Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Author: Mike Ryan

  • CNDP Denounces USA’s Nuclear Terror

    The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, India voices its outrage at the unprecedented nuclear threat to the whole world held out the militarists at the helm of the United States of America. The CNDP also expresses its indignation at the servile silence of New Delhi over the subject.

    The “contingency plans” revealed in the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)by the Pentagon under the Bush Administration cannot be clearer in their intent. The multi billion populaces of seven countries — with Russia, China, Syria and Libya now added to the “axis of evil” comprising Iraq, Iran and Korea — have been made the potential targets of nuclear lunacy on the part of the world’s strongest ever superpower. If countries close to these targets are taken into account, the NPR (leaked to the media) is an attempt to intimidate a large swathe of humanity.

    The NPR threatens nuclear strikes against targets too tough for non-nuclear weapons, in “retaliation” against attacks by biological and chemical weapons of which the USA has the largest stockpiles, and even in case of “surprising military developments” of an undefined kind. The added threats of nuclear assaults in an Arab-Israel conflict and a Taiwan-China clash make for a truly alarming prospect. The list of targets leaves no doubt that the Bush regime is not going to be bound by treaties the US has signed including the NPT and the CTBT.

    While the madness has been denounced even by many in the West, the Government of India has yet to find its tongue. New Delhi, which has acquiesced in Washington’s space weaponization schemes and its withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, is failing thispeace-loving nation even more by its tacit support for the USA’s line of nuclear terror.
    –Achin Vanaik, Praful Bidwai, Admiral L.Ramdas (Retd.), J. Sri Raman, Prabir Purkayastha, Jayaprakash, and Christopher Fonseca

  • Global Military Expenditures 2002

    Global military expenditures currently exceed $800 billion.

    The top military spenders are:

    United States $343.2 Billion
    Russia* $60
    China* $42
    Japan $40.4
    United Kingdom $34
    Saudi Arabia $27.2
    France $25.3
    Germany $21
    Brazil $17.9
    India $15.6
    Italy $15.5
    South Korea $11.8

    *Based on 2000 funding (most recent year available)

    Global Priorities

    For approximately 30% of Annual World Military Expenditures (~$810 billion), all of the following could be accomplished***:
    o Eliminate Starvation and Malnutrition ($19 billion)
    o Provide Shelter ($21 billion)
    o Remove Landmines ($4 billion)
    o Build Democracy ($3 billion)
    o Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ($7 billion)
    o Refugee Relief ($5 billion)
    o Eliminate Illiteracy ($5 billion)
    o Provide Clean, Safe Water ($10 billion)
    o Provide Health Care and AIDS Control ($21 billion)
    o Stop Deforestation ($7 billion)
    o Prevent Global Warming ($8 billion)
    o Stabilize Population ($10.5 billion)
    o Prevent Acid Rain ($8 billion)
    o Provide Clean, Safe Energy: Energy Efficiency ($33 billion), Renewable Energy
    ($17 billion)
    o Stop Ozone Depletion ($5 billion)
    o Prevent Soil Erosion ($24 billion)
    o Retire Developing Nations Debt ($30 billion)

    ***For more information, please visit: http://www.worldgame.org

    sources: Center for Defense Information, Council for a Livable World, International Institute for Strategic Studies, US State Department, US Central Intelligence Agency

  • What’s Wrong with Yucca Mountain?

    1. It is on Western Shoshone treaty land, and the US cannot show title.
    The Treaty of Ruby Valley, ratified by Congress in 1863, is the supreme law of the land. The US has never shown legal title to this land, even when requested by federal and international courts.

    2. The Repository would contaminate groundwater.
    Yucca Mountain scientists will readily tell you that the question is not if the repository will release its contents, but when. Groundwater moves rapidly down through the site. Tracers from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests have been found at the underground level at which waste would be placed. This means that precipitation on the surface can reach the waste in less than 50 years, then carry the radioactive material using the groundwater in as little as possibly a few hundred years.

