Biotech Firm Completes Smallpox Vaccine Trial

A U.S. biotechnology company has finished the first phase of human safety testing of a new smallpox vaccine, United Press International reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 1).

SIGA Technologies Inc. has received a $4.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, which will help the company continue work on the smallpox drug (United Press International, Aug. 3).

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Report Lists Stopping WMD Transit as Counterproliferation Priority

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Stopping the transit of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and associated technologies is the United States’ top counterproliferation priority, according to a report recently sent to Congress (see GSN, June 23).

The Counterproliferation Program Review Committee, composed of representatives from the Defense and Energy departments, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended boosting U.S. efforts to improve nuclear material detection capabilities, incorporating air interdiction efforts into the international Proliferation Security Initiative and improving maritime interdiction capabilities.

The report, which is produced and submitted to Congress yearly, is split into two sections. The main portion of the document — an overview of national strategies to combat weapons of mass destruction as well as complete recommendations — is classified.

However, an unclassified executive summary prepared in May prioritizes areas of counterproliferation activity within the Defense and Energy departments and the intelligence community, and gives an overall ranking of counterproliferation priorities as determined by the review committee.

The eight categories, in overall listing of importance, are: interdiction, elimination, threat reduction cooperation, passive defense, security cooperation and partner activities, offensive operations, active defense and consequence management.

In addition to the top overall priority, interdiction is identified as the top priority within the Defense Department. Standoff detection — the ability by the Pentagon to detect the presence of WMD and fissile materials at a distance — is cited as a shortfall in this area. The unclassified executive summary offers no details about existing capabilities.

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office of the Homeland Security Department is responsible for spearheading and accelerating the nation’s research into more advanced nuclear detectors. Within a battlefield context such nuclear detection falls under the aegis of the Defense Department (see GSN, Aug. 3).

For the intelligence community, the report lists operations to locate, lock down, disable or destroy WMD programs run by either a state or a terrorist group as the top priority.

The review committee recommended developing capabilities to destroy the weapons at the sites. The report indicates adequate destruction capabilities do not presently exist.

The ability of intelligence agencies to monitor wide areas persistently and at long range was also cited as a shortfall, as was the capability to “secure and exploit” WMD sites.

The report lists “threat reduction cooperation” — efforts undertaken with the cooperation of a host nation to reduce, secure or dismantle WMD programs or stockpiles — as the top priority for the Energy Department.

The committee indicated WMD detection capabilities at border crossings require improvement, along with capabilities to detect WMD programs and monitor their dismantlement.

The report also recommended having a committee or group coordinate U.S. threat reduction efforts across various agencies and the development of more discriminating and sensitive radiation sensors at key transportation centers (see GSN, July 17).

Within “active defense,” a category described as military measures to prevent, deter or defeat the delivery of weapons of mass destruction, the committee recommended continuing to fully fund the ballistic missile defense program. Current challenges, according to the report, include countering ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight and cruise missile in all phases (see GSN, June 26).

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Indian Army Prepares for WMD Attacks

The Indian army has organized teams of specialists ready to respond to attacks involving biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, the Calcutta Telegraph reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 1).

There are two potential scenarios considered for an attack against New Delhi — deployment of a weapon of mass destruction from land or air against the city or a strike against a nuclear facility that would release nuclear radiation into the capital.

The threat to the city is believed to be high, the Telegraph reported. 

“Protocols have been evolved for prompt and effective NBC [nuclear-biological-chemical] casualty management,” a panel of lawmakers said in a report to Parliament. These include creating a quick reaction medical team in each of the six army commands, and one for New Delhi.

The committee also called on medical services in the Indian armed forces to “relook into our special preparedness and take all steps” for preparing for a WMD incident.

Military personnel located in forward areas have individual protective gear, according to the Indian Defense Ministry. Some have been “trained in mitigation techniques, decontamination drills and NBC operation bricks and platoon bricks have been designed and issued,” the ministry told Parliament.

Special battalions equipped with protective gear have trained regularly over the last four years, the Telegraph reported.

The Armed Forces Institute of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection in Delhi is also in operation, the ministry said. The institute was asked to train all air force personnel, in addition to training medical and paramedical staff to treat casualties from a WMD incident (The Telegraph, Aug. 3).

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Bush Administration Opposes Legal Ban on Enrichment, Reprocessing Technology Sales to India

The Bush administration’s nominee to head the State Department’s nonproliferation bureau told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the White House does not favor laws banning uranium enrichment or reprocessing technology exports under Washington’s nuclear deal with India, the Indo-Asian News Service reported (see GSN, Aug. 3).

