Gorbachev Calls on G-8 Partnership to Expand WMD Nonproliferation Efforts in Russia

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is asking 22 leaders of the Group of Eight Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction to expand their efforts, particularly in Russia, Green Cross International announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 15).

“While G-8 Global Partnership efforts over the past four years have helped secure and/or eliminate thousands of nuclear weapons, construct chemical weapons destruction facilities, and retrain thousands of former weapons scientists, much remains to be done,” Gorbachev said in a letter to the leaders.

Gorbachev requested that the leaders expedite funding, especially for WMD nonproliferation work in Russia. Other threat-reduction priorities include increased transparency and “protection of public health and the environment,” according to the letter.

The Global Partnership in 2002 pledged $20 billion over 10 years — half from the United States and half from other countries — to combat the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and materials (Green Cross International release, Dec. 20).

Back to top

EU, Iran Hold Talks, Agree to Meet Again in January

Iranian and European Union officials agreed following a brief meeting today in Vienna to hold a new round of nuclear negotiations in January, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 20).

“We agreed to continue our talks in January. Regarding the location, we have agreed on Vienna,” said Javad Vaidi, head of the Iranian delegation (Reuters, Dec. 21).

Officials from the British, French and German foreign ministries met with Vaidi at the French Embassy in Vienna, marking the first formal contact between the two sides since August, Agence France-Presse reported.

Prior to the start of the meeting, a diplomat from one of the European powers told AFP that the chances of persuading Iran to give up its most sensitive nuclear work were “not very bright.”

Due to the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since the last full round of talks in April, Iran is represented by a new slate of negotiators.

“There is a complete new set of people on the Iranian side, so it’s going to be interesting, and a little bit unpredictable,” the diplomat said.

The official said the European Union was prepared to accept some fuel-cycle work by Tehran but would continue to oppose uranium enrichment.

Officials in Tehran, meanwhile, announced today that they would not halt uranium conversion and that they expected to resume enrichment soon on Iranian soil.

“From Iran’s point of view the subject of the talks is to remove the suspension of the uranium processing facilities and this must happen within a clear timetable,” said Supreme National Security Council spokesman Hossein Entezami (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 21).

Elsewhere, an Iranian exile group claimed yesterday that two Russian scientists have assisted Tehran in preparing a network of secret underground nuclear facilities, the Associated Press reported.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran cited sources within the Iranian regime as saying that the facilities contain nuclear equipment, research sites and nuclear and missile command-and-control centers.

“The Iranian resistance has now received information about 14 locations where these tunnels and underground facilities have been built near Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and some other cities,” said Hossein Abedini, a member of the group’s foreign affairs committee.

Abedini said the Iranian Tunneling Association, founded by Ahmadinejad in 1998, “has played a vital role to cover up the regime’s nuclear- and missile-related tunnel construction project.”

He identified the two Russian scientists as “Andrei Kridiko” and “Lakht,” according to AP (Thomas Wagner, Associated Press/Moscow Times, Dec. 20).

Back to top

South Korea Concerned by North’s Reactor Plan

South Korean officials said today that Pyongyang’s plan to construct light-water reactors and resume development of two mothballed graphite-moderated reactors could undermine an agreement signed at the last round of multilateral talks on North Korea’s nuclear efforts, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 20).

“It runs counter to the spirit of the agreement reached on Sept. 19 for North Korea,” said Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.

“North Korea should fulfill necessary measures to stop its nuclear activity and abandon its nuclear weapon program for denuclearization, based on the spirit of the agreement,” Ban said.

The United States has said that any North Korean reactor construction undertaken would be a violation of the September agreement, according to Reuters (Reuters, Dec. 21).

Back to top

U.S. Lawmakers State Opposition to India Deal

Two U.S. congressmen are seeking their colleagues’ support for a resolution stating opposition to the planned nuclear technology sharing agreement between the United States and India, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Dec. 20).

Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) last week introduced the nonbinding formal statement of congressional opinion.

“The administration's move to launch nuclear cooperation with India has grave security implications for South Asia and the entire world,” Markey said.

