Iranian nuclear negotiator Sirus Naseri (right) talks with IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen today in Vienna. The IAEA Board of Governors today called on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities (Getty Images/Dieter Nagl). IAEA Board Urges Iran to Resume Nuclear Activities Freeze The International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors today adopted a resolution calling on Iran to “re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities,” Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 10). The resolution expresses “serious concern” about Iran’s decision to resume uranium conversion at its Isfahan nuclear plant. It was “adopted without a vote, by consensus,” said agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming...Full Story

U.S. Official Plays Down North Korean Reactor Bid By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The top U.S. negotiator in talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons capabilities yesterday played down comments by Pyongyang that the country be allowed to operate a nuclear power reactor as part of any deal (see GSN, Aug. 10)...Full Story

Experts Offer Mixed Assessment of India, Pakistan Nuclear Confidence-Building Agreement By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nuclear weapons experts this week praised a recent deal between India and Pakistan that requires advance notification of ballistic missile tests and enhancements to their hot line system connecting officials from both countries. However, one expert warned that negotiations to stop ballistic missile development are needed to make real progress in curbing Indian and Pakistani nuclear ambitions (see GSN, Aug. 8)...Full Story

	Thursday, August 11, 2005

IAEA Board Urges Iran to Resume Nuclear Activities Freeze The International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors today adopted a resolution calling on Iran to “re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities,” Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 10). The resolution expresses “serious concern” about Iran’s decision to resume uranium conversion at its Isfahan nuclear plant. It was “adopted without a vote, by consensus,” said agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. The text, drafted by the European Union, left available the option of continued negotiations with Tehran if it complies, an official said. Iran had earlier warned that it would abandon its nuclear freeze agreement with the European Union entirely if the document were adopted. “The Paris accord will become void if the resolution proposed by the Europeans is adopted,” said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 11). The United States hopes the meeting will “send Iran a strong message,” said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. “What we’re trying to do, frankly, is to give Iran a chance to do the right thing,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 11). The United States also yesterday criticized Iran for removing IAEA seals from nuclear equipment at Isfahan, AFP reported. The “breaking of seals is yet another sign of Iran’s disregard for international concerns,” Matt Boland, spokesman for the U.S. mission to international organizations in Vienna, told AFP. Boland expressed continued U.S. support for the European Union’s diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 10). A senior Iranian official yesterday warned the European Union and the United States against referring his country to the Security Council, Reuters reported. “I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the U.S. and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of confrontation,” chief Iranian IAEA delegate Sirus Naseri told the BBC’s “Newsnight” program. “It will be (a) big, big mistake,” he said (Reuters, Aug. 10). China, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, yesterday voiced opposition to referring Iran to the body for possible sanctions, Reuters reported. “I think it is up to [the International Atomic Energy Agency] to come up with a solution. I think it is not up to the Security Council,” said China’s U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya (Reuters, Aug. 10). South African President Thabo Mbeki met Hassan Rohani, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator, two weeks ago to discuss a compromise proposal, the Financial Times reported. His plan calls for providing South African uranium to Iran for conversion and then returning the material to South Africa for enrichment. While Tehran welcomed the proposal, officials said it would only be an interim confidence-building measure and that Iran remains committed to developing a complete fuel cycle. “For further confidence-building we are ready to sell the output to a third country in cooperation with the EU and under the IAEA supervision,” said Ali Aga-Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. European officials, however, said they were not optimistic about the proposal (Bozorgmehr/Dinmore, Financial Times, Aug. 10). Back to top       U.S. Official Plays Down North Korean Reactor Bid By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The top U.S. negotiator in talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons capabilities yesterday played down comments by Pyongyang that the country be allowed to operate a nuclear power reactor as part of any deal (see GSN, Aug. 10). Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill said the United States opposes North Korea obtaining a light-water reactor. However, he said the issue is not necessarily a deal killer and expressed optimism that an agreement might be reached in the six-nation talks. “Obviously, [a] light-water reactor is something that came up at the end [of recent negotiations] and would be problematic, but I don’t want to put the entire onus on that. I’d say, though, there was a real effort by all the parties to try to negotiate seriously and negotiate with the aim to reach an agreement, so I was kind of encouraged by that sort of attitude in the talks,” he said yesterday at a press conference in Washington. A top South Korean official today said Seoul supported North Korea’s demand that it be allowed to have a nuclear energy program, according to an Agence France Presse report. “On this point, we have different views from the United States,” South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young reportedly said. Following a 13-month hiatus, 13 days of six-party talks aimed at eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and suspected weapons ended Sunday in Beijing without any initial agreement. The discussions were halted over North Korean insistence in the final days that it receive assistance in developing a light-water reactor, an idea the other parties opposed, Hill told reporters on Sunday. The top North Korean negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, said Tuesday that a light-water reactor must be a part of any deal and said the United States would need to change its policy to allow the project, the New York Times reported yesterday. Hill said such a reactor might enable North Korea to resume a nuclear program in the future. “This is a country that had trouble keeping peaceful energy ‘peaceful,’” he said, noting that North Korea in 2002 ejected international nuclear inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and began using an ostensibly scientific research reactor to produce weapon-grade plutonium. A former U.S. official and a former journalist wrote earlier this year that those moves followed rejection by President George W. Bush of a secret offer from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to engage on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for security guarantees (see GSN, June 22). Hill said North Korea now is being offered an energy deal that would make constructing a light-water reactor unnecessary (see GSN, July 13). “The overall agreement is designed to give incentives to D.P.R.K. [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea] not to need to develop nuclear energy,” he said. He said no other country “is prepared to pay for them to have light-water reactors.”  Given the two countries’ history of hostile rhetoric, critics previously have questioned whether either the U.S. or North Korean governments truly want a negotiated deal. Public rhetoric from both governments, however, has notably cooled in recent weeks and Hill yesterday insisted he has full Bush administration support in his efforts. “I had complete backing for what I was doing. … I think I’ve got all the support I need to try to get this deal, from our point of view. It takes more than one to tango, though,” he said. The current round of talks is scheduled to resume the week of Aug. 29. Back to top       Retired U.S. Army Officer Warns of Nuclear Terrorism A retired U.S. Army general warned Tuesday that a nuclear attack by terrorists on the United States was not unlikely, the Canton (Mich.) Observer reported (see GSN, Aug. 3). “We can’t keep bales of marijuana out of this country. How can we keep a small weapon the size of a grapefruit out?” said retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, a senior military fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. “Is this scenario (nuclear attacks) farfetched? Al-Qaeda has said it is their duty to obtain nuclear weapons and to use them,” he said. “We must deny terrorists access to nuclear weapons.” Gard said Russia holds 95 percent of the nuclear weapons outside the U.S. arsenal, and “most do not even have rudimentary security.” “All we see is lethargy and indifference in the effort to nail down Russia’s weapons. ... Our executive branch is not dealing with this problem,” he said (Doug Johnson, Canton Observer, Aug. 11). Back to top       Russia Plans 10 Missile Tests Per Year Through 2006 Russia has scheduled 10 missile test launches for this year and 10 for 2006, RIA Novosti reported yesterday (see GSN, July 7). The next test is expected to take place later this month at the Baikonur space center, according to Strategic Missile Force commander Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov (RIA Novosti, Aug. 10). Back to top

