Iranian nuclear envoy Javad Vaidi meets with IAEA safeguards head Olli Heinonen yesterday in Vienna (Dieter Nagl/Getty Images). IAEA to Visit Iran Heavy-Water Reactor Next Week International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors hoping to clear up questions about Iran’s nuclear ambitions plan to return next week to the Arak heavy-water reactor construction site for the first time since January, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 24)...Full Story

U.S. Needs to Modernize Nuclear Arsenal, Report Says The United States must invest in a sturdier, smaller and more reliable nuclear arsenal to convincingly deter nascent nuclear powers, says a U.S. strategy report summary released yesterday (see GSN, June 26)...Full Story

Goat Milk Could Carry Nerve Agent Countermeasure By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Goats could someday be used to produce mass quantities of a protein that protects humans from the effects of chemical nerve agents, researchers said in a paper published this week (see GSN, May 29)...Full Story

	Wednesday, July 25, 2007

ASEAN Charter to Create WMD-Free Zone Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons would be prohibited from countries covered by the proposed Association of Southeast Asian Nations charter, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Oct. 31, 2006). The charter would uphold a decade-old treaty to keep Southeast Asia free of nuclear weapons and would ban “all other weapons of mass destruction and interference by external powers,” according to a draft viewed by the AP. Representatives from the ASEAN member states — Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — are scheduled to sign the charter during the group’s annual conference in November (Jim Gomez, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 25). Back to top

