said.  “We both have an interest in strengthening democracy, in combating global threats such as (weapons) proliferation and the spread of narcotics. … When we have differences, it’s more over tactics than over strategic interests,” he said.

U.S. officials have said that Russia has begun to agree more with the U.S. position on Iran’s nuclear program and has joined the United States in pressuring Tehran to meet an Oct. 31 deadline set by the International Atomic Energy Agency to explain its nuclear program (David Sands, Washington Times, Sept. 23).

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North Korean Rejects IAEA Resolution

North Korea today dismissed an International Atomic Energy Agency appeal to halt its nuclear development, accusing the U.N. nuclear watchdog of acting on behalf of the United States (see GSN, Sept. 19).

The IAEA passed a resolution Friday calling on North Korea “to promptly accept comprehensive IAEA safeguards and cooperate with the agency in their full and effective implementation.”

The state-run Korean Central News Agency released a statement today, however, saying that “we don’t accept such an unjust resolution and declare it null and void.”

The “IAEA has manifested itself as the stooge of the United States,” KCNA added (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 23).

Pyongyang also referred to the IAEA as a “political maid for the United States” (CNN.com, Sept. 23).

The United States, meanwhile, will begin flying unmanned aerial vehicles near the border of North and South Korea this week, the Associated Press reported.

Military officials plan to put the Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in service to monitor North Korean military activity (Associated Press, Sept. 23).

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Joint U.S.-Russian Operation Recovers Uranium from Romanian Research Reactor

A joint U.S.-Russian operation yesterday recovered about 30 pounds of weapon-grade uranium from a Soviet-era research reactor facility in Romania, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Jan. 3).

During the operation, eight canisters containing 80-percent enriched uranium were removed from storage at the Pitesti Institute for Nuclear Research, west of Bucharest, according to the Post.  The Romanian uranium was chosen for removal because of the significant amount present and because it could have been easily stolen by terrorists, U.S. officials said. 

“You could throw it in the back of a truck and drive away with it,” said Paul Longsworth, U.S. Energy Department deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation.  Because the uranium was “fresh fuel” that had not been irradiated, it could have been transported with relatively low risk, he said.

The uranium was transported to the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant in Russia, where it will be blended down to a lower enrichment level for use as nuclear power plant fuel, according to the Post.  The Energy Department provided $400,000 for the operation.  The uranium retrieval operation was planned over the last several months with Russia, Romania and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Longsworth said.  To obtain Romanian cooperation, the United States agreed to convert the research reactor at the Pitesti Institute to use nonweapon-grade uranium, the Post reported. 

“It’s win-win,” said a senior U.S. energy official.  “The Russians wanted the (highly enriched) uranium, the Romanians wanted a new (low-enriched uranium) core for their reactor and to be seen as helpful in the nonproliferation world, and we’ve wanted to get this done for a long time and remove this threat,” the official said (Susan Glasser, Washington Post, Sept. 22).

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U.S.-Russian Liability Dispute Could Bode Ill for Threat Reduction Programs

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — As a key U.S.-Russian measure to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation expires today, observers are concerned the thorny legal questions that sank the agreement could have broader repercussions, ultimately increasing the risk that Russian nuclear technology, materials or know-how could fall into the wrong hands.

Washington is refusing to renew the Nuclear Cities Initiative agreement, which expires today, because of concerns that liability language in the agreement is inadequate to protect U.S. officials or workers in case of injuries or damages arising from activities carried out under the initiative.  The move follows the related expiration in July of the Plutonium Science and Technology agreement, another U.S.-Russian threat reduction measure (see GSN, July 25).

NCI is a vehicle for the United States to help Russia decrease activity at nuclear weapon sites, converting some of them to other uses.  The U.S. Energy Department has described the program on its Web site as  “the only U.S. government program whose primary aim is to help downsize the Russian nuclear weapons complex.”

Sixty-nine NCI projects will continue until completion, despite the end of the pact itself, under an agreement signed Friday in Moscow by U.S. and Russian energy officials (see GSN, Sept. 19).  No new projects envisioned by the initiative will begin, though, and U.S. officials expressed concern that the liability dispute could drag on, ultimately affecting Washington’s ability to reduce the Russian proliferation threat.

“It’s significant,” a U.S. official said of the liability dispute, “but you won’t see the effects in NCI. … If we don’t resolve the liability, you will begin to see the impacts at some time.”