    3. The Repository would endanger millions of people nearby.
    Downstream from the site, groundwater is used for drinking, irrigation, and the largest dairy in the Nevada, supplying thousands of children with milk. Seventeen miles away, California hosts 1.4 million tourists a year going to Death Valley. Seven tributaries flow down Yucca Mountain to the underground Amargosa River, said by some to be the longest and biggest in the world. The Amargosa empties into Death Valley, after flowing right through a number of towns. Flash floods are frequent, and can close roads for days.

    4. Transportation would endanger millions of people across the country.
    Nuclear waste is safer sitting still than going 60-90 MPH. Distinctive casks are an obvious and vulnerable target. No study has been done on specific risks of transporting the waste to Yucca Mountain over a 30 year period, through 43 states, more than 100 cities with population over 100,000 and within one?half mile of over 50 million people.

    5. It is not geologic disposal, and violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
    The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires that geology be the primary barrier to radioactive contamination. This is not possible at Yucca Mountain, so the DOE’s design depends on an engineered barrier, of unproven durability. The State of Nevada has filed suit against DOE claiming this is a violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requirement for geologic isolation.

    6. Insufficient data exists to evaluate waste containers.
    The Department of Energy is proposing to place the waste in “corrosion resistant” metal containers, which it claims will contain the wastes for more than 10,000 years, the duration of the regulatory period set by the EPA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The wastes remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. The claim of corrosion resistance is based on about 2 years of lab experiments under conditions less severe than would be expected in the repository, and then these corrosion results have been extrapolated for the thousands of years of containment necessary.

    7. Yucca Mountain is an active earthquake zone, with 33 faults on site.
    Yucca Mountain is the third most seismically active area in the continental US (after Alaska and coastal California). In the past 20 years, there have been over 600 earthquakes within 50 miles, with the largest, in 1992, causing $1.4 million in damage to DOE’s Yucca Mountain field office.

    8. DOE’s rush to please the nuclear industry is premature and illegal.
    The Yucca Mountain studies and site recommendation have been called inadequate and/or incomplete by the General Accounting Office, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Broad and several international peer review panels. The DOE still has at least 293 studies of site and design factors that it has agreed to complete before it submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires that site characterization be complete at the time of a site recommendation (Feb. 14th, 2002) and that the license application must be submitted within 90 days of site designation. However, the DOE’s Yucca Mountain Management and Operating contractor has estimated that it will take 4 years to complete these studies.

    For more information, e-mail: heal@h-o-m-e.org or visit: http://www.h-o-m-e.org/

  • A High School Student’s Passion for Humanity

    Dear David Krieger,

    My name is Amber Herman and I am a senior in high school in Davenport, Iowa.

    My friends do not understand why I would rather read books on social justice issues and peace instead of attending the basketball game. They don’t understand why I am outraged that the United States has not signed the UN Convention’s Rights of the Child. They don’t understand why Craig Kielburger and you are my heroes when they praise Michael Jordan as a star. They don’t understand that we, the youth, are called to be the leaders of TODAY when they feel so powerless.

    They do understand that I have a passion for humanity. They hear the words I speak against violence. Although they do not understand. . . they are curious. They wonder what fuels my spirit to bring an end to war and poverty.

    All I ask of my peers is to simply contemplate the question: What If they could change the world? That is the question that Craig Kielburger and my Social Justice teacher asked me. I realized how big a world there was outside my high school, my community, and my country. I still dared to believe I could make a positive difference.

    Your speech “Hope in the Face of Darkness” was amazing! Tears were streaming down my face as I read about your passion for humanity and your words about hope. Everything I believe about Youth Empowerment you so beautifully described.

    I am only one person but I have the power to light the fire of peace within others. I am only one person but I have knowledge, faith and more importantly I have HOPE! At National Catholic Youth Conference this past December, a teenager who lost her father on September 11th stood before 24,000 youth from around the country stating: “I came here looking for hope. You all are my hope.”

