Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Author: Mike Ryan

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

    On 11 September, terrorists hijacked four US jetliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and one in Pennsylvania. In the aftermath of 11 September, the question of nuclear terrorism became a serious international concern. The following are the top five nuclear terrorism related events of 2001.

    1. In exercises designed to test security, US Army and Navy Teams successfully penetrate nuclear facilities and obtain nuclear materials. The US takes legislative measures to increase security at and around nuclear facilities.

    2. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf orders an emergency redeployment of the country’s nuclear arsenal to at least six secret new locations.

    3. The UK Ministry of Defense publishes details about the transport of nuclear weapons and plutonium throughout the country on the Ministry of Defense website, raising controversy over offering potential terrorists a guide to the rail lines, roads and airports used for nuclear materials.

    4. As a precaution against suicide attacks, France increases the number of surface-to-air missiles near La Hague, Europe’s largest nuclear waste reprocessing plant.

    5. Weapons experts testify to attendees of the International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna, Austria that terrorists could use a nuclear device.

     

    1. US Nuclear Facilities Fail Security Drills

    A report released in October by a non-governmental watchdog organization, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), found that the ten US nuclear weapons research and production facilities are vulnerable to a terrorist attack and failed about half of recent security drills. In exercises designed to test security, US Army and Navy teams successfully penetrated nuclear facilities and obtained nuclear materials. US government security regulations require that nuclear facilities defend themselves against the theft of nuclear materials by terrorists or through sabotage. According to Dannielle Brian, POGO Director, the repeated security breaches are serious cause for concern because Department of Energy employees were warned before each security exercise but still failed to stop the would-be terrorists in more than half the drills.

    Nine of the ten weapons facilities are within 100 miles of cities with more than 75,000 people. Eight of the ten weapons facilities contain a total of 33.5 metric tons of plutonium. It only takes a few pounds of plutonium to create a nuclear bomb. Regarding security at the nuclear weapons facilities, Brian stated that no one thought it really mattered until 11 September. A spokesperson from the National Nuclear Security Administration declined to comment on the report. The full report can be accessed online at POGO’s website http://www.pogo.org/.

    In related news, Representative Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) introduced legislation on 14 November requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have supplies of potassium iodide within 200 miles of each of the 103 operating nuclear power plants in the US. If passed, the bill would also require the government commission to stock potassium iodide at individual homes and public facilities within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant. Potassium iodide has been shown to protect the body’s thyroid gland from diseases related to radiation exposure and must be taken within several hours after exposure to be effective.

    In addition, Markey is urging US lawmakers to pass measures that would increase security at nuclear power plants in the wake of the 11 September events. Markey stated, “In this new era of terrorism, in which the threat of an intentional release of radioactivity can no longer be ignored, we should waste no more time.”

    On 15 November, US Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) and Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced that they will introduce legislation to federalize security guards at the 103 nuclear power plants across the US. Currently, nuclear power plant operators hire private guards. The guards carry weapons, but they do not have police power. Since the events of 11 September, local police, and state police and, in some states, National Guard troops have augmented security at the nation’s nuclear power plants.

    While conservatives in the Senate will likely object to federalizing guards, according to Senator Clinton, “We can no longer leave the security at our nation’s nuclear power plants to chance.” Senator Reid noted that Congress just agreed to federalize passenger and baggage screeners at airports. He stated, “It’s time we focus the same energy to improve safety at nuclear power plants.”

    2. Pakistan Restructures Nuclear Arsenal and Military to Avoid Nuclear Terrorism

    On 10 November, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered an emergency redeployment of the country’s nuclear arsenal to at least six secret new locations. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was moved for fear of theft or strikes against the country’s nuclear facilities and also to remove its nuclear arsenal from bases that might be used by the US.

    Musharraf also reorganized military oversight of the nuclear forces in the weeks after joining the US in its campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan. On 7 October, Musharraf created the new Strategic Planning Division, headed by a three-star general to oversee operations as part of a top military and intelligence restructuring designed to marginalize officers considered too sympathetic to the Taliban and other extremist factions. General Khalid Kidwai is now the director of operational security for the country’s nuclear sites and weapons and he answers directly to Musharraf.

    Reports from the US Central Intelligence Agency and other sources have stated that Pakistan stores its nuclear warheads and missiles separately but it is unknown whether in the emergency conditions of the months following the 11 September events whether the equipment was repositioned for easier assembly. Intelligence sources believe that Pakistan has between 30-40 warheads and it has test-fired intermediate range ballistic missiles. US officials fear that if Musharraf is assassinated or ousted in a military coup, extremists could gain control of the Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal or share knowledge about them with hostile organizations or regimes.

