IAEA safeguards chief Olli Heinonen is in Iran today to discuss the nation’s nuclear activities (Behrouz Mehri/Getty Images). IAEA Official to Urge Iran to Explain Intelligence on Nuclear Program The International Atomic Energy Agency’s safeguards chief today traveled to Iran to urge officials to address indications that its nuclear research is aimed at producing a weapon, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 18). Olli Heinonen in February reported to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation governing board on alleged connections between Iran’s uranium enrichment program, its research into precision explosives detonation, and work on reshaping a missile cone to potentially accommodate a nuclear warhead (see GSN, Feb. 26; Hasham Kalantari, Reuters I, April 21).  ..Full Story

Russia Disables Plutonium Production Reactor Russia yesterday shut down one of its three remaining nuclear energy reactors that produce weapon-grade plutonium, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 20)...Full Story

North Korea Claims 30 Kilograms of Plutonium North Korea’s claimed last year to have produced 30 kilograms of plutonium, a significantly smaller amount than estimated by the United States, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 18)...Full Story

	Monday, April 21, 2008

Islands Need HAZMAT Readiness, Experts Say The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands must be prepared to handle a hazardous materials incident without support for several days, one expert said last week (see GSN, Nov. 24, 2003). “We can’t just ask for help right next door and somebody can be here in a couple of hours.  Even [the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency] will take three or four days to actually get teams to respond,” John Scott, president and lead instructor of All Hazard Management Professionals, told the Saipan Tribune. The Northern Mariana Islands, a “commonwealth in political union with” the United States, lie roughly three-fourths of the way between Hawaii and the Philippines. Scott and two other instructors last week provided training for 25 members of the commonwealth’s HAZMAT emergency response team.  The intent is to help the responders prepare for a variety of potential incidents, Scott said. “It could be a chemical accident.  It could be a biological event like pandemic flu.  It could be a weapon of mass destruction or terrorist incident,” he said. The islands “don’t have the military here with already developed teams to perform this mission,” said assistant instructor J.D. Robinson.  “So basically they are on their own to be self-sufficient if a matter like this will happen” (Ferdie de la Torre, Saipan Tribune, April 21). Back to top

