House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) has raised concerns over a U.S. nuclear nonproliferation program (Tim Sloan/Getty Images). Congress Links DOE Program to Iran Nuclear Reactor By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee used the energy secretary’s testimony on the president’s proposed budget yesterday as an opportunity to suggest a long-running U.S. program of assistance to Russia is in fact aiding Iranian nuclear pursuits (see GSN, Jan. 24)...Full Story

Syria Could Trip up North Korean Nuclear Deal Suspicions that North Korea provided support for a Syrian nuclear program could trip up multilateral efforts to dismantle Pyongyang’s own atomic infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7)...Full Story

Iran Begins Installing Advanced Centrifuges Iran is installing a proprietary advanced centrifuge at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7)...Full Story

	Friday, February 8, 2008

Congress Links DOE Program to Iran Nuclear Reactor By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee used the energy secretary’s testimony on the president’s proposed budget yesterday as an opportunity to suggest a long-running U.S. program of assistance to Russia is in fact aiding Iranian nuclear pursuits (see GSN, Jan. 24). After the Soviet Union’s political and economic meltdown, the Energy Department in 1994 established the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program to engage former Soviet scientists.  By creating short-term work for the Russians and by ultimately creating sustainable private sector employment, Washington hoped to prevent them from selling their WMD expertise. Now, following an extremely critical Government Accountability Office report on the program, lawmakers are suggesting that the program might have outlived its need and worse, might be indirectly funding work on the Russian-built Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr (see GSN, Jan. 14). On Wednesday, the committee’s chairman and another top panel Democrat sent a letter to the Energy Department indicating that two Russian institutes in Nizhniy Novgorod, which are recipients of IPP funding for non-Bushehr related project, are also involved in Iran’s reactor program. “You’re aware of the fact that dollars are fungible,” Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) told Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman yesterday.  “You give dollars to Russia and they move the dollars around to suit their needs.” The two research sites — the Scientific Institute of Measuring Systems and the Federal Scientific and Industrial Center of Nuclear Machine Building — are in total receiving just more than $4.5 million in IPP funds, according to the letter to the Energy Department. The IPP program had a fiscal 2008 budget of $30 million and has spent a total of about $309 million since its inception.  For fiscal 2009 the president’s budget includes $24 million for the program. Bodman defended the Energy Department program, saying that each IPP project is are vetted through a rigorous interagency process and is “fully consistent with U.S. law and policy.” Dingell, however, questioned if the funding is simply paying for the overhead of these institutes rather than for specific work and particular scientists’ salaries, in which case it could be construed more specifically as funding work on the Iranian reactor. Bodman was unable to answer, citing the short amount of time that had elapsed between receiving the chairman’s letter and the hearing.  “I have not had time to fully investigate in the last 15 hours since I got your letter all of the issues that were enumerated in your letter,” he said. Bodman said he has asked the principal deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the program within the Energy Department, to “go to work on the problem and to answer the questions.” Russia has just completed transferring more than 80 metric tons of power plant fuel to the reactor in Iran.  Moscow’s support for the facility, as Bodman told the committee, for years has been a subject of discussion between the U.S. and Russian governments. The reactor is under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and the spent fuel would be repatriated to Russia, Bodman said. “How, Mr. Secretary, do you then blend that statement with what the State Department said when they said this: ‘Iran uses Bushehr as a cover and protection for obtaining sensitive technology to advance its nuclear weapons program,’” Dingell asked. Dingell appeared to quoting a 2003 written response from then-State Department spokesman Richard Boucher to questions from reporters during a news briefing.  Boucher wrote then that the United States believes “Iran uses Bushehr as a cover and a pretext for obtaining sensitive technologies to advance its nuclear weapons program.” “I have no doubt that there are inconsistencies in the statement,” Bodman responded.  “I will tell you what I believe to be true.  