West Europeans target US nukes at treaty session

UNITED NATIONS - May 6 2010 — Germany and other West European nations at the U.N. nonproliferation conference are calling for elimination of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe — "leftovers from the Cold War" — as a way to advance global arms control.

"They no longer serve a military purpose and do not create security," German state minister Werner Hoyer told fellow delegates to the 189-nation session to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Belgian disarmament official Werner Bauwens, speaking Thursday, the fourth day of the monthlong conference, urged the U.S. and Russia to launch negotiations "as soon as possible" to reduce their shorter-range nuclear weapons. More >>>

Inside Story - Sending a message to Pakistan?

White House Set to Submit U.S.-Russian Civil Nuclear Pact to Congress

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration within the next few days intends to submit a U.S.-Russian civil nuclear cooperation agreement to Congress for review, just as Washington is pressing for Moscow’s support on sanctions against Iran, U.S. officials tell Global Security Newswire (see GSN, Sept. 9, 2008).

(May. 5) - Activists, shown near a train loaded with depleted uranium in France last month, protest exports of nuclear waste to Russia. The Obama administration plans to seek congressional approval of a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that could enable the United States to send its own waste to its former Cold War rival (Bertrand Langlois/Getty Images).
“These kinds of agreements, from a practical standpoint, are a model for how countries can pursue their inherent right to nuclear energy without a greater proliferation risk,” a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of not being named.
However, behind the scenes, the administration is reportedly having qualms about submitting the accord to Capitol Hill in short order, having heard negative feedback last week from both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate about how this deal might affect other pending legislation. More >>>

SAARC Summit Focuses on Climate Change

29 April 2010: The Sixteenth Meeting of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was held in Thimphu, Bhutan, from 28-29 April 2010, around the theme of climate change.

SAARC leaders adopted the Thimphu Statement on climate change, which contains commitments to: review and ensure timely implementation of the Dhaka Declaration and SAARC Action Plan on Climate Change; plant ten million trees over 2010-2015 as part of a regional afforestation and reforestation campaign, in accordance with national priorities and programmes of Member States; develop national plans and regional projects on protecting and safeguarding the archeological and historical infrastructure of South Asia from climate change adverse effects; stress the imperative of biodiversity conservation and monitoring of mountain ecology in the region; and complete the ratification process for the SAARC Convention on Cooperation on the Environment at an early date to enable its entry into force. More >>>

Should geoengineering be used to address global warming?

If humans heated the earth, perhaps our technology can cool it, too. A look at the science of geoengineering and how it might be used to address global warming.

May 3, 2010 -The time for barely muffled chuckles and rolled eyes is over. Scientists, ethicists, and legal experts are now quite soberly thinking about how humans should mess with the world's climate – with the goal of keeping it as close to what we are used to as possible.

But as it stands today, geoengineering – as climate modification is being called – is little more than a shopping bag full of sometimes outrageous-sounding proposals and theories. Little is known about whether they would work in the real world.
Deciding which geoengineering ideas to test – and how to do it safely – presents a huge stumbling block. The effects could be global, but getting all nations to agree on any particular measure could prove to be a Herculean task. More >>>
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In treating the illness of a sick planet it may be as well to operate under the maxim of ‘do no harm’. This is the only inhabitable planet in this solar system, and if we get it wrong the outcome could be disasterous. Editor

Obama administration discloses size of U.S. nuclear arsenal

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - UNITED NATIONS -- Shattering a taboo dating from the Cold War, the Obama administration revealed Monday the size of the American nuclear arsenal -- 5,113 weapons -- as it embarked on a campaign for tougher measures against countries with hidden nuclear programs.

The figure was in line with previous estimates by arms-control groups. But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized that it was the very disclosure of the long-held secret that was important.

"We think it is in our national security interest to be as transparent as we can about the nuclear program of the United States," she told reporters at a high-level nuclear conference in New York, where she announced the change in policy. "We think that builds confidence."

Shortly after Clinton's speech, the Pentagon issued a fact sheet saying that the number of working U.S. nuclear warheads had plummeted from a peak of 31,255 in 1967. In addition to the functioning weapons, thousands more have been retired and await dismantlement, the Pentagon said. Analysts estimate that number at about 4,500.

The Obama administration had debated for months whether to release the arsenal numbers, with some intelligence officials worrying they could give clues to would-be bombmakers about how much plutonium was required for a weapon. But Clinton noted that reliable private estimates of the stockpile were readily available.

The disclosures came on a day when Iran and the United States squared off over U.S.-led efforts to strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, used the meeting to lash out at the United States and accuse nuclear nations of trying to unfairly deny much of the world the possibility to pursue nuclear energy programs.

But Ahmadinejad was greeted with a public scolding about his country's secretive nuclear program from the United Nations' top leadership. More >>>



T

A New Ground Zero

April 28, 2010 - A few weeks ago, traveling in Kazakhstan, I had the sobering experience of standing at Ground Zero. This was the notorious test site at Semipalatinsk, where the Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear weapons between 1947 and 1989.

Apart from a circle of massive concrete plinths, designed to measure the destructive power of the blasts, there was little on the vast and featureless steppe to distinguish this place. Yet for decades it was an epicenter of the Cold War — like similar sites in the United States, a threat to life on our planet. Its dark legacy endures: poisoned rivers and lakes, children suffering from cancer and birth defects.

Today, Semipalatinsk has become a powerful symbol of hope. On Aug. 29, 1991, shortly after independence, the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, closed the site and abolished nuclear weapons. It was a tangible expression of a dream that has long eluded us — a world free of nuclear weapons. More >>