    3. UK Ministry of Defense Releases Details of Nuclear Transports Despite Threat Posed by Nuclear Terrorism

    The UK Ministry of Defense published details about the transport of nuclear weapons and plutonium throughout the country on the Ministry of Defense website in November intended to assist police, fire brigades and city councils in drafting emergency plans in case of an accident. The Ministry of Defense has received criticism for the report entitled “Defence Nuclear Materials Transport Contingency Arrangements,” because opponents argue that the report could offer potential terrorists a guide to the rail lines, roads and airports used for nuclear materials. It also raised controversy in light of Home Secretary David Blunkett’s attempts to prevent nuclear terrorism. The report challenges one of Secretary Blunkett’s proposed measures that makes it an offense punishable by seven years in jail to disclose any information that “might prejudice the security of any nuclear site or of any nuclear material.”

    The report details security for nuclear convoys. It also lists UK military nuclear reactor factories and test sites and for the first time where “special nuclear materials” such as weapons-grade uranium and plutonium would travel. In addition, the publication reveals that a warhead is unstable if heated. According to the report, “If weapon is jetting (flames under pressure) explosion may be imminent, debris may be scattered within 600 m[eter] radius.”

    Stewart Kemp, Secretary of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities stated, “If the government judges that there is an increased terrorist threat then the right thing to do is to stop the transports altogether.”

    The full report can be obtained online at http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=2474.

    4. France Deploys Missiles to Defend Nuclear Waste Reprocessing Plant

    As a precaution against suicide attacks, France increased the number of surface-to-air missiles near La Hague, Europe’s largest nuclear waste reprocessing plant in November. In October, the French Defense Ministry announced that radar systems capable of detecting low-flying planes and surface-to-air missiles had been positioned at La Hague as well as at Il Longue, a military base for nuclear submarines off the Brittany coast in northwest France.

    A top regional official stated that the deployment of surface-to-air missiles was placed a mile from the plant and the measure was purely precautionary in light of the events of 11 September in the US.

    5. IAEA Calls for Global Nuclear Security Standards to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism

    Weapons experts told attendees of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna, Austria on 2 November that terrorists could use a nuclear device. Speakers at the conference suggested that western countries, in particular the US, should accelerate efforts to protect nuclear materials that could, if they haven’t already, fall into the hands of terrorists. Morten Bremer Maerli, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affaris, stated, “The only strategy is to protect the material where it is, but this kind of implementation strategy doesn’t exist.”

    Maerli and other experts testified to a shocking lack of security and control to prevent the theft or purchase of highly enriched uranium and plutonium from nuclear facilities in many countries, especially Russia. Since 1993, the IAEA has reported 175 cases of nuclear materials trafficking, including 18 cases involving small amounts of highly enriched uranium or plutonium. In these cases, law enforcement agencies seized the materials, but records at the facilities from which the materials were stolen, most of them Russian, did not show anything missing. According to Matthew Bunn, Assistant Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, up to 60 percent of nuclear material remains inadequately secured in Russia.

    Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA Director General, stated “The controls on nuclear material and radioactive sources are uneven. Security is as good as its weakest link and loose nuclear material in any country is a potential threat to the entire world.” According to ElBaradei, in the wake of the 11 September events, the IAEA has expanded its concerns about nuclear materials getting into clandestine weapons programs, not only in states that sponsor terrorism, but also into the hands of extremist groups.

    ElBaradei called for international unity to create universal minimum security standards for nuclear plants and materials. Currently, standards are largely left to individual countries. The IAEA also requested $30 million to $50 million to step up safety work in securing nuclear materials globally.

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

    1. Reports surface about the use of humans as guinea pigs in nuclear experiments from the 1950s to the 1970s.

    2. In a documentary, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres goes further than any other Israeli official in confirming that Israel has nuclear capability and discloses for the first time details about Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

    3. The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) admits for the first time partial details of seven politically sensitive accidents involving British nuclear weapon, drawing attention to an institution shrouded in secrecy and cover-up.

    4. The French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) admits that Moruroa Atoll is threatened with collapse because of sustained nuclear testing.

    5. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency (NRPA) reveals that radioactive waste from a nuclear research plant in Norway has been wrongly fed into a town’s sewage system for nine years.
    1. Humans Used as Guinea Pigs in Nuclear Experiments

    The UK Ministry of Defense admitted on 12 May that it exposed British, Australian and New Zealand servicemen to radiation in tests during the 1950s and 1960s. A spokesperson for the Ministry denied that the soldiers were used as guinea pigs, stating that each man gave his consent to participate. The experiments tested the effectiveness of protective clothing during radiation experiments. According to the Ministry of Defense, officers were ordered to walk, run and crawl through contaminated nuclear test sites at Monte Bello Island and Maralinga to determine what types of clothing would give best protection against radioactive contamination. Both the Australian and New Zealand governments demanded a full inquiry into the experiments and announced that they will examine links between illnesses suffered by servicemen and exposure to radiation.

    Although previously thought to be used for the first time during the Gulf War, the Australian government confirmed on 28 May that more than eight tons of depleted uranium were blasted into the air during nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s. The government announced that it will prepare a study of those who may have been affected, including soldiers and Aboriginal and civilian populations in the area at the time of testing. The findings of the study will determine eligibility for compensation under military or safety stipulations. An Australian royal commission first discovered the use of depleted uranium in atomic tests at Maralinga some 14 years ago, but the government failed to take any action at the time.