    I plan to attend Iowa State University and study Dairy Science and International Agriculture. I hope to join researchers in third-world countries to teach the people better agriculture techniques. I also look forward to a career as a public speaker for human rights, especially children. I have already started speaking to youth groups in my area.

    I hope to someday attend a conference on social justice/peace issues. I am currently trying to save money for college and financially cannot afford to attend a summer conference. Until I can, I will continue to educate myself and others.

    You dared to believe peace was possible. Because of you, thousands of youth across the world dare to believe too. Thank you. God bless.

    Sincerely,

    Amber Herman

  • Eight Steps to a Sound Policy on High Level Waste

    Originally published on the Healing Ourselves and Mother Earth website (http://www.h-o-m-e.org)

    A windmill on every high tension tower could supply all of America’s electricity. What’s the worst thing that could happen on a wind farm?

    Humans have recorded their history for only 300 generations. Each nuclear reactor supplies electricity for a couple of generations, and High Level Nuclear Waste (HLW) that threatens 1200 generations. Surely we can do better than that. The health and safety of our families is our right- it supersedes corporate profits—and it is not negotiable.

    1. Take Back America’s Future- Stop Making High Level Nuclear Waste.

    After fifty years of the best scientific research in the world, there is no solution to HLW in sight. Moving some HLW to contaminate a new site will not eliminate the problem. Nuclear reactors and their fuel pools are just as dangerous as the waste they generate, both as daily threats to public health and as terrorist targets.

    2. Nuclear Waste Is Safer Sitting Still Than Going 60-90 MPH.

    Keep it off our roads and rails for at least 100-150 years, and decrease the danger to the public exponentially. In most cases, moving HLW poses a much greater danger to the public than responsible on-site storage. Avoid repetitive doses along transportation routes or severe doses due to traffic accidents.

    3. No Illegal Dump Proposals Based on Environmental Racism.

    Both sites being studied for HLW storage, Yucca Mountain and the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah, are on Native lands– an obvious violation of environmental justice. For the future, let’s set policies that respect all Americans.

    4. New Risk Assessments For All Nuclear Facilities.

    Reactors are the only form of energy production that require an evacuation plan. 74% of past incidents at nuclear reactors have involved human error. The events of September 11th and more recent threats make it clear that we need revised evaluations. They must consider the full picture: human error, earthquakes and terrorism, with conversion to on-site waste storage and renewable forms of energy production.

    5. Responsible On-Site Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) for Waste

    As reactors are shut down, containment vessels should be modified to isolate MRS casks from the environment.

    Currently there is only minimal external cask monitoring. Casks must be monitored internally for radiation levels, pressure, and temperature so technicians can safely re-open them in the future.

    Assured storage, including above or in-ground monitored leachate collection systems, should be used.

    Other protective measures include earthen berms around outdoor casks, and bunkers, like nuclear weapons facilities.

    The Nuclear Waste Fund is projected to have approximately $35 billion, and can easily pay for MRS.

    Annual reporting of inventory to public Oversight and Safety Committees for each facility.

    6. Public Oversight of Waste is Mandatory at Every Level

    It is clear after twenty years of industry-biased Dept. of Energy research that a new credible approach is required. A public non-profit corporation should be created to study the problem of high level waste disposal, including members of the industry, the public, and independent scientists. This approach would get away from the culture of fear and nuclear denial, and foster new ideas. Oversight and Safety Committees (using European models) should be in place for each facility, and include local community members.

    7. Renewable Energy- Convert Reactor Sites to Solar & Wind Energy Production

    The 20% of our nation’s electricity provided by nuclear reactors could be readily replaced by conservation, efficiency, and renewable sources. Conversion of reactor sites would provide a just transition for workers to the healthier field of renewable energy production, utilizing comparable job skills and minimizing retraining. Additional jobs should be created through the implementation of efficiency standards and conservation programs, further reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil and deadly nuclear fuel. For example, the electricity generated by Diablo Canyon nuclear facility on the seismically active coast of Southern California could be readily replaced by 500 large wind turbines located on the 1200 acre site and/or off shore.

