Progress following this meeting of top EU and Iranian officials late last year has stalled as EU officials today canceled a planned meeting on Iran’s nuclear crisis. From left to right: German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Iran’s then-chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier (Getty Images/Thierry Roge). EU Cancels Next Round of Nuclear Negotiations with Iran France, Germany and the United Kingdom have called off nuclear talks with Iran scheduled for next week, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Aug. 22). “There will, in fact, be no negotiations meeting on Aug. 31 since the Iranians have decided to suspend application of the Paris Agreement,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. In that agreement, Iran  pledged to freeze its uranium enrichment activities, but it recently restarted some work after talks with the EU hit an impasse. “There will be no negotiations meeting ... as long as the Iranians remain outside the Paris Agreement” Mattei said...Full Story

North Korea-U.S. Diplomatic Contacts Intensify U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators have made contact three times over the past week to prepare for a new round of six-nation talks, which are expected to begin next week in Beijing, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 22)...Full Story

GAO Criticizes U.S. Energy Department Plutonium Disposal Effort, Recommends Safety Upgrades By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department should develop a plan to consolidate storage of plutonium stocks that are currently located across the country, according to report released publicly last week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (see GSN, March 31)...Full Story

	Tuesday, August 23, 2005

U.S. Set to Open Embassy in Libya, Leader’s Son Says The son of Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi said yesterday that the United States plans to open an embassy in Tripoli soon and to remove Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism this year, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 22). Libya plans to reciprocate by opening an embassy in Washington, said Seif Al-Islam Qadhafi. “The Libyan and American flags will be raised in Tripoli and Washington within the coming days,” he said (Associated Press/Turkish Daily News, Aug. 22). However, a senior U.S. official told Agence France-Presse he was unaware of any imminent plans for a U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. “There are some issues to be resolved as far as I understand,” he said. The United States might make additional concessions to Tripoli if it continues to cooperate on issues related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and human rights, AFP reported. “If they continue to make progress along the pathway that we have laid out, we, again, will meet their acts of good faith in return,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 22). Back to top

