Officials at the Czech Nuclear Research Institute (above) yesterday transferred highly enriched uranium reactor fuel to Russia (Czech Nuclear Research Institute photo). HEU Returned to Russia By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Czech Republic transferred 6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to Russia yesterday as part of U.S.-Russian effort to consolidate and secure nuclear weapon-usable materials that the two superpowers once distributed widely around the world (see GSN, Sept. 14)...Full Story

U.S. States Ramping Up Agricultural Monitoring for Terrorism Defense; Federal Response Slow By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — State governments concerned that terrorists could attack the U.S. food chain are rapidly intensifying their efforts to collect and integrate information on agriculture and related fields (see GSN, Dec. 15)...Full Story

Rumsfeld Calls for More Nonproliferation Measures More nonproliferation efforts like the Proliferation Security Initiative are needed to prevent additional countries from obtaining nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Washington Times article published today (see GSN, Nov. 30)...Full Story

	Thursday, December 23, 2004

Rumsfeld Calls for More Nonproliferation Measures More nonproliferation efforts like the Proliferation Security Initiative are needed to prevent additional countries from obtaining nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Washington Times article published today (see GSN, Nov. 30). Up to five more countries could develop nuclear weapons if new measures are not instituted, Rumsfeld said. “There could be several more countries with chemical and biological programs, and there could be additional countries with the ability to deliver those capabilities long distances,” he said. While PSI member states agree on the need to halt illicit shipments of weapons and arms technology, determining which countries are “of proliferation concern” is not always easy, a State Department official told the Times. Officials hope to expand the initiative, which now focuses on interdictions of ships suspected to be carrying nonconventional weapons or WMD equipment, to halt airplane shipments of those items before they can reach rogue nations. More than 60 nations have signed on in support of the Proliferation Security Initiative, the Times reported (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Dec. 23). Meanwhile, Belize plans to send a team to the United States to discuss joining the effort, the Caribbean Media Corp. reported yesterday. Officials will “negotiate with the United States authorities a mutually acceptable agreement concerning cooperation to suppress the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related material by sea,” according to a statement from the government of the Central American nation. “The Proliferation Security Initiative would allow Belize and the United States to cooperate, subject to the availability of resources and in compliance with their respective laws, to prevent the transportation by sea of items of proliferation concern,” the statement adds (Caribbean Media Corp./BBC Worldwide Monitoring, Dec. 22). Back to top