These are things I have been told over the last 15 hours since I received your letter.” There is a misconception in Congress about the nature of the Iranian nuclear threat, argued Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear nonproliferation expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  “Many members of Congress are under the impression that the Russian support of Bushehr is the root of the Iranian nuclear concern and it’s not,” he said. Bushehr was of greater concern in the 1990s, he said, but that changed when the world learned about the proliferation network of Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan.  The concern then shifted to Iranian efforts to develop uranium centrifuge technology, a distinctly different route to producing weapon materials than the path offered by removing plutonium from spent power plant fuel. Economically, the IPP program has become questionable as well, Dingell said.  The Russia of the 21st century is not the indigent, lurching hulk that it was following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia “is the largest oil producer in the world and the second largest oil exporter after OPEC.  Given their growing reserves, it is fair to ask whether we should continue supplementing the pay of Russian scientists,” he said. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) suggested that he aid to Russia could violate an amendment to a 2005 energy bill he co-sponsored.  The legislation prohibits all forms of nuclear assistance to Iran and other nations listed by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism. “Why wouldn’t funding a Russian nuclear institute that is working to build key components of Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr be either a direct or indirect export transfer or retransfer of nuclear technology or nuclear assistance to Iran,” Markey asked. Bodman said he assumed that officials at his agency had determined that any assistance to Russia under the IPP program was legal but conceded to Markey that he had not studied the matter personally. “I think there’s a very disturbing possibility that it is in fact in violation of the law,” Markey said. Back to top       Syria Could Trip up North Korean Nuclear Deal Suspicions that North Korea provided support for a Syrian nuclear program could trip up multilateral efforts to dismantle Pyongyang’s own atomic infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7). The denuclearization process faltered after North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to fully declare its past and present nuclear programs.  However, U.S. officials believe that Pyongyang will ultimately prove willing to provide details in two crucial areas — the size of its nuclear arsenal and a suspected uranium enrichment area. “The Syria issue is where we really need to push,” said one U.S. official.  “It’s the one where we haven’t made any headway.” North Korea has rejected claims that it has provided nuclear support for Damascus.  However, satellite images show North Korean workers at a Syrian facility that was destroyed in a September Israeli air raid, according to U.S. and European officials. There has been significant debate since the attack on whether the plant near the Euphrates River was an unfinished nuclear facility (see GSN, Feb. 5). Based on intelligence regarding the air strike, Western governments reached “some sort of common ground … that there seems to have been [nuclear] cooperation between Syria and North Korea,” a high-level European diplomat told the Journal. It would be difficult, though, to determine the level of North Korean involvement in Syria, U.S. officials said.  The tight hold on information regarding the Israeli attack leaves the six-party talks nations divided on the specific admission expected from North Korea. “Some actors believe that what’s been disclosed (about Syria) is serious and it’s nuclear.  But it’s not universally accepted,” the U.S. official said (Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 8). North Korea said today that “hard-line conservative forces in the U.S.” were ratcheting up pressure in the nuclear standoff, the Associated Press reported.  It warned against such a move. “As shown in the previous nuclear [crises] on the Korean Peninsula, pursuing a policy of force would only bring about an explosive crisis, not a resolution of the problem,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary. “Everything achieved through dialogue so far would evaporate into the air,” it added (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 8). Back to top       Iran Begins Installing Advanced Centrifuges Iran is installing a proprietary advanced centrifuge at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7). Dubbed the IR-2, the new centrifuge model incorporates Iranian innovations into the P-2 design that originated in Pakistan, U.S. and European officials have said. The IR-2 is “more ingenious” than the P-1 centrifuge, the older, less reliable Pakistani machine that Iran’s uranium enrichment program has relied on to date, said a high-level European nuclear official.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in April 2006 that the upgraded model would boost Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity fourfold. The International Atomic Energy Agency Development is expected to address the IR-2 centrifuges in a report later this month on Tehran’s disclosure of details about its nuclear program, officials said. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is intended only to produce electricity, but Tehran has been widely suspected of seeking to build a nuclear weapon. By operating 1,200 IR-2 centrifuges for one year, Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium to use in a nuclear bomb, according to a fact sheet released yesterday by the Institute for Science and International Security.   It is unclear if Iran has enough components to mass produce the machines, the report said, suggesting the United States and other nations could prevent Tehran from operating a useful quantity of the centrifuges by blocking the shipment of parts. The Bush administration referred to the new centrifuges to argue that the U.N. Security Council should impose additional sanctions against Iran, despite a recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. “If the reports are true, Iran is ramping up its enrichment activities, and this is just a demonstration that they continue to ignore the U.N. Security Council,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.  “The recent NIE indicated that enrichment activity could be used for nuclear weapons purposes, and the international community is united that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” “The key question is whether this would speed up the day when they could have a breakout capability — the ability to make a small arsenal,” said Gary Samore, a proliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations (Sanger/Broad, New York Times, Feb.8). Iran’s development of the new centrifuge would increase international tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said today. “Any Iranian attempt at a more advanced centrifuge would be an escalation of Iran's ongoing noncompliance with its obligation to suspend all enrichment-related activities,” Gregory Schulte told Agence France-Presse. Schulte said the development of the centrifuge would constitute a “further violation of Iran's international commitments, further reason why we are concerned about the nature of Iran's nuclear program and the intentions of its leaders, and further reason for the Security Council to act.” The ambassador said the United States is waiting for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report on the details Iran has provided on its development of the centrifuge.  The agency and Iranian IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh have not offered any comment. “While we have no information on the technical nature of any new Iranian centrifuge, we assume the purpose of testing is to increase Iran’s potential enrichment capacity,” the U.S. envoy said. “The IAEA and the U.N. Security Council have been absolutely clear that Iran needs to suspend” uranium enrichment, Schulte said.  “Instead, it is rushing to develop new enrichment technology.  This seriously undermines confidence at a time Iran should be doing as much as possible to restore it, given the real lack of confidence that exists.” Another Western diplomat agreed that development of the centrifuge would make it more difficult to defuse the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear program (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 8). Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to Russia said today that his nation is constructing a second nuclear power plant, Reuters reported. “Now we need to think about the fuel for it,” ITAR-Tass quoted Gholamreza Ansari as saying (Reuters, Feb. 8). In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Iran yesterday to take new steps to prove that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. “There has not been a positive commitment” yet from Iran, Merkel said, adding that Tehran must cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog to address international suspicions about its nuclear intentions. Merkel made the statement after meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. “We don’t want to see Iran attacked, but at the same time we don’t want to see Iran in possession of a nuclear bomb,” Sheikh Mohammed said. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Earth Times, Feb. 7). Back to top       Nuclear Plant Security Firm Garners Good Reviews The U.S. Energy Department has given a “good” rating to Wackenhut Services for the troubled firm’s performance in protecting a Tennessee nuclear laboratory last year, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan 17). The security firm has taken fire recently for several lapses in recent months.  Its parent firm last year lost its contract to protect 10 U.S. nuclear power plants (see GSN, Jan. 10). The Energy Department, however, awarded Wackenhut a score of 94 out of 100 when evaluating the company’s performance at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from June through November last year. One department official praised Wackenhut’s “noteworthy accomplishments” in conducting terrorist attack drills and reaching labor agreements with guards’ unions (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, Feb. 7). Back to top

