Indian nuclear negotiator Shyam Saran (left) meets with U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns last year (Getty Images). India Threatens to Walk From Nuclear Deal with U.S. India cautioned yesterday that it could abandon its nuclear trade deal with the United States if current U.S. congressional restrictions remain in force, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2006). Of particular concern are a prohibition on spent fuel reprocessing by India and a requirement to end U.S. aid if New Delhi conducts any nuclear tests, said top Indian nuclear negotiator Shyam Saran...Full Story

German Bank Limits Iranian Business A German bank announced yesterday that it would not conduct business for Iranian clients using dollars, one day after the United States announced it would freeze the assets of a major bank in Iran (see GSN, Jan. 9)...Full Story

Public Questions “Divine Strake” Safety U.S. Energy Department officials heard public criticism yesterday of their plan to detonate a large conventional explosion at the Nevada Test Site, potentially dispersing radioactive particle from past nuclear tests, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Jan. 8)...Full Story

	Thursday, January 11, 2007

Conference Focuses on Crisis Coordination Hospital officials from the Washington, D.C. area and beyond are attending a two-day conference this week to discuss strategies for improving communication with communities during a major emergency, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2006). State and national disaster plans are often developed without input from hospitals, according to a press release from the Washington Hospital Center, which is organizing the event.  Few plans exist for handling communications between medical centers and public safety departments. Lack of privileged access to information during a major crisis undermines a hospital’s ability to determine the seriousness of the event and prepare for a sudden influx of patients, the Times reported. “Numerous studies show that in mass-casualty incidents, less seriously injured patients are the first to arrive at hospitals.  And because of poor communications with public safety agencies, hospital staff are unaware that there may be more seriously injured patients to come … and beds are full when the more seriously injured arrive,” Yuri Millo, director of the Hospital Center’s ER One Simulation and Training Environmental Lab, said in the release.  “Hospitals need to work with their local governments so as to inform the public about what to do in such situations.  There is no integrated plan now and the January conference will spark the debate.” The fourth-annual conference is scheduled for today and tomorrow at the Leavy Conference Center at Georgetown University.  Homeland Security Department associate medical officer Tilman Jolly is the keynote speaker. “This conference brings not only Homeland Security, but also representatives from the District, New Orleans, New York and many others, especially from metropolitan areas with high potential [for] terrorist activity,” said Washington Hospital Center spokesman LeRoy Tillman (Alicia Borgess, Washington Times, Jan. 11). Back to top

Development Continues of U.S. Bio, Chem Sensors A foul stench that wafted through New York on Monday did not set off biological or chemical agent sensors deployed around the city, helping to assure residents they were not experiencing a terrorist attack, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 3, 2006). New York is one of at least 30 urban areas that have received hundreds of air sensors over the last three years.  Combined, they are meant to create an early warning system for a release of deadly germs and toxic chemicals. The city systems are in their early stages, and questions have been raised about their capabilities.  However, improvements are being made through better technology, AP reported. Biological sensors in certain cities operate around the clock, monitoring the air for agents such as anthrax and smallpox.  Some train and subway stations in major cities such as Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. are also equipped with monitors for dangerous chemicals or gases, while environmental agencies have received mobile and hand-held air sensors. With wireless technology, monitors before long might conduct automatic testing and then transmit data to a central monitor, saving time previously used to relay air samples to a laboratory. “Our objective is to make it an almost instantaneous result,” said Christopher Kelly, spokesman for the Homeland Security Department’s science and technology division. There are weaknesses in the city systems.  They operate at the mercy of wind patterns.  Any positive results mean a substance has already been released; however, such a warning also allows for rapid treatment of victims and early efforts to prevent the spread of infection. Sensors in the Biowatch program, which detects dangerous germs, are limited to testing of roughly 20 microbes and toxins, according to Homeland Security. It also remains largely to be seen if the network is capable of detecting a terror strike.  Not enough monitors have been deployed, some experts say.  A 2005 report from the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general questioned the reliability and efficiency of the Biowatch program that had then received $129 million in funding, AP reported. Improvements in technology have quelled some concerns.  The system is now better at distinguishing between dangerous substances and commonplace materials such as cleaning fluid. Creating an early warning bioterror system “is an enormously difficult problem and an expensive one,” and significant work remains to be done, said Penny Hitchcock, a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Biosecurity. The system’s promise lies not just in detection of terror materials, but in identifying flu outbreaks and other diseases. “If you think about harnessing this, I actually think it has a lot of potential,” she said. Back to top