Scientists Claim Online Bioterror Materials Flawed Online libraries of al-Qaeda training materials suggest that the terrorist organization is lacking technical expertise, the Federation of American Scientists said this week (see GSN, Aug. 10). In the Aug. 8 issue of its Secrecy Newsletter, the organization criticized a Sunday Washington Post article for failing to understand the science contained in the library. For example, the article incorrectly stated that a virus causes pneumonic plague. Plague is caused by a bacterium, according to the federation. The organization also said that betaluminium poison, cited by the Post as being contained in “The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook,” does not exist.   “The first time I saw [the Mujahideen Poisons Handbook], I thought it must be a hoax,” said George Smith, a chemist with GlobalSecurity.org. “Careful examination of the document shows that it is crammed with errors, seemingly the work of someone with little discernible sense, profoundly ignorant of the nature of simple compounds and incompetent in even minor (laboratory) procedures,” Smith wrote in 2004. If the handbook represents the best knowledge terrorists have of biological weapons, the public is more safe and secure, according to the federation. “The ‘Poisons Handbook’ is an example of someone professing to know what he is doing on poisons who profoundly and obviously does not know what he is doing,” Smith said (Secrecy News, Aug. 8). Back to top       Senator Wants to Revamp Bioshield U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said yesterday he is working on legislation to redesign Project Bioshield, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 15). Additional incentives are needed to persuade drug companies to produce countermeasures for anthrax and smallpox, said Burr, chairman of the Senate Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness Subcommittee. “When you put an anthrax drug up against a cholesterol drug ... companies are probably going to go with the cholesterol drug,” he said. Burr said incentives to drug manufacturers might include patent extensions that would keep generic versions of a drug off the market for a longer period. He said he hoped to have a bill out of the subcommittee next month (Associated Press/Winston-Salem Journal, Aug. 11). Back to top       U.S. Companies Plan Tests of New Anthrax Drug Two U.S. companies are expected to begin human safety trials of a new drug that could be used to treat anthrax infection, the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 1). Maryland-based PharmAthene and New Jersey-based Medarex have received approval from the federal government to begin tests on Valortim, which produces antibodies that target the anthrax antigen, according to the Journal.  The companies plan to enroll up to 46 people in the trial (Neil Adler, Washington Business Journal, Aug 10). Back to top

U.S. Army Prepares to Restart Newport CW Destruction The U.S. Army expects destruction of VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Indiana to resume within the next few weeks, according to an Army Chemical Materials Agency release (see GSN, Aug. 3). Work stopped June 10 following the leak of 30 gallons of liquid containing VX and wastewater from the neutralization process, according to the release. “Our engineers determined the leak was caused by a polymer valve diaphragm that had been deteriorated by the caustic mixture and failed, allowing the liquid to flow through to the sealed concrete floor,” site project manager Jeffrey Brubaker said in the release. “The valve diaphragms on the two reactors were replaced with a Teflon product, which will stand up to the corrosive liquid generated by the process. Workers also inspected other seals, gaskets and diaphragms in the system, checking for signs of deterioration and found none.” Brubaker said new, different valves have been ordered to replace existing valves used on the chemical neutralization reactors. “The new valves are ball-type and made of stainless steel,” he said. “These valves do not have any type of diaphragm to corrode or degrade.” Newport personnel are also working to reduce the flammability of the VX wastewater, but Brubaker said the facility could handle a fire. “The facility was designed and built to handle flammable materials, so the issue is not one of storage danger,” he said. “It's a matter of determining the cause and a path forward.” While the liquid is considered flammable under environmental and transportation standards, Brubaker said the large amount of water in the byproduct would probably prevent ignition. Brubaker said the Army is working to change the neutralization process to remove the flammability factor. “If we’re not successful with these adjustments, we’ll look at other options,” he said. Meanwhile, Newport workers have been preparing to resume operations, last week performing a hazard analysis. This will be followed in the next few weeks by a demonstration of safe operations. Following the demonstration, work will gradually resume, according to the release. “The first couple of batches will eliminate agent that was left in holding tanks when we paused operations in June,” Brubaker said. “After these batch runs, we will pause again and extensively test the wastewater. We will use the analysis of those runs to determine whether our adjustments are effective and to confirm that the wastewater is nondetect for VX before we resume draining ton containers of agent. We anticipate there will be further operational pauses as we move forward” (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Aug. 9). Back to top       Mustard Gas Leak Found at Pueblo Chemical Depot Leaking mustard gas leaks was detected yesterday in a storage structure at the U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News reported (see GSN, July 29). “Initial air monitoring conducted by the depot's chemical crew detected a trace amount of mustard vapor inside the storage structure,” said the Army Chemical Materials Agency in a press release. The leak, which was detected during routine monitoring, occurred in a structure that houses mustard gas-filled weapons that have leaked in the past, according to the News (Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 11). Back to top       Pine Bluff Arsenal Destroying CW Detection Kits The U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas last week began destroying Chemical Agent Identification Sets that were used to train the public and the military how to identify chemical weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 29). More than 170,000 sets were produced and used between 1928 and 1969. The Army declared them obsolete in 1971 and began destroying the devices in 1979. The arsenal is expected to destroy 5,000 sets. Glass vials and bottles inside the sets include small amounts of chemical agents such as lewisite, mustard gas and other industrial chemicals, according to the Army’s Nonstockpile Chemical Materiel Project. Pine Bluff began destroying the sets on Aug. 1 using a portable system that neutralizes agents in the vials and bottles, according to AP. In a trailer that serves as the center of operations, workers remove, sort and neutralize the agents in a three-station glove box. Negative pressure in the trailer and boxes prevents chemicals from escaping. Air in the trailer is also monitored to protect workers. Other trailers provide laboratory support and power, according to the Army (Associated Press, Aug. 10).  Back to top       Port of Baltimore to Receive CW Detectors The Maryland Board of Public Works yesterday approved plans to purchase 17 hand-held devices that can detect chemical weapons. The equipment would be used to scan cargo at the Port of Baltimore, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 3). The board agreed to allocate $432,922 for the devices, which can also detect drugs and conventional explosives. They are expected to be used at vehicle and truck gates at the port, according to AP. The board also agreed to pay $5.5 million to a Nebraska company for cameras to monitor the port and improvements to physical barriers that prevent unauthorized vehicles from entering (Tom Stuckey, Associated Press, Aug. 11). Back to top