IAEA Official to Urge Iran to Explain Intelligence on Nuclear Program The International Atomic Energy Agency’s safeguards chief today traveled to Iran to urge officials to address indications that its nuclear research is aimed at producing a weapon, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 18). Olli Heinonen in February reported to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation governing board on alleged connections between Iran’s uranium enrichment program, its research into precision explosives detonation, and work on reshaping a missile cone to potentially accommodate a nuclear warhead (see GSN, Feb. 26; Hasham Kalantari, Reuters I, April 21).  Heinonen has said the intelligence was obtained from the United States, an IAEA probe into Iran’s nuclear intentions and Iranian acquisition documents, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Google News, April 21).  Iran, which insists its nuclear program is aimed strictly at power production, has dismissed the evidence as fake or of no importance, Reuters reported. Heinonen is expected to meet this afternoon with Javad Vaidi, deputy head of Iran’s supreme national security council, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The sides hope to “advance cooperation” in the IAEA investigation, said one Iranian official.  The officials could return to the alleged weaponization efforts, but Iran has already presented an “evaluation” of the claims to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the official said. “Since there are differences between Iran and the agency (over the Western intelligence) the meeting ... will deal with finding a solution to this problem,” Iranian state media quoted an Iranian Atomic Energy Organization official as saying (Reuters I). The conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan blasted Heinonen’s motivations for pursuing the talks, AFP reported. “This trip is to complete a joint Israeli-U.S. trick to provide [phony] proof of Iran’s nuclear activities,” said an editorial signed by Hossein Shariatmadari, the publication’s chief editor. “It is like a ridiculous play,” the newspaper said.  “He (Heinonen) opened the first act at the (IAEA) Board of Governors, in a play written by Israel and directed by the United States. … And now during his trip here he will perform the second act.  What is surprising is why our officials agreed to his trip” (AFP). Tehran yesterday also rebuffed statements made last week by U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown regarding their suspicions about Iran’s nuclear activities, Reuters reported. “The stance voiced by the American president and British prime minister about Iran’s nuclear activities is not compatible with the reality of any of (its) activities,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue with its peaceful activities,” he told reporters, noting that “no law prevents our country from continuing these peaceful activities.” Hosseini declined to give details on Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s recent announcement that the nation would propose solutions for resolving the international standoff over its nuclear activities. “Regarding the package, we will provide you with the comments and explanations at the appropriate time,” Hosseini said (Reuters II, April 20). Back to top       Russia Disables Plutonium Production Reactor Russia yesterday shut down one of its three remaining nuclear energy reactors that produce weapon-grade plutonium, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 20). The reactor was one of two built at Seversk in the 1960s to produce material for nuclear weapons during the Cold War.  Russia stopped purchasing plutonium from the facility in 1993, but it continued running the plants due to the lack of a replacement power source for the surrounding area. Russia plans to decommission the second Seversk reactor in June and its final reactor — located at Zheleznogorsk in Siberia — by the end of 2009, ITAR-Tass reported. The United States agreed in 2003 to contribute $926 million to construct two fossil fuel power plants that would replace the plutonium reactors. The U.S. contractor Washington Group International worked with Russian company Rosatomstroi to deactivate the Seversk reactor. Formerly referred to as Tomsk-7, Seversk was one of 10 Soviet nuclear-weapon production hubs (Peter Leonard, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 20). Back to top       North Korea Claims 30 Kilograms of Plutonium North Korea’s claimed last year to have produced 30 kilograms of plutonium, a significantly smaller amount than estimated by the United States, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 18). Kim Kye Gwan, Pyongyang’s top negotiator at six-nation talks on the nation’s nuclear program, provided the figure to his U.S. counterpart in December, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported.  He said that 18 kilograms of the material had gone toward nuclear development and that 6 kilograms was used during the regime’s October 2006 nuclear test.  The newspaper report did not address the status of the final 6 kilograms. The United States has estimated that North Korea has produced more than 50 kilograms of plutonium.  It wants a full accounting of plutonium stockpiles and activities as part of a 2007 agreement to close down Pyongyang’s nuclear sector (Reuters/Washington Post, April 21). The issue of the nuclear declaration has proved an obstacle to the denuclearization process.  U.S. officials had sought the document by the end of last year, but Pyongyang balked at detailing certain aspects of its atomic efforts and holdings. An agreement reached by Kim and U.S. envoy Christopher Hill would reportedly require North Korea to provide details of its plutonium work and to complete disable three key nuclear facilities.  However, it would only have to “acknowledge” U.S. suspicions regarding uranium enrichment activities and support for an alleged Syrian nuclear program.  In return, the Bush administration would move to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and to free it from sanctions enacted under the Trading With the Enemy Act. Critics have lashed the agreement as unduly favorable to Pyongyang, the Washington Post reported. “Why don’t we just wait and see what they say before people go out there and start giving their opinions about whether this is a good deal or a bad deal?” U.S. President George W. Bush said Saturday during an appearance at Camp David with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. “I’m not going to accept a deal that doesn’t advance the interests of the region,” Bush added “The burden of proof is there,” he said.  “We and our partners will take a look at North Korea’s full declaration to determine whether or not the activities they promised they could do could be verified.  And then we’ll make a judgment of our own.” “Persistent patience” is necessary for negotiations with North Korea, Lee said. “It’s difficult to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, but it is not impossible,” he said (Dan Eggen, Washington Post, April 20). A U.S. team is expected to visit Pyongyang this week in hopes of finalizing the declaration deal, Agence France-Presse reported.  “The team is to discuss the declaration issue including verification,” said Max Kwak, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. The trip is expected to last several days. Lee today discussed the North Korean nuclear issue with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo. “North Korea is the greatest challenge for both Japan and South Korea,” Fukuda said.  “We reconfirmed the necessity of demanding that North Korea submit a comprehensive and correct declaration” (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, April 21). Back to top       India Offers to Host Nuclear Fuel Bank India is willing to host an international nuclear fuel repository to help discourage nations from developing domestic facilities that could produce nuclear weapon materials, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 27). “We run a full nuclear fuel cycle and we will be happy to participate in providing a home for a nuclear fuel bank,” Menon said, adding that formal talks on the plan remain “a long way away,” the Daily Times reported. Several plans have been offered for a repository that could provide fuel for nations seeking nuclear energy capabilities. Speaking at a conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Menon also called for a “credible program for global, verifiable and nondiscriminatory nuclear disarmament” as a measure to help prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. Menon said that Iran has the right to develop civilian nuclear energy capabilities but noted that New Delhi wants to ensure that the program is not turned toward weapons development (see related GSN story, today). “Ultimately it is an issue of whether or not [Iran] is implementing the obligations it undertook.  It depends on technical assessments which are best done by the [International Atomic Energy Agency],” Menon said. Menon added that India and Pakistan regularly update each other on ballistic missile exercises (see related GSN story, today), and the countries have established an expert panel to examine measures aimed at reducing the threat of a nuclear exchange. “Immediately after the 1998 (Pakistan nuclear) tests, both India and Pakistan realized that we needed to be in touch with each other.  In 1999, we agreed on a series of nuclear confidence-building measures and we have been carrying that out,” he said. India’s ruling government hopes it can soon implement a civilian nuclear trade agreement with the United States, Menon said, describing the deal as “more of an immediate answer” to meeting the nation’s growing power demands than a measure to address nuclear proliferation.  The pact would make U.S. nuclear fuel and technology available to India (see GSN, April 17; Ifikhar Gilani, Daily Times, April 20). Back to top       U.S. Signs Nuclear Deal With United Arab Emirates Senior officials from the United States and the United Arab Emirates signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement today during a broader meeting of Arab nations in Bahrain, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 24). The deal accompanies a trend of growing interest in nuclear power by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (see GSN, Jan. 30). “We really want to be a good example for the region,” said UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan during a signing ceremony with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “I know that you will be,” Rice said.  “The UAE is a very responsible partner” (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, April 21). To ease potential proliferation concerns, the Middle Eastern nation would abstain from building any uranium or plutonium facilities, sites that could be modified to produce nuclear weapon materials, Sheikh Abdullah said yesterday. “In an effort to limit the danger of proliferation, the UAE government has also adopted a policy renouncing the development of any domestic enrichment or reprocessing capabilities in favor of long-term arrangements for the external supply of nuclear fuel,” he said (see related GSN story, today; Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, April 20). Back to top       Auditor Sees Security Concerns at U.S. Nuclear Labs A U.S. Energy Department auditor warned last month of continuing security problems at U.S. nuclear laboratories, including the failure to withdraw access credentials from non-U.S. researchers who had completed their approved work at the facilities, Defense Daily reported (see GSN, June 19, 2007). In a March 24 report to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, department Inspector General Gregory Friedman found that “security risks associated with (foreign visitors to DOE facilities) remained higher than necessary.” “For example, at least one visitor accessed a laboratory using a valid identification badge on two occasions the month after his assignment had been revoked,” says Friedman’s report.  “Site officials were unaware of the unauthorized access until we brought to their attention.” “We found … at one laboratory that 14 of the 27 foreign nationals selected for review (by the inspector general) no longer needed site access because the visit or collaboration had been completed,” the report added (Defense Daily, April 18). Back to top

