A cargo container containing plutonium from U.S. weapons arsenals is lifted off a ship for reprocessing in France in 2004. A report released yesterday warned that enough plutonium exists in worldwide stockpiles to make 225,000 nuclear weapons (Getty Images/Andre Durand). Worldwide Plutonium Stockpile Continues to Grow By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Enough plutonium and uranium exist in stockpiles around the world to build more than 300,000 nuclear weapons, according to an assessment released yesterday by a Washington think tank (see GSN, Aug. 24)...Full Story

U.S. Missile Intercept Test Expected in Summer 2006 By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is not likely to test its flagship anti-ICBM system against a flying target until at least next summer, a spokesman said last month (see GSN, Aug. 25)...Full Story

North Korea Nuke Talks to Resume Tuesday, China Says Six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions will resume Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced today (see GSN, Sept. 7)...Full Story

	Thursday, September 8, 2005

Australia Strengthens Antiterror Laws Australia today announced new laws which allow authorities to hold people for two days in a “terrorism situation,” Reuters reported (see GSN, June 2). Present laws only allow people to be held if they are being questioned or if there is evidence that they are involved with or have knowledge of a terrorist act, according to Reuters. “The measures I have outlined represent a very significant but absolutely necessary strengthening of our counterterrorism laws,” Prime Minister John Howard said. Australia reviewed its antiterrorism laws after the London subway and bus bombings in July, Reuters reported. The changes give security officials “contemporary and necessary weapons to strengthen their defense of our way of life” without violating individual rights, according to Howard. “There is nothing in these measures that can be regarded as creating a quasi-police state,” he said (Reuters/Yahoo!News, Sept. 8). Back to top

