U.S. Considers Extending “Takeback” Policy of Spent Fuel From Foreign Research Reactors By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department is considering whether to extend a policy of accepting spent nuclear fuel from certain foreign research reactors — a move that some experts said could affect U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts (see GSN, Oct. 23)...Full Story

No Chance for North Korean Nuclear Talks This Year, Officials Say The United States and China have abandoned attempts to hold six-nation talks on the North Korean crisis this year and instead will attempt to arrange negotiations for early 2004, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 15)...Full Story

U.S. Defense Officials Predict Growing Ballistic Missile Proliferation U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week said that he believed there would be a significant increase in the number of countries armed with ballistic missiles within the next 20 years, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology (see GSN, Nov. 11)...Full Story

	Tuesday, December 16, 2003

U.S. Firm Fined for Illegal Computer Exports to China Sun Microsystems and two of its subsidiaries have been fined $291,000 for violations that include illegal computer exports to China, the U.S. Commerce Department announced yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 24). The department alleged that Sun Microsystems had exported an E5000 server in 1997 without obtaining the required export license. While the company had told the department that the server was destined for the Automated Systems Ltd. Warehouse in Hong Kong, U.S. agents later found the machine at the Chinese Changsha Institute of Science and Technology, which offers courses in missile and rocket research, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Oct. 21). In addition, the department charged that a Sun employee had altered a nonproliferation commerce letter in 1997 and submitted the document to the Bureau of Export Administration, AP reported. Sun has also been found in violation of U.S. export regulations by shipping two servers in 1998 to Egypt without required export licenses — servers that were ultimately sent to the Egyptian military, department officials said. Sun Microsystems agreed to pay a $269,000 fine to settle 24 civil violations, according to AP. In addition, two Hong Kong-based subsidiaries have been fined $11,000 each and will be prohibited from selling anything to the Changsha Institute for one year. In a statement yesterday, Sun said it had settled the case “without admitting or denying the allegations.” “Sun maintains comprehensive procedures to comply with all aspects of U.S. and, where applicable, foreign export control laws,” the company said. “All export transactions are closely monitored by these procedures, which have been strengthened to enhance our ability to ensure full and strict compliance with applicable laws,” it added (Rachel Konrad, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Dec. 16). Back to top       Top Iraqi Missile Scientist Aiding United Kingdom, Not in Iran Top Iraqi ballistic missile scientist Modher Sadeq Saba al-Tamimi has said he did not flee to Iran, as U.S. officials believed, but has been in Iraq working with British officials, the Associated Press reported Sunday (see GSN, Nov. 17). Al-Tamimi said he asked his British contacts to inform the United States that he was still in Iraq (Associated Press/Wavy.com, Dec. 13) Back to top