Pakistan Twice Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile In a three-day period, Pakistan conducted two test launches of its longest-range ballistic missile, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Feb. 3). The Pakistani military lauded the tests Saturday and today of the Shaheen 2 missile, a two-stage, solid-fuel weapon capable of delivering a conventional or nuclear warhead as far as 1,280 miles. The latest test “marked the culmination of a field training exercise,” Pakistan’s Army Strategic Force Command said in a statement.  “It validated the operational readiness of a strategic missile group equipped with [the] Shaheen 2 missile. The Shaheen’s range would allow it to reach targets in the interior of India, Pakistan’s neighbor and nuclear-armed rival.  “Pakistan can be justifiably proud of its defense capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence,” the statement said.  Both tests were conducted from undisclosed locations (Agence France-Presse/Google News, April 21). Back to top

Israel Tests Arrow Missile Defenses The Israeli military successfully destroyed a mock Iranian missile on Saturday in a test of its Arrow 2 ballistic missile defense system, the Qatar News Agency reported (see GSN, April 15). According to Israeli sources, the interceptor hit a target simulating an Iranian Shahab 3 ballistic missile. Israel successfully conducted a similar test in late 2005 (see GSN, Dec. 2, 2005; Qatar News Agency, April 19). Back to top       Russia Could Abandon Air-Defense Project With NATO Russia indicated Friday that it could drop out of a planned program to cooperate on a theater missile defense system with NATO if that effort becomes tied to U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, Interfax reported (see GSN, Jan. 15). “If the U.S. program of building the third deployment area of missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic starts merging with the program of developing theater missile defense that is being implemented in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council, the question will arise whether there is any sense in continuing our own project in the framework of the council,” said Russian Foreign Ministry official Sergei Ryabkov. The Bush administration wants to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and an early warning radar in the Czech Republic (see GSN, April 15).  NATO, meanwhile, has been considering a theater system that would cover several European nations that would not be under the umbrella of the U.S. missile shield. Russia has said the U.S. plan threatens its security and has questioned the Iranian missile threat said to illustrate the need for the European bases. Moscow and Washington did not conduct direct talks on the missile defense proposal during a NATO conference earlier this month in Romania.  Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush met after the summit but did not discuss additional offers on easing Russia’s concerns about the plan (see GSN, April 8). “What was discussed in Sochi was in fact the specification of the proposals that we had already received in the form of documents and in the form of verbal offers when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates were in Moscow in the 2+2 format,” Ryabkov said Additional expert studies are planned, he said.  Russia also hopes to discuss the issue with Poland and the Czech Republic. “There are grounds for discussion.  We are not losing hope though everything is proceeding in a very difficult way,” Ryabkov said (Interfax, April 18). Back to top

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