Iranian students form a human chain around a nuclear facility at Isfahan in 2005. The site houses parts of Iran’s nuclear fuel production program (Atta Kenare/Getty Images). Iran Builds Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Site Iran has made progress on a nuclear fuel fabrication facility that could enable the nation to manufacture fuel rods next year, the nation’s top nuclear official said Friday (see GSN, April 20)...Full Story

Russia Meets Interim Deadline for CW Destruction Russia has met its international treaty deadline to destroy 20 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile, ITAR-Tass reported Friday (see GSN, Jan. 24)...Full Story

U.S. Firm Close to Finishing Centrifuge Cascade A U.S. firm hopes to finish installing its first “cascade” of centrifuges within a few months as part of its plan to build the first commercial U.S. facility to enrich uranium with centrifuges, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2002)...Full Story

	Monday, April 23, 2007

Al-Qaeda Planning Major Attack, British Report Says The terrorist organization al-Qaeda is planning a major attack against the West, the London Sunday Times reported yesterday (see GSN, March 15). “They have got to do something soon that is radical — otherwise they start losing credibility,” said one British security official. A British Joint Terrorism Analysis Center report leaked to the newspaper indicated that strikes against the United Kingdom or other unidentified Western nations are being planned by al-Qaeda chiefs in Iraq with support from Iranian backers. One al-Qaeda member reportedly said he sought an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in order to “shake the Roman throne” — the West. Al-Qaeda is not believed to have access to nuclear weapons but has sought to produce weapons that would combine radioactive materials with conventional explosives.  A senior member of the group in 2006 urged scientists to develop biological and radiological weapons for “the field of jihad,” the Times reported. “It could be just a reference to a huge explosion,” according to the counterterrorism source. Al-Qaeda members would hope to conduct an attack before British Prime Minister Tony Blair leaves office this summer, according to the report.  Contact continues between al-Qaeda members in Iraq and operatives in the United Kingdom, the report states.  While there is “no indication” that the country has been singled out for a strike, “we are aware that [al-Qaeda in Iraq] networks are active in Britain” (Dipesh Gadher, The Sunday Times, April 22). Back to top