IAEA to Visit Iran Heavy-Water Reactor Next Week International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors hoping to clear up questions about Iran’s nuclear ambitions plan to return next week to the Arak heavy-water reactor construction site for the first time since January, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 24). Agency personnel plan to visit the reactor on July 30 or 31, agency safeguards head Olli Heinonen announced yesterday following a meeting with a senior Iranian negotiator.  Heinonen had reached an agreement with Iranian officials earlier this month to reopen the Arak site to inspectors by the end of July.  He added that the agency would send more inspectors to Iran in about two weeks “to talk about other outstanding issues.” The Arak facility, once complete, is expected to produce plutonium that could be used to create nuclear weapons.  Iranian officials have maintained that the reactor is intended only for medical and research work.  It remained unclear whether Tehran offered the concession in hopes of stemming the threat of new U.N. Security Council sanctions linked to its ongoing uranium enrichment program, AP reported (see GSN, July 23). “We had a good discussion and we had constructive progress,” Iran nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi said after meeting with Heinonen.  “Now we are going to move forward in the best mood and with the best effort.” Vaidi said the next meeting between Iranian and IAEA officials is scheduled for Aug. 20 (William Kole, Associated Press/Washington Post, July 24). A senior Iranian official warned yesterday that Iran would consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the United Nations bolsters the financial, travel and arms sanctions already in place, the London Guardian reported. “If there is another resolution, we will react with whatever we have,” the Iranian official told Western journalists.  “So far we have answered legally, limiting (U.N.) inspections and reducing cooperation with the IAEA within the legal framework,” the official added. “But if there is no legal option left, it is obvious we will be tempted to do illegal things.  What is very important to us is our dignity, and we are prepared to act.” The official said that possessing nuclear weapons would make Iran less secure, noting that both the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, and his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued an Islamic fatwa against nuclear armaments.  “We can exit from the nonproliferation treaty, but we can never exit from a fatwa,” he said. (Julian Borger, The Guardian, July 25) Meanwhile, Iranian nuclear negotiators Vaidi and Mohammad Saeedi left Vienna for Moscow yesterday “to persuade the Russians to finish building the Bushehr nuclear (power) reactor,” said one diplomat. Construction ceased earlier this year amid allegations that Tehran was not paying Russian contractors for their work on the plant.  Officials have also hinted that Russia could be slowing down the plant’s construction in reaction to U.S. assertions that Iran’s civilian nuclear program is serving as a cover for a nuclear weapons program (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, July 25). A Russian contractor building parts of the nuclear plant said the facility would not be ready before fall 2008 at the earliest, AFP reported. “The real date for the physical launch of the power plant is being delayed until autumn 2008,” said Ivan Istomin, director of the nuclear contractor Energoprogress. Istomin rejected earlier Iranian claims that the plant could be operational this year. “It can be said quite precisely that putting the Bushehr plant into operation this autumn is unrealistic,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, July 24). Back to top       U.S. Needs to Modernize Nuclear Arsenal, Report Says The United States must invest in a sturdier, smaller and more reliable nuclear arsenal to convincingly deter nascent nuclear powers, says a U.S. strategy report summary released yesterday (see GSN, June 26). “We are at a critical juncture that requires the U.S. to invest now in the capabilities needed to maintain a credible deterrent at the lowest level of nuclear weapons,” said the national nuclear security strategy summary submitted Friday to Congress by the secretaries of state, defense and energy. The report underscores the need for a smaller, more modern nuclear arsenal to protect the United States and its allies.  The U.S. arsenal is aging while “rogue states” are seeking nuclear weapons and “established nuclear powers” are refurbishing their stockpiles, said the three-page document. “The United States needs to invest in the Reliable Replacement Warhead program” that is crucial “to sustaining long-term confidence in our deterrent capability — especially as the U.S. reduces its nuclear forces [and] the total number of weapons in the stockpile,” said the report . The United States has roughly 6,000 operational nuclear warheads today but between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads — the number set under the Moscow Treaty — would be sufficient, the report noted.  The Bush administration says the new warhead would have new safety features, would not require explosive testing, and would be easier to maintain and produce than its Cold War-era predecessors.  Critics say it could undermine the international nonproliferation regime (see GSN, June 26). The document promised a follow-on report to “lay out the data and methodology used to determine our nuclear weapons force structure, outline knowledge points for measuring progress in transforming our nuclear stockpile, and dispel a number of myths that have grown up around U.S. nuclear forces.”  No release date was given for the full report (U.S. Defense Department release, July 24). Back to top       Indian Cabinet Approves Nuclear Pact With U.S. Technical arrangements reached by India and the United States last week for implementing their nuclear trade deal have received approval from the Indian Cabinet today, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 24). “All concerns of India have been reflected and have been adequately addressed,” Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the Indian Cabinet’s security and political affairs formally signed off on the deal. U.S. officials must still approve the agreement’s technical details, specifics of which have not been discussed publicly since last week’s meetings in Washington (Matthew Rosenberg, Associated Press/Washington Post, July 25). A former top Indian nuclear official has also given a tentative nod to details in the nuclear agreement, The Straits Times reported yesterday. “The negotiators have achieved probably the best we could get under the circumstances,” said A. Gopalakrishnan, former chief of India’s Atomic Energy Commission.  “The euphoria displayed by Indian newspapers is probably a bit exaggerated.  Now the two governments have to see if they can revise some of the positions taken before their respective legislatures” (Ravi Velloor, The Straits Times, July 24). Back to top       First Phase of North Korea Oil Reward to Finish Soon South Korea is expected next week to complete the first phase of oil shipments to be awarded to North Korea for implementing an international denuclearization agreement, Agence France-Press reported (see GSN, July 24). The last of 50,000 tons of fuel oil is scheduled to arrive ahead of schedule at the North Korean port of Sonbong on July 30, said South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Nam-sik.  The oil has been arriving intermittently since July 12.  The Stalinist state is receiving the oil in return for shuttering its Yongbyon nuclear facility, an initial provision of the six-party nuclear agreement (Agence France-Presse/Gulf Times, July 24). Back to top

