U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration chief Linton Brooks (shown in June 2004) yesterday described the Bush administration’s plan to update the U.S. nuclear stockpile (AFP photo/Luke Frazza). Bush Administration Seeks New U.S. Nuclear Arsenal By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior Bush administration official disclosed to Congress yesterday an ambitious 20-year goal to replace the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal with a new, smaller stockpile that provides new military capabilities, including lower yield and bunker-busting weapons (see GSN, April 4)...Full Story

U.S. to Promote NPT Compliance at Review Conference The United States will press for international compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at the May review conference for the pact, U.S. envoy Jackie Sanders said in a March article (see GSN, Feb. 24)...Full Story

TOPOFF 3 Drill Begins The largest ever U.S. antiterror drill began yesterday in Connecticut and New Jersey with a hose spraying a fake biological agent from a sport utility vehicle, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 18)...Full Story

	Tuesday, April 5, 2005

TOPOFF 3 Drill Begins The largest ever U.S. antiterror drill began yesterday in Connecticut and New Jersey with a hose spraying a fake biological agent from a sport utility vehicle, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 18). The $16 million, five-day TOPOFF 3 exercise will test the ability of emergency personnel in the two states to respond to a WMD attack. “I want to make it clear that we are going to push our plans and our systems to the very limit,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “So we expect failure because we’re actually going to be seeking to push to failure, and that is, in our judgment, the best way to get a ‘lessons learned’ from what we do here.” The New Jersey drill began at 9 a.m. yesterday when a vehicle involved in a collision was found to be carrying a commercial sprayer authorities believe was used to disperse a mock biological agent. Investigators and first responders were called to the scene, wearing hazardous materials suits and using a camera-carrying robot to look into the suspect vehicle. Meanwhile, “victims” of the attack began to show up at hospitals.  “Everything seems to be working well so far, both medically and law enforcement,” said acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey. “Nothing’s breaking down so far.” The focus on the New Jersey drill is expected to move today to medical care with the appearance of numerous additional victims, AP reported. In Connecticut, buses were overturned and volunteer “victims” appeared to be horribly injured following a fake 1:30 p.m. chemical weapons explosion in New London, according to AP (Wayne Parry, Associated Press/PhillyBurbs.com, April 5). While officials said the response to the drill was going well, they noted some problems in the dissemination of information between agencies. New London City Manager Richard Brown said city emergency personnel were not told that an emergency center had opened in Hartford or that a state of emergency had been declared. State officials also refused to release information on mustard gas, he said. “I think it flows from the bottom up pretty well,” Brown said. “I’m not so sure about from the state down” (Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press/SouthCoastToday.com, April 5). Back to top       Texas Researchers Develop Cotton-Based Fabric to Protect Against Chemical, Biological Agents Researchers at Texas Tech University have invented a composite cotton fabric they say offers protection against biological and chemical agents, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, March 23). “We are the first to bring cotton into the national defense arena,” said Seshadri Ramkumar, who developed the fabric. “This is a big thing.” The material consists of a thin piece of carbon covered on both sides by nonwoven cotton, AP reported. Chemicals used in weapons and pesticides are neutralized by the fabric. The fabric can be used to wipe dangerous contaminants from a variety of surfaces or as the inner lining of a protective suit, according to AP. The cloth has not been tested for effectiveness against anthrax and other dangerous pathogens, but researchers said enzymes targeting particular agents can be applied to the fabric (Betsy Blaney, Associated Press/ABC News, April 4). Back to top