    On 24 June, The Sunday Times (UK) revealed that some 45,000 people, mainly Soviet soldiers, were deliberately exposed in 1954 to radiation from a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima just nine years before. At 9:33 a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40,000-ton atomic weapon from 25,000 feet. The bomb exploded 1,200 feet above Totskoye testing range near the provincial town of Orenburg. Thousands are believed to have died in the immediate aftermath and in the years following. The pilot flying the Tu-4 bomber developed leukemia and his co-pilot developed bone cancer. Marshal Georgi Zhukov, Stalin’s most senior World War II Commander, safely witnessed the blast from an underground nuclear bunker. Moments after the blast, Zhukov ordered 600 tanks, 600 armored personnel carriers and 320 planes to move forward to the epicenter in order to stage a mock battle. The experiment was designed to test the performance of military hardware and soldiers in the event of a nuclear war.

    The UK Atomic Energy Authority admitted on 30 September that thighbones were removed from the bodies of dead babies without parents’ consent for testing from 3,400 children between 1954 and 1970. The bones were collected from hospitals throughout the UK to allow scientists to establish what effect the fallout from nuclear tests being carried out around the world was having on health. Doctors feared that the radioactive fallout from nuclear tests was contaminating milk and could be building up to dangerous levels in children’s bones.

    2. France Cooperated with Israel in Launching Israel’s Nuclear Program

    At a time of rising tensions in the Middle East, Israel’s broadcasting media aired a television documentary in November in which Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres discloses for the first time details about Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. In the documentary, Peres goes further than any other Israeli official in confirming that the country has nuclear capability. Along with French officials, Peres gives details about cooperation between Israel and France in launching Israel’s nuclear program.

    The showing of the film may be a sign that the Israeli government is beginning to relax its rule of absolute silence on its nuclear program. Mordechai Vanunu is still serving an 18-year sentence in jail for revealing in 1986 that Israel had a nuclear program and more than 100 warheads. The makers of the film also believe that the government cooperated in the making of the film because of concerns over international terrorism and the expectation that Iran could have nuclear capability in a few years.

    The film reveals that France helped Israel with its nuclear program in exchange for support in the Suez War. In September 1956, Shimon Peres, then a Defense Ministry Official, accompanied Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to Sevres, France for a meeting with French and British delegations over the Suez crisis. In the documentary, Peres states, “In Sevres, when it was all over, I told Ben-Gurion, ‘There’s one piece of unfinished business: the nuclear issue. Before you agree, let me finish that.’ Of the four countries which at that time had a nuclear capability-the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France-only France was willing to help us.”

    Until Israel’s agreement with France, no country had supplied another with the means for developing nuclear capability. Jean-Francois Daguzan, Deputy Director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, said the agreement was kept secret for some 30 years. He stated, “It was well known in military and political circles, but it didn’t become public knowledge until the mid-1980s after a book was published about that era and the agreement was mentioned. There was no suggestion that France had given Israel its nuclear capacity, but it had certainly helped the country acquire it.”

    Israel still will not officially confirm or deny making nuclear weapons at the plant near Dimona. Israel’s policy of ambiguity is designed to deter Arabs from attacking Israel while at the same time avoiding the political fallout of becoming a declared nuclear power.

    3. UK Ministry of Defense Releases Carefully Worded List of Nuclear Accidents

    In July, the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) admitted for the first time some details of seven politically sensitive accidents involving British nuclear weapons. However, the MoD admitted that it only released partial information, drawing attention to an institution shrouded in secrecy and cover-up.

    In 1974, a torpedo was dropped on top of a nuclear weapon on a British nuclear submarine, the HMS Tiger, anchored off Valetta Harbor, Malta. According to Shaun Gregory, a Bradford University academic, if the torpedo had exploded or caused a fire, it could have detonated the high explosive within the nuclear weapon, scattering radioactive debris for several miles around. The Maltese government was not told about the accident.

    In August 1977, a Polaris missile was dropped while being hoisted onto a submarine at a nuclear weapons depot at Coulport, Argyll and Bute. The military documented both events as “handling incidents.”

    The MoD documented three road accidents involving military convoys carrying nuclear weapons–in Wiltshire in January 1987, on the M8 near Glasgow in August 1983, and near the Coulport depot in April 1973.

    In 1974 and 1981, protective casings around Polaris missiles were “compressed” on board submarines at sea, but no other details are given.

    According to the MoD, a full description of these incidents can not be released to protect the “operational security” of the weapons. However, some information was released under a freedom of information request by “The Guardian” in a carefully worded list to “allay public worries.” The MoD insists that the accidents did not endanger public safety since none of the weapons were damaged or leaked radioactive material.

    However, the MoD has refused to give any details of other mishaps because they did not “involve any threat to public safety”. In 1992, an inquiry by Ronald Oxburgh, the then MoD chief scientific adviser, found that since 1960 there have been around 20 mishaps.