Medical Groups Advise U.S. on Disaster Response A group of 18 medical organizations recently offered more than 50 recommendations to improve medical responses to mass-casualty events such as terrorist attacks and disease outbreaks, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported today (see GSN, July 2). Recommendations in the report sponsored by the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association focused on funding; national integration of health care, emergency and related systems; and providing adequate training and legal protections for health care professionals. “Most disasters are unplanned, but the response shouldn’t be,” American Medical Association President Ronald Davis said in a statement. The report’s authors called for consistent federal funding to expand the disaster-response capacity of emergency response systems, and for development of processes for local health systems to resume normal readiness as soon as possible after a crisis.  The groups also requested funding for a comprehensive study by the Institute of Medicine of the health care system’s ability to manage a sudden, large-scale influx of patients. The medical groups said that the federal and local governments should continue to work with health care systems and professional organizations to integrate health care services with emergency and disaster response programs.  Emergency communications systems should link medical responders with government officials at all levels, and disaster preparedness programs run by governments should always directly incorporate public health and health care professionals, the report said. Education institutions, meanwhile, should train medical and public health professionals in disaster preparedness and response techniques through undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and continuing education programs, the report said. The groups said federal and state governments should enact laws giving legal protection to medical workers operating outside the areas where they are licensed or accredited during an emergency (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, July 24). Back to top

Goat Milk Could Carry Nerve Agent Countermeasure By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Goats could someday be used to produce mass quantities of a protein that protects humans from the effects of chemical nerve agents, researchers said in a paper published this week (see GSN, May 29). The human body produces minimal amounts of the enzyme that can block the effects of organophosphates carried by nerve agents.  The quantity is so low that it cannot aid the host body much less be collected for stockpiling as a chemical weapons countermeasure. It would take 500 liters of donated human blood to produce a single dose of the enzyme-derived treatment, according to Maryland biotechnology company PharmAthene.  Milk from 250 goats could produce 100,000 doses, a spokeswoman said. The firm hopes to see the treatment stockpiled by U.S. military and civilian agencies against the possible use of nerve agents in warfare (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2005) or acts of terrorism akin to the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system (see GSN, July 20). Previous research has shown that goat milk could carry significant levels of proteins.  In a project initiated in February 2001, researchers from PharmAthene and the U.S. Army turned that work toward production of a new nerve agent countermeasure. They placed the gene for the human form of the enzyme into goat embryos.  Those resulting female goats were able to produce between one and five grams of the enzyme in each liter of milk, according to an article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Laboratory animals injected with the enzyme collected from the milk survived exposure to five times the lethal dose of several nerve agents, including soman, sarin and VX. All three chemical agents are known as organophosphorous or anti-cholinesterase substances.  They disable the correct functioning of the nervous system, potentially causing loss of muscle control, failure of the respiratory system, paralysis, convulsions, brain damage and death. The countering enzyme — huBChE — can bind to the organophosphates in the nerve agent and prevent them from damaging the human body. The goat-produced material has several potential benefits beyond its supply levels, PharmAthene said.  Guinea pigs that received the treatment did not suffer neurological damage following exposure to a nerve agent.  Current treatments do not offer that protection, said Solomon Langermann, PharmAthene vice president and chief scientific officer.  “Soldiers maybe survive, but they don’t function very well,” he said. One dose of the enzyme, administered through intramuscular injection, might provide protection against nerve agents for seven days.  It also has shown to safeguard animals even if given 30 minutes after exposure.  “That’s better than the conventional treatment right now,” Langermann said.  “The conventional treatment right now, which is 2-PAM and atropine, is very short-acting.  It only works if it’s given exactly at the time of exposure.” PharmAthene in September 2006 received a $213 million U.S. Defense Department contract through 2013 to develop and produce 90,000 doses of the treatment.  The company anticipates a larger order from the Pentagon, and also believes the Health and Human Services and Homeland Security departments might seek stockpiles of the drug for defending civilians against terrorist attack. Preparations for commercial-scale production are nearly complete, Langermann said.  The company is continuing to research the enzyme, including conducting a toxicology study to ensure it is safe for humans.  The Food and Drug Administration must also sign off on the treatment. Health and Human Services has not identified acquisition of additional nerve agent countermeasures as an immediate priority for the Strategic National Stockpile, said agency spokesman Marc Wolfson.  The focus through fiscal 2008 is on anthrax, smallpox and acute radiation syndrome, with chemical weapons to be addressed afterward. Doses of atropine and other nerve agent treatments are now spread around the country, available for rapid use in the event of an act of chemical terrorism, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman said today. Back to top       Chile Orders Six Arrests for 1977 Sarin Gas Death Six former members of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s intelligence service are wanted for allegedly using sarin gas to kill a man attempting to desert the country’s secret police in 1977, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 19, 2006). Judge Alejandro Madrid yesterday ordered the arrest of the four doctors and two nurses implicated in the death of Cpl. Manuel Jesus Leyton of the National Intelligence Directorate police, or “DINA.” The judge is also investigating the six people sought, all former members of the DINA medical branch, in connection with the deaths of former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva and chemist Eugenio Berrios, the developer of Chile’s sarin gas (Agence France-Presse, July 24). Back to top       Zambian President Set to Sign Chemical Weapons Law Zambia is set to adopt internal statutes required by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it ratified six years ago, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday (see GSN, July 9). “Zambia shall have a piece of legislation that prohibits any activity prohibited by the convention,” said Tens Kapoma, permanent secretary in the Zambian Foreign Affairs Ministry. Zambian lawmakers have approved the bill, which is now awaiting the signature of President Levy Mwanawasa, Kapoma said. The African nation neither stockpiles nor produces lethal chemical weapons, but joined the pact to support international efforts against the deadly ordnance, he added. Zambia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993 and ratified the treaty in 2001, Xinhua reported.  It is one of 48 African signatory nations (Xinhua News Agency/People’s Daily, July 24). Back to top

