Working groups from the six-party North Korean nuclear talks resumed work yesterday in Beijing (Greg Baker/Getty Images). Officials Meet on North Korea Nuclear Agreement Diplomats from several countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency met today in Beijing for talks to advance last month’s agreement to begin North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, March 15)...Full Story

U.S. Cities Urged to Map Radiation Sources Federal officials plan to encourage major U.S. cities to map the locations of radioactive materials in their jurisdictions so that emergency responders can know later if detected radiation is new and dangerous, USA Today reported today (see GSN, March 15)...Full Story

U.N. Security Council Begins Review of Draft Iranian Nuclear Sanctions, Could Vote Late Next Week The full U.N. Security Council has received a draft resolution that add sanctions against Iran for its refusal to curb its nuclear program, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, March 15)...Full Story

	Friday, March 16, 2007

Terror Plotter Receives Nine-Year Prison Sentence A French citizen received a nine-year prison sentence yesterday from a Paris court for plotting attacks on a nuclear reactor and other sites in Australia, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 7). Willie Brigitte, 38, was convicted last month of criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise. Brigitte converted to Islam in 1998.  He subsequently became radicalized, operating paramilitary camps in France and being trained in weapons use in Pakistan, prosecutors said. He went to Australia in May 2003 to join a terror group linked to the Pakistani extremists Lashkar e-Taiba, AFP reported.  Authorities who arrested Brigitte found that he had a link to a Web site with information on sites that prosecutors described as possible targets, including a nuclear plant in Sydney, the city’s power grid and various military installations. Brigitte was sent back to France in 2003.  The leader of the Australian terror cell, Pakistani Faheem Khalid Lodhi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006 in connection with the plot. Brigitte has 10 days to appeal his sentence. “The sentence is grotesque,” said one of his lawyers, Harry Durimel.  “This is a pure witch hunt.  No formal proof has been provided of Willie Brigitte’s involvement in anything whatsoever” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 15). Back to top

Malta Signs PSI Ship-Boarding Agreement Malta and the United States yesterday signed an agreement allowing either country to search ships flying the other’s flag in search of weapons of mass destruction, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 16, 2006). “Our countries are today closely cooperating to protect our common principles and interests against the greatest threats of our time:  global terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a signing ceremony in Washington with Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo. The agreement was made under the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, which aims to interdict shipments of unconventional weapons and WMD materials on the high seas. Roughly 1,200 ships carry the Maltese flag, giving the Mediterranean island the world’s eighth-largest shipping registry. The agreement allows officials from either nation to board and search ships registered with the partner country, and to seize the vessels if necessary. The United States has now signed seven ship-boarding pacts with other countries, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 15). Back to top