The NCI agreement and the Plutonium Science and Technology agreement, both reached in 1998, stipulate broad liability exemption for Moscow, including in cases of “premeditated” actions causing damage or injury.  The United States is seeking to have a tougher approach — such as the one taken in the 1992 Cooperative Threat Reduction “umbrella agreement,” which does not protect Russia against liability for premeditated acts — accepted as a standard for threat reduction texts.

The dispute is relevant not only to bilateral measures such as NCI but also to the Group of Eight’s Global Partnership for nonproliferation, an ambitious multilateral counterproliferation program launched in June of last year at a G-8 summit in Canada (see GSN, June 6).

U.S. officials have said G-8 countries generally favored umbrella agreement-style liability protections when they launched the Global Partnership last year.  Deeming its position to be bolstered by the G-8 agreement, Washington has been pushing for ratification this year by the Russian Duma of the CTR umbrella agreement, an event that could presage the acceptance of U.S.-sought protections as a template for liability language in threat reduction texts.

A U.S. official said today that President George W. Bush’s administration expects the Duma eventually to ratify the umbrella agreement and that the NCI agreement is no longer a priority for the United States.  According to another U.S. official, NCI’s demise is of relatively little significance because of Friday’s extension of ongoing projects under the initiative and the existence of various other mechanisms for advancing the same nonproliferation goals.

Democratic members of Congress and nongovernmental organizations have nevertheless opposed terminating both 1998 agreements.  In a statement issued in July as it became clear that the agreements would expire, Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council Executive Director Kenneth Luongo said that “allowing these agreements to expire is wrong and unnecessary at this time” and “sends a terrible signal about the importance of securing the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on Earth as rapidly as possible.”

At a PIR Center-Carnegie Endowment for International Peace nonproliferation conference over the weekend in Moscow, U.S. and Russian participants disagreed over how best to address the liability impasse.

Russian Ambassador-at-large Anatoly Antonov said the United States has been unwilling to compromise, seeking simply to impose U.S.-style legal standards on the international stage.  Citing the possibility of an al-Qaeda strike on a Russian nuclear facility, Antonov criticized the United States for seeking to make Russia liable for the results of premeditated acts.

“Why should Russia be held liable for something somebody else did intentionally?” Antonov asked.

Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate Rose Gottemoeller, a former nonproliferation official in the U.S. Energy Department, said there is “good reason to be looking at some new and innovative approaches to tackling the liability problem.”

Gottemoeller added, though, that the Duma should “release the steam” that has built up over the dispute by ratifying both the CTR umbrella agreement and the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program for Russia, signed in May of this year by Russia, European Union countries and the United States (see GSN, May 22).  A U.S. official today said the Duma has made MNEPR its priority and is unlikely to ratify the CTR umbrella agreement soon.

Center for Nonproliferation Studies Washington Director Leonard Spector, a former assistant deputy administrator in the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, called for an international pooling of resources to pay any liability claims under the threat reduction agreements.

Spector, who along with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute’s Douglas Brubaker has published an article in the Monterey Institute’s Nonproliferation Review supporting reform of U.S.-Russian liability arrangements, said asking Russia to accept liability is illogical, since the existence of the threat reduction agreements presupposes financial need on Moscow’s part.

Both Antonov and Natalya Kalinina, an assistant to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, said that, because of stumbling blocks such as the liability dispute, the West is not making good on its Global Partnership promise of increased nonproliferation aid to Russia.  “Realistically, funding has not begun for many of the projects,” Kalinina said.

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Three European Countries Offer Iran Nuclear Carrot

France, Germany and the United Kingdom last month offered Iran greater civilian nuclear technology cooperation if Tehran were to accept more intrusive international monitoring of its nuclear activities (see GSN, Sept. 19).

The offer came in direct contrast to Washington’s hard-line position on Iranian nuclear development, Reuters reported Saturday.  The foreign ministers from the three European powers sent a letter to Tehran suggesting that technology cooperation was possible, but not offering direct nuclear assistance.

“Washington did not consider it very helpful at all,” said a diplomat familiar with the offer.  “They were worried it ran the risk of splitting Europe and America on this issue, and they talked to their friends and colleagues in Europe about that and attempted to dissuade them from sending the letter,” the diplomat added.

A British official said, however, that the letter had been sent with U.S. knowledge and that if Iran fully complies with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, “that would bring certain rights with it” (Taylor/Charbonneau, Reuters/Washington Post, Sept. 20).