Iran Builds Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Site Iran has made progress on a nuclear fuel fabrication facility that could enable the nation to manufacture fuel rods next year, the nation’s top nuclear official said Friday (see GSN, April 20). Workers at the Isfahan site have completed work on a plant to produce zirconium tubes to house nuclear fuel rods, and a facility to make fuel pellets should be ready next year, said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. “The factory for producing the tubes has been brought into service in Isfahan,” he said.  “And next year the plant for producing the nuclear fuel pellets will begin work.” More attention has been paid recently to Iran’s efforts to build uranium enrichment centrifuges, a process that will require several more years to complete, Aghazadeh said (see GSN, April 19). “We have reached the industrial stage, but we need several years to create an industrial unit capable of producing fuel for our power stations,” he said.  “We must install 50,000 centrifuges to be able to provide the fuel for two nuclear stations” (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, April 20). European diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to freeze its enrichment program are set to resume this week. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he would meet Wednesday with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Ankara, Turkey. “I expect to begin resumption of the talks that we left some time ago to see if we can move towards negotiations,” Solana told reporters in Luxembourg.  The meeting would be the first since the U.N. Security Council imposed an enhanced set of sanctions against Iran last month (see GSN, March 26; Reuters/New York Times, April 23). Iran, however, indicated yesterday that it would not suspend its enrichment activities. “Halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters yesterday in Tehran.  “In our negotiations the halting of this activity has not been on the table and going back on time is not envisaged” (Stuart Williams, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, April 22). Progress on Bushehr Dispute Meanwhile, Iranian and Russian officials have made headway toward resolving a financial dispute over the completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant at Bushehr, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, April 11). Officials signed a protocol yesterday that eliminated some, but not all of the hurdles preventing the reactor’s completion. “If the financing plan is successfully implemented, a portion of the questions on the financing of Iran's first atomic power station plant will be removed,” said Irina Yesipova, spokeswoman for Russian nuclear construction agency Atomstroiexport (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 22). Back to top       U.S. Firm Close to Finishing Centrifuge Cascade A U.S. firm hopes to finish installing its first “cascade” of centrifuges within a few months as part of its plan to build the first commercial U.S. facility to enrich uranium with centrifuges, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2002). USEC Inc. is the only U.S. company to produce enriched uranium, which it makes using outdated gaseous diffusion technology.  That method uses vast amounts of electricity, and company officials believe using centrifuges would be far more efficient (see GSN, Aug. 14, 2006). The first cascade, to consist of up to 240 centrifuges, would be used to demonstrate the technology.  It is now under construction near Piketon, Ohio. After completing the first cascade, USEC hopes to attract $2.3 billion from private investors to support the construction of a much larger plant that would ultimately house 11,500 centrifuges, the Post reported.  The facility would produce enriched uranium for use by nuclear plants across the globe. The centrifuges employ the most modern designs available, company officials said.  Much larger than other centrifuges now in use in the enrichment industry, the USEC machines stand more than 40 feet tall and are about 2 feet in diameter.  The carbon-fiber cylinder walls spin faster than 1,000 mph, according to outside experts. The machines are designed to enrich uranium four times faster than one of USEC’s main competitors, the Urenco European consortium (Dan Charles, Washington Post, April 23). Back to top       Questions Persist on Reliable Replacement Warhead U.S. lawmakers in recent hearings have continued to question plans for next-generation nuclear warheads and expressed concerns that the weapons could spark a revived arms race, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, April 22). A declassified accounting of the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile is needed as “the first step for an honest dialogue on nuclear weapons,” said Representative David Hobson (R-Ohio), who first proposed what would become the Reliable Replacement Warhead program.  The count of all weapons — deployed, inactive and reserve — has been estimated at more than 6,000. “I suspect our potential adversaries know the number of U.S. nuclear warheads with much better precision than do the members of Congress,” Hobson said recently at a hearing.  “I think I know the number, but I can’t talk about it.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have “not been forthcoming” with their take on plans to replace aging nuclear warheads with designs that the administration argues would be safer and easier to maintain, said Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). “You must answer critics who have argued that the RRW will lead to an arms race,” said Domenici, who backs the effort, at a hearing last week.  He said he sent letters to the two officials and national security adviser Stephen Hadley “urging them to take a more active role in supporting the RRW program.” The initiative is moving ahead “although the administration has not announced any effort to begin a policy process to reassess our nuclear weapons policy and the future nuclear stockpile required to support that policy,” said Representative Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), who heads the House Appropriations subcommittee that designates nuclear complex funding. The Defense Science Board last year noted the lack of articulation on an extended nuclear policy from senior administration officials, Visclosky said. The “valid” arguments for the program are that it would help ensure that U.S. weapons designers maintain their capabilities and produce a weapon that “cannot be detonated by a terror group, even if they were able to get their hands on it,” former defense secretary William Perry said at a hearing last month. However, he added that the program would “substantially undermine our ability to lead the international community in the fight against proliferation, which we are already in danger of losing.”  There is no need to rush into the program, Perry said, as existing nuclear weapons could be maintained for up to a century (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, April 22). Back to top       N.Korea Must Start Disarming to Get Aid, South Says South Korea pledged yesterday to ship 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea, but said the Stalinist state must first begin meeting disarmament commitments made in February, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 20). “We made clear that it would be difficult for us to proceed with the rice aid as scheduled unless North Korea acts to fulfill the Feb. 13 agreement,” said Chin Dong-soo, who led the delegation from Seoul to talks in Pyongyang. Seoul halted rice shipments after North Korea fired off several missiles in July 2006. Pyongyang agreed at six-nation talks in February to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and readmit international inspectors by April 14.  These are meant to be the first steps toward  North Korean nuclear disarmament, for which it would receive fuel oil and other assistance.  North Korea has yet to take either action, demanding first that it collect $25 million in frozen funds from Banco Delta Asia in Macau (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, April 22). North Korean atomic energy chief Ri Je Son said Friday that “brisk” negotiations are under way on the money matter, and that denuclearization would begin once the issue is closed, AFP reported. Pyongyang “still remains unchanged in its will to implement the Feb. 13 agreement, but what matters is that it cannot move as the issue of frozen funds has not yet been completely settled,” he said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 20). A senior South Korean official said today that China, the United States and North and South Korea should consider conducting nuclear talks separate from the six-party forum, the Yonhap News Agency reported.  That would leave out Japan and Russia. “There is a need to create the framework of four-nation talks to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, while maintaining the six-party talks,” said Lee Hae-chan, a presidential adviser for political affairs. “The four nations should take a more powerful initiative” on ending the nuclear crisis, he said (Yonhap News Agency, April 23). Back to top       Russian Official Visits Centrifuge Plant There is no chance that Iran would ever acquire Russian centrifuge technology, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday (see GSN, March 23). “This is our know-how.  These are our people,” Ivanov said during a visit to a centrifuge production plant 155 miles northeast of Moscow.  “This technology will never be transferred to anybody.” However, chief plant designer Alexander Samorodsky said there had been “some talks” of exporting the technology to China, The Moscow Times reported. Russia adheres strictly to international law, Ivanov said.  He implied that the European Urenco firm does not. Iranian centrifuges, which it plans to use to enrich uranium, are based upon Urenco designs, according to officials in Tehran. Journalists accompanying Ivanov were not allowed to see a finished centrifuge, for security and commercial reasons. “If we declassify everything, then people would start making centrifuges and enriched uranium in their backyards,” Samorodsky said. The facility is expected to receive nearly $39 million in coming years to allow for increased production of centrifuges.  Russia has two centrifuge-production plants that provide equipment for four uranium enrichment sites (Anna Smolchenko, The Moscow Times, April 23). Back to top       U.S. Busts Engineer for Giving Iran Nuclear Software U.S. authorities have charged a former nuclear power plant engineer with providing nuclear training software to Iran, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, April 18). Authorities arrested Mohammad Alavi, a 49-year-old U.S. citizen, April 9 in Los Angeles after he returned from a trip to Iran.  He has been charged with violating an embargo on U.S. trade with Iran, and faces a maximum prison term of 21 months, according to AP. Alavi worked for 16 years at the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona before leaving last August, AP reported. The software he allegedly took to Iran is used to train plant employees and contains details of the Palo Verde site, including its control room, according to AP. Federal authorities said the transfer did not create a security risk in the United States. “The investigation has not led us to believe this information was taken for the purpose of being used by a foreign government or terrorists to attack us,” said FBI spokeswoman Deborah McCarley (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 21). Back to top