Bush Administration Seeks New U.S. Nuclear Arsenal By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior Bush administration official disclosed to Congress yesterday an ambitious 20-year goal to replace the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal with a new, smaller stockpile that provides new military capabilities, including lower yield and bunker-busting weapons (see GSN, April 4). National Nuclear Security Administration chief Linton Brooks did not say in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee that there are specific threats, safety problems or reliability concerns requiring the replacement of the current arsenal, estimated by independent experts at 10,000 strategic warheads and projected to shrink nearly in half by 2012 as ordered by President George W. Bush last year. “I’m confident that today’s stockpile is safe and reliable and I’m confident that there is no near-term requirement for nuclear tests,” he told the sole subcommittee member present, Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). The ranking Democrat, Senator Bill Nelson (Fla.), appeared briefly at the beginning of the hearing but left to attend a presentation of the Medal of Honor at the White House. In presenting what he called the administration’s “emerging vision,” Brooks argued that the present arsenal is not ideal from a military and political standpoint, is costly to maintain, and could be exchanged for a smaller and more useful and reliable set of weapons. “If we were to build that stockpile today, we would probably take a different approach than we took during the Cold War,” he said. Brooks said the current arsenal may not be well suited to the types of threats the country could face in the future.  He said a January 2002 review found that the explosive yields of the weapons are too high and “we have no capability against hardened and deeply buried targets.” That report also said that current weapons “do not lend themselves to reduced collateral damage and are unsuited for defeat of biological and chemical munitions,” Brooks said in his written testimony. They also were not designed for “small strikes or flexibility in command and control and delivery,” he said. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said in testimony yesterday that hardened and deeply buried facilities are “a very real target set, and one that is growing.” “Today’s stockpile may not be the one you want to have 20 years from now,” Brooks said. Costs Uncertain The administration in previous years set aside funds for studies of technologies to provide some new capabilities, but until yesterday had not asked Congress to view such pursuits in a consolidated plan. Led by a skeptical Republican in the House of Representatives, Congress last year canceled funding for the Energy Department’s new capabilities research, including studies of a new nuclear earth-penetrating weapon and armaments for destroying chemical and biological agents. Brooks yesterday described a potential part of the administration’s vision, a new effort funded by Congress last year called the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program. He said the program could lead to a new weapon that could be more easily certified as safe and reliable, in part because it would be designed to have less stringent performance requirements, such as seeking to maximize a warhead’s explosive yield. Using more readily available and environmentally friendly materials, such a weapon also could be manufactured and maintained less expensively than current weapons, he said. With better mission-tailored capabilities and more reliable warheads, he said, the United States could shrink its future arsenal beyond the undisclosed, reduced level set for 2012 by Bush in a classified document last year. Brooks acknowledged that the administration’s vision could be costly. “No one will suggest that rebuilding nuclear weapons will be cheap,” he said. He did not provide estimates. Nelson raised questions about the potential cost and purposes of the administration’s earth penetrator and Reliable Replacement Warhead plans. “Is it an opportunity to have a serious review and discussion of nuclear weapons and nuclear policy? Or is it just an excuse to develop a new nuclear weapon and to return to nuclear weapons testing?” he said. Brooks said the replacement warhead would not require explosive testing to develop and would help avoid the need to test other warhead designs in the future. “I hope the committee finds our vision both coherent and compelling,” he said. Back to top       U.S. to Promote NPT Compliance at Review Conference The United States will press for international compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at the May review conference for the pact, U.S. envoy Jackie Sanders said in a March article (see GSN, Feb. 24). “We will discuss actions that NPT parties should take to implement [treaty] obligations and describe activities that send a warning signal of possible noncompliance with these undertakings,” Sanders said in her article, “How to Strengthen the NPT.” “The United States believes, for example, that nuclear-weapon states should establish and implement effective export controls in order to ensure rigorous compliance with their Article 1 obligation not “in any way” to assist any non-nuclear-weapon state to manufacture nuclear weapons,” said Sanders, U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation. “They should cut off nuclear assistance to any non-nuclear-weapon state in violation of its NPT nonproliferation obligations and seek a halt in the use of any previously supplied nuclear items.” Sanders singled out Iran and North Korea as nations the United States believes to be operating nuclear weapons programs in violation of the treaty.  