Officials Meet on North Korea Nuclear Agreement Diplomats from several countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency met today in Beijing for talks to advance last month’s agreement to begin North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, March 15). “What we talked about today was the first phase and what needed to be done in the first phase,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, following his meeting with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and officials from Japan and South Korea. The first phase of denuclearization calls for Pyongyang to halt operations at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and to readmit IAEA inspectors into the country for the first time since 2002.  In return, it would receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel and equivalent aid from other nations in the six-party talks. There was some discussion of the second phase of the deal, under which the Yongbyon reactor could be fully disabled. “We talked a little about the status of the Yongbyon nuclear facility and what needed to be done to shut it down,” Hill said. ElBaradei spent two days this week meeting with officials in Pyongyang.  His focus is on the initial phase of the deal, Hill said, “because we need to get the IAEA there within 60 days” of the Feb. 13 agreement (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily, March 16). Hill said yesterday he believed the end of the U.S. case against Banco Delta Asia, the Macau bank linked to illicit North Korean financial activity, would help the disarmament deal progress, Agence France-Presse reported. Pyongyang had said it was waiting for Washington to lift economic sanctions before it began meeting its obligations under the agreement.  Action taken yesterday by the U.S. Treasury Department could allow the bank to release some portion of $25 million in frozen North Korean funds. “I think we have fulfilled what we need to do,” Hill said.  “I’m confident the six-party process is going to go ahead” (Karl Malakunas, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 15). North Korea has yet to respond to the Treasury announcement.  It is looking for U.S. assurances that Washington would not press other financial institutions from avoiding doing business with the Stalinist state, the Financial Times reported (Financial Times, March 16). Washington’s moves were lauded by a newspaper published in Japan and connected to the North Korean government, the Associated Press reported. “This can be called a very positive sign in that the U.S. showed its will to carry out” the Feb. 13 agreement, the Choson Sinbo said in a column (Bo-Mi Lim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 16). Back to top       U.N. Security Council Begins Review of Draft Iranian Nuclear Sanctions, Could Vote Late Next Week The full U.N. Security Council has received a draft resolution that add sanctions against Iran for its refusal to curb its nuclear program, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, March 15). Crafted by the five permanent council members and Germany, the new resolution could be voted on late next week after other council members have reviewed the document, according to the Times. Some of the 10 nonpermanent members had complained they were being shut out of the drafting process and would need time to conduct a thorough analysis of the proposed resolution. The council would not simply act as a “rubber stamp,” said council president Dumisani Kumalo, the South African ambassador (Warren Hoge, New York Times, March 16). The draft text sets another 60-day deadline for Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program and other sensitive nuclear activities.  Iran has ignored a deadline set by a December resolution that imposed limited economic sanctions.  The text asks the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran’s nuclear program and to report on whether Tehran complies with the resolution. The follow-on draft expands a list of Iranian individuals and firms whose assets are to be frozen by non-Iranian banks. It also bars nations from purchasing “any arms or related materiel” from Iran and calls for countries “to exercise vigilance and restraint” when considering whether to sell heavy weapons to Iran (BBC, March 15). The new batch of sanctions would probably not inflict major economic damage on Iran, analysts said, but would tell Tehran that world powers are unified and could increase pressure over time, the Associated Press reported. The new measures “are not expected to turn Iran around but are expected to send a signal to Iran that this could isolate you, hurt you economically in the long run,” said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.  “I think it does successfully accomplish that.” Still, the resolution would be unlikely to affect Iran’s supply of arms to nonstate groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or some insurgent militias in Iraq. “There is no way we can control it,” said Mustafa Alani, a military analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai (Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press I/Washington Post, March 16). Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the draft resolution as illegitimate and vowed to press forward with the nation’s nuclear development, according to AP. “The Security Council today has no legitimacy among world nations,” he said yesterday.  “Today, the Iranian nation fully possesses the nuclear fuel cycle,” he added.  “If all of you gather and also invite your ancestors from hell, you will not be able to stop the Iranian nation.” The sanctions would have no effect on Iran’s plans, he said. “Haven't you imposed sanctions in the past 27 years?  Which machinery or parts did you give us?” he asked, referring to the long-term Western ban on nuclear sales to Iran.  “You imposed sanctions.  We became nuclear.  You can impose economic sanctions again and you will see for yourself what will be the next stage” (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/The Hindu, March 15). Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad plans to speak to the Security Council to defend Iran’s right to nuclear technology, the Times reported. The United States has received a visa request for him to visit New York with a 38-member delegation for the sanctions vote, a U.S. spokesman said. Acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff criticized the planned visit. “I find it again ironic that President Ahmadinejad, who is quoted today as saying that he tears up Security Council resolutions and has no respect for what the Security Council says, is interested in coming and addressing the council,” he said (Hoge, New York Times). Back to top       Critics of MOX Facility Point to Cheaper Proposal By Peter Cohn CongressDaily WASHINGTON — Critics of the U.S. Energy Department’s plan to build a facility in South Carolina to convert weapon-grade plutonium into commercial fuel have seized on an internal agency memo that appears to indicate a cheaper alternative (see GSN, Aug. 11, 2006). According to a memo dated Aug. 17, 2006 from Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell, the agency approved selection of an alternative technology to be used in processing up to 13 metric tons of impure plutonium at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The plutonium would be converted into a glass-like solid and placed in special canisters at the site until they can be finally disposed. The project’s cost would be $300 million to $500 million, the memo states, and it could be operational as early as 2012. Comparatively, the ongoing effort to build a separate facility at the Savannah site to produce “mixed-oxide” fuel, a blend that has been in use in Europe for 20 years, has increased in cost from $1 billion at the outset to an estimated $4.7 billion, and won’t be completed until 2015 at the earliest, the agency has said. Taking the model proposed by the department for up to 13 metric tons and using it on the larger, 34-ton scale proposed for the MOX facility, could cost roughly $1.4 billion, or approximately $3 billion less, critics argue. House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Peter Visclosky  (D-Ind.) and ranking member David Hobson (R-Ohio), have frequently attacked the MOX program as a costly boondoggle. Hobson has repeatedly referred to it as little more than a “jobs program” for South Carolina, and they tried to eliminate funding for the project during the fiscal 2007 appropriations process. But support from the powerful South Carolina delegation in the House, led by Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Budget Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.), helped keep the project on track, although additional money cannot be spent until Aug. 1. A House appropriations aide said the memo appears to undercut the argument that the MOX plant is the preferred method for processing used plutonium. The administration has requested $394 million in fiscal 2008 for construction of the MOX plant and for a related facility to disassemble plutonium “pits,” which are a primary component in nuclear weapons. The aide suggested appropriators might cut that request and redirect the money to the alternative technology suggested in Sell’s memo, which would have a similar price tag. Officials at the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration disputed the contention that the suggested alternative outlined in the memo could be a substitute for the MOX facility. They said the MOX facility is 85 percent completed already, and that the 34 metric tons envisioned for processing there would require a whole new facility to be built if they were to use the new technology. Also, officials said, the new process is intended only for impure plutonium, which is not intended for conversion at the MOX plant. Back to top       EU Official Says India Must Meet “Preconditions” Before Receiving Nuclear Technology The European Union expressed support Tuesday for changing international rules to permit nuclear trade with India, but said it would seek some concessions from New Delhi, India’s Daily News & Analysis reported (see GSN, March 12). “We are looking forward to civil nuclear cooperation with India once necessary preconditions are met,” EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the European Parliament. “My recent visit to India gave me an opportunity to stress to the Indian leadership our hope that India come much closer to the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] regime and join the Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty,” she added (Daily News & Analysis, March 14). Back to top       U.S, Russia Discuss Nuclear Fuel Sales U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said Wednesday in Moscow that his visit to Russia included talks on coordinating nuclear fuel sales to discourage additional nations from producing weaponizable highly enriched uranium, Bloomberg News reported (see GSN, Jan. 31). “We hope to group fuel supplier nations that will offer services on a very attractive commercial basis, maybe on discount terms,” he said during a conference at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The nuclear fuel suppliers involved in the initiative could include China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The project would “hopefully take away the desire, not the right, for nations to enrich their own uranium,” Sell said. Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko is scheduled to visit Washington in May for talks on the fuel project (Bloomberg News, March 15). Back to top       Workers Evacuate Y-12 Building After Uranium Fire About 150 workers evacuated a building at a U.S. nuclear weapons facility yesterday after a batch of uranium caught fire, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported (see GSN, March 12). Uranium can ignite spontaneously when exposed to air and the Y-12 facility in Tennessee has experienced a number of fires, according to the News Sentinel (see GSN, Jan. 29). “We try to ensure they're extremely uncommon,” said Mike Monnett, spokesman for primary site contractor BWXT (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, March 16). Yesterday’s incident “occurred as workers were transferring uranium chips from one container to another and the chips were exposed to air,” said Bill Wilburn, another BWXT spokesman. The fire was quickly extinguished and nobody was hurt or suffered radiation exposure, officials said (Associated Press/FireRescue1.com, March 15). Back to top