Worldwide Plutonium Stockpile Continues to Grow By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Enough plutonium and uranium exist in stockpiles around the world to build more than 300,000 nuclear weapons, according to an assessment released yesterday by a Washington think tank (see GSN, Aug. 24). David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and co-author of Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials warned that the plutonium supply is unlikely to decrease in the coming decades. “Plutonium is going to be with us for a long time in a nuclear explosive form,” Albright said yesterday in a presentation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Security at civilian and military nuclear sites around the world needs to be improved to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials, he said. While “Russia emerges as the biggest concern,” Albright warned that nuclear stockpiles in South Africa and other countries without weapons programs are also vulnerable (see GSN, July 19). South Africa is “a place that you don’t really think about that has highly enriched uranium and could be vulnerable,” Albright said. Uranium enrichment in areas such as the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, whether for peaceful or military purposes, should be banned, Albright argued. “The momentum supports those things more than ever in the past,” he said. Plutonium Supplies Increasing The report finds that at the end of 2003, 35 countries had 1,830 tons of plutonium — enough for 225,000 weapons — and 50 countries had 1,900 tons of highly enriched uranium.  Of the plutonium supply, 1,675 tons were in civilian stocks produced in power reactor programs, while 155 tons were dedicated for use in the military and nuclear weapons programs. The largest stockpiles belonged to the United States with 502 tons of plutonium, Russia with 271 tons and France with 236 tons, according to the report.  Stocks of civilian plutonium grow by 70 tons each year, according to the report. Efforts to reduce the plutonium supply are not going well, Albright said. The report estimates that civilian power plants will continue to create 5 tons of plutonium each year even as mixed-oxide fuel conversion facilities in the United Kingdom and Japan reach full operational capacity. MOX plants convert plutonium into a safer fuel for use in nuclear power reactors (see GSN, July 21). While the total amount of plutonium is expected to grow, the stocks held for military purposes are expected to decrease slightly in coming years, Albright said, from 333 tons in 2003 to 315 tons in 2020.  Supplies of weapon-grade uranium have also been on the decline due to blending down of the material to low-enriched uranium, Albright said (see GSN, Feb. 23). However, the 1,900-ton worldwide stockpile is enough to create 75,000 bombs. While most of this uranium is in the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon states, many countries without nuclear weapons programs possess the material. He urged the United States to play a greater role in securing the substance. “The United States should consider on a case-by-case basis permitting other HEU forms of U.S.-origin to be returned,” the report says. “In addition, the United States needs to be prepared to accept the transfer of several stocks of non-U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, including South Africa’s stock, that otherwise would remain in countries that may not be able to provide adequate long-term physical protection.” The United States and Russia have by far the largest stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, respectively holding 124 tons and 15 to 30 tons. Albright also warned that the world supply of neptunium 237 and americium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, totals 141 tons. This could be used for more than 5,000 weapons, he said. Ed Fei, senior policy adviser at the U.S. Energy Department’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative, praised the report, calling it “the most authoritative, thorough set of information out there.” Fei said the Global Threat Reduction Initiative works to “clean up leftovers” of large nuclear supplies that are accounted for to prevent terrorists from obtaining them (see GSN, Aug. 22). “It’s very small amounts of material we’re after,” Fei said. Back to top       North Korea Nuke Talks to Resume Tuesday, China Says Six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions will resume Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced today (see GSN, Sept. 7). The talks were expected to reconvene last week in Beijing after a monthlong recess, but Pyongyang protested U.S.-South Korean military exercises and the U.S. appointment of a special envoy on human rights in North Korea by slowing its return to the negotiating table, the Associated Press reported. North Korea, meanwhile, has reiterated its demand that the United States withdraw its troops from South Korea. “If it is true that the U.S. has no intention to invade (North Korea) and has the stance to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula and improve the relations with (North Korea), it should prove it in practice by making a decision for the withdrawal of its troops without delay,” the Rodong Sinmun daily said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Sept. 8). Some U.S. lawmakers yesterday expressed concern about the talks, Agence France-Presse reported. “It is going to be very, very difficult” to draft a statement of principles, said Representative Jim Leach (R-Iowa), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, who recently visited North Korea. “The trust has broken down. It will take some time to change attitudes and attitudes are going to be needed to develop trust,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 7). South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young, however, expressed optimism today about progress at the next round of talks, AFP reported. “There is a room for both sides to reach a compromise on the right to peaceful nuclear activities,” he said. He added, however, that Pyongyang’s demand for the completion of two light-water reactors promised under a now-defunct 1990 deal with the United States was as a “tougher” issue (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 8). South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the international community must provide economic aid to North Korea once the nuclear issue is resolved, AP reported today. “Something must be done,” Han told AP (Kelly Olsen, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Sept. 8). Back to top       EU Wants Iran Nuclear Issue Sent to U.N. France, Germany and the United Kingdom are prepared to support U.S. calls to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council following Tehran’s resumption of uranium conversion, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 7). “We are unanimous in our assessment of the way forward that following what has happened, now it should be for the Board of Governors of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] to report