U.S. Considers Extending “Takeback” Policy of Spent Fuel From Foreign Research Reactors By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department is considering whether to extend a policy of accepting spent nuclear fuel from certain foreign research reactors — a move that some experts said could affect U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts (see GSN, Oct. 23). The U.S. “takeback” policy allows foreign research reactors that use U.S.-origin uranium fuel to return the spent fuel to the United States for storage and disposal in exchange for those reactors agreeing to shut down or convert to use low-enriched uranium. Reactors that can convert to low-enriched uranium fuel but choose to continue using highly enriched fuel are not eligible to ship their spent fuel to the United States. The current arrangement, intended to reduce the risk of terrorists or others acquiring weapon-grade uranium, is set to expire after 2009. Last week, representatives from the Foreign Research Reactor Group (FRRG), which represents 12 European research reactors, met with Energy Department officials in Washington to discuss extending the takeback policy. While a spokesman for the group said last week that the department appears ready to approve the policy’s extension, the department has said that a decision on whether to do so has not yet been made. Nongovernmental proliferation experts appear to disagree on whether the extending the policy would help or hinder nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Some experts support extending the takeback policy, saying nations would be more likely to convert their research reactors to use less proliferation-sensitive fuel if the United States promised to accept the reactors’ spent fuel. Others have argued, however, that extending the policy would actually reduce incentives for research reactor operators to convert to using low-enriched uranium fuel in the near future. The takeback policy, which was created in 1996, originated out of the 1950s “Atoms for Peace” effort, through which the United States promised to provide nuclear technology to countries that agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons. One component of the atoms-for-peace effort was the provision of nuclear research reactors and the highly enriched uranium fuel needed to power them. In 1964, the United State implemented the “Off-Site Fuels Policy,” under which foreign research reactors would eventually return the spent fuel to the United States for storage and disposal. In the late 1970s, the United States initiated the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program, which seeks to convert foreign research reactors to the use of low enriched uranium fuel (see GSN, Sept. 27, 2002). According to a 1996 Energy Department document, many foreign research reactors agreed to participate in the RERTR program on the condition that the United States would continue to accept spent fuel through the Off-Site Fuels Policy, which expired in 1988. In 1996, the United States agreed to adopt a new takeback policy to resume the return of U.S.-origin spent fuel from foreign research reactors. According to the Energy document, the purpose of the new policy was “to support the broad United States’ nuclear weapons nonproliferation policy calling for the reduction and eventual elimination of the use of highly enriched (weapons-grade) uranium in civil commerce worldwide.” Under the 1996 policy, the United States agreed to accept 22,700 spent-fuel elements loaded into research reactors during a 10-year period, effectively ending the policy in 2006. Reactor operators were given 13 years, until 2009, to ship spent fuel to allow for the material to cool enough to be safely transported. The fuel eligible to be returned included spent HEU and LEU from research reactors that had converted to LEU fuel use or were doing so when the policy went into effect, as well as HEU and LEU fuel from reactors that agreed to convert to LEU use once it became technically feasible. The takeback policy is funded by a charge to “high-income-economy countries,” with the United States covering the full cost of the return of spent fuel from the other countries involved in the policy, according to the Energy Department document. According to Matthew Bunn, senior research associate in the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the takeback policy was originally set for a 10-year period in the belief that by 2006 new types of reactor fuels would have been developed, enabling all U.S.-supplied reactors that used HEU fuel to convert to LEU use. Furthermore, the program envisioned that by 2006, reactor operators could make their own arrangements to manage spent fuel supplies, such as through reprocessing, Bunn said in a written response to Global Security Newswire. “The foreign research reactor operators must be prepared to implement their own arrangements for disposition of their spent nuclear fuel after the policy expires,” says the 1996 department document. The Energy Department now appears set, though, to extend the takeback policy beyond 2006, FRRG spokesman Jack Edlow said during a press conference last week. He added that questions still remain as to how the policy would be extended. “It’s the how and why that’s the important part,” Edlow said. “We have not found any opposition to this,” he added.  The FRRG is “extremely pleased” that the department appears willing to extend the takeback policy, Edlow said, adding that such an extension was “vital” to the research reactor industry.  