Fr those that think nuclear power is the solution
to global warming see NIRS work at:
www.nirs.org/climate/climate.htm
www.nirs.org
>The spread of nuclear technology is expected to
accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on
atomic >power. That will give more countries the
ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same
equipment and a >little more effort, bomb fuel -
the hardest part of the arms equation.
www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php
A 'race' to head off nuclear disaster
By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger
The New York Times TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2006
The declaration by North Korea that it has
conducted a successful atomic test brought to nine
the number of nations believed to have nuclear
arms. But atomic officials estimate that as many
as 40 more countries have the technical skill, and
in some cases the required material, to build a
bomb.
That ability, coupled with new nuclear threats in
Asia and the Middle East, risks a second nuclear
age, officials and arms control specialists say,
in which nations are more likely to abandon the
old restraints against atomic weapons.
The spread of nuclear technology is expected to
accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on
atomic power. That will give more countries the
ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same
equipment and a little more effort, bomb fuel -
the hardest part of the arms equation.
Signs of activity abound. Hundreds of companies
are prospecting for uranium where dozens did a few
years ago. Argentina, Australia and South Africa
are drawing up plans to begin enriching uranium,
and other countries are considering doing the
same. Egypt is reviving its program to develop
nuclear power.
Concern led the International Atomic Energy Agency
to summon government officials and experts from
around the world to Vienna in September to discuss
tightening curbs on who can produce nuclear fuel.
"These dangers are urgent," Sam Nunn, a U.S.
expert on the politics of nuclear proliferation,
told the group. "We are in a race between
cooperation and catastrophe and, at this moment,
the outcome is unclear."
The International Atomic Energy Agency itself
exemplifies some of the underlying tensions
inherent in the development of nuclear energy. It
is the primary United Nations agency charged with
detecting proliferation, but it has another
mandate as well: to promote safe nuclear power.
For decades, it has done so by running technical
aid programs with roughly a hundred states. Some
of that knowledge could be useful in a weapons
program, though the aid is meant exclusively for
civilian use.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the
agency, has estimated that as many as 49 nations
now know how to make nuclear arms, and he has
warned that global tensions could push some over
the line. "We are relying," he said, "primarily on
the continued good intentions of these countries -
intentions which are in turn based on their sense
of security or insecurity, and could therefore be
subject to rapid change."
In the United States, Democrats and Republicans
spent the past week arguing over who lost control
of North Korea: Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.
But seeds of the problem were planted by President
Dwight Eisenhower, just months after the armistice
ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula in
1953.
His program was called Atoms for Peace, and it
soon involved dozens of nations, all seeking to
unlock the magic of nuclear power.
Almost from the start, evidence accumulated that
countries were using civil alliances and reactor
technologies to make bombs. By 1960, France had
joined the United States, Britain and the Soviet
Union as a nuclear weapons state. China held its
first test in 1964. Israel had the bomb by 1967
(though it still does not admit to it), India by
1974, South Africa by 1982 (it has since given up
its weapons) and Pakistan by 1998.
Six of those countries built their weapons by
exploiting at least some technologies that were
ostensibly civilian, nuclear analysts say. They
enriched uranium beyond the low level needed for
power reactors. Or they mined the spent fuel of
civil reactors for plutonium - the path that North
Korea started taking in the late 1980s or early
1990s, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has worked
hard to fight this kind of cheating while also
helping with the basic technology. In the 1980s,
it aided Iran's hunt for uranium. Even now,
Iranian technicians fly to Vienna and agency
experts go to Iran to lend a hand.