While New Delhi does not anticipate receiving such technology through the civil nuclear cooperation agreement, it objects to codification of such prohibitions, John Rood told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing. India has also objected to requirements that Washington establish an end-use monitoring system for exported technology beyond what is required under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, he said (Indo-Asian News Service/Hindustan Times, Aug. 4).

“We look forward to civil nuclear cooperation with India, but we’ve told the Indian government we don’t envision that cooperation involving enrichment and reprocessing technologies or the technology for the production of heavy water,” Rood said.

“The civil nuclear cooperation initiative is an important means of building this strategic partnership and also serves our nonproliferation goals by bringing India into the international nonproliferation mainstream,” he said (Press Trust of India/Outlook India, Aug. 3).

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Russia Says Iran Must Heed U.N. Resolution

Russia warned Iran yesterday to obey the U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Tehran suspend its uranium enrichment activities by Aug. 31, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 3).

“We are counting on Iran to heed the appeals made to it so that no further actions by the U.N. Security Council will be required,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Bushehr nuclear power plant, under construction in Iran with assistance from Moscow, remains on schedule.

“Work is being carried out as planned,” Atomstroiexport, the Russian state-owned company responsible for the project, said in a statement. A spokesman for the company said the first reactor was “95 percent ready.”

Bushehr is expected to go online in 2007, AP reported (Henry Meyer, Associated Press I/Turkish Daily News, Aug. 3).

Elsewhere, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday expressed optimism that the nuclear standoff can be resolved through negotiations, AP reported.

“From the beginning, we have said that we have desire for dialogue and negotiations,” he said.

“We have said that we will consider the European package, and still we are in the process of consideration,” he added (Associated Press II/USA Today, Aug. 3).

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Switzerland Allowed to Transfer Financial Documents in German Nuclear Smuggling Case

Switzerland’s high court ruled last month that the government could provide Germany with financial records of two suspects in a nuclear smuggling case, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 27).

The ruling, dated July 13 and released yesterday, did not identify the couple. German authorities believe the two received some $1.3 million from the transfer of uranium enrichment centrifuges to Libya prior to that country’s decision to give up its WMD efforts in 2003, according to AP (Associated Press, Aug. 3).

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China Urges North Korea, U.S. to Resume Nuke Talks

Chinese officials said today that the United States and North Korea should do more to help restart the stalled multilateral negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 31).

“China hopes North Korea and the U.S. should show flexibility and take measures favorable to the reopening of the six-party talks,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

“For the resuscitation of the six-party talks, North Korea and the United States should take flexible, sincere and responsible stances,” Liu said (Associated Press/The Hankyoreh, Aug. 4).

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said today that he would not anticipate Chinese sanctions on North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“The mood in the international community to pressure North Korea is expected to continue under the current situation, where we are seeing no significant actions from the North to restore its (self-imposed) moratorium on missile launches or end its boycott of the six-party nuclear talks,” Ban said.

Ban said Pyongyang’s “unyielding stand” is a significant obstacle to the resumption of multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations (Yonhap News Agency/The Hankyoreh, Aug. 4).

Ban also encouraged the United States to make direct contact with the North, The Korea Herald reported today.

“For us, we are mainly talking about how the United States could be as positive as possible in bilaterally contacting North Korea,” he said.

“Some of the (six-party talks) members believe that gathering without the North could further isolate it,” he said. “At this point, I believe it is realistically difficult to hold five-way talks.”

“The United States is open to bilateral contact within the boundary of the six-party talks when it resumes. It would thus be difficult to realize any type of contact between the leaders of the two countries,” Ban said (Lee Joo-hee, The Korea Herald, Aug. 4).

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Russia Tests ICBM

Russia yesterday conducted a successful test-launch of a Topol RS-12 ICBM, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, July 14).

The missile flew from the Plesetsk launch pad to the target site at the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to Interfax.

“The missile was test-fired to confirm stability of its flight and technical parameters in order to lengthen its service life,” said Maj. Gen. Vitaly Seliverstov of the Strategic Rocket Forces.

The Russian military began deployment in 1985 of Topol missiles, which have a maximum range of 10,000 kilometers. The missiles are scheduled to remain in service until 2015 (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily, Aug. 4).

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WWII Chemical Weapons Dumps Found in Baltic Sea

Researchers have found at least 10 sites in the Baltic Sea believed to contain World War II-era chemical weapons, Interfax reported yesterday (see GSN, April 20).