HEU Returned to Russia By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Czech Republic transferred 6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to Russia yesterday as part of U.S.-Russian effort to consolidate and secure nuclear weapon-usable materials that the two superpowers once distributed widely around the world (see GSN, Sept. 14). The Czech uranium had originally been supplied by the Soviet Union to a research reactor facility at Rez, near Prague, but the fuel was never irradiated in the reactor. Such fresh fuel could be particularly attractive to terrorists seeking to acquire crude nuclear weapons. The uranium was returned through a joint mission involving the United States, Russia, the Czech Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The material was loaded into four specialized transportation containers in a one-day secret operation that finished yesterday under observation by IAEA and U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration experts. It was then airlifted under guard from a Prague airport to a secure facility in Russia, where it will be blended down to a lower enrichment level, according to a U.S. Energy Department release. “The recovery, return and eventual elimination of this highly enriched uranium is an important milestone in our efforts to reduce this dangerous nuclear material worldwide,” Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a statement. “We applaud the strong leadership of the Czech Republic for taking measures to secure this material and working cooperatively with the United States, Russia and the IAEA to successfully return it to Russia.” The fuel had been kept at a Soviet-designed 10-megawatt research reactor, and in 2000, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Czech Nuclear Research Institute completed a project to improve the security of the material until it could be returned to Russia. Praising the successful mission as “a nice little Christmas present for the world,” Matthew Bunn of Harvard University’s Managing the Atom Project said today that additional progress was needed to repatriate Russian-origin HEU fuel that has been irradiated in reactors. Russia has so far refused to accept that spent material, citing the need to conduct environmental assessments prior to each shipment. The Energy Department, though, has requested without success that Moscow conduct a single environmental assessment for the entire spent fuel repatriation program. This Czech Republic mission was carried out through the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative — an effort launched in May to secure stockpiles of nuclear and radiological materials around the world. As part of the initiative, the United States plans to aid the repatriation of all Russian-origin fresh reactor fuel by the end of next year and all Russian-origin spent fuel by 2010, as well as complete the repatriation of all U.S.-origin spent research reactor fuel within a decade. This fall, more than 90 nations expressed support for the initiative during a two-day meeting held in Vienna (see GSN, Sept. 22). Concerns have been raised, though, that the commissioning by Nigeria in October of an HEU-fueled research reactor supplied by China could set back the overall goals of the effort (see GSN, Oct. 1). Since August 2002, more than 100 kilograms of Russian-origin fresh highly enriched uranium has been repatriated from research reactors located in six countries, including Bulgaria, Libya, Serbia, Romania and Uzbekistan. Back to top       France Makes $4 Billion Strategic Missile Order France has submitted a $4 billion order for an unspecified number of M-51 ballistic missiles, each of which can carry six nuclear warheads, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Nov. 10). The missiles are set to replace the existing M-45 missiles in 2010 on four French submarines. The M-51 missile has greater range and accuracy than its predecessor, AFP reported. Each boat can carry 16 missiles, along with replacements. A subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. is handling the contract with the Snecma Propulsion group and SNPE Materiaux, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 23). Back to top       U.S. Lab to Conduct Nuclear Explosion Simulation The U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California plans next summer to conduct a three-dimensional simulated explosion of an aging nuclear weapon, according to Reuters (see GSN, Nov. 12). The simulation will be performed by the BlueGene/L supercomputer, which is set to be fully operational by April, according to Reuters. At its peak performance of 360 trillion calculations per second, the simulation will take two to four months, laboratory officials said. The same simulation conducted 10 years ago would have taken 60,000 years, Reuters reported. With the United States agreeing under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty not to test live atomic weapons, the simulation is meant to help determine whether decades-old nuclear missiles would operate correctly today, according to Reuters. “My job ... is to ensure that the nuclear weapons in the stockpile are safe and reliable,” said Bruce Goodwin, associate laboratory director for defense and nuclear technologies. “Safe means no matter what you do to them they don’t go off when they are not supposed to. Reliable means that should the president ever have to use one, it will work exactly as it is supposed to” (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 22). Back to top       ElBaradei Faces U.S. Opposition, but No Competition in Effort to Serve Third Term as IAEA Chief No one has stepped forward to challenge Mohamed ElBaradei for leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency, despite efforts by the United States to deny the director general a third term, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Dec. 15). U.S. officials have said they support an agreement that heads of international organizations should only serve two terms. The White House has also butted heads with ElBaradei on nuclear issues in Iran and Iraq. The Bush administration failed to persuade Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to challenge ElBaradei and has not otherwise found “a good competing candidate,” a Western diplomat told AFP. The Japanese government has also reportedly considered putting forth a candidate. Candidacies must be submitted by Dec. 31, but diplomats on the agency’s Board of Governors said they did not expect any candidates other than ElBaradei. A two-thirds majority of the board is needed for ElBaradei to remain as IAEA chief. The Egyptian diplomat has strong support from the Nonaligned Movement countries and some European nations, AFP reported. “If the board voted today, it is a sure thing there would be a two-thirds majority in favor of ElBaradei,” said a Western diplomat close to the U.N. agency. However, a senior European diplomat said “it is too early to rule anything out.” The Board of Directors is expected to meet by June to choose the new director general (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse, Dec. 23). Back to top       Europe to Ensure Iran Follows Agreement, Blair Says Europe will work to ensure that Iran abides by its obligation to suspend its nuclear efforts under its recent agreement with the European powers, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 22). Blair said he was intent on “making sure that Iran complies with the rules of the atomic energy authority. We’ve got undertakings from Iran ... we’ve got to make sure those are bolted down properly and implemented.” “We aren’t naive about it,” Blair added in an interview in Jerusalem with Israeli television. “We intend to make sure these obligations are carried out” (Reuters, Dec. 22). Meanwhile, Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Borujerdi has reportedly said that he and other members of parliament would pressure Tehran to resume its nuclear efforts if Europe does not fulfill its part of the suspension agreement (Kayhan/BBC Worldwide Monitoring, Dec. 22). Back to top

U.S. Increases Reward in “Fallen Angel” Ricin Case Several U.S. agencies have recently increased the reward being offered for information on a set of letters sent to Washington officials last year containing ricin, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 24). The FBI, Postal Inspection Service and Transportation Department have boosted the reward from $100,000 to $120,000 for information on the case, which involves at least two letters mailed last fall containing small vials of ricin and signed “Fallen Angel,” the Times reported. The letters complained about new trucking regulations, leading to speculation that whoever was responsible may be connected to the trucking or transportation industries. No one was injured in the incidents (Jerry Seper, Washington Times, Dec. 23). Back to top