    4. Moruroa Atoll Threatened With Collapse

    Reports that surfaced in March from the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) admit that the rock of Mururoa Atoll is threatened with collapse because of sustained nuclear testing. Between 1966 and 1996, France exploded 178 nuclear bombs on Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls. Of those tests, 137 were below ground explosions and 41 were atmospheric.

    An official spokesman for the CEA stated: “We are observing an acceleration of the natural, seaward progression of certain perimeter areas in the northeastern zone, as well as compression at the surface. There has definitely been a weakening of the atoll rock that has been amplified by the nuclear tests.” The atoll has been dotted with seismic sensors, linked to Paris by satellite, to give early warning should a major collapse occur.

    For many years, environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists have warned that the Atoll could collapse and release radioactive debris because of the French nuclear testing. Matt Robson, Disarmament Minister of New Zealand, said that New Zealand first expressed concerns as early as 1973 and had known about the damage when a report was released in 1998. In 1999, the International Geomechanical Commission released a report on plutonium “hotspots” and the risk of portions of the atoll collapsing, possibly causing tidal waves. New Zealand announced that it will formally ask the French Government to explain the reports of the atoll’s possible collapse.

    5. Plumbing Mistake Creates Nuclear Fertilizer

    The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) revealed on 17 April that radioactive waste from a nuclear research plant in Norway has been wrongly fed into a town’s sewage system for nine years. As a result, some of the radioactive waste ended up as farm fertilizer. The NRPA stated that waste water was incorrectly linked in 1991 to a sewage system in Halden when it should have been pumped directly into the sea. The “plumbing” mistake was not rectified until 1999. Officials deny that there has been any risk to human health, but ecologists are demanding radiation tests for local farmers. Mr. Sverre Hornkjoel, a scientist for NRPA, said that the mistake was made by municipality officials, but Norway’s nuclear industry is ultimately responsible.

  • The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Top Five Events Related to Nuclear Waste in 2001

    Issued January 2002

    1. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approves the site suitability study to build an underground nuclear dump for radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants at Yucca Mountain.
    2. Although current laws in the UK prohibit the construction of nuclear power plants in national parks, British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) unveils plans to build an above-ground nuclear waste dump the size of a football stadium in the heart of Snowdonia National Park.
    3. Despite not informing the public or releasing an official statement, Minatom, Russia’s atomic energy agency, selects a permanent geological repository to store nuclear waste in Siberia.
    4. Both nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield in Cumbria, UK are shut down due to high level nuclear waste reaching unacceptable levels. (sept/oct/dec)
    5. Anti-nuclear protesters chain themselves to rail tracks, forcing a train carrying nuclear waste to retreat near the end of its journey to France in Northern Germany.
    1. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Approves Yucca Mountain Waste Dump

    On 23 October, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the site suitability study to build an underground dump for radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The US Department of Energy (DoE) submitted the site suitability study to the NRC. The Bush administration must now submit the plan to Congress for approval. If approved, Yucca Mountain would become the recipient of thousands of tons of radioactive waste for an estimated 10,000 years.

    The US General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, urged the Bush administration in November to indefinitely postpone a decision on creating a permanent nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada because of serious questions regarding if it could ever be built as it is currently conceived. The site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been the Department of Energy’s (DoE) only candidate for a permanent nuclear waste repository for some 20 years. The site would hold up to 78,000 tons of radioactive waste.

    According to nuclear industry and government officials, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is set to urge President Bush to formally designate Yucca Mountain as the permanent repository this winter. However, the new GAO report states that it will take until January 2006 to complete the detailed research and cost estimates, and to resolve outstanding issues before the administration could responsibly designate the site. According to the report, “[The] DoE is not ready to make a site recommendation because it does not yet have all the technical information needed for a recommendation and a subsequent license application.” Furthermore, the report also warns that officials may be showing plans to lawmakers and Nevada residents that “may not describe the facilities that the DoE would actually develop.”
    The full GAO report can be downloaded online at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02191.pdf

    2. Waste Storage Facility Proposed in UK National Park

    In a move described by environmentalists as a “nightmare,” British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) unveiled plans in July to build an above-ground nuclear waste dump the size of a football stadium in the heart of Snowdonia National Park in the UK. The building is expected to cost nearly $75 million (US) and will store reactor parts from the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station which was decommissioned in 1993. Today, laws in the UK prohibit the construction of nuclear power plants in national parks. However, Trawsfynydd was authorized before the creation of Snowdonia National Park. BNFL says that is has no alternative plans to building the storage facility as the UK has no central nuclear waste dump.

    The Council for National Parks (CNP), a UK based environmental campaign organization, argues that all plans for storing the waste must be debated in a public inquiry.

    3. Minatom Selects Permanent Geological Waste Repository

    ECODEFENSE!, a Russian environmental organization, disclosed documents on 3 October confirming Russia’s intent to establish a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel that has accumulated in the country and around the world. Documents obtained from the Khlopin Radium Institute, the research branch of the Russian nuclear industry, demonstrate that the industry has been actively researching the Nizhnekansky granitoid massif, located near the city of Krasnoyarsk-26 in Middle Siberia as a possible repository site since 1998.