Experts Offer Mixed Assessment of India, Pakistan Nuclear Confidence-Building Agreement By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nuclear weapons experts this week praised a recent deal between India and Pakistan that requires advance notification of ballistic missile tests and enhancements to their hot line system connecting officials from both countries. However, one expert warned that negotiations to stop ballistic missile development are needed to make real progress in curbing Indian and Pakistani nuclear ambitions (see GSN, Aug. 8). “The missile notification agreement is a mild step forward, but it does not address the fundamental problem which neither India or Pakistan or the United States is confronting, which is that both countries are enhancing their ballistic missiles and, in Pakistan’s case, cruise missiles,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “The real danger … is the two countries are going to expand their missile capabilities and expand with nuclear weapons.” Kimball pointed to relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War to illustrate that simply establishing a hot line does not necessarily lead to a decrease in hostilities or weapons proliferation.   Kimball said that the U.S.-Soviet hot line, created after the Cuban Missile Crisis, did not lead to weapon destruction or alleviate Cold War tensions. “What really would reduce the threat is negotiations about limiting the ballistic missile capabilities on each side,” Kimball said. “But at present, that’s not on the table and it’s not something the United States is pressuring either side to consider.” Michael Krepon, president emeritus of the Henry L. Stimson Center, was more generous in his praise of the agreement. “Anytime these countries agree to do something positive, it’s newsworthy,” he said. “This is good news.” The agreement calls for creation of a new hot line between India and Pakistan’s foreign ministries, and for improvements to an existing military hot line. The enhancements are especially important so that moves by one country are not misinterpreted by the other, Krepon said. The new hot line might be connected through satellites and allow for the exchange of text and maps, he said. “We’ve got two countries that are producing nuclear weapons and growing their arsenals. They haven’t gotten along very well with each other. They have serious crises,” Krepon said. “When they have these crises, they move their nuclear forces around. When countries that are new to this business have crises … there’s always a danger of misreading with the other side’s doing.” Krepon said the effectiveness of the new measures will only be known once India and Pakistan formally accept the text of the agreement. He speculated that a formal adoption could occur at a meeting of world leaders next month at the United Nations in New York. Despite the joint statement, Pakistan today successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf 7 Babur cruise missile without giving warning to India, Agence France-Presse reported today. The Arms Control Association’s Kimball said that the test did not violate the agreement because the test involved a cruise missile instead of a ballistic missile. However, because the Hatf 7 is capable of delivering a nuclear payload, Kimball said the test clearly ran counter to the spirit of the agreement. A Pakistani military statement quoted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as calling the test a “major milestone.” Pakistan has “joined a select group of countries which have the capability to design and develop cruise missiles,” according to the statement.  The military said the missile is capable of being launched from ships, planes and submarines and can avoid radar detection and hit targets “with pinpoint accuracy.”  “It is a gift of the scientists on the birthday of President Musharraf and the Independence Day,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid was quoted as saying. Musharraf celebrates his 62nd birthday today and Pakistan celebrates 58 years of independence from the United Kingdom on Sunday.   Back to top

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