An IAEA inspector shows off broken seals that North Korea returned to the agency after restarting its Yongbyon reactor in 2003. New seals could be installed if Pyongyang freezes the reactor again (International Atomic Energy Agency photo). North Korean Reactor Shutdown Oversight Agreement Set North Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed on terms for monitoring by the U.N. nuclear watchdog of the halt of operations at the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 28). “We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle,” IAEA safeguards chief Olli Heinonen said today, after returning to Pyongyang from a visit to the reactor facility. North Korea agreed in February to shut down the reactor as the planned first step in scrapping its nuclear weapons program.  It will be up to the six nations involved in negotiations on the nuclear program to decide when the shutdown occurs, Heinonen said...Full Story

U.K. Considers New Offer to Iran British diplomats have circulated a proposal to restore EU-Iranian nuclear talks by dropping a long-standing demand that Tehran suspend its uranium enrichment activities before European negotiators return to the bargaining table, Newsweek reported yesterday (see GSN, June 25)...Full Story

Senate Joins House in Call for Nuclear Review By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a spending plan that calls for a bipartisan commission to evaluate the role of U.S. nuclear weapons while providing limited funding for a plan to create a next-generation warhead (see GSN, June 14)...Full Story

	Friday, June 29, 2007

China Enlists Elite Soldiers for Olympic Security A select military counterterrorism unit has been organized in China for next year’s Beijing Olympic Games, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 21). “It is international practice for military forces to participate in security for Olympic Games,” said Tian Yixiang, a senior People’s Liberation Army officer in charge of Olympic security, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The People’s Liberation Army squad would provide assistance to police in preventing or dealing with a terrorist strike, including possible attacks with radiological weapons, Xinhua reported.  It is also expected to take charge of air and maritime protection of the 2008 games (Associated Press/The Miami Herald, June 29). Back to top

North Korean Reactor Shutdown Oversight Agreement Set North Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed on terms for monitoring by the U.N. nuclear watchdog of the halt of operations at the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 28). “We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle,” IAEA safeguards chief Olli Heinonen said today, after returning to Pyongyang from a visit to the reactor facility. North Korea agreed in February to shut down the reactor as the planned first step in scrapping its nuclear weapons program.  It will be up to the six nations involved in negotiations on the nuclear program to decide when the shutdown occurs, Heinonen said. “You have to ask them the time scale.  When they do (decide), we will be ready,” he said, according to broadcaster APTN. The 35-member IAEA governing board is expected to meet July 9, and to back the rapid return of agency inspectors to North Korea, according to an IAEA official in Vienna (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 29). Heinonen said there appear to be five facilities to be shut down at Yongbyon, Kyodo News reported.  He said the trip to the site went well. “We went to the fuel fabrication plant, the radiochemical laboratory or reprocessing plant, as it’s called, then the 50-megawatt reactor which is under construction and then the five megawatt reactor.  So all the places which we wanted to see, we saw.” The sites to be shuttered are essentially the same as those that had been closed in 2002, the year the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework on nuclear disarmament collapsed and the agency was ejected from the Stalinist state. “Certainly there are changes in the facilities since 2002,” said Heinonen, whose team expected to leave North Korea tomorrow after was meetings today with officials in Pyongyang, Kyodo reported (Kyodo News/Yahoo!News, June 29). Meanwhile, talks are under way between officials from Pyongyang and Seoul on delivery by South Korea of 50,000 tons of fuel oil to its northern neighbor, Agence France-Presse reported.  The oil would be North Korea’s reward for closing down the reactor site and allow IAEA inspectors back into the country. “Following the talks, we will sign a contract (to buy and carry the fuel to the North),” said a South Korean Unification Ministry official. “It is too early to say when, but it will take at least three weeks to start the shipment,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, June 29). Back to top       U.K. Considers New Offer to Iran British diplomats have circulated a proposal to restore EU-Iranian nuclear talks by dropping a long-standing demand that Tehran suspend its uranium enrichment activities before European negotiators return to the bargaining table, Newsweek reported yesterday (see GSN, June 25). The new proposal, now under review in Washington and European capitals, would allow Iran to operate about 2,000 enrichment centrifuges it has installed at Natanz, but would ask Tehran to install no more.  