    The research information has never appeared in Russian press or in official statements from Minatom, Russia’s atomic energy agency. The local population was also never informed of the research. The Nizhnekansky site is located approximately 15 miles outside the city of Krasnoyarsk-26. It is a nuclear facility built by the USSR for military purposes, including plutonium production. Research for establishing a geological repository at this site has been funded for the past three years by Finland, Japan and the US. Nizhnekansky was chosen out of an initial 20 reviewed sites because of its ancient gneiss bedding and massifs of granitoid rocks.

    In Summer 2001, Russian authorities approved new legislation allowing Minatom to import spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing or storage. However, the documents obtained by ECODEFENSE! from the Khlopin Radium Institute expose that the intent of the nuclear industry is not to reprocess or store foreign spent nuclear fuel, but rather to dump it permanently in the Siberian site. Minatom documents released in early 2001 outline plans to import several thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel from Taiwan and other countries to Krasnoyarsk-26 facilities, which is currently able to store up to 6,000 tons of waste.

    4. UK Spent Fuel Reprocessing Plant Shuts Down

    Both nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield in Cumbria, UK were shut down on 21 September due to high level nuclear waste reaching unacceptable levels. The UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), a government regulator, has been critical of British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) for failure to deal with heat producing waste, the most dangerous material stored at the plant. Despite attempts to reduce the amount of liquid waste, the plant has broken down repeatedly and been out of operation for most of 2001.

    The amount of waste at the plant is rising instead of falling. The reprocessing plant deals with spent fuel from nuclear reactors in the UK as well as from customers in Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Italy. The NII warned BNFL in August that unless it reduced the amount of waste in holding tanks at Sellafield–currently more than 1,550 cubic meters–by 35 cubic meters each year for the next 14 years, the plant would be shut down. This year, the amount of waste at the plant has increased by more than 100 cubic meters.

    The plant has only achieved 34 percent of its potential production in a decade, leading to the build up of high level radioactive wastes. The Irish government has protested to the British government the threat posed by the waste to its citizens.

    In related news, Ireland took legal action against the British government for giving the go-ahead to open a Mixed Oxide (MOX) nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in October. Ireland claims that the plant will violate international laws on sea pollution. Officials also express concern that they received no information about a safety review of the site, especially in light of the 11 September events.

    5. German Protesters Stop Waste Shipment

    Anti-nuclear protesters chained themselves to rail tracks forcing a train carrying nuclear waste to retreat near the end of its journey in northern Germany on 28 March. The train, traveling from the French nuclear reprocessing plant at La Hague, was forced to retreat to Dahlenburg for refueling and maintenance as riot police freed protesters who had attached themselves to the rail tracks. On 27 March, police used a water cannon and detained nearly 600 people protesting the shipment.

    Recently France has mounted pressure on Germany to reduce a backlog of German waste at La Hague reprocessing plant. In response, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder lifted a ban on nuclear waste transports imposed in 1998 on safety grounds and two transports are expected per year. The transports are part of a deal made with the electricity industry in 2000 to phase out Germany’s 19 nuclear power plant reactors by 2025.

  • Some Points on Terrorism

    Here are some points in connection with U.S. reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks:

    Atrocious crimes have been committed. It is right to make every effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.

    This effort should be aimed at justice, not undiscriminating revenge.

    Holding the perpetrators accountable and bringing them to public trial before a suitable tribunal will disseminate the lessons to be drawn from these atrocities and act as a deterrent for the future.

    If it is demonstrated that governments as well as terrorist groups are implicated, then responsible persons in those governments should be named and their delivery to a tribunal demanded, as the U.S. has done with Osama bin Laden and his collaborators.

    All anti-terrorist actions of the United States should clearly show that the U.S. is holding specific individuals accountable for specific reasons and should avoid blanket accusations and indiscriminate death and injury. U.S. actions should not create future terrorists.

    The use of military force should only be a last resort, should be limited to the purpose of bringing presumed perpetrators to justice, and should be visibly related to that purpose.

    The UN Security Council resolution of September 12, 2001 proposed by the United States and passed with its vote makes explicit this point of bringing individuals to justice. Paragraph 3 of the resolution states: “[The UN Security Council] Calls on all States to work together urgently to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these terrorist attacks and stresses that those responsible for aiding, supporting or harbouring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held accountable.”

    We must study the sources and causes of terrorist motivation. Information thus far available shows that most of the nineteen perpetrators of the September 11 hijackings were educated men from fairly solid middle class families, not unemployed residents of refugee camps. In conducting this study, we must be as balanced as possible, including in the study U.S. actions and policies that might have contributed, but also considering all other pertinent sources of motivation.

    Because it is already widely known that one important source of Muslim resentment against the USA is U.S. support for Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, we should urge the administration to develop an equitable and practical plan for resolving this confrontation, perhaps based on the last stage of the Barak-Arafat negotiations before their collapse, and to press this plan systematically on both Israelis and Palestinians. The time has come for both, in the interest of world security and their own security, to agree to a plan for reconciling their differences.