VaxGen Appeals Anthrax Vaccine Contract Cancellation California biotechnology firm VaxGen Inc. announced yesterday that it has appealed the cancellation of its U.S. contract for delivery of 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2006). The company submitted its notice of appeal to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals.  “The filing preserves VaxGen’s right to challenge the default termination while the company continues discussions with the Department of Health and Human Services on a possible settlement of the contract termination and related issues as alternatives to the pending litigation,” according to a VaxGen press release. Delivery of the vaccine was two years behind schedule when the department terminated the contract in December.  VaxGen at that time had just missed a deadline to begin human safety testing of the drug. The company had spent $175 million on the project by the time the contract was canceled.  It was to have received $877 million under Project Bioshield, the funding program for development of new countermeasures against biological, radiological and other WMD agents that could be used in acts of terrorism (VaxGen Inc. release, March 15). Back to top

U.S. Cities Urged to Map Radiation Sources Federal officials plan to encourage major U.S. cities to map the locations of radioactive materials in their jurisdictions so that emergency responders can know later if detected radiation is new and dangerous, USA Today reported today (see GSN, March 15). The baseline surveys would be useful for officials hunting for suspected radiological or nuclear weapons.  They could compare radiation they detect to known peaceful sources such as medical facilities or laboratories. The surveys could be funded through federal grants provided to cities for antiterrorism activities, officials said. “We think this is a good idea” for all high-risk cities, said Vayl Oxford, head of the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. To date, only New York City has conducted a baseline survey, according to USA Today. When cities decide to conduct the surveys, Energy Department teams would perform the work, using radiation detectors in helicopters, other small aircraft and automobiles, USA Today reported (Mimi Hall, USA Today, March 16). Back to top       Nations Approve Change to U.N. Disarmament Section The U.N. General Assembly yesterday approved changing the bureaucratic standing of U.N. disarmament activities from a “department” to an “office,” Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 6). The modification had raised concerns among some nations that the change was in effect downgrading the importance of disarmament at the United Nations. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed such concerns, arguing that the new Disarmament Affairs Office would have “a direct line” to him. The assembly approved the change by consensus (Agence France-Presse, March 15).   Back to top

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