The hardest part, experts agree, is not acquiring
the weapons blueprints but obtaining the fuel.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's
nuclear arms program, who went on to establish the
world's largest atomic black market, sold the
secrets of how to make centrifuges for enriching
uranium to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Investigators are still trying to learn where else
Khan may have planted his nuclear seeds. They
discovered outposts of his network in Dubai,
Malaysia and South Africa and found that before
his fall in 2004 he had visited at least 18
countries, including Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan,
Syria and Saudi Arabia.
to global warming see NIRS work at:
www.nirs.org/climate/climate.htm
www.nirs.org
>The spread of nuclear technology is expected to
accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on
atomic >power. That will give more countries the
ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same
equipment and a >little more effort, bomb fuel -
the hardest part of the arms equation.
www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php
A 'race' to head off nuclear disaster
By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger
The New York Times TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2006
The declaration by North Korea that it has
conducted a successful atomic test brought to nine
the number of nations believed to have nuclear
arms. But atomic officials estimate that as many
as 40 more countries have the technical skill, and
in some cases the required material, to build a
bomb.
That ability, coupled with new nuclear threats in
Asia and the Middle East, risks a second nuclear
age, officials and arms control specialists say,
in which nations are more likely to abandon the
old restraints against atomic weapons.
The spread of nuclear technology is expected to
accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on
atomic power. That will give more countries the
ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same
equipment and a little more effort, bomb fuel -
the hardest part of the arms equation.
Signs of activity abound. Hundreds of companies
are prospecting for uranium where dozens did a few
years ago. Argentina, Australia and South Africa
are drawing up plans to begin enriching uranium,
and other countries are considering doing the
same. Egypt is reviving its program to develop
nuclear power.
Concern led the International Atomic Energy Agency
to summon government officials and experts from
around the world to Vienna in September to discuss
tightening curbs on who can produce nuclear fuel.
"These dangers are urgent," Sam Nunn, a U.S.
expert on the politics of nuclear proliferation,
told the group. "We are in a race between
cooperation and catastrophe and, at this moment,
the outcome is unclear."
The International Atomic Energy Agency itself
exemplifies some of the underlying tensions
inherent in the development of nuclear energy. It
is the primary United Nations agency charged with
detecting proliferation, but it has another
mandate as well: to promote safe nuclear power.
For decades, it has done so by running technical
aid programs with roughly a hundred states. Some
of that knowledge could be useful in a weapons
program, though the aid is meant exclusively for
civilian use.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the
agency, has estimated that as many as 49 nations
now know how to make nuclear arms, and he has
warned that global tensions could push some over
the line. "We are relying," he said, "primarily on
the continued good intentions of these countries -
intentions which are in turn based on their sense
of security or insecurity, and could therefore be
subject to rapid change."
In the United States, Democrats and Republicans
spent the past week arguing over who lost control
of North Korea: Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.
But seeds of the problem were planted by President
Dwight Eisenhower, just months after the armistice
ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula in
1953.
His program was called Atoms for Peace, and it
soon involved dozens of nations, all seeking to
unlock the magic of nuclear power.
Almost from the start, evidence accumulated that
countries were using civil alliances and reactor
technologies to make bombs. By 1960, France had
joined the United States, Britain and the Soviet
Union as a nuclear weapons state. China held its
first test in 1964. Israel had the bomb by 1967
(though it still does not admit to it), India by
1974, South Africa by 1982 (it has since given up
its weapons) and Pakistan by 1998.
Six of those countries built their weapons by
exploiting at least some technologies that were
ostensibly civilian, nuclear analysts say. They
enriched uranium beyond the low level needed for
power reactors. Or they mined the spent fuel of
civil reactors for plutonium - the path that North
Korea started taking in the late 1980s or early
1990s, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has worked
hard to fight this kind of cheating while also
helping with the basic technology. In the 1980s,
it aided Iran's hunt for uranium. Even now,
Iranian technicians fly to Vienna and agency
experts go to Iran to lend a hand.
The hardest part, experts agree, is not acquiring
the weapons blueprints but obtaining the fuel.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's
nuclear arms program, who went on to establish the
world's largest atomic black market, sold the
secrets of how to make centrifuges for enriching
uranium to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Investigators are still trying to learn where else
Khan may have planted his nuclear seeds. They
discovered outposts of his network in Dubai,
Malaysia and South Africa and found that before
his fall in 2004 he had visited at least 18
countries, including Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan,
Syria and Saudi Arabia.
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