Edlow said that within the Energy Department there is a “broader view” of the foreign research reactor community and of the nonproliferation benefits of the takeback policy, which resulted in departmental support for the policy’s extension. In addition, the State Department, which helped to prepare the 1996 policy, is also “extremely supportive” of extending it, Edlow said.  An Energy Department spokesman said, though, that a final decision on extending the takeback policy has not yet been reached. The department is “open to the potential expansion” of the effort, the spokesman said. Impacts If the department chooses not to extend the takeback policy, foreign research reactors that converted to LEU use through the RERTR program may be left with quantities of spent fuel they are unable to manage, according to some experts. Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the LEU fuel used by many of the converted reactors cannot be reprocessed, resulting in a need for those reactors to continue to ship spent fuel to the United States. While work is being conducted to develop new types of LEU fuel that can be reprocessed, such efforts have suffered long delays, he said. Bunn said that many of the research reactors that converted to using the type of LEU fuel that cannot be reprocessed easily, known as uranium silicide, are required by national regulations to have spent fuel management plans in place. If the reactors cannot send back the spent uranium silicide fuel to the United States while new types of fuel are developed, they could be forced to shut down “as a result of heeding our advice,” he said. Other the other hand, extending the takeback policy could hinder efforts to convert the U.S.-supplied remaining research reactors that use HEU fuel. By extending the policy, the United States could lose the ability to pressure the estimated 130 reactors that still use HEU fuel to quickly convert to LEU use, Bunn said today. “Some reactors are planning to insert LEU five minutes before the end of the deadline,” he said. Bunn suggested that the policy could be expanded only for those reactors that have already converted to LEU use and for those for which there is not yet suitable LEU fuel.  Edlow disagreed, however, that policy’s expansion would result in long-term delays by research reactors in converting to LEU fuel, noting that the reactors had to agree to do so to initially participate in the takeback policy.  In addition, an end to the takeback policy could result in the United States losing the ability to pressure research reactors to convert to LEU use, according to Bill Hoehn, director of the Washington office of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council. Hoehn said the reactor operators faced with no U.S. support for disposing of their spent fuel, might simply choose to continue operating as they have in the past and to buy their fuel from non-U.S. suppliers, such as Russia. The Energy Department’s decision on whether to extend the takeback policy could also affect efforts to persuade Russia to accept Russian-origin spent fuel from foreign research reactors (see GSN, Nov. 24). On Tuesday, Edlow said that extending the takeback policy would set “the proper standard” for Russia to increase its own efforts to recover spent fuel from Russian-supplied reactors. Lyman said that if the Energy Department chose not to extend the takeback policy, Russia might use that decision to as a rationale for continuing to stall in its own efforts. If Russia were to do so, however, it would be a “hypocritical, political move,” he said, noting that the United States has already brought back most of the HEU fuel it distributed. In addition, Lyman also said that a blanket extension of the takeback policy might not be needed because of the ability of some nuclear countries, such as Germany, to manage their own spent fuel situations. Instead, a case-by-case approach could be adopted, modeled on the limited shipments made during the 1998-1996 period after “urgent relief” assessments were completed, he said. A “carefully crafted expansion … would be in the interest of nonproliferation,” Bunn said. Back to top       No Chance for North Korean Nuclear Talks This Year, Officials Say The United States and China have abandoned attempts to hold six-nation talks on the North Korean crisis this year and instead will attempt to arrange negotiations for early 2004, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 15). Chinese officials recently told U.S. leaders that it would be impossible to hold a meeting this week, as they had been hoping to do, AP reported. “So we’re now looking at holding a round early in the new year,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher (Associated Press/USA Today, Dec. 16). Washington blamed North Korea for demanding too much before talks began and undermining the effort to arrange negotiations. “It shouldn’t be a precondition of accepting the other side’s proposals before you even sit down and talk,” Boucher said. “We have not set any preconditions for the talks and we don’t think the North Koreans should either,” he added. Despite the apparent setback, U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States has been successful in involving other nations in the nuclear diplomacy. “I am pleased with the progress we are making,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 16). North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, made several appearances last week at military installations. He has not held a public appearance since Oct. 30, when he met with senior Chinese parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo in Pyongyang. Experts say that Kim uses the visits to shore up his support through North Korea’s military (Hans Greimel, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 16). Back to top