Colorado Schools Receive Powder-Filled Letters The FBI and local police are investigating the delivery of envelopes containing a suspicious white powder to three public schools in Colorado, the Rocky Mount Telegram reported yesterday (see GSN, July 27). Pope Elementary School Principal Sheila Wallace opened a powder-filled envelope in the school’s office on Wednesday after classes had ended for the day.  Authorities evacuated school staff and several students from the building and decontaminated nine people, according to Rocky Mount police Capt. Laura Fahnestock. District school employees had been instructed before the latest incident to open mail in an isolated area after dismissing students for the day, said Assistant Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Finch. “We’re just trying to take some precautionary things to restrict the number of people involved,” he said. Parker Middle School received a powder-filled envelope Tuesday, resulting in 10 people being decontaminated, and Baskerville Elementary School received a similar delivery on Jan. 29.  Preliminary tests on the three powders have determined they are nontoxic.  Powder mailings have raised fears since the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people (Carolyn Casey, Rocky Mount Telegram, Feb. 7). Back to top

U.S. Trying to Surround Russia, Lavrov Says The United States is essentially trying to surround Russia with its missile defense system, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments published yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 5). Missile shield installations “exist or will be built in Alaska, California, [and] northeast Asia,” Lavrov told the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza (see GSN, Oct. 12, 2007) and Jan. 29) “If we look at a map, it’s clear that all of it is concentrating around our borders,” he said, according to the Associated Press.  “More likely in the near future, we are going to hear about hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of interceptors in various regions of the planet, including Europe.” Moscow has strenuously objected to the Bush administration’s proposal to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.  Lavrov rejected U.S. assertions that the system is not directed at Russia but rather at a potential Iranian missile threat. “Such a threat does not exist,” he said, noting that Russia is the only nation in Eastern Europe to possess strategic ballistic missiles. “That’s why you would have to be very naive to assume that the American missile defense base in Europe is aimed against anything but Russia,” he said.  “It’s difficult to interpret it as anything other than a manifestation of imperial thinking.” Lavrov said that “Russia does not fear 10 interceptors. “Much more dangerous for us is the trend of American infrastructure getting closer to our borders.  We don’t see any justification for this step,” he said.  “We are talking openly with the Americans about our fears.  If the plan goes through, we are going to be forced to respond adequately, developing our strategic forces near our borders” (Ryan Lucas, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 7). Russia has no intention of joining a new global arms race, President Vladimir Putin said today. “It is already clear that a new arms race is being unleashed in the world,” he said during a speech.  “We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into this.” Russian defense spending has increased during Putin’s eight-year tenure, Reuters reported.  The nation has also conducted major military exercises. Putin focused his ire on the U.S. missile defense plan and NATO “muscle-flexing” near his country. “We drew down our bases in Cuba and Vietnam.  What did we get?  New American bases in Romania, Bulgaria.  A new third missile defense region in Poland, where it’s being built,” Putin said. Poland has not yet agreed to house the missile interceptors (Reuters/Washington Post, Feb. 8). Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was in Moscow today for one day of meetings with Putin and other Russian leaders, RIA Novosti reported.  The agenda was expected to include missile defense. Putin planned to “set out Russia’s position, which is no secret to Poland,” said presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko (RIA Novosti, Feb. 8). Meanwhile, the Czech Republic and the United States have reached common ground on including the planned radar base as a component of a wider missile defense system covering NATO states, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. “Today, to all intents, we reached agreement on language in the agreement that discusses how a radar in the Czech Republic would contribute to the greater defense of the NATO alliance,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Rood said yesterday in Prague. Officials did not offer details of the agreement. On whether Prague would actually agree to house the radar base, Deputy Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar said it was “more a question of weeks than months that this agreement will be reached.” Washington has not yet fully met Prague’s demands or accepted all proposals, he said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 7). Back to top       Russia to Deploy Longer-Range Missile Defenses Russia plans to install longer-range air defense systems in the northwest region of the nation, United Press International reported today (see GSN, Jan. 16). Moscow intends to replace S-300 Triumph systems with S-400 units, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Sviridov said yesterday.  The S-400 can hit targets within 250 miles, giving them twice the range of U.S. Patriot missile defenses, he added. S-400 interceptors are designed to destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft. Russia’s missile shield is expected to rely heavily on S-400 defenses as late as 2025, according to Russian military analysts.  Moscow’s arms acquisition program has agreed to purchase enough S-400 units through 2015 to equip 18 military battalions (United Press International, Feb. 8). Back to top

Raytheon Delivers SUV-Based Radiation Sensor U.S. defense contractor Raytheon announced yesterday that it had provided the Homeland Security Department with the first sport utility vehicle outfitted with advanced radiation detection equipment (see GSN, Jan. 23). The new vehicle would enable the agency’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to scour U.S. cities for radioactive materials that could be used in a weapon, the company said.  The system is also expected to be employed at U.S. entry points to prevent smugglers from bringing illicit nuclear materials into the country (Raytheon release/PR Newswire, Feb. 7). Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

© Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.