In exchange the world powers would refrain from pushing another round of economic sanctions at the U.N. Security Council, according to Newsweek (see GSN, June 22). A European diplomat said the “freeze for freeze” proposal was not a concession to Iran and did not change the European “red line,” the goal of demanding a total suspension of sensitive nuclear activities in Iran. “We’re talking about choreography here,” the diplomat said.  “We said we are prepared to be flexible over process to get back to talks. That doesn’t mean that we’re flexible over the substance of the red line.  If it would help the Iranians to be able to sell this to their own domestic audience, to say they won this great victory, we can accept that.” Should the United States and others agree to the proposal, it could create an opening for talks to resume, Newsweek reported.  Iran has recently indicated a willingness to grant international inspectors greater access to its nuclear facilities (see GSN, June 26; Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, June 28). U.S. Legislators Urge Gas Embargo on Iran Meanwhile, more U.S. lawmakers are seeking to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions by imposing sanctions against companies and nations that conduct business with Iran’s oil industry, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 27). Earlier this week the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved legislation limiting the president’s authority to waive sanctions triggered by existing law, and now another panel has proposed new measures to punish any company that aids Iran’s gasoline supplies, according to AP. Though a major oil exporter, Iran has a critical shortage of domestic refineries, making the nation vulnerable to gasoline supply disruptions.  Recent rationing has spurred protests in Tehran, AP reported. “This is becoming the critical weakness of the Iranian government, meaning its dependence on gasoline,” said Representative Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who established a bipartisan working group on the Iranian nuclear crisis with Representative Robert Andrews (D-N.J.). “The riots show the gasoline shortage is a growing danger to the Iranian regime and a diplomatic opportunity for Western countries to force Iran to adhere to international nuclear rules,” Kirk said. Their bill would give the president a range of sanctions to apply against firms assisting Iran to acquire gasoline, including cutting them off from U.S. Export-Import Bank services and export licenses, AP reported. Andrews predicted that Iran would prefer to forgo its nuclear ambitions instead of its gasoline supplies (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, June 28). Back to top       Senate Joins House in Call for Nuclear Review By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a spending plan that calls for a bipartisan commission to evaluate the role of U.S. nuclear weapons while providing limited funding for a plan to create a next-generation warhead (see GSN, June 14). With the Senate appropriations bill, all four committees involved in setting funding levels for the Bush administration’s controversial Reliable Replacement Warhead program have called for some sort of re-evaluation of the role of U.S. nuclear forces. The House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill trimmed $20 million from the president’s RRW request and redirected the money toward a one-year, bipartisan panel that would independently evaluate plans for U.S. nuclear forces (see GSN, May 3). In the Senate Appropriations Committee’s report on the draft energy and water spending bill, lawmakers called for a similar bipartisan commission created by Congress to make recommendations on the U.S. nuclear posture. “That commission should engage the administration, the Congress and the best minds in the public and private sectors to evaluate the future role of nuclear weapons as a part of our defense and strategic policies,” they wrote.  “That commission report can form the basis of information and advice from which the president and the Congress can make decision about the future of RRW and other weapons programs.” The Senate appropriations bill cut nearly $23 million from the president’s $88.8 million request for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (see GSN, June 28).  Unlike the House authorization bill, the Senate committee report does not redirect the reduction in funding toward financing the commission. While proposed Senate funding represents a cut from the president’s request it remains a huge leap from the House version of the legislation, which eliminates all money for the program in the next fiscal year. If lawmakers approve the preliminary funding levels set by each chamber, the stage would be set for a debate over the program when the competing bills go to conference committee to be reconciled. The Reliable Replacement Warhead is intended to be easier to produce and maintain and less likely to fail than Cold-War era bombs that were engineered to have the greatest explosive power relative to their weight, administration officials say. The $66 million funding level would provide for engineering research and design work on the warhead but no actual production of new weapons in the coming fiscal year. “We need to decide the type and size of our future inventory of nuclear weapons,” the Senate Appropriations Committee wrote, noting that it was divided on the RRW program but unified on a desire to take a hard look at the role of nuclear weapons in a “post-Cold War and post-Sept. 11th world.” The House Appropriations