EU Cancels Next Round of Nuclear Negotiations with Iran France, Germany and the United Kingdom have called off nuclear talks with Iran scheduled for next week, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Aug. 22). “There will, in fact, be no negotiations meeting on Aug. 31 since the Iranians have decided to suspend application of the Paris Agreement,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. In that agreement, Iran  pledged to freeze its uranium enrichment activities, but it recently restarted some work after talks with the EU hit an impasse. “There will be no negotiations meeting ... as long as the Iranians remain outside the Paris Agreement” Mattei said. The European powers will, however, remain in contact with Iran, Mattei added. “That does not mean there will be no contact with the Iranians,” he said (Paul Carrel, Reuters/RedNova.com, Aug. 23). Tehran wants to resume negotiations with the European Union to resolve differences over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, outgoing Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said yesterday. “Iran gives Europe a chance to negotiate and reach an agreement with Iran over resumption of activities in Natanz uranium enrichment plant. It would be up to Europe to continue negotiations,” Rohani told the official Iranian state news agency. Iran has vowed, however, not to backtrack on its decision to resume uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant (Associated Press/Gulf Daily News, Aug. 22). Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and Pakistani technicians yesterday reviewed findings that enriched uranium particles found in Iran came from Pakistani nuclear equipment smuggled into the country, Agence France-Presse reported. Discussions with the Pakistani officials are to be included in a report to the agency’s Board of Governors, expected Sept. 3, said a Western diplomat (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 22). The report “will say the contamination issue is resolved,” a Western diplomat told the Washington Post. Scientists from the France, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, meeting over the past nine months, matched samples of highly enriched uranium traces found in Iran with samples from centrifuge equipment relinquished to the agency by Islamabad, the Post reported today. U.S. officials, meanwhile, have begun briefing allies in an effort to persuade them that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of an energy program. They contend that oil-rich Iran would not need an energy program as large as the one being planned, two officials told the Post (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Aug. 23). Iran is focusing its military efforts on development of ballistic missiles and air defenses, Iran’s defense minister-designate said today. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar discussed “developing and expanding the air defense system and missiles” as “highlights of the programs of the defense industries” during his parliamentary confirmation hearing, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Iranmania.com, Aug. 23). Back to top       North Korea-U.S. Diplomatic Contacts Intensify U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators have made contact three times over the past week to prepare for a new round of six-nation talks, which are expected to begin next week in Beijing, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 22). There were two diplomatic exchanges last week between the capitals, and another yesterday between U.S. diplomat Joseph DeTrani and the North Korean U.N. delegation in New York, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. McCormack said the negotiators were formulating a draft statement of principles that could potentially lead to a resolution of the standoff. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. envoy to the talks, met yesterday with Cui Tiankai of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and is scheduled to meet with South Korean and Japanese officials this week, AP reported (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/USA Today, Aug. 22). Meanwhile, Wu Dawei, China’s chief delegate to the multilateral negotiations, is scheduled to meet his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, tomorrow in Tokyo, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 22).). Back to top       GAO Criticizes U.S. Energy Department Plutonium Disposal Effort, Recommends Safety Upgrades By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department should develop a plan to consolidate storage of plutonium stocks that are currently located across the country, according to report released publicly last week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (see GSN, March 31). The report called for moving the stocks to the department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also recommended improving monitoring systems for storage containers at Savannah to prevent plutonium leaks once the material is shipped to the site.  About 50 metric tons of plutonium no longer needed by the U.S. nuclear weapons program is now in storage at the department’s Hanford facility in Washington state, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Colorado, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Savannah River Site. The 2002 Defense Authorization Act requires the department to develop a plan to store the material at the Savannah site until it can be shipped to the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository for permanent disposition. Auditors found that the department has fallen far behind in this effort since it was called for in the 2002 defense authorization bill. The department lacks a plan to convert plutonium into a form that can be stored at the Savannah facility. Also, Savannah is not equipped to store the Hanford plutonium, which is still in the form of 12-foot nuclear rods. Savannah is only equipped for standard storage containers, which cannot hold the rods. “Until DOE develops a permanent disposition plan, additional plutonium cannot be shipped to SRS [Savannah] and DOE will not achieve the cost savings and security improvements that consolidation could offer. Continued storage at Hanford will cost an additional approximately $85 million annually and will threaten that site’s achievement of the milestones in its accelerated cleanup plan,” the report says. The GAO also found that Savannah’s safety systems cannot properly monitor storage containers. “Without a monitoring capability, DOE faces increased risks of an accidental plutonium release that could harm workers, the public, and/or the environment,” the report states. The report points out that the department has twice scrapped plans to build facilities at Savannah that would have been capable of storing and monitoring excess plutonium as well as processing the material for eventual shipment to Yucca Mountain. Due to these cancellations, “DOE has no means for processing its most heavily contaminated plutonium into a form suitable for permanent disposition,” the report says. It urges the department to develop a strategy that assesses “the storage, monitoring, and security capabilities of all of DOE’s sites currently storing plutonium. Furthermore, the strategy should analyze the environmental impact, national security implications, costs, and schedules to safely consolidate, store, and eventually dispose of DOE’s plutonium at existing facilities and/or at a new storage facility constructed at one of its sites.” “When this comprehensive strategy is completed,” the report continues, “we further recommend that the secretary of energy ensure that each of DOE’s facilities’ cleanup plans are reviewed to ensure that each site’s cleanup goals time frames are consistent with the department’s comprehensive strategy for plutonium consolidation, storage, and disposition.” Independent nuclear expert Tom Clements, former senior adviser to Greenpeace International, blasted the department for its failure to develop a plan. Clements also criticized Congress for lax oversight of the department’s disposal efforts. “The report affirm[s] what many in the public have long pointed out — that DOE has no comprehensive plan to manage, consolidate or dispose of plutonium,” Clements said in a press release.  “But Congress is very late in beginning serious oversight of this program.  It has already been a decade since the program to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium began and DOE still hasn't developed a workable plan to handle this deadly material. Lack of such a plan, which should have been developed years ago, means a tremendous waste of taxpayer money and a continued threat to public health and safety.”  Clements told Global Security Newswire that it is difficult to gauge how much money has been spent on plutonium disposition because the funding has been scattered throughout various spending bills over the last few years. “It’s got to be in the billions of dollars,” he said. Clements said all plans to ship plutonium to Savannah must be stopped while the department develops a plan for storing the material. Congress should not allocate more money for construction of a Savannah facility to convert weapon-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power reactors until comprehensive safety plans are in place, he said. “DOE has tried for many years to fool the Congress and the public that a plan existed to dispose of plutonium.  While many in the public have not been fooled, Congress is to share the blame with DOE for this programmatic failure as it has not conducted adequate oversight of the troubled and costly plutonium program,” Clements said. “Congress has thrown money at the program without first demanding of DOE a comprehensive plan.  Such abuse of the taxpayer must stop and Congress must now hold DOE's feet to the fire.” Back to top       Two U.S. University Nuclear Research Reactors Remain Unable to Convert Away From Weaponizable Uranium Two U.S. universities remain unable to convert their highly enriched uranium-based nuclear research reactors to a safer fuel, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, July 19). Several schools, including the University of Florida and Texas A&M are scheduled next year to convert to an alternative reactor fuel, and conversions are also under way at the University of Wisconsin, Washington, Purdue and Oregon State, but reactors at the University of Missouri and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology remain among the 31 reactors worldwide that cannot switch from using highly enriched uranium due to technical issues, according to AP. The Energy Department hopes to have all reactors converted by 2014, AP reported.  Converting to non-nuclear-weapon usable fuel at Missouri has been complicated also by plans to upgrade the reactor to 20 megawatts, which necessitates continued use of the existing fuel grade. The power change would boost production of radioactive isotopes for medical purposes, reactor director Ralph Butler said in a written statement. “The majority of isotopes used in the United States today are provided by foreign suppliers,” Butler wrote. “The nation needs a consistent, reliable supply of radioactive and stable isotopes for medical, security, space power and research uses.” A federal license on Missouri’s reactor limits the amount of unirradiated fuel it can contain to 5 kilograms, AP reported. Irradiated fuel cannot be used in a nuclear bomb. Twelve kilograms of highly enriched uranium would be needed to produce nuclear weapons smaller than that used on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II. Work on two alternative fuels that could be used at Missouri and MIT is not expected to finish for five years, and one effort might be in danger of cancellation, AP reported. While commercial reactors have specialized 24-hour security, universities rely on campus police. Some experts warn that terrorists seeking weapon-grade nuclear material could exploit their reactors. “These things have been used for education for so long, the operators don’t seem to accept they can be used for nuclear weapons,” said George Bunn, a professor at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Butler said reactor security at Missouri is adequate and that the likelihood of research reactors being targeted for bomb fuel was “remote.” “Nuclear terrorism is a very serious threat to western countries, including the United States,” he said. “But the origin of the material isn’t going to be a research reactor” (Alan Zagier, Associated Press/Jefferson City News Tribune, Aug. 20). Back to top       South African Nuclear Proliferation Trial Delayed An agreement between prosecution and defense attorneys has led to a postponement of the trial of two men accused of violating South African nuclear proliferation laws, News24.com reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 28, 2004). Judge Mahomed Ishmail set Oct. 4 as the preliminary date for the case against Swiss citizen Daniel Geiges and German national Gerhard Wisser on charges that they violated the Nuclear Energy Act and laws banning WMD proliferation. Both defendants live in South Africa, according to News24.com. Prosecutors expect to file additional charges against the two men. They said they hope to begin the trial by February 2006, News24.com reported (News24.com, Aug. 22). Back to top       India, Pakistan to Formally Accept Notification Pact India and Pakistan are expected next month to formally sign an agreement requiring advanced notice of ballistic missile tests by either country, the Pakistan Times reported (see GSN, Aug. 22). The agreement is expected to be signed when India and Pakistan’s foreign ministers meet on Sept. 1 and 2 to evaluate progress on peace talks. Officials also anticipate announcing establishment of a nuclear hot line between the nations’ foreign ministries (Pakistan Times, Aug. 23). Back to top