    8. National Health Care For Those Already Exposed to Radiation From Reactors and Weapons

  • Letter to the Governor of California about UC Nuclear Free

    The Honorable Gray Davis
    Governor of California
    State Capitol Building
    Sacramento, CA 95814

    Dear Governor Davis,

    We are initiating a campaign to educate students on the University of California campuses about the UC’s management of the nuclear weapons laboratories. Our basic position is that it is unworthy of a great university to be involved in the creation of weapons of mass destruction, and therefore the Regents of the University of California should terminate their contracts with the Department of Energy (DoE) related to oversight and management of these laboratories.

    By continuing to manage the nuclear weapons laboratories, the University of California is compromising its integrity as a responsible institution of higher learning and setting a poor example for the students it educates.

    While money should certainly not be the critical issue in this matter, we understand that the DoE contract provides UC with little more than enough resources to manage the labs. Given this, ending the contractual relationship will have very little financial impact on UC, and will only serve to promote the best interests of the students and the University.

    I would encourage you, as Chairman of the UC Board of Regents, to take a leadership role in ending the University of California’s relationship with the nuclear weapons laboratories. I would appreciate your response to this request.

    Sincerely,
    David Krieger
    President

  • Nobel Peace Laureates Centennial Appeal

    We, the undersigned Nobel Peace Laureates gathered for the centennial of the Nobel Prizes, express our joy at this year’s award to the United Nations and its Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

    We hope that our message of peace and justice will reach the hearts and minds of those in and out of government who have the power to make a better world.

    We look forward to a world in which we the peoples, working in cooperation with governments, with full respect for international law, will enable the UN to fulfil its mission to save this and succeeding generations from the scourge of war.

    We call for the prompt establishment of the International Criminal Court and full implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including economic, social, and cultural as well as civil and political rights.

    We offer our support for the unrelenting, patient, and non-violent pursuit of peace wherever conflicts may rage today or tomorrow, such as the Middle East, Colombia, or the Great Lakes of Africa.

    We commit ourselves to work for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and the reduction and control of small arms and other conventional weapons.

    We call on the human family to address the root causes of violence and build a culture of peace and hope. We know that another world is possible, a world of justice and peace. Together we can make it a reality.

    Oslo, December 10, 2001

    Institute of International Law 1904

    INTERNATIONAL PEACE BUREAU 1910

    Cora Weiss
    AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE

    Mary Ellen McNish 1947
    Norman E. Borlaug 1970
    Máiread Corrigan Maguire 1976

    AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

    Colm Ó Cuanacháin 1977
    Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1980
    Lech Walesa 1983
    Desmond Tutu 1984

    INTERNATIONAL PHYSICIANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF NUCLEAR WAR

    Bernard Lown 1985
    Oscar Arias 1987
    Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1992
    Joseph Rotblat 1995
    José Ramos-Horta 1996

    INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANDMINES

    Jody Williams 1997
    Jerry White 1997
    John Hume 1998

  • Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Press Release Regarding the the January 9 Nuclear Posture Review

    Issued January 2002

    On 9 January, the US Department of Defense released a classified version of the first Congressionally mandated Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). It is the first NPR since 1994. Building on the Quadrennial Defense Review released in September 2001, the NPR provides a blueprint for the changing role of US strategic nuclear forces with as few treaty restrictions as possible.

    Despite international obligations to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons under Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the NPR upholds nuclear weapons as central to US national security policy. Following on Bush’s pledge at the Crawford Summit in November, the NPR calls for unilaterally reducing strategic warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 over the next ten years. However, the proposal would simply put the deactivated warheads in storage, making them available for future use. The US will also maintain the capability to modify existing or develop new nuclear weapons.