“Supplying nuclear fuel to countries that are not party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty derails the delicate balance that has been established between nuclear nations and limits our capacity to insist that other nations continue to follow that important nonproliferation policy,” he said in a statement.

“We cannot break the nuclear rules established in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and demand that everyone else play by them,” Markey added.

The resolution claims the proposed deal “poses far-reaching and potentially adverse implications” for U.S. nonproliferation efforts and does little to bring India in line with U.S. objectives.

It is not known when Congress, which soon breaks for a recess, would act on the measure, according to Reuters (Reuters, Dec. 21).

Back to top

Russia Reports Successful Bulava Missile Test

Russia today successfully tested the next-generation Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, Dec. 20).

The Northern Fleet’s Dmitriy Donskoy launched the missile at a target on the Kamchatka Peninsula, ITAR-Tass reported.

“The warhead from the R-30 Bulava solid-propellant missile, which was launched at 0819 Moscow time from the White Sea, hit the target at Kamchatka’s range with given accuracy,” the Russian Defense Ministry said (ITAR-Tass, Dec. 21).

Back to top

Los Alamos Management Decision Expected Today

The U.S. Energy Department is expected to announce today the new manager of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 28).

One team led by the University of California and Bechtel Corp. and a second involving Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas are competing to operate the laboratory. The new manager would receive a seven-year contract for up to $79 million.

This is the first time a corporation will be involved in managing the laboratory.   The University of California has managed the site since the 1940s. 

The Energy Department decided to put management of the laboratory up for bid following a string of security and safety lapses at Los Alamos, according to AP (Associated Press/Monterey Herald, Dec. 21).

Back to top

Oak Ridge Uranium Facilities to Be Destroyed

Contractors have received U.S. Energy Department authorization to accelerate the dismantlement of former uranium enrichment operations at the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 19).

Workers from Bechtel Jacobs Co. have been doing preliminary work on the K-25 and K-27 enrichment facilities. Now they can begin removing uranium deposits, injecting stabilization foam into pipes, dismantling radioactive equipment, and destroying the structures.

Equipment is expected to be sent to an on-site nuclear landfill. Most of the K-25 site will be destroyed, although the northern section will be preserved, AP reported.

Work must be completed by the end of 2008, according to AP.

“What we are free to do now is removal of any process equipment and to focus on the high-risk work,” Steve McCracken, head of DOE cleanup at Oak Ridge, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

K-25 was used to separate uranium isotopes and concentrate U-235 for weapons. No work has been done at that site since the mid-1960s, AP reported (Associated Press, Dec. 20). 

Back to top

Russia to Finish Work at CW Processing Plant

Russia later this week is expected to process the last chemical weapons stored at a facility in its Saratov region, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Dec. 14).

“Over the three years of its operations, the plant has processed more than 1,000 tons of hazardous substances, such as mustard gas, lewisite and their compounds,” said a Russian source.

International inspectors have inspected the facility, which used advanced technologies to process weapons, RIA Novosti reported. Once work is finished, the facility is expected to process waste created during the weapons destruction (RIA Novosti, Dec. 20).

Back to top

Chechen Officials Suspect Nerve-Gas Poisoning

Doctors in Russia suspect nerve-gas poisoning may be responsible for the hospitalization of at least 45 people in Chechnya, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 26).

Reports beginning Friday of headaches and breathing problems from students, teachers and workers at a Chechen middle school indicate the patients were exposed to some sort of nerve agent, emergency personnel and government officials said.

ITAR-Tass quoted Chechen Prosecutor General Valery Kuznetsov as saying yesterday that “to speak about a terrorist act is premature.” However, “all possibilities are being considered,” he said (Associated Press/Pravda.ru, Dec. 20).

Back to top

Small Fire Breaks Out at Pine Bluff Arsenal

A piece of a sheared rocket that once contained chemical agent caused a small fire yesterday in the explosive containment room at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Arkansas, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 13).

No chemical agent escaped the containment room and no one was hurt. Sprinklers extinguished the fire in less than two minutes, according to AP (Associated Press/WREG, Dec. 20).