Leaks Detected at Umatilla Chemical Depot Trace amounts of leaked chemical agent detected Thursday at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon posed no danger to the public, the East Oregonian reported (see GSN, Aug. 1). The leaks were contained in two storage igloos at the facility. Passive filter systems in the units prevent agent from escaping. The amount of leaking chemical was so low that it would have posed no health risk even had it escaped, according to the Oregonian. After the leak was discovered, workers installed additional filtering systems in the two storage sites. Depot personnel are monitoring the igloos, the Oregonian reported (East Oregonian, Aug. 19). Back to top

Pentagon Announces GMD, THAAD Test Schedules The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has announced new testing schedules for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense and the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, The Huntsville (Ala.) Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 4). Ground-based tests on the GMD program are scheduled from this month through September, said Tom Devanney, GMD program manager in Huntsville. Four major interceptor flight tests are then scheduled between September and November 2006 — the first two without targets, the others with targets. In addition, a new early warning radar is scheduled to begin operating in the United Kingdom and two new interceptors are being installed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Devanney said. “We have 40 holes in the ground” for a missile field at Fort Greely, Alaska, he added. The THAAD system, meanwhile, has undergone extensive hardware improvements, said Col. Charles Driessnack, THAAD program manager. “We made it simple to perform maintenance. With 30 standard tools any soldier can perform maintenance on (THAAD) and complete it in under 30 minutes,” Driessnack said (Shelby Spires, Huntsville Times/al.com, Aug. 23). The Missile Defense Agency is preparing to resume THAAD flight tests in the next fiscal year, Driessnack said. The THAAD system is meant to use kinetic energy warheads to destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during the last phase of flight, according to Inside the Army. Five flight tests are scheduled for the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., after which the system is to be moved to the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii at the end of fiscal 2006 for more complex testing, Driessnack told Inside the Army last month (Ashley Roque, Inside the Army, Aug. 22). Back to top

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