Committee early this month approved a bill calling for the Bush administration to “develop a comprehensive nuclear defense strategy that defines the future mission, global threats, and the specific characteristics of the U.S. nuclear stockpile necessary to address the nation's nuclear deterrent requirements before proceeding with the RRW.” The Senate Armed Service Committee’s version of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill calls for the defense secretary in conjunction with the secretaries of state and energy to conduct a nuclear posture review of the U.S. stance for the next five to 10 years (see GSN, June 15). The demand for a posture review, which is different from the House authorization call for a panel and will be debated when the bills go to conference committee, outlines a re-examination of the size of the U.S. stockpile, deterrence policy and current targeting strategy. Back to top       U.S. and Russia Advance Nuclear Security Alliance The United States and Russia continue to make progress in securing weaponizable nuclear material around the world, senior officials from the two nations said yesterday in a report (see GSN, July 13, 2006).  The announcement came as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to visit President George W. Bush at his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Top energy officials from both countries highlighted advancements in nuclear site security, emergency response capabilities, research reactor conversions, and cross-cultural security exchanges in their update, known as the Bratislava Report.  The document is a biannual digest of U.S.-Russian nuclear security Named for a 2005 pact between Bush and Putin, the report was submitted by U.S. Energy Secretary Bodman and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergei Kiriyenko.  The Bratislava agreement initiated an ongoing U.S.-Russian project to secure nuclear weapons and material from terrorist theft (see GSN, Feb. 24, 2005). “This latest report clearly shows that our joint efforts with Russia to secure and minimize the use of highly enriched uranium in research reactors are making the world safer,” Bodman said in a press release.  “We are seeing steady progress on converting the world’s research reactors from using highly enriched uranium to using low-enriched uranium that cannot be readily used in a nuclear weapon.” “Work to improve security at facilities with nuclear material will be completed by 2008,” he added. The report noted efforts to return highly enriched uranium to Russia and the United States and to upgrade security at Russian nuclear sites (see GSN, March 30, 2006).  A Vietnamese research reactor is set to undergo conversion so that its highly enriched uranium could be returned to Russia, the report states.  It also discusses future plans to corral Russian-made uranium from Poland, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Libya, Serbia and the Czech Republic, according to the press release.  The United States, meanwhile, has retrieved 80 kilograms of U.S.-origin, weapon-grade uranium from Australia and Japan. The next report is scheduled to be issued in December (U.S. Energy Department release, June 28). Back to top       Clinton Blasts Bush Nonproliferation Policies Presidential candidate and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) charged the Bush administration Wednesday with failing to do enough to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, The New York Sun reported (see GSN, April 27). Speaking at a Washington think-tank, Clinton called nuclear proliferation the “most significant” threat to U.S. national security.  She discussed new legislation that would boost spending on securing nuclear sites around the globe and create a presidential adviser on nuclear terrorism. Clinton’s bill seeks $400 million in fresh spending, of which half would aid Russian efforts to convert weapon-grade uranium to safer levels.  It would also supply $100 million to lock down vulnerable nuclear sites in other nations (see related GSN story, today).  U.S. taxpayers might not foot the entire cost of Clinton’s bill.  Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a Clinton associate, has pledged $50 million toward nuclear reactor conversion and vowed to raise more if the government does more to combat nuclear proliferation, reported the Sun (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2006). “I hope we will turn to this with greater urgency now,” Clinton said.  “We cannot wait 18 months for the next administration.”  The Bush administration “joined the chorus” on the need to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, Clinton said.  However, she charged that its “response has foundered at the nexus of ideology and intransigence,” pointing to the White House’s reluctance to deal directly with North Korea and Iran. Clinton is competing in a packed field for the Democratic presidential nomination and is not the sole candidate to knock Bush on nonproliferation.  Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pledged in April that if elected he would “secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites” inside of four years (see GSN, June 21). Declining to comment specifically on Clinton’s bill, White House spokesman Trey Bohn said that President George W. Bush “believes every civilized nation has a stake in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and has acted accordingly on behalf of the American people” (Russell Berman/The New York Sun, June 28). Back to top       U.S., Pakistan Say Khan Network Dead The nuclear smuggling network once headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been shut down, U.S. and Pakistani officials said yesterday, rejecting U.S. lawmakers’ comments Wednesday that the black market ring could still be operating (see GSN, June 28). “The network as we knew it is out of business,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, but he allowed for the possibility that “copycats or other elements” could be trying to fill the void. Two nuclear nonproliferation experts told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Wednesday that too little has been learned about Khan’s network, leading to the possibility that parts of it persist. Some U.S. representatives agreed, but a Pakistani government spokeswoman yesterday dismissed the idea, Dawn reported. “Pakistan has carried out full investigations and shared our findings with the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and some other countries,” said Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.  “The network has ceased to exist as far as Pakistan is concerned.” “As the testimonies point out,” she added, “it is possible that such proliferation networks are active elsewhere” (Anwar Iqbal, Dawn, June 29). Back to top       Russia Tests Submarine-Launched ICBM Russia yesterday conducted a successful test launch of its new nuclear-capable Bulava ICBM, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 16). A submarine in the White Sea fired the missile, which flew thousands of miles over Russia and landed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to Russian news agencies. “It all went off without a glitch at all stages of the launch,” said Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo.  “The dummy warhead of the missile hit its target at a testing site,” he added. The successful Bulava test came after recent setbacks.  Last October, a Bulava missile tumbled into the sea after a few minutes in flight.  Russian officials initially reported the flight as satisfactory before acknowledging the dud (see GSN, Feb. 5). The Russian military designed the Bulava as its version of  the U.S. Trident submarine missile, according to the Russian media.  It is intended to be carried by Borei-class nuclear submarines, the first of which launched in April (see GSN, April 16; Reuters/Khaleej Times, June 28). Back to top

Antibodies Shown to Counter Tularemia Bacteria By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Researchers in New York state have shown for the first time that antibodies could provide protection against the bacteria that cause tularemia, a highly infectious disease that has been identified as a possible bioterror agent (see GSN, Feb. 21). Mice used in laboratory testing remained healthy even if they were injected with antibodies up to 48 hours after exposure to the bacteria, scientists at Albany Medical College reported in the July 1 edition of The Journal of Immunology.  “This is pretty exciting,” said lead researcher Dennis Metzger. Tularemia is an animal disease that can spread to humans through several routes, including inhalation of the bacteria Francisella tularensis.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designates the disease as a Category A bioterrorism agent — the handful of others include known killers such as anthrax, smallpox and plague.  Without treatment, the inhalational form of the disease could kill up to 30 percent of those infected. “The main thing about it that makes it such a concern is that it’s extremely infectious and it has the potential for very serious respiratory illness in people,” said Sam Perdue, a program officer with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  “It’s also available in nature, so you can get your hands on it.” Japanese germ warfare units studied the disease in Manchuria from 1932 to 1945; Western nations also conducted research during World War II, and the United States and Soviet Union weaponized tularemia during the Cold War, according to a 2001 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The World Health Organization reported in 1969 that the release of 50 kilograms of aerosolized tularemia bacteria over an urban area of 5 million people would kill 19,000 and incapacitate more than 200,000, the JAMA article stated.  Perdue noted, though, that devising an aerosol device would require a level of technical sophistication likely to be beyond that of the average individual. There is currently no licensed vaccine for tularemia; infection would be treated with antibiotics. The Albany Medical College project began about five years ago, after the National Institutes of Health called for increased research on potential agents of biological terrorism, Metzger said.  The school received a NIAID grant of more than $8 million to conduct multiple projects on tularemia. Researchers infected mice with nonlethal levels of tularemia bacteria, causing the animals to produce antibodies — proteins created by the immune system to disable microbes or other foreign materials that enter the body.  They collected antibodies from the blood stream of the mice, and then injected them within a serum into other mice. Test mice survived lethal doses of tularemia bacteria if they were given the serum before exposure, or even 24 to 48 hours afterward.  Mice that received a serum with no antibodies died after infection. This is the first evidence that antibodies could be used fight tularemia infection in humans, Perdue said.  