French President Jacques Chirac supported the letter in a recent interview.

“[German Chancellor] Gerhard Schroeder, [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair and myself sent a joint message to the Iranians, telling them, ‘We are not trying to bully you, but we cannot accept that you tell us that everything’s perfectly all right while we are not sure that there isn’t a nuclear weapons manufacturing process behind it all,’” Chirac said.  “We agree on the fact that there is no reason to prevent a country from producing nuclear energy for civilian use, naturally if all the safeguards are there, particularly if all the IAEA inspections are completely unrestricted,” he added (New York Times, Sept. 22).

The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, said that Iran should not be offered a special deal to adopt the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement.

“It’s a one-size-fits-all thing.  The protocol is working in 37 countries right now, and nobody’s complaining of our abusing the authority in it,” said IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.  “It works well.  Remember, Iran was one of the countries in our membership that helped to negotiate this additional protocol, push it through and umpteen times encourage everybody in the world to sign it. Iran is part of the process that brought us the protocol,” he said (Voice of America, Sept. 20).

An top Iranian cleric, however, suggested Friday that Iran should quit the nuclear treaty.  Ahmad Jannati, the leader of the powerful Guardian Council, called the demands for intrusive inspections “extra humiliating.”

“What is the problem with withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty?” asked Jannati.  “North Korea withdrew from the treaty.  Many other countries have not even signed it,” he added.

Iranian nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said last week that Iran is committed to complying with the treaty (Nazila Fathi, New York Times, Sept. 20).

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, questioned Iran’s hesitance in signing the Additional Protocol.

“If Iran is not striving to develop nuclear weapons, it has nothing to hide.  I see no grounds for refusing to sign these additional protocols,” Putin said Saturday (Saradzhyan/McGregor, Moscow Times, Sept. 22).

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Bush to Use U.N. Address to Call for Increased Nonproliferation Efforts

In a speech before the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow, U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to urge the body to give greater attention to nuclear nonproliferation efforts, according to the New York Times (see GSN, March 5).

During his speech, Bush will describe stemming nuclear proliferation as one of the “next big challenges facing the United Nations,” a senior official said yesterday. 

Some senior U.S. officials had expected Bush to use his U.N. address to outline new proposals for strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by amending treaty provisions exploited by Iran and North Korea to develop their nuclear programs, according to the Times (see related GSN story, today).  Those proposals, however, have only been discussed in general terms within the White House and have not yet been examined by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, officials said.

“Nobody thinks they are ready for prime time,” a U.S. official said.

There are still several issues that would need to be resolved before attempting to strengthen the NPT, such as how to deal with countries that have never signed the treaty and whether it would be possible to prevent treaty members that have developed nuclear programs from leaving the treaty such as North Korea did, midlevel U.S. officials said.

In his speech, Bush is expected to focus on the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led effort to interdict WMD-related cargo shipments, the Times reported (see GSN, Sept. 17).  Four of the 11 initiative members recently completed the first of a series of interdiction exercises (David Sanger, New York Times, Sept. 22).

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IAEA Team to Visit Niger to Accelerate Safeguards Agreement

An International Atomic Energy Agency team is expected to travel to Niger in the next few months to accelerate the country’s approval of a safeguards agreement that would allow the agency to monitor Nigerien uranium exports, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Sept. 12).

Niger is a producer of processed uranium, known as “yellowcake,” that can be used to produce enriched uranium.  Niger and Kazakhstan are the only two countries out of 22 that reported producing uranium in 2000 to not have signed an IAEA safeguards agreement, according to the Associated Press. 

The purpose of the IAEA visit is “to break any legal logjam” in approving the safeguards agreement, said IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.  The IAEA does not view Niger as a source for terrorists or countries to illicitly obtain uranium for use in weapons, he said.

Nigerien yellowcake “would require considerable conversion and processing to be usable for nuclear weapons,” Gwozdecky said.  “We don’t start tracking this stuff until it’s in a form suitable for reactor fuel,” he said (Bruce Stanley, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 22).

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India to Build Nuclear-Proof Bunkers for Leadership

The Hindustan Times reported today that India has decided to build two bunkers to protect top officials from a potential nuclear strike, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Sept. 2).

The first bunker is set to be built in central New Delhi, with the second to be built at a location within 250 miles of the city, AFP reported.  The decision to build the bunkers was made earlier this month during the first meeting of the Indian Nuclear Command Authority (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 22).

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