White House Nears Completion of Classified Biological Defense Assessment The Bush administration has almost finished a secret “Biodefense End-to-End Assessment” that will appraise the nation’s biological defenses and put together plans to improve them, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 11). The effort is being led by retired Gen. John Gordon, President George W. Bush’s homeland security adviser. “Working with all government agencies responsible for biodefense issues, the Homeland Security Council is leading and coordinating an assessment of U.S. preparedness, vulnerabilities, and capabilities for defending against bioterrorist attack. This assessment will enable us to evaluate the wide range of biodefense activities throughout the government and further improve our ability to protect the American people against this threat,” Gordon said in a statement. The project has been kept so tightly under wraps that some participants were not aware of the scope of the effort, the Post reported. “This is the first time anybody tried to look at the whole bio problem across the board,” said one person who is involved in the assessment. “It’s easy to hypothesize an infinite variety of science-fictiony threats,” he added, “but we need to focus on what’s realistic.” The assessment is divided into six primary categories, threat assessment and awareness, prevention, protection, surveillance and detection, response and recovery, and response to future threats. The report will redirect agencies and priorities, according to one participant. Some biosecurity lapses identified in the report will receive additional funding, according to the Post (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Dec. 16). Back to top

U.S. Defense Officials Predict Growing Ballistic Missile Proliferation U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week said that he believed there would be a significant increase in the number of countries armed with ballistic missiles within the next 20 years, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology (see GSN, Nov. 11). In a closed-circuit speech to a missile defense conference, Rumsfeld said the number of countries armed with ballistic missiles was likely to “double in the next decade or two.” Rumsfeld blamed the spread of ballistic missile technology primarily on North Korea, which he dubbed “the world’s most aggressive proliferator.” U.S. intelligence has also estimated a large increase in ballistic missile arsenals around the world, particularly those missiles with ranges of 500-3,500 kilometers, Aviation Week reported. Kenneth Knight, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s defense warning office, said that both Iran’s and North Korea’s missile programs continue to make progress, noting that Tehran could quickly deploy Shahab 3 missiles, with a range of 1,300 kilometers, and is continuing work on longer-range variants (see GSN, Nov. 10). North Korea could likely make quick progress in developing its Taepodong 2 missile if it were to resume flight-testing, Knight said (see GSN, Oct. 30). In addition to an increase in the number of missiles worldwide, there has been an increase in system capabilities, Knight said. “I’m not sure we’ve even seen the worst yet,” he said (Robert Wall, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Dec. 15). Back to top       Taiwanese Parliament Approves Chinese Ballistic Missile Resolution The Taiwanese Parliament has approved a resolution calling on China to remove hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting the island, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Dec. 10). “To seek cross-strait progress and ensure the safety of the Taiwanese people, we hope China will stop deploying more missiles and dismantle current deployment in stages ... to pave way for the reconciliation and normalization of bilateral relations,” says the resolution, which was proposed by two opposition parties. Opposition lawmaker Huang Yi-chiao said the resolution was intended to block a referendum on Chinese ballistic missiles proposed by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. “It has already expressed the views and wishes of the Taiwanese people, so the proposed missile vote, which has fuelled cross-strait tensions and angered Washington, should become unnecessary,” Huang said (Agence France-Presse/Channel News Asia, Dec. 16). Back to top

Israeli Arrow Test Successful Israeli defense officials completed a successful test of the Arrow ballistic missile defense system today, Haaretz reported (see GSN, Oct. 20). The exercise was the sixth operational test for the Arrow system (see GSN, Jan. 6; Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz, Dec. 16). The Arrow missile was launched from an aircraft and intercepted a target designed to behave like a Scud missile, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 16). Back to top       U.S. Considers Arming Missile Defense Airship U.S. defense officials might eventually arm the High-Altitude Airship, which is currently being developed for surveillance, communications and missile defense missions, a Missile Defense Agency official said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 6). “Arming the airship is something we have looked at,” said James Mulroy, the agency’s director for engagement systems. “As subsequent airships are built, the payload capacity will grow and it will be easier to put weapons on,” he added. Mulroy said the airship could develop on a similar trajectory as the Pentagon’s unmanned aerial vehicles, which defense officials originally produced as surveillance systems but have since been weaponized. In September, defense contractor Lockheed Martin was awarded a $40 million contract to conduct design work and risk evaluation on the airship. A critical design review is scheduled for next May or June to help MDA officials decide if Lockheed should build a prototype airship. At a missile defense conference yesterday, Mulroy also said that missile defense officials are still hoping to announce the prime contractor for the Pentagon’s Miniature Kill Vehicles program this month. The announcement, however, might slip to January, he added. MDA officials are considering renaming the MKV program “Multiple Kill Vehicles,” because the miniature tag might lower expectations, Aerospace Daily reported (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Dec. 16). Back to top

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