An expedition using the Russian ship Shelf found an atypical chemical composition of seabed waters near Denmark, which suggests toxic-filled munitions could exist at the site. The mission, which ended yesterday, is the first component of an international effort to study chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea.

“The first international expedition was a success. Under the project we will travel to the Bornholm Cavity, to the Gotland Cavity in Latvian territorial waters and to the Skaggerakk Straits in Swedish territorial waters,” said Vadim Paka, director of the Atlantic Department at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.

Researchers from Germany, Belgium, Finland Denmark, Russia and Latvia are expected to work on the three-year-long project (Interfax, Aug. 3).

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Seoul Says North Korea Might Have Removed Second Long-Range Missile From Launch Site

A South Korean official said today it appears that North Korea moved a second Taepodong 2 ICBM away from its Musudan-ri launch site following a series of missile tests last month, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 3).

The move could indicate a reduced likelihood of further missile flights in the near future.

Intelligence reports indicated that two of the long-range Taepodong missiles were moved to the site before one was launched on July 5.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that satellite data indicated the disappearance of the second missile from the site last month (Associated Press/USA Today, Aug. 4).

Meanwhile, a U.S. official said yesterday that China had taken “unprecedented” actions in stressing its concerns to Pyongyang over last month’s missile launches, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

“In the past few weeks we have seen China take unprecedented actions to express (its) concerns to North Korea over its provocative missile launches, including working with the U.S. and others to pass the very strongly worded U.N. Security Council Resolution 1695,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Christensen (Yonhap News Agency/The Hankyoreh, Aug. 4).

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Radioactive Materials Moved from Chechnya to Russia

The United States and Russia have collaborated to remove more than 5,500 curies of radioactive cobalt 60 and cesium 137 from Chechnya, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced yesterday (see GSN, July 5).

The amount of material would be enough to produce five radiological “dirty bombs,” the agency said in a press release. It is being relocated to Russia from a Chechen petrochemical production site.

“It is critical to international security that high-risk, radiological material is safely removed and secured before it falls in the hands of terrorists. Through joint cooperation with Russia, dangerous material has been removed from an area known for violence,” NNSA chief Linton Brooks said in a release.

The United States financed the project, which was conducted by Russian personnel protected by armed security forces, NNSA spokeswoman Julianne Smith told the Associated Press. “Because of the situation in Chechnya, we were not there,” she said (Associated Press, Aug. 4).

Russian specialists removed the radioactive materials from equipment and placed them in two transportation casks. The containers were transported in a truck to a Moscow-area facility for analysis and temporary storage. The material is expected ultimately to be taken to the Radon Moscow Scientific Production Association for final disposal.

The U.S.-led Global Threat Reduction Initiative over three years has recovered from 23 sites material that could be used to create more than 2000 radiological weapons, the release states (National Nuclear Security Administration release, Aug. 3).

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Spent Fuel Storage Worries Environmentalists

Environmentalists say that increasing amounts of spent nuclear fuel stored at Tennessee Valley Authority power plants is a “recipe for disaster,” the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 24, 2005).

TVA officials said its storage sites are secure.

The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala., stores more than 1,400 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste in an elevated pool. The nuclear plant is considered a leader in U.S. spent nuclear fuel storage.

The plant stores another 37 metric tons of waste near the Tennessee River. 

“This waste is being piled up on the river banks, and the river is the drinking water source for thousands of people,” said Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “Couple that with the known terrorists’ threats, and it’s very discomforting.”

The nuclear waste is put into the pool for cooling prior to eventual shipping to a permanent disposal facility. The schedule for such relocation remains unknown. The planned permanent waste depot at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is now not scheduled to open before 2017 (see GSN, July 19).

TVA officials have been disappointed about the delays at Yucca Mountain but asserted that the public is not endangered by stored waste, according to AP.

“The storage in dry casks is a proven, safe technology,” TVA spokesman John Moulton said. “(The Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has licensed the storage facilities, so there are regulatory checks there.”

Other Alabama plants that store spent fuel include the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, which contains a full storage pool and outside storage (see GSN, Oct. 9, 2002). The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City is expected to require additional dry-cask storage measures in about 12 years (see GSN, Sept. 25, 2002).

The three plants in total store more than 2,500 metric tons of waste and radioactive fuel assemblies.

Nationally, U.S. plants store 55,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, with the amount increasing by about 2,000 metric tons each year, Nuclear Regulatory Agency officials said (Associated Press/Montgomery Independent, August 3).

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