India Threatens to Walk From Nuclear Deal with U.S. India cautioned yesterday that it could abandon its nuclear trade deal with the United States if current U.S. congressional restrictions remain in force, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2006). Of particular concern are a prohibition on spent fuel reprocessing by India and a requirement to end U.S. aid if New Delhi conducts any nuclear tests, said top Indian nuclear negotiator Shyam Saran. “Reprocessing of spent fuel will be very important, very critical,” Saran said. “Without that it may be very difficult for us to take this forward.” Furthermore, “while we are prepared to maintain a unilateral moratorium on fresh testing, we are not prepared to convert a policy commitment into a legal commitment,” he added. “Can we walk away from this deal if it does not correspond to our national interest?  Obviously we have to walk away from this and we will walk away from it,” he said. President George W. Bush last month signed a bill exempting India from U.S. nuclear nonproliferation laws to enable the United States to sell nuclear power technology to India.  On signing the bill into law, Bush declared that some of the bill’s restrictions exceeded congressional authority and that he would consider them “advisory” (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2006). Since the signing, U.S.-Indian talks have resumed to draft a technical agreement defining exactly which technologies and materials would be transferred.  This agreement must also be approved by Congress (Y.P. Rajesh, Reuters/Washington Post, Jan. 11). Back to top       German Bank Limits Iranian Business A German bank announced yesterday that it would not conduct business for Iranian clients using dollars, one day after the United States announced it would freeze the assets of a major bank in Iran (see GSN, Jan. 9). Commerzbank, the nation’s second largest bank, said it would continue transactions involving euros, Agence France-Presse reported. The move indicated growing support among financial institutions for U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from purchasing technology and materials for its suspected nuclear weapons program, said State Department spokesman Tom Casey. “Some financial institutions and other organizations are making a pretty dry-eyed assessment as to whether now is the right moment for them to be involved” with Iran, he said. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it had ordered the freezing of all U.S.-held assets of Bank Sepah, Iran’s fifth largest bank, saying the bank illicitly funded Iran’s WMD and missile programs. “If Iran continues down this path, then there may be further measures that will be taken against them,” Casey said. U.S. officials have undertaken a campaign to persuade international financial officers to reduce their cooperation with Iran. “Over the past several months, we have been sharing information with our foreign counterparts and key executives in the private sector about these deceptive practices and discussing how best to safeguard the international financial system against them,” said Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey. The message implied that the United States could reduce the access of friendly foreign banks to U.S. financial institutions if they are found to have dealt with suspect Iranian clients, AFP reported (David Millikin, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 10.). Bank Sepah yesterday rejected the U.S. charges that it was involved in aiding the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and threatened to take unspecified legal action. “While denying all the lies we consider it as right that in the near future we will take up the case through legal channels,” said a bank statement.  “Definitely the decision made by U.S. officials has a political background and is part of a bigger scenario” (Reuters/New York Times, Jan. 10). Meanwhile, two international nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran yesterday for a weeklong visit to the nation’s uranium conversion and enrichment facilities, Iran’s official news agency reported (IRNA, Jan. 10). Back to top       Public Questions “Divine Strake” Safety U.S. Energy Department officials heard public criticism yesterday of their plan to detonate a large conventional explosion at the Nevada Test Site, potentially dispersing radioactive particle from past nuclear tests, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Jan. 8). In a test dubbed “Divine Strake,” the Energy and Defense departments plan to trigger as much as 700 tons of conventional explosive later this year to study the effects on buried bunkers.  A draft environmental assessment released last month found that no harmful radiation would escape from the test site following the blast (see GSN, Jan. 4). “According to our models, if you lived on the border of the test site, and nobody does, then starting on the day after the blast, you would receive .005 milliliters of radiation due to resuspension,” said test site spokesman Kevin Rohrer.  “You would have to stay on that border for 200 years to receive the same amount of radiation you get from watching your TV for a year” (Steve Friess, New York Times, Jan. 11). In one of three public hearings scheduled this week, however, Nevada residents complained of the plans. One critic said yesterday that the environmental assessment failed to estimate the dispersal of tiny bits of dust measuring less than 2.5 microns. “They could stay in the atmosphere for weeks and settle hundreds of miles from here,” said Algirdas Leskys, a data analyst for the Clark County (Nev.) Air Quality and Environmental Management Department, who spoke in a personal capacity. An Energy Department official at the hearing agreed that the study assessed particles only as small as 10 microns and promised to include Leskys’s complaint in the final environmental assessment (Ken Ritter, Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 11). A lawyer for two groups whose lawsuit delayed the test twice last year said the recent assessment used unrealistic computer modeling. “That model is for continuous emissions, like a smokestack, and they’ve said there will be an equal dispersion everywhere, but none of that is the real world,” said Robert Hager. “The soil contains radioactivity. They admit that now. It’s going to be airborne. They admit that now. It’s going to leave the test site. They admit that now,” he said.  “Then they do this junk science that ignores the history of how this material disperses. This is the worst place in the world to set off a blast like this.” Other critics simply expressed skepticism about government operations at the test site. “It’s not that I don’t trust the Pentagon, but I don’t trust the Pentagon,” said U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.).  “I don’t have big confidence in this administration to protect the health concerns of the people of Nevada or the surrounding states” (Friess, New York Times). Back to top       South Korea to Improve Nuclear Test Detection As North Korea possibly prepares to conduct another nuclear test, South Korea is taking steps to boost its capabilities to detect such a blast, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 10). The South Korean Meteorological Agency plans this year to organize a department responsible for monitoring all seismic activity, including that caused by a nuclear blast. “Because there was confusion among agencies about the seismic activity from North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test, we have decided to streamline the process,” said agency spokesman Kim Seung-bai. The government-affiliated Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources now studies potential man-made seismic activity, Reuters reported (Reuters/Washington Post, Jan. 10). Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing today advised Pyongyang against testing another nuclear weapon, but said he had no knowledge that a test was coming, Agence France-Presse reported. “Our position is very clear,” he said.  “We are very firm about the safeguarding of the [Nuclear] Nonproliferation Treaty and we hope that all countries will act according to the spirit of the U.N. charter.” While the round of six-party talks in December — the first in 13 months — ended without signs of progress on disarming North Korea, the fact that negotiators met again is notable, Li said. Representatives from the six participating nations “re-emphasized that they would stick to the consensus reached on Sept. 19, 2005, including that all sides should have denuclearization and the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula as a goal, and that all sides should solve problems through the six-party talks framework” (Agence France-Presse/Todayonline.com, Jan. 11). Back to top       Energy Department Releases GNEP Strategic Plan The U.S. Energy Department yesterday released its strategic plan for its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, which seeks to increase international access to atomic power while preventing nuclear proliferation (see GSN, Nov. 30, 2006). The document creates a framework for meeting the principles of the partnership:  expansion of nuclear power to meet growing needs for energy; development, demonstration and deployment of advanced technologies that would recycle spent nuclear fuel without separating plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons; development, demonstration and deployment of advanced reactors that consume transuranics; establishment of international reliable fuel services; development, demonstration and deployment of proliferation-resistant nuclear reactors; and development of safeguards to ensure that nuclear energy systems are not put to military use (U.S. Energy Department release, Jan. 10). Back to top       African States to Tighten Nuclear Security African nations vowed yesterday to improve security over the continent’s nuclear materials, following reports of unmonitored uranium mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see GSN, Aug. 15, 2006). “African ministers and officials … undertake to strengthen nuclear safety and security measures within a global approach aiming at promoting safe and accountable use of nuclear energy,” said a statement released at the end of a two-day nuclear conference in Algiers (see GSN, Jan. 10). Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the conference in a speech that his agency had helped to improve nuclear security efforts in 38 African nations (see GSN, Jan. 10). Those efforts included antinuclear smuggling courses in Algeria, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal and a session in Libya on how to protect nuclear research reactors, Reuters reported. The only African nuclear power plant is in South Africa.  Egypt, South Africa, Libya, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo all have research reactors (Reuters, Jan. 11). Back to top       Russian Lawmakers Call for U.S. Approval of CTBT The Russian parliament’s lower house yesterday urged the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 10; Associated Press, Jan. 10). The United States has signed but not yet ratified the treaty prohibiting test nuclear explosions.  It is one of 10 remaining signatory nations that must ratify the pact for it to enter into force (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization fact sheet, Jan. 11). Back to top

U.S. to Deploy Patriot Missiles in Middle East The United States plans to deploy more missile interceptors in the Middle East, U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday in a speech to the nation (see GSN, May 22, 2006). Announcing plans to stabilize Iraq and the region, Bush also said he had ordered an additional aircraft carrier battle group to be deployed in the area (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2006). “We will expand intelligence sharing — and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies,” Bush said.  “We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border.  And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region” (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, Jan. 11). Back to top       Lockheed to Study Putting PAC-3s on Fighter Jets Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is expected to receive a $3 million contract within the next few days to study whether Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles can be placed on U.S. F-15C fighter jets, Inside Missile Defense reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2006). A fighter equipped with PAC-3 missiles could bring down cruise missiles or ballistic missiles in their boost phase, according to Lockheed Martin and the Missile Defense Agency. “If a Scud was launched from a barge or if a cruise missile was launched outside territorial waters attacking the United States, obviously if you had an F-15 up and it had a PAC-3 on it you could do long-range cruise missile defense or [tactical ballistic missile] defense,” said Mike Trotsky, vice president of the company’s Air and Missile Defense programs. The F-15s could be used in routine air patrols or be scrambled when necessary, Trotsky said (Ashley Roque, Inside Missile Defense, Jan. 10). Back to top

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