U.S. States Ramping Up Agricultural Monitoring for Terrorism Defense; Federal Response Slow By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — State governments concerned that terrorists could attack the U.S. food chain are rapidly intensifying their efforts to collect and integrate information on agriculture and related fields (see GSN, Dec. 15). Their work involves collecting information on farms, markets and other points in the supply chain with an eye toward early detection of any terrorist attempt to poison or otherwise sabotage animal or plant products. Ad-hoc coordination of the programs among states is becoming commonplace, but no effective national coordination yet exists despite the existence of presidential directives on the subject, according to state officials. “Agriculture is up and coming, as far as we’re concerned, for terrorism,” West Virginia Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Christine Farris Morris said this month at a meeting of state officials in Baltimore. “There’s so much going on” at the state level, added antiterrorism expert Bob Ehart of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, “that it’s hard to summarize.” North Carolina has become a leader among states engaged in the effort, according to officials from several states. “From a long-term perspective, North Carolina is clearly the leader,” Ehart said. The state maintains a secure online trove of information, the Multihazard Threat Database, which includes input from health, agriculture, justice and other agencies and is coordinated with satellite maps and other advanced geographic systems. “The walls [between state agencies] come down as being barriers for that information,” Information Support Services Director David Wray of the state Agriculture Department’s Emergency Programs Division said in an interview this week. “If the poop does hit the fan, we’ll be able to react, or respond.” The department contributes to the multiagency database both with information on food contamination incidents and with basic supply-chain information, such as locations of supermarkets and farms. Such data is combined with other agencies’ information — on police stations, hospital admissions or land use, for example — and correlated with the state’s Geographic Information System, which is housed at the Agriculture Department and draws on satellite mapping technology. State officials hope improving farm and market information and combining it with reports of suspicious activity or information about hospital patients could allow them to detect an agricultural terrorist attack in progress. Farris Morris, who has consulted with North Carolina officials in hopes of improving West Virginia’s agricultural defenses, said the goal is to maintain accurate, basic information that would form the foundation for any response to a terrorist attack on the sector. “We can’t respond to agroterrorism if we don’t know where the farms are,” she said. Outbreaks in agriculture not only could result from direct terrorist attacks on the food supply but also could serve as early indications that pathogens are in the air or water, Wray said. “One thing that animals are is sentinels for the human population,” Wray said. In many bioterrorism events, he said, “Your animals are going to be affected before the human population is.” “The future of this is to be able to have a canary in a coal mine, using information technology as your canary in the coal mine, so to speak,” Wray said. States Ramp Up Efforts But Federal Progress Lags Officials from states including West Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan — as well as representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — have been visiting North Carolina to learn about the threat database, which Wray said has been built “with minimal cost.” “We’re sharing a lot of the information with whoever wants to listen,” Wray said. “You could use it as a model for other states to use.” In an interview this week, Ehart said a “disjointed funding mechanism” in the early days of the federal Homeland Security Department limited grants to states for agricultural purposes but that more and more states are joining the agriculture-protection effort as additional money becomes available for the programs. The federal government has provided about $500,000 so far for the North Carolina database, according to Wray. As of next year, Washington is also seeking to make new Homeland Security grants for agriculture contingent on states’ submission of statewide vulnerability assessments. Despite increased grants and improved targeting of the funds, however, state information is not feeding into any coordinated national system, potentially limiting its usefulness in defending against terrorism. “I would not say that there is an infrastructure in place, that the whole United States is able to do that at this point,” Ehart said. The general direction and effectiveness of federal efforts to protect the U.S. food supply have come into question of late amid resignations of top officials in the effort. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman is stepping down after putting antiterrorism for the first time at the center of her department’s agenda, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson used his resignation announcement early this month to issue a warning about food security. “For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do,” Thompson said Dec. 3. President George W. Bush has ordered improvements, including in the collection and analysis of states’ information, but the pace of federal progress is questionable, according to experts and state officials. A January 2004 presidential directive set a federal policy of “identifying and prioritizing sector-critical infrastructure and key resources for establishing protection requirements” in agriculture and “developing awareness and early warning capabilities to recognize threats.” The directive required the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies to “develop robust, comprehensive and fully coordinated surveillance and monitoring systems” on animal and plant disease and food and water security, as well as to “develop and enhance intelligence operations and analysis capabilities focusing on the agriculture, food and water sectors.” The Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Agriculture departments were instructed to “expand and continue vulnerability assessments of the agriculture and food sectors.” At House of Representatives subcommittee hearing four months later, however, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for Infrastructure Protection Robert Liscouski said there was no federal timeline for implementing the directive “because that plan is in process.” A spokeswoman for Representative Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.), who at the hearing asked Liscouski to “get back to me” later on the timeline, said yesterday that the two have spoken about the matter since then but that she still knows of no schedule for the effort. Other post-Sept. 11, 2001, federal initiatives on agricultural security include a new surveillance unit in the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which the department said in April will “provide a focal point for the collection, processing and delivery of surveillance information that is needed in order to make risk analyses and take action,” and a plan for the department to conduct vulnerability assessments of domestic and imported food. As such efforts struggle to get on their feet, however, states are already moving forward with their own initiatives to improve potentially crucial information about agriculture. “Every state is allowed to go its own way, at some level,” RAND Corp. Senior Policy Analyst Mark Bernstein, who has written on agricultural terrorism, said this week in an interview. “Things have moved pretty slowly in terms of getting a system in place to share that information.” Bernstein said that despite the disparate nature of state efforts around the country, current technology should allow the federal government to integrate the systems in a comprehensive, standardized way once it gets organized to do so. He called such an effort vital to agricultural security. “What we need to do is a comprehensive assessment,” he said. Back to top       Colorado Authorities Search for Radioactive Rod Authorities in Colorado are searching for a steel rod containing a cesium 137 pellet that fell off a truck in Denver on Dec. 10, the Denver Post reported today (see GSN, July 22). The company that lost the 24-inch steel rod, a component of an engineering gauge used on construction projects, last week posted a $2,500 reward for its return. “We’ve had several calls but no substantial leads,” said Steve Tarlton, manager of the Colorado Health Department’s radiation management unit. Radiation levels from the pellet-carrying rod would be roughly twice the amount a person would receive from a chest X-ray, the Post reported (Kim McGuire, Denver Post, Dec. 23).   Back to top

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