the issue to the Security Council,” said German negotiator Ruediger Luedeking. Luedeking said the three negotiating partners were seeking the support of other IAEA members for the referral. He added that the European powers were not in favor of immediately seeking sanctions. Instead, he said they would push for a statement calling on Iran to reinstate a moratorium on sensitive nuclear activities and return to negotiations (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Sept. 7). Meanwhile, a South Korean firm nearly provided Iran with tritium, a substance that can be combined with deuterium to boost nuclear explosions, Reuters reported yesterday. The sale was not completed, as has been alleged by an Iranian opposition group, said Du-Ock Beck, director of the Export Control Licensing and Enforcement Division at South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. “The government believes such misunderstanding derives from the fact that on Dec. 3 last year a Korean company planned to ship tritium to Iran after initially acquiring the export-controlled … substance from France,” he said. France asked the company to submit documentation on the shipment’s end-user on Dec. 24, according to Beck, prompting the deal to be aborted. “After conducting an investigation ... the Korean government found that no Korean company exported to Iran the substance in question, tritium,” Beck said (Francois Murphy, Reuters, Sept. 7). India, meanwhile, expressed support for Iran’s nuclear energy program, The Electricity Daily reported today. “We support the pursuit by Iran of its peaceful nuclear energy program in keeping with Iran’s international obligations,” Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said after meeting with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (The Electricity Daily, Sept. 8). Back to top       Pakistan Seeks Civilian Nuclear Deal Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States said his nation should receive the same access to U.S. nuclear technology as India, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 26). “The balance of power in South Asia should not become so tilted in India’s favor, as a result of the U.S. relationship with India, that Pakistan has to start taking extraordinary measures to ensure a capability for deterrence and defense,” said Ambassador Jehangir Karamat. “Whatever legislation is made shouldn’t be a specific, one-time affair just for India,” Karamat continued, “but should leave the door open for other countries that meet the same criteria and show good responsibility and satisfy the United States’ concerns.” Karamat said Pakistan would discuss a possible deal with the Bush administration. He noted Islamabad’s military ties with the United States. Pakistan is negotiating a purchase of between 75 and 100 F-16 fighter jets from the United States, he said. Critics said that the nuclear smuggling network formerly led by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and doubts about the country’s commitment to democracy separate Pakistan from India, according to AP. Karamat acknowledged “concerns on proliferation” but said Pakistan has taken steps to prevent future nuclear trafficking. “I think that those concerns have been largely met and satisfied. The whole structure on the ground for physical security and control of those (nuclear) assets and the various steps that have been taken to prevent accidents and illegal transfers — those are now foolproof, and the U.S. is aware of that,” he said (Foster Klug, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Sept. 8). Back to top       Australian Ex-Diplomat Warns of Uranium Export Risk A former Australian diplomat has warned his country against selling uranium to other nations, the Australian Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 10). “Because of the nuclear brinkmanship now taking place along the 38th parallel, and North Korea saying it has nuclear weapons, we’re in a very dangerous situation,” said Richard Broinowski, a former ambassador to South Korea and a nuclear proliferation expert. Australia has made bilateral agreements with both Japan and South Korea to provide uranium, according to AAP. “In my considered and professional view, Japan already has the capacity to make nuclear weapons — they’d probably just have to bolt them together,” Broinowski said. “South Korea is not far behind and I wonder what might be happening in Taiwan, which is another country, or province of China which we’re supposed to call it, that has in fact dabbled in nuclear weapons technology in the past,” he said. Broinowski said he believes uranium from Australia is already being used in existing nuclear weapons. “Dollar signs are flashing … in the eyes of politicians and the uranium and mining industry,” he said. “I hope [Australian officials will] realize that the hangman’s argument — that if we don’t sell it to China someone else will — misses the point, that if China gets our uranium, they can divert their own stuff into weapons and use ours for power,” he said. “I hope people will understand that with India, not being a member of the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty], it would be a completely flagrant breach of our safeguards agreement to sell it to them,” Broinowski said. “We really are in a situation now where the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is almost dead in the water,” he said (Denis Peters, Australian Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 8). Back to top       Cook Islands Ratifies Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Cook Islands ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty earlier this week, the CTBT Organization announced today (see GSN, May 4). The South Pacific nation is the 122nd country to sign the treaty. The treaty has 33 of the 44 signatures needed to bring the pact into force (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization release, Sept. 8). Back to top       U.S. Successfully Tests Minuteman ICBM The U.S. Air Force yesterday successfully test fired a Minuteman 3 missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 26). The test was conducted by members of the 30th Space Wing and the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg and the 91st Space Wing from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, according to AP. The unarmed missile flew 4,200 miles in half an hour and hit targets on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, according to AP. “The Western (missile test) Range and Vandenberg are national assets critical to verifying the capability of the deployed ICBM force that remains on-alert at bases in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming,” 576th commander Col. S.L. Davis said in a statement. “The data we collect from each operational test launch allows the 576th FLTS to verify, validate, and ultimately improve that capability which in turn helps to maintain global stability.” Davis said yesterday’s launch was the third Minuteman test this year, and a final test this year is planned for next week (Associated Press/The Tribune, Sept. 7). Back to top