    We also need an administration action plan to alleviate the plight of the Iraqi civilian population under UN sanctions.

    We should continue to remind the Administration and the U.S. public of the relevance of the UN role in combating terrorism.

    This is a time of high emotions with much pressure for unity and uniformity. It entails a risk here that the American public and the Congress may be stampeded into unwise actions. We should insist that all decisions on terrorism be approached with reflection and best judgment. All U.S. citizens should insist on retaining the right to draw their own conclusions and to use their own judgment.

    This point is especially applicable to proposals to limit political freedoms inside the U.S. and for military action abroad.

  • Rep. Barbara Lee’s Speech Opposing the Post 9-11 Use of Force Act

    Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and loved ones who were killed and injured in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Only the most foolish or the most callous would not understand the grief that has gripped the American people and millions around the world.

    This unspeakable attack on the United States has forced me to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction.

    September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.

    I know that this use-of -force resolution will pass although we all know that the President can wage war even without this resolution. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. There must be some of us who say, let’s step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today-let us more fully understand their consequences.

    We are not dealing with a conventional war. We cannot respond in a conventional manner. I do not want to see this spiral out of control. This crisis involves issues of national security, foreign policy, public safety, intelligence gathering, economics, and murder. Our response must be equally multifaceted.

    We must not rush to judgment. For too many innocent people have already died. Our country is in mourning. If we rush to launch a counterattack, we run too great a risk that woman, children, and other non-combatants will be caught in the crossfire.

    Nor can we let our justified anger over these outrageous acts by vicious murderers inflame prejudice against all Arab Americans, Muslim, Southeast Asians, and any other people because of their race, religion, or ethnicity.

    Finally, we must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target. We cannot repeat past mistakes.

    In 1964, Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to “take all necessary measures” to repel attacks and prevent further aggression. In so doing, this House abandoned its own constitutional responsibilities and launched our country into years of undeclared war in Vietnam.

    At this time, Senator Wayne Morse, on e of the two lonely votes against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, declared, “I believe that history will record that we have made a grave mistake in subverting and circumventing the Constitution of the United StatesŠI believe that with the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to make such a historic mistake.”

    Senator Morse was correct, and I fear we make the same mistake today. And I fear the consequences. I have agonized over this vote. But I came to grips with it in the very painful yet beautiful memorial service today at the National Cathedral. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, ” As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.”

  • Terrorism and Nonviolence

    Understandably, after the tragedy in New York and Washington DC on September 11 many have written or called the office to find out what would be an appropriate nonviolent response to such an unbelievably inhuman act of violence.

    First, we must understand that nonviolence is not a strategy that we can use in a moment of crisis and discard in times of peace. Nonviolence is about personal attitudes, about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. Because, a nation’s collective attitude is based on the attitude of the individual. Nonviolence is about building positive relationships with all human beings – relationships that are based on love, compassion, respect, understanding and appreciation.

    Nonviolence is also about not judging people as we perceive them to be – that is, a murderer is not born a murderer; a terrorist is not born a terrorist. People become murderers, robbers and terrorists because of circumstances and experiences in life. Killing or confining murders, robbers, terrorists, or the like is not going to rid this world of them. For every one we kill or confine we create another hundred to take their place. What we need to do is to analyze dispassionately what are those circumstances that create such monsters and how can we help eliminate those circumstances, not the monsters. Justice should mean reformation and not revenge.

    We saw some people in Iraq and Palestine and I dare say many other countries rejoice in the blowing up of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It horrified us, as it should. But, let us not forget that we do the same thing. When Israel bombs the Palestinians we either rejoice or show no compassion. Our attitude is they deserve what they get. When the Palestinians bomb the Israelis we are indignant and condemn them as vermin who need to be eliminated.

    We reacted without compassion when we bombed the cities of Iraq. I was among the millions in the United States who sat glued to the television and watched the drama as though it was a made for television film. The television had desensitized us. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were being blown to bits and instead of feeling sorry for them we marveled at the efficiency of our military. For more than ten years we have continued to wreak havoc in Iraq – an estimated 50,000 children die every year because of sanctions that we have imposed – and it hasn’t moved us to compassion. All this is done, we are told, because we want to get rid of the Satan called Sadam Hussein.

    Now we are getting ready to do this all over again to get rid of another Satan called Osama Bin Laden. We will bomb the cities of Afghanistan because they harbor the Satan and in the process we will help create a thousand other bin Ladens.

    Some might say “we don’t care what the world thinks of us as long as they respect our strength. ” After all we have the means to blow this world to pieces since we are the only surviving super-power. Do we want the world to respect us the way school children respect a bully? Is that our role in the world?

    If a bully is what we want to be then we must be prepared to face the same consequences a school-yard bully faces. On the other hand we cannot tell the world “leave us alone.” Isolationism is not what this world is built for.

    All of this brings us back to the question: How do we respond nonviolently to terrorism?