    The NPR also notes that the Bush administration will not change its position on nuclear testing. While for the time being the Bush administration will continue to adhere to the moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing, it will also continue to oppose ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The NPR does not make a formal recommendation to resume nuclear testing, however it calls on the Department of Energy to accelerate the time it would take to prepare a full scale test, which is currently two years.

    David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, stated, “The recent Nuclear Posture Review tells us that US policymakers are still thinking that nuclear weapons make us safer, when, in fact, they remain weapons capable of destroying us. Their desire to retain flexibility is in reality a recipe for ending four decades of arms control. Their push for ballistic missile defenses is a formula for assuring that US taxpayers enrich defense contractors while diverting defense expenditures from protecting against very real terrorist threats. The Bush promise of nuclear weapons reductions turns out to be a policy for missing the real opportunities of the post Cold War period to not only shelve these weapons but eliminate them forever.”

    The NPR announces a New Triad in which the traditional strategic nuclear triad will become a subset bolstered by missile defenses, advanced conventional weapons, and improved command, control and intelligence capabilities to increase the US deterrent capability. Although Russia, China and even some allies oppose US plans to develop and deploy missile defenses, the NPR reaffirms the US resolve to move forward with missile defenses regardless of international consequences.

  • The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Top Five Nuclear Accidents in 2001

    *Issued January 2002. This list is subject to modification as documents are declassified in the future revealing other accidents that occurred in the year 2001.

    1. A nuclear explosion in a Russian factory leaves four dead and three injured.
    2. After being kept secret for some six months, The Romanian National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN) reported on 12 December that nine workers were exposed to serious levels of radiation while dismantling a smelting plant in western Romania.
    3. A serious accident at the Chapelcross nuclear reactor in Annan, Scotland sent 24 radioactive fuel rods crashing to the floor, nearly causing the death of plant workers and the release of a radioactive cloud which would have contaminated the entire region.
    4. Russia loses contact with four military satellites for part of the day on 10 May after a fire ravages a ground relay station southwest of Moscow.
    5. Local Officials reveal in May that a nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Cycle Development Institute in Fukui (185 miles northwest of Tokyo) has been leaking radioactive tritium since January.

    1. Nuclear Explosion in Russian Factory Leaves Four Dead and Three Injured

    According to a report from the Russian Ministry released on 22 June, a nuclear explosion on 21 June caused four deaths and three injuries. A previous report stated that there was only one death and seven injuries. The explosion, which was reportedly self-generated, occurred in the calcium reprocessing area of the Tchepetski factory in Glazov, Russia. The factory specializes in manufacturing zirconium alloys and enriched uranium.

    2. Romanian Workers Exposed to High Radiation

    The Romanian National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN) reported on 12 December that nine workers were exposed to serious levels of radiation while dismantling a smelting plant in western Romania last June. The men have been hospitalized since June, but the incident was kept secret while police conducted an investigation. The nine workers were employed to dismantle two furnaces at the Victoria Calan plant, which has been closed since the fall of communist rule in the country in 1989. CNCAN Director Anton Coroianu stated, “They wore no protective clothes. They got a huge dose of radiation from Cobalt 60, which could have killed them at once.” Cobalt 60 is a man-made radioactive isotope which serves many medical and industrial uses. An 1,100-square-foot area around the furnaces has been sealed off to everyone except authorized personnel, including investigators, who must wear protective clothing before entering the site.

    3. Nuclear Accident Highlights Folly of Nuclear Energy

    A serious accident at the Chapelcross nuclear reactor in Annan, Scotland sent 24 radioactive fuel rods crashing to the floor, nearly causing the death of plant workers and the release of a radioactive cloud which would have contaminated the entire region. The accident occurred when engineers were routinely removing irradiated uranium fuel rods by remote control from reactor three. After trying to attach a cylinder containing 24 rods to a crane, the cylinder came loose and fell two-and-a-half feet onto the shaft door. Authorities at the nuclear power plant are currently working on how to retrieve the fuel rods which are lying where they fell on 5 July. Normal fueling operations were suspended at Chapelcross and its sister station, Calder Hall at Sellafield.