Some in the scientific community have previously argued that they would not offer such protection, he said. There are a large number of people who have survived natural exposure to tularemia, and are still carrying antibodies even years later that could be used to treat victims of an attack, Metzger said.  Ultimately, white blood cells from those people could be collected and used to continuously produce “unlimited quantities” of stable antibodies, he said. Using tularemia-specific antibodies to treat infected humans could have specific benefits in comparison to a vaccine or antibiotics.  The first is the rapid rate at which the treatment would take effect, Metzger said:  “We inject the antibodies and they go to work right away.” The antibody serum could also be administered to patients with suppressed immune systems, such as people with AIDS or who are undergoing chemotherapy.  Vaccines often are not effective in those cases, as the shots are trying to activate an immune system that is too impaired to respond, Metzger said. “The antibodies will work even in people that don’t have an immune system,” he said.  “Basically what we’re doing is we’re replacing their immune system with an active immune system from another person or animal.” Increased use of antibiotics to fight a disease causes the bacteria to become increasingly resistant to that treatment, Metzger said.  Antibodies are much less likely to produce that result. The Albany team has one more year of funding, and has applied for a five-year renewal.  Metzger said he anticipates several years of further animal study as the group seeks to better understand how the protection occurs and under what conditions.  That could be followed by clinical testing. It was not immediately clear what regulatory approval would be required for an antibody serum to be placed into the U.S. stockpile, or the full timeline for such an initiative. Back to top       Biodefense Blitz Could Cause Disaster, Group Says A Texas watchdog group is warning that the billions of dollars poured into U.S. biological defense efforts in recent years could produce an incident with greater consequences than an actual act of bioterrorism, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported yesterday (see GSN, June 11). “Either through an accident, or a researcher going wacko, this could lead us to a place where we don’t want to go,” said Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project.  “Is such a huge expansion a good idea?  I think the answer is no.  And at least if we’re going to do it, can we have a good regulatory safety system?” Hammond’s group this year has reported two cases in which Texas A&M University failed to promptly report that research personnel had been infected with potential bioterrorism agents (see GSN, June 27). Hammond said a number of Texas institutions are conducting research using live disease agents that could be used in bioterrorism.  These include:  University of Texas sites in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio; the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; the Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas; and the Texas Tech Health Science Center in Lubbock. There are roughly 20,000 people at 400 sites around the country holding permits to handle biological weapons agents, Hammond told the Star-Telegram.  That is 10 times the amount of research being conducted prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. “But if the United States has increased biodefense spending by 10 times, then what are the Chinese doing?  The Iranians? A biodefense race is almost indistinguishable from a bio-offense race — and that’s the problem,” Hammond said.  “I’m not afraid that any of these labs are going to start mass producing anthrax bombs or stuff like that. … The real threat is that we undermine international security by encouraging everybody around the world to research these biological weapons.  I am concerned about something going wrong, or somebody doing something crazy more than a biological threat from a terrorist” (R.A. Dyer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 28). Back to top

Japan Should Protect U.S. From Missiles, Panel Says A Japanese government panel is recommending that the country’s military be allowed to shoot down ballistic missiles fired at the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 13). Japan’s pacifistic constitution presently only allows its military forces to defend the country’s territory. “The overall consensus was that it’s strange to have a legal system under which Japan cannot do anything.  There were no arguments against the position that they (missiles) should be shot down,” Shinichi Kitaoka, a member of the 13-person panel considering the issue of Japanese military support for its allies, told the Kyodo News agency. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pressed for greater authority for the military to participate on the global stage and to support troops from allied nations, AP reported. Japan this year has started deploying Patriot air-defense missiles, and in coming years is expected to install Standard Missile 3 interceptors on warships.  The planned Japanese missile defense system would be directed at medium-altitude threats, meaning it might not be able to eliminate longer-range missiles flying at greater altitudes (Associated Press/Philippine Star, June 29).   Back to top

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