U.S. officials will push for approval of several measures at the conference, which is scheduled from May 2-27 at the United Nations in New York. Proposed measures include: adoption of halts to nuclear cooperation and other measures to discourage treaty noncompliance; use of controls to ensure treaty compliance; boosting export controls for nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technology; and universal adherence to NPT safeguards agreements and to the Additional Protocol. “The Review Conference should reinforce the goal of universal NPT adherence and reaffirm that India, Israel and Pakistan may join the NPT only as non-nuclear-weapon states,” Sanders said. “Just as South Africa and Ukraine did in the early 1990s, these states would have to forswear nuclear weapons and accept [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards on all nuclear activities to join the treaty” (Jackie Sanders, U.S. State Department eJournal USA, April 4). Back to top       Unlikely Allies Oppose Proposed IAEA Moratorium on Fissile Material Production Several key countries have rejected a proposal by International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for a five-year international suspension of development of new uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing facilities, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, March 21). Opponents include declared nuclear-weapon states France and the United States, along with Iran and Japan, according to diplomats. “The moratorium is going nowhere,” said one diplomat in Vienna. Washington wants to expand its nuclear power industry, which would not be possible if halted work on those technologies, the Times reported. The Bush administration had agreed to back the moratorium, however, if the United States could be exempted, according to the diplomat. The U.S. State Department would not comment on the matter, according to the Times. Iran has said it needs such technology for a civilian nuclear program to generate electricity. The proposed moratorium and alternative plans are to be discussed next month at a review conference in New York for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Differences of the moratorium are an example of tensions between NPT members that are leading the conference to a “train wreck,” according to one senior U.N. official (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, April 5). Back to top       Nobel Laureates, Organizations Appeal for Removal of Nuclear Weapons From “Hair-Trigger” Status More than 30 Nobel laureates have joined hundreds of organizations and lawmakers in signing a statement to be released today calling for all strategic nuclear weapons to be taken off “hair-trigger” and “launch on warning” alerts (see GSN, June 22, 2004). The statement is to be released in Melbourne, Geneva, Hiroshima, San Francisco, London and the United Nations in New York, according to the Association of World Citizens, one of the organizations coordinating the project. Signatories include the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), several members of the British and Australian parliaments, and other lawmakers and organizations from around the world. The European Parliament and Australian Senate also approved resolutions endorsing the statement, the Association of World Citizens said in a press release. A RAND Corp. report found that the United States and Russia have 4,000 warheads on hair-trigger alert that could be launched within minutes, the association said. The Statement of Endorsement calls on all known or suspected nuclear weapons powers “to support and implement steps to lower the operational status of nuclear weapons systems in order to reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe.” The United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea should also “implement in good faith their obligations under international law to accomplish the total and unequivocal elimination of their nuclear arsenals,” according to the statement. Non-nuclear nations are encouraged to push for nuclear disarmament through international forums (Association of World Citizens release, April 5). Back to top       Nuclear Talks at Delicate Stage, Iranian Leader Says Iran and its European negotiating partners have entered a delicate stage in talks seeking to resolve the international dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said in an interview published today in Le Figaro (see GSN, April 4). “I believe that the Europeans and [we] are advancing carefully in this area,” Khatami said. “We are in a delicate situation.” Khatami yesterday called for the United States to end its opposition to Tehran’s nuclear program, the Associated Press reported. “We urge the Europeans as well as the Americans to support us … in being able to cover our electricity (needs) with the atom,” Khatami said while traveling in Vienna. Khatami reiterated Tehran’s opposition to permanently quitting civilian nuclear work. “We are ready to consider any reasonable solution, but we refuse a permanent suspension of our activities,” he told the newspaper (Elaine Ganley, Associated Press/CJAD, April 5). Back to top       Pyongyang Says U.S. Intention to “Eliminate” North Korean Political System is Blocking Nuclear Talks The Bush administration’s opposition to North Korea’s political system stands in the way of Pyongyang resuming stalled six-party talks to address its nuclear weapons program, a top North Korean official said today (see GSN, April 4). The United States “once again designated my country as an outpost of tyranny, talking about possible use of arms under the pretext of tyranny,” said Choe Tae Bok, head of Pyongyang’s Supreme People’s Assembly. Choe was referring to the use of that term by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her Senate confirmation hearing, Agence France-Presse reported. “Thus, the Bush administration clearly declared its policy to eliminate our system chosen by the Korean people themselves, allowing no co-existence with us, depriving us of any justification to attend the six-way talks,” he said. North Korea has thus been forced into “reinforcing our nuclear arsenal in order to defend our ideology and system,” Choe said (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, April 5). Meanwhile, Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju returned to North Korea today after discussing the stalled talks with officials in China, the Yonhap news agency reported. Kang, who negotiated the 1994 Agreed Framework in which North Korea was to receive two nuclear power reactors in exchange for abandoning its indigenous nuclear program, had arrived in Beijing on Saturday, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 5). Elsewhere, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi said today the international community should provide economic and political incentives to persuade North Korea to relinquish its nuclear program, AFP reported. “It’s not fair all the time just to press and push North Korea,” said Seif al-Islam Qadhafi. “If you take Libya for an example, we made that decision according to promises and incentives from the United States and Britain, which made the initiative quite an attractive deal for Libya,” he said. “It’s a package deal,” he said. “We have to guarantee (to North Korea) that there is no hidden agenda and there is no trap behind the whole game” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, April 5). Back to top