    Chapelcross is Scotland’s oldest nuclear power station and is operated by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). The plant houses four 50-megawatt reactors and a secret military plant which produces radioactive tritium for Trident warheads. Two months ago another accident occurred at Chapelcross during de-fueling when a grab-release mechanism failed. In 1999 alone there were four pollution incidents at the plant. One of those incidents caused contamination in the surrounding community. In May 1967 radioactivity was released into the environment when fuel caught fire in a reactor and it suffered a partial meltdown.

    News of the accident was not publicized in Scotland, which alarmed environmentalists and politicians alike. They are calling for stricter regulations and say that this accident further demonstrates the folly of nuclear energy and the British government’s plan to build new nuclear reactors.

    4. Fire Raises Concern Over Russia’s Early Warning System

    Russia lost contact with four military satellites for part of the day on 10 May after a fire ravaged a ground relay station southwest of Moscow. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a short circuit triggered the fire in the complex located underground. The fire demonstrated rising concern about failures in Russia’s aging early-warning satellite system, which provide assurances against false nuclear launch alerts. Without an early-warning system, false alerts could lead to an accidental retaliatory nuclear launch. The most recent incident occurred in 1995 when Russia briefly mistook a scientific rocket launch from Norway for a US nuclear missile launch.

    5. Japanese Nuclear Reactor Leaks Radioactive Material

    Local officials revealed in May that a nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Cycle Development Institute in Fukui (185 miles northwest of Tokyo) leaked radioactive tritium since January. The facility has been in operation since 1979 and is used to develop new fuel and research plutonium usage.

    A Fukui prefectural government official stated that “A small leak [of] tritium is natural. But this leak was slightly over the normal amount.” The reason for the leak is unknown. Operation at the facility has been temporarily halted to conduct inspections.

    On 30 September 1999, a radiation leak at the Tokaimura fuel reprocessing plant killed two workers and injured many others. Two workers who, in trying to save time, mixed excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using designated mechanized tanks, triggered the leak. Six former reprocessing plant officials have been charged with negligence in the leak.

    Japan has 51 nuclear reactors which provide approximately one third of the nation’s energy supply. Nuclear power is promoted as the solution to Japan’s energy needs, but accidents and mishaps have heightened public concern over the safety of the nuclear industry.

  • The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Top Five List of Nuclear Events in 2001

    1. The US gives notice of withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

    2. US Boycotts the UN Conference to Advance the Entry Into Force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

    3. US President George W. Bush pledges to reduce the US nuclear arsenal to between 1.700 and 2,200 strategic nuclear weapons over a period of ten years. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that he will “respond in kind.”

    4. The Ukraine destroys its last nuclear missile silo, fulfilling its pledge to give up the nuclear arsenal it inherited after the dissolution of the USSR.

    5. Germany decides to phase out nuclear power by 2025.

    ____________________________________________________

    1. US Gives Notice of Withdrawal from ABM Treaty

    President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia on 13 December that the US is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and proceeding with plans to develop and deploy the controversial National Missile Defense (NMD) system prohibited by the treaty. In a speech, President Bush stated, “I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government’s ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks. Defending the American people is my highest priority as Commander-in-Chief and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from developing effective defense.”

    Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov responded saying that the decision is regrettable, however, “Russia can be unconcerned with its defense systems. Maybe other nations should be concerned if the US chooses to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Bush decision “mistaken” and stated that, “The present level of bilateral cooperation between Russia and the United States should not only be preserved but also used for quickly working out new frameworks of strategic cooperation.”