Russia Meets Interim Deadline for CW Destruction Russia has met its international treaty deadline to destroy 20 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile, ITAR-Tass reported Friday (see GSN, Jan. 24). When Russia joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, this month was the deadline for eliminating its entire stockpile, but slow progress forced Russia, the United States and other nations to request one-time extensions of up to five years (see GSN, Dec. 11, 2006).  The extended deadline calls for treaty parties to reach the 20 percent milestone by April 29. “The Russian Federation realizes that there is still a lot to be done before 2012.  Another four disarmament facilities will be built, and the remaining 32,000 [metric tons] of war gases will be disposed,” said Victor Kholstov, deputy head of the Federal Industry Agency.  “Our next target is the disposal of 45 percent of the overall chemical weapons stock by Dec. 31, 2009” (ITAR-Tass, April 20). Back to top       Alabama Cites Anniston CW Incinerator The operators of the chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston, Ala., could be fined after being cited for 12 violations of state regulations and the facility’s operating permit, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, April 14, 2006). The violations occurred in late 2006, but posed no health threat to the public, officials told The Anniston Star. “They’re all serious,” said Tim Garrett, Army project site manager for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.  “We want to strive for perfection.” The Alabama Environmental Management Department actually learned of 10 of the violations from the Army and its facility contractor, Westinghouse Anniston.  Agency officials found the other two, but Garrett said that plant personnel would have otherwise discovered and reported those violations as well. Errors included improper use of equipment, poorly labeled hazardous waste, and failure to strictly follow rules for waste destruction. “We are in the process of assessing the situation and deciding what the most appropriate enforcement action would be,” agency spokesman Jerome Hand told the Star.  Fines are being considered. The state levied a $7,500 fine against Westinghouse in August 2004 (Associated Press, April 20). Back to top