Back to top

Japan Boosts Missile Defense Spending for Next Year

Japan plans to increase funding for missile defense in fiscal 2006 to $1.2 billion, up from just more than $1 billion this year, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 15).

Despite reductions in the total defense budget, a draft funding plan proposed yesterday by the Finance Ministry contains increases for capabilities aimed at defending against nuclear, biological and chemical strikes, according to Kyodo News.

Tokyo plans to spend more than $162 million on a ground-based radar system for missile detection, more than $588 million to improve the Patriot interceptor system and nearly $87 million to acquire Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles, Xinhua reported (Xinhua/Angola Press, Dec. 20).

Back to top

GAO Says Homeland Security Should Re-Expand Research at Plum Island Animal-Disease Facility

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended this week that the Homeland Security Department re-expand the recently narrowed research focus at a key animal-disease facility (see GSN, Oct. 17).

Experts consulted by the auditing office for its report said a heavy focus on foot-and-mouth disease in research at Plum Island Animal Disease Center is wise but that neglecting other diseases could create vulnerabilities.

“Most of the nationally recognized animal-disease experts we interviewed agreed that it may be prudent to divert limited funds from diseases of lesser importance to the U.S. economy, such as African swine fever, to study FMD,” the office wrote. “However, all of the experts expressed concerns that focusing research on a single disease makes livestock more vulnerable to diseases that are not being studied to the same extent or, in some cases, at all.”

The Agricultural Research Service, an Agriculture Department agency that conducts research at the facility, deems foot-and-mouth the foreign animal disease most likely to be introduced into the U.S. livestock population. The service has in recent years made foot-and-mouth disease its top research priority at Plum Island, cutting back work on classical swine fever and ending work on African swine fever.

Consulted experts said that since disease outbreaks are difficult to predict, it would be prudent to study a wider range of diseases, potentially including Nipah virus and Rift Valley fever. Homeland Security and Agriculture officials told the auditors, however, that work on such diseases — which can affect humans as well as animals — would require more stringent biosecurity measures at Plum Island.

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said today that the department “worked closely with GAO, and we’re not averse to their recommendations.” He did not rule out a future expansion of the site’s research activities.

“If we feel that it is necessary to expand it, or to not focus so heavily on” foot-and-mouth disease, Doyle said, “we’ll do whatever is necessary.”

Doyle noted that the facility has since its inception focused heavily on foot-and-mouth disease. The research site opened in the early 1950s after foot-and-mouth outbreaks in Mexico and Canada.

“It was founded essentially on that 50 years ago,” Doyle said.

With its special biocontainment laboratory, Plum Island “is the only domestic facility where scientists are currently authorized to study live, high-consequence foreign-animal disease agents in large animals,” according to the report.

Experts consulted for the report said some of the work at Plum Island could be done elsewhere, freeing the facility’s resources for studies of the kind that can be conducted only there. “Work that does not involve the use of a live virus, such as certain aspects of vaccine development, does not require the strict biosafety features of Plum Island,” the auditors wrote.

Members of Congress had asked the auditors to review cooperation between the Agriculture and Homeland Security departments on Plum Island, which lies off the eastern tip of Long Island, N.Y. Homeland Security took over the facility from Agriculture in 2003, but two Agriculture agencies — the Agricultural Research Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — continue to conduct research at Plum Island.

The auditing office said Agriculture-Homeland Security cooperation at the site had been “largely successful” since the takeover, with Homeland Security augmenting Agricultural Research Service studies by, for example, “advancing efficacy testing and development of vaccines to enhance the nation’s ability to respond to a bioterrorism attack.”

The report indicates that “over 40” foreign diseases threaten U.S. livestock. Plum Island’s mission, in the words of the report, is to “protect U.S. animal industries and exports from deliberate or accidental introductions of foreign animal diseases.” The facility’s researchers work on disease detection, vaccination, treatment and training of U.S. veterinary personnel.

Homeland Security plans by 2012 to replace the facility with a new one, which may not be on Plum Island.

Back to top