    The consequences of a military response are not very rosy. Many thousands of innocent people will die both here and in the country or countries we attack. Militancy will increase exponentially and, ultimately, we will be faced with another, more pertinent, moral question: what will we gain by destroying half the world? Will we be able to live with a clear conscience?

    We must acknowledge our role in helping create monsters in the world and then find ways to contain these monsters without hurting more innocent people and then redefine our role in the world. I think we must move from seeking to be respected for our military strength to being respected for our moral strength.

    We need to appreciate that we are in a position to play a powerful role in helping the “other half” of the world attain a better standard of life not by throwing a few crumbs but by significantly involving ourselves in constructive economic programs.

    For too long our foreign policy has been based on “what is good for the United States.” It smacks of selfishness. Our foreign policy should now be based on what is good for the world and how can we do the right thing to help the world become more peaceful.

    To those who have lost loved ones in this and other terrorist acts I say I share your grief. I am sorry that you have become victims of senseless violence. But let this sad episode not make you vengeful because no amount of violence and killing is going to bring you inner peace. Anger and hate never do. The memory of those victims who have died in this and other violent incidents around the world will be better preserved and meaningfully commemorated if we all learn to forgive and dedicate our lives to helping create a peaceful, respectful and understanding world.

    Arun Gandhi Founder Director M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence 650 East Parkway South Memphis TN 3810

  • His Holiness the Dalai Lam’s Message to George Bush

    Your Excellency,

    I am deeply shocked by the terrorist attacks that took place involving four apparently hijacked aircrafts and the immense devastation these caused. It is a terrible tragedy that so many innocent lives have been lost and it seems unbelievable that anyone would choose to target the world trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We are deeply saddened. On behalf of the Tibetan people I would like to convey our deepest condolence and solidarity with the American people during this painful time. Our prayers go out to the many who have lost their lives, those who have been injured and the many more who have been traumatized by this senseless act of violence. I am attending a special prayer for the United States and it’s people at our main temple today.

    I am confident that the United States as a great and powerful nation will be able to overcome this present tragedy. The American people have shown their resilience, courage and determination when faced with such difficult and sad situation.

    It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence. But how do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes of such senseless violence? This is a very difficult question, especially when it concerns a nation and we have certain fixed conceptions of how to deal with such attacks. I am sure that you will make the right decision.

    With my prayers and good wishes

    The Dalai Lama September 12, 2001 Dharamsala, India

  • Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Statement on 9-11 Terrorist Attacks

    Our hearts go out to the victims and families of the vicious and premeditated terrorist attacks against the people of the United States.

    These attacks make clear that people everywhere are vulnerable to fanatics, propelled by hatred, who are determined to inflict terrible injuries, even at the cost of their own lives.

    President Bush has vowed to bring the attackers to justice, but revenge is not sufficient. It is also not effective in dealing with people who are suicidal. We are faced with the dilemma of how to prevent future attacks by suicidal people without becoming a police state.

    Not military strength, nor nuclear weapons, nor missile defenses can protect us from such attackers, willing to die in the perpetration of their terrorist acts.

    Since we cannot end our vulnerability, we must find new policies that will restore an atmosphere free from violence in our world. The challenge we now face is to find the wisdom to develop new policies, based on justice and human dignity, to end the threats before us.

  • The History of My Peace Activities with an A-bomb Survivor and Student Peace Fellows

    I have dreamed of participating in Sadako Peace Day ever since I learned that the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation commemorates August 6th every year. The reason why I have not been able to attend this ceremony is that I have always been in Hiroshima on the same day. After my first meeting with an atomic bomb survivor of Hiroshima, Miyoko Matsubara, I organized a college student volunteer group and visited Hiroshima for three days including on August 6th to study peace. This encounter with one Hibakusha, or an A-bomb survivor, changed my life dramatically. I would like to share with you a brief history of my peace activities with a Hibakusha and Japanese students, my fellow peace companions.

    It was the winter of 1996 that Miyoko came to my university, Soka University in Tokyo, Japan, to share her life story. I was a senior at that time. Even though I had learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki in school, I had little knowledge about the issue; I knew that thousands of innocent people were killed instantly and that still many survivors suffer from radiation exposure. But I didn’t know why it really happed and how survivors have struggled to live. So, it was the first time for me to hear a first hand experience from a Hibakusha. I was so furious about the brutality of nuclear weapons and felt the urgent need to do something so that the same mistake will not be repeated. Then, I decided to take action by supporting her peace activities. I decided to go to Hiroshima, believing that I should visit the very place where the atomic bomb was dropped to know what really happened.

    The next year, in spring of 1997, 9 students, including myself, and one American professor went to Hiroshima. We called this trip “Peace Trip to Hiroshima.” We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Peace Memorial Park and Okuno Island, where the Japanese army developed poison gas during World War II. We thought that visiting Okuno Island was important in order to know that Japan was an aggressor, not only a victim in terms of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also met several Hibakushas and heard their testimonies. Through this trip, we deepened our conviction that nuclear weapons are totally against humanity, and we have to abolish them before all living beings will be exterminated.