    In response to the announcement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue stated, “We’ve taken note of the relevant reports and express our concern. China is not in favor of missile defense systems. China worries about the negative impact. We think the relevant sides [of the ABM Treaty] should seek through constructive dialogue a solution that safeguards the global strategic balance and doesn’t harm international efforts at arms control and disarmament.”

    According to Department of Defense plans, the next scheduled step is the construction of missile silos at Fort Greely in Alaska and the opening of a new North Pacific target testing range.

    Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, responded to the announcement, “Unilateral withdrawal will likely lead to an action-reaction cycle in offensive and defense technologies, including countermeasures. That kind of arms race would not make us more secure.” Senator Joseph Biden (D-Deleware), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also stated that withdrawing from the treaty could lead to a new arms race. According to Biden, “About eight months ago they were talking about weaponizing space. God help us when that moment comes.”

    2. US Boycotts CTBT Conference

    From 11-13 November, delegates from 118 countries attended the UN Conference to Advance the Entry Into Force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Japanese Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe called the treaty “a practical and concrete measure for realizing a nuclear-weapon-free world.” The US, which has not ratified the treaty, boycotts the conference.

    In a related action, the US sought a procedural decision at the UN on 5 November to keep the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) off the agenda of the UN General Assembly. The US lost the vote by 140 to 1. The US also voted against a resolution introduced by Japan on nuclear disarmament which stresses the importance of taking practical steps to implement Article VI of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the early entry into force of the CTBT.

    3. US/Russian Nuclear Reductions

    At the beginning of a three-day US-Russian summit from 11-13 November, US President George W. Bush pledged to reduce the US nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 strategic nuclear weapons over a period of ten years. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he will “respond in kind.” The Bush pledge left out tactical nuclear weapons and those maintained in a hedge stockpile. Bush’s unilateral pledge is not binding on future US presidents and is therefore reversible. It also does not come down to even the level of 1,500 strategic warheads President Putin had previously and repeatedly offered.

    4. Ukraine Destroys Last Nuclear Facility

    On 1 November, the Ukraine destroyed its last nuclear missile silo, fulfilling its pledge to give up the nuclear arsenal it inherited after the dissolution of the USSR. Under the US-Ukrainian Cooperative Threat Reduction, the silo was blown up at a military range in the southern Mykolaiv region near Pervomaisk. The land underneath the silo will now be cleaned up and converted to agricultural use.

    In 1991, the Ukraine inherited the word’s third largest nuclear stockpile, including 130 SS-19 missiles, 46 SS-24 missiles and dozens of strategic bombers. After renouncing nuclear weapons, the Ukraine transferred all its nuclear missiles and warheads to Russia by 1996. Nuclear materials from the warheads were reprocessed and sent back to the Ukraine for use as fuel in nuclear power plants. In 1997, the Ukraine and the US signed a treaty on US assistance for dismantling 38 Tu-160s and Tu-95s bombers and more than 480 Kh-55 air-launch cruise missiles.

    Serhiy Borodenkov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, stated, “So far, Ukraine confirmed its commitment to secure peace and stability, and made a significant contribution to strengthening the international regime of arms nonproliferation.”

    5. Germany To Phase Out Nuclear Power

    German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the nation’s leading energy companies formally signed an agreement on 11 June to shut down the country’s 19 civilian nuclear power reactors. The agreement will limit nuclear plants to an average of 32 years of operation and the power plants will be phased out over the next two decades with the most modern plants likely closing around 2021. The agreement also limits the amount of nuclear energy that current reactors can generate.

    The agreement gained legislative backing on 17 December with approval in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The Bundesrat, the upper house in which Germany’s states are represented, must still debate the law but it has no power of veto. The draft law bans new nuclear power plants and subjects current plants to more stringent safety checks. After 1 July 2005, nuclear fuel reprocessing as well as the transport of nuclear fuel to and from reprocessing plants will be prohibited. Nuclear power currently provides about one third of the nation’s energy supply.