U.S. Offers Missile Defense Perks to Russia The Bush administration is offering a new, stronger set of incentives to Russia in hopes of garnering Moscow’s support for deploying missile defense installations in Europe, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, April 20). The offers for cooperation on missile defense technology development, intelligence sharing and Russian inspections of planned missile bases are “deeper, more specific and concrete” than earlier proposals, a top administration official said.  They would include an invitation “toward fundamental integration of our systems,” said a senior military official. Senior Bush administration officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are due to discuss the offers in coming weeks.  That could lead to talks on the matter in the summer and fall between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin and other top Russian officials in recent months have laid into U.S. plans to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.  Moscow argues that having the system so close to the Russian border could undermine the nation’s strategic security, and has threatened to respond accordingly. U.S. allies in Europe have pressed Washington to increase efforts to answer Russian concerns about the program, which contributed to the development of the new proposals. “In the past, the Russians have not taken our offers of cooperation seriously, whether because they view them as insufficient or because they are obstinate on missile defense,” one senior administration official told the Times.  “So Gates and then Rice will put their weight behind this new offer.  We will not give Russia a veto over our program, but this goes well beyond ‘passive’ cooperation to new and active ways we can work together against common threats.” “We were a little late in the game,” another U.S. official said.  “We should have been out there making these arguments, making the case more forcefully before people began faming the debate for us — and in false terms” (Thom Shanker, New York Times, April 21). Russian officials gave no public indication that their view on the U.S. plan has changed as Gates visited Moscow today, Reuters reported. “The strategic missile defense system is a serious destabilizing factor which could have significant impact on regional and global security,” said Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, according to Interfax. Russian officials have expressed concerns that offensive weapons could be deployed at the missile defense sites.  While they have backed consideration of a collective system against the threat of rogue nations, they have been frustrated by Washington’s unilateral action on the matter, Reuters reported (Kristin Roberts, Reuters/Washington Post, April 23). Rice met Friday with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg to discuss missile defense and other issues, the Associated Press reported. “We all face common threats, and we need to prepare for those threats,” Rice said (Associated Press, April 20). Back to top       U.S. Knew China Was Planning Antisatellite Test Bush administration officials were aware that China was preparing an antisatellite missile test earlier this year, but elected not to raise the issue with Beijing, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, March 12). Using a modified ballistic missile, China destroyed one of its own weather satellites in January, demonstrating a capability that has raised U.S. concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. military satellites (see GSN, Jan. 19). “It makes space astronomically more dangerous than it was before,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley at a recent conference. Administration officials debated whether to ask China to refrain from conducting the test, but decided that such a move would reveal U.S. intelligence capabilities without guaranteeing that Beijing would alter its plans, the Times reported. “There were discussions about different options of how to deal with a potential test that was coming up, whether you demarche them early on, whether you wait to see if they are successful, if they’re not,” said Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, a senior aide to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace. Ultimately, “the principals’ best judgment, including the leadership of the intelligence community, was that they were committed to testing the antisatellite weapon,” added an administration official. Outside experts disagreed over that decision, with some noting China’s long-standing effort to negotiate a treaty to ban weapons in space.  For years, the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has been unable to agree to even hold such talks (see GSN, Feb. 14). “Had the United States been willing to discuss the military use of space with the Chinese in Geneva, that might have been enough to dissuade them from going through with it,” said Jeffrey Lewis, of the New America Foundation. “This was absolutely preventable,” added Joseph Cirincione, of the Center for American Progress.  “The Chinese have been proposing a treaty to ban weapons in space for years.  We have refused in order to pursue this fantasy of space-based antimissile weapons.” Other experts said China would probably have conducted its test even if the United States had protested beforehand. “For years, the Chinese military has been writing about how to cripple a superpower that relies on high-tech capabilities like satellites,” said Peter Rodman, a former senior Defense Department official.  “I don’t see why they would trade it away.” The test made “a mockery of China’s space weapons diplomacy,” concurred John Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org.  “Their proposals were always aimed at American space-based systems and always excluded a ground-based, pop-up antisatellite weapon such as theirs.  I don’t think we could have talked them out of testing against a target” (Gordon/Cloud, New York Times, April 23). Back to top

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