Report Critiques DOD Response to Anthrax Scare Local agencies and the U.S. Homeland Security Department were not adequately informed or involved as the Defense Department responded to the anthrax scare last month in Northern Virginia, according to a report obtained yesterday by the Associated Press (see GSN, March 28). Officials in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia prepared the report in response to communications problems between local, state and federal agencies during the two-day scare that began March 14. The report is expected to be released today. The report states that the Defense Department waited too long to inform local officials of possible anthrax contamination at a Pentagon mail facility. The department’s distribution of antibiotics to civilian contractors was not coordinated with nearby health agencies, which increased fears among personnel who did not know if there was actual anthrax contamination, AP reported. “The state and local governments were not sure if they were getting the latest information from DOD, or whether DOD itself was having problems getting clear test information, or both, at various times,” according to a summary of the report. Also, the Homeland Security Department “needs to be involved earlier in such incidents,” a summary states. Further testing of samples from the Pentagon site came up negative for anthrax. An alarm that forced the shutdown of a Defense Department mail facility in Fairfax County was caused by equipment troubles officials thought might be connected to the feared Pentagon contamination, according to the report. The Homeland Security Department is also reviewing the incident, AP reported (Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 4). Back to top

U.S. Chemical Companies, Water Systems Show Security Improvement, GAO Report Says By Marina Malenic Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Recently revised safety standards have allowed some U.S. chemical companies and community drinking water systems to improve security against potential terrorist attacks, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (see GSN, March 2). In 2002, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA), two of the industry’s top trade associations, adopted security guidelines for their members. Under the code, members are expected to perform vulnerability assessments, update their security based on those assessments and undergo third-party verification of the improvements. Agency investigators found, however, that the number of facilities adhering to the guidelines is unknown. The study concluded, for example, that there are about 2,300 ACC and SOCMA members, 1,100 of which produce, use or store substantial amounts of highly toxic chemicals. There are about 15,000 such facilities nationwide in various sectors, according to the report. The water sector, meanwhile, has not generated an industry code, but instead is subject to the drinking water security and safety requirements of the federal Bioterrorism Act. As of February 2005, all community water systems that serve 50,000 or more people have submitted their vulnerability assessments, while 92 percent of smaller systems have done the same, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In a sampling of 10 chemical plants and eight community water systems, the GAO study found that eight chemical companies and all the water systems encountered obstacles in implementing the relevant security measures. Three of the chemical facilities reported troubles with the government in acquiring federal permits for fences and other perimeter security. An official at one facility said the company altered its planned fence line to avoid having to go through the permitting process. Investigators also found that six of the community water systems faced significant economic constraints in balancing consumer costs with the expense of security improvements. They said they needed federal money to make additional security measures, and three of the eight added that they faced difficulties in convincing employees to follow enhanced safety procedures, according to the study. Managers of eight of the 10 chemical facilities told investigators that they would prefer establishment of federal security rules for the entire U.S. chemical industry, the report says. Auditors made no recommendations in the GAO report, noting that the agency had previously offered suggestions in this sector. The Homeland Security Department concurred with the assessment but noted that the scope of the GAO study did not include other federal efforts under way to secure U.S. infrastructure, such as the Interim National Infrastructure Protection Plan (Government Accountability Office report, April 4).       Back to top

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