Azerbaijan Denies Transferring Bioweapons to U.S. Azerbaijani authorities today expressed “extreme surprise” over a Chicago Tribune report that the country had handed over biological weapon samples to the United States, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, Sept. 7). A statement from Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry said that the United States received strains of animal infections and ectoparasites. Environmental samples were also sent, according to the statement (Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman, ITAR-Tass, Sept. 8).  Back to top

Deseret CW Facility to Get $50 Million Upgrade The U.S. Defense Department will spend $50 million to dispose of mercury during destruction of mustard gas at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the Pueblo Chieftain reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 4). Chemical and Engineering News reported that the money will be used to prevent mercury from getting into the air during incineration. Facility contractor EG&G plans to install carbon filters for destruction of mustard gas batches with high mercury content, said Marty Gray, manager for chemical demilitarization manager at the Utah Environmental Quality Department. A washout process will be used to dilute gelled mustard gas in some of the ton containers.  Deseret has to destroy 13,500 tons of mustard gas in 6,000 ton containers and 118,000 artillery rounds once it finishes processing sarin and VX nerve gas, according to the Chieftain (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, Sept. 7). Back to top

U.S. Missile Intercept Test Expected in Summer 2006 By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is not likely to test its flagship anti-ICBM system against a flying target until at least next summer, a spokesman said last month (see GSN, Aug. 25). The agency is planning four flight tests of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system several months apart over the coming year, spokesman Richard Lehner said by e-mail. The first two tests, beginning late this year, will not include targets, he said. The third will include a target, but is intended as a “fly-by” and not to hit the missile. The fourth test will be “likely in 4th quarter” of fiscal 2006, he said, which is July, August and September, and “will have an intercept as an objective.” That is potentially a 19-month delay since the last intercept attempt in February. The schedule also means the agency will experience a nearly four-year delay between actual intercepts, if the next attempt is successful. The last successful intercept was on Oct. 14, 2002. Furthermore, at least until mid-2006, the agency will not have conducted an intercept test using the new interceptors that are being purchased and loaded into the ground in Alaska and California for potential defensive use. Six are already installed and six more are planned for the end of the year, Lehner said. Four interceptors scheduled for deployment will instead be transferred to the test program, he said. The agency is funding installation of up to 20 more by the end of 2007. Representative John Spratt (D-S.C.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, this year added language to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill approved by the House to provide $100 million for a missile intercept test from an operational silo “as soon as practicable.” The move was an apparent effort to gauge the operational capability of the system’s fielded components prior to continued investment in deployed systems. No Senate bill includes such legislation. Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering “feels [the interceptor flight schedule] is a measured approach to testing over the next year to exercise the operational configuration of booster and kill vehicle, the integrated fire control system, as well as use of operational sensors for tracking, including Aegis, forward deployed X-band radars and the sea-based X-band radar,” Lehner said. GSN last month reported the delay in testing, but was unable then to identify a scheduled time-period for the next intercept test. Previous Failures The anti-ICBM system last underwent intercept testing in December 2004 and February 2005. In both cases, the interceptor missile failed to leave its silo to engage its target. Agency officials have said the failures resulted from technical glitches.  A Defense Department-appointed panel reviewing the failures in March suggested that quality control was weakened as the agency moved to both test and meet a White House-driven schedule of fielding interceptors and other system components by the start of 2005 (see GSN, June 10).  The panel recommended a more cautious approach to testing that would include delaying the next scheduled intercept flight until it was believed it would have an 80-percent probability of success. Critics say the intercept tests, as they have been conducted to date, have been significantly artificial, so even the successful flights have not demonstrated whether the system could be made to eventually work under real conditions. U.S. officials and the review panel this year have argued that the basic feasibility of the system has been demonstrated through earlier testing and that the potential of an effective system should discourage potential adversaries such as North Korea from developing ICBMs. Prior to the most recent test failures, officials had boasted of the agency’s then five-for-eight record of intercepts as evidence of the system’s potential. They do not now cite the agency’s five-for-10 record. Instead, they point to reportedly successful intercepts from 2000 to 2002 using prototype interceptors and missiles as evidence of the system’s potential effectiveness. “The successful prototype interceptor tests that we conducted in 2001 and 2002 gave us the confidence to proceed with the development and fielding of a system that relies primarily on the hit-to-kill technologies,” Obering told a congressional committee in May. “While our testing has continued to build our confidence in the system, long-range interceptor aborts in our last recent tests have been very disappointing,” he said. Back to top       U.S. Defense Department Should Clarify Funding, Management Guidelines for Missile Defense, GAO Says The U.S. Defense Department should clarify the criteria for deciding when management and funding responsibility for aspects of the missile defense program should be transferred from the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency to a military service, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released yesterday (see GSN, July 8). It is not clear to the military services which missile defense assets might eventually come under their control, according to the report. The Pentagon should establish clear and complete transfer criteria to guide those making decisions on management and funding, GAO recommended in the report. The department should also clarify whether the agency or the services will be responsible for sustaining those missile defense capabilities that have not been transferred to the services. If costs are much higher than expected, the diversion of research and development funds to sustaining a missile defense capability will begin to affect the agency’s primary mission of developing new capabilities, according to the report. The Defense Department plans to implement recommendations being prepared by GAO officials (U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Sept. 7). Back to top

Iraqi Radiological Material Remained Unsecured for Six Months After U.S. Invasion, GAO Says Iraqi radiological sources remained unsecured for six months after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, allowing some of the materials to be looted, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (see GSN, July 7). U.S. forces eventually gathered about 1,400 medical, industrial and research sources, and removed 1,000 of them, the report says. The report states that the full count of unsecured radiological items in Iraq is not known, according to Agence France-Presse. “Even after [the Defense Threat Reduction Agency] completed collecting and securing sources, according to Department of State officials, a neighboring country twice detected trucks leaving the country with unsecured radiological sources,” the report says (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 17).   Back to top

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