U.S., Poland Undeterred by Russian Grumblings Russian complaints will not stop Poland and the United States from collaborating on missile defense, a top Polish official said yesterday (see GSN, July 19). “During the meeting [last week of Polish President Lech] Kaczynski and President [George W.] Bush, we discussed what else the Russians can do to spoil the whole concept, and the straightforward answer was, well, that we will continue,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, Poland’s chief missile defense negotiator. “Despite Russia trying to spoil this concept, to destroy the whole idea, there is a determination and commitment on the American side to continue the project as they proposed in January of this year,” he added, according to the Associated Press. The United States plans to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Russia has strenuously opposed the plan, saying it could disturb the strategic balance in Europe.  President Vladimir Putin in June offered to instead house missile defense radars on Russian or Azeri territory, AP reported (see GSN, July 3). Putin’s plan is “worth taking into consideration,” Waszczykowski said.  “But it cannot replace the whole system — it can add additional value, but it cannot replace the original proposal” (Associated Press, July 24). Russian and U.S. officials are scheduled to meet July 30-31 in Washington in an attempt to hammer out their missile defense differences, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday (see GSN, July 23; Xinhua News Agency, July 24). Back to top

U.K. Issues Radiation Monitors for Ambulances The United Kingdom is equipping ambulance crews with monitors to detect dangerous amounts of radiation such as those that would be found following a “dirty bomb” attack, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 18) The British Health Department issued the pager-sized radiation scanners to organizations across the country that operate ambulances.  The devices, which sound an alarm when they detect dangerous radiation levels on people or objects, are expected to be in the hands of 1,600 Yorkshire Ambulance Service workers by the end of 2007.  The United Kingdom also issued radiation monitors to hospital emergency departments. A government spokesman said the detectors were “a personal safety precaution to help staff working in situations where radiological exposure may be possible.”  He added that ambulance crews could encounter dangerous radiation in situations not involving radiological weapons attacks. “The government recognizes the importance of rapid and reliable detection, both at the scene of an incident and in acute hospitals,” the government said.  “Work is now under way to procure radiation monitors for all NHS accident and emergency departments and personal radiation dosimeters for ambulance crews.  At the same time, guidance and standard operating procedures for their use [are] being developed” (Katie Baldwin, Yorkshire Evening Post, July 24). Back to top

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