    Soon after coming back from Hiroshima, I graduated from university and remained in contact with Miyoko to help her peace activities, including translating Miyoko’s letters both into English and Japanese, helping write drafts of Miyoko’s letters and speeches, traveling overseas with her as an assistant/ translator several times, and so forth. What has amazed me most is Miyoko’s power of spirit. Physically, she is very sick; she had breast cancer caused by radiation. Now there are two polyps in her stomach that might turn into another cancer someday. So, she has “bombs” inside her body. However, since she has a strong sense of mission that telling her experience will help abolish nuclear weapons, she continuously talks to people both in Japanese and English, and in Japan and overseas.

    In fall of 1997, the same year that I went to Hiroshima for the first time, Miyoko offered me a chance to travel to the US with her. One of the destinations of our trip was the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Greatly impressed by Dr. David Krieger, president of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s personality, his passion for peace, and the Foundation’s dedication for peace activities, I decided to establish a student peace advocate group, which would support the Foundation’s activities, at Soka University from which I graduated. Then, in the following year, in 1998, I established the Friends of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with students. Since the establishment, as an advisor, I have coordinated several activities with students: conducting “Peace Trip to Hiroshima” in every August, translating the Foundation’s information into Japanese and putting it on our web site, and holding study groups. One of the biggest accomplishments was when our student government passed “The Abolition 2000 Soka University Campus Resolution” last year. This is our pledge that we oppose nuclear weapons, the evil weapons of mass destruction. In order to pass the resolution, we organized several seminars, aiming for students’ conscious rising, invited Miyoko to share her experience, and collected signatures to support passing the resolution.

    Through these activities, I have learned that students possess a profound potential to become a strong source for social change. My mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, the founder of Soka University and the recipient of the World Citizenship Award in 1999 by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, says that “[Mahatma] Gandhi proclaimed that the ‘power of the spirit’ is stronger than any atomic bomb. To transform this century of war into a century of peace, we must cultivate the limitless inherent power of human life. This is the ‘human revolution’.” I found that this “human revolution”, namely the inner transformation or strengthening life condition, which never succumbs to injustice, in the level of each individual is the assured way that will lead to create a world without nuclear weapons. In order to cultivate our strong self, we need to carry on hope, a hope that we can change the world. This is what Sadako had done until the very moment of her death. With hope that folding 1000 cranes would bring her longer life, Sadako continued folding cranes on her sickbed. Even though she died young, her hope and her “power of spirit” have been passed on from generation to generation.

    Finally, I would like to end my speech with one of my favorite poems written by Dr. Krieger. This is a poem dedicated to young people worldwide.

    You are a miracle, entirely unique. There has never been another With your combination of talents, dreams, and hopes. You can create. You are capable of love and compassion. You are a miracle. You are a gift of creation to itself. You are here for a purpose which you must find. Your presence here is sacred-and you will Change the world.

    Thank you very much!

  • Ventura Activist Sets Off on Mission to Iraq

    Ventura resident Leah Wells was one of five Americans who flew to Baghdad on Thursday, hoping to focus attention on the effects of an economic embargo on Iraqis and ultimately to change U.S. foreign policy.

    “The purpose of the trip is to try and put pressure on our government to lift the sanctions,” Wells said Thursday from Chicago before leaving the country. “People can make a difference.”

    Iraq has been under United Nations sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in 1990 and was defeated by forces led by the United States seven months later.

    Wells, 25, is part of a delegation representing the Chicago-based U.S. Voices in the Wilderness, a human rights group that has led dozens of missions into Iraq to deliver medical equipment and gather information.

    “The World Health Organization has reported that over a half-million children and 1 million people overall have died since 1990 as a result of the sanctions,” Wells said. “Women are too malnourished to breast-feed. Children are dying of malnutrition.”

    Wells said many Americans are unaware of the effect the U.N. embargo has had on Iraqis.

    “The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is virtually unreported,” Wells said. “The air strikes were in the news, but the day-to-day suffering of the Iraqi people isn’t well-known.”

    Although this is her first trip to Iraq, Wells said other people who have made the journey have described vast residential tracts with open sewage lines, no electricity, and schools without textbooks.

    The delegation was carrying two duffel bags stuffed with medical journals and supplies, which she said would be invaluable to medical professionals starved for up-to-date information.

    “It’s not just an economic embargo,” she said. “It’s an intellectual embargo as well.”

    A peace activist and a teacher at St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, Wells teaches a class on nonviolence that covers the situation in Iraq. She said many of her students support her venture.

    “Once the students find out what’s going on, I don’t have to convince them,” she said. “They see it.”

    Wells said she isn’t concerned about repercussions from the trip, which violates the embargo against Iraq.

    “We risk up to 12 years in prison and over $1 million in fines for each delegation we send,” she said. “This is the 38th delegation we’ve sent over and it hasn’t happened yet.”

    * Email Andrea Cavanaugh