NUCLEAR ROUNDUP

- Iran is still build­ing cen­trifuges for ura­nium enrich­ment — despite its pledge to stop mak­ing weapons-​​grade nuclear mate­r­ial.
– The U.S. will start send­ing India civil­ian nuclear and space tech­nol­ogy.
– “North Korean offi­cials told an unof­fi­cial del­e­ga­tion of U.S. experts last week that the coun­try has no clan­des­tine pro­gram to enrich ura­nium, even though one mem­ber of the del­e­ga­tion had been present when a senior North Korean offi­cial admit­ted it dur­ing a meet­ing in October 2002.“
THERE’S MORE: “President Bush’s top nuclear secu­rity admin­is­tra­tor defended yes­ter­day the administration’s deci­sion to begin research on a new gen­er­a­tion of low-​​yield nuclear weapons,” accord­ing to the Baltimore Sun.
In a leaked memo from December 5, Linton Brooks, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, gushed about the repeal on the ban of such weapons.
“We should not fail to take advan­tage of this oppor­tu­nity,” he told the nation’s nuclear lab chiefs. “We are now free to explore a range of tech­ni­cal options that could strengthen our abil­ity to deter or respond to new or emerg­ing threats with­out any con­cern that some ideas could inad­ver­tently vio­late a vague and arbi­trary lim­i­ta­tion. I expect your design teams to engage fully.“
Nevertheless, the Sun notes, Nonetheless, Brooks told reporters that other coun­tries shouldn’t pur­sue such research.
That earned guf­faws from Joseph Cirincione, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He says, “It’s like telling your kids not to smoke when you have a two-​​pack-​​a-​​day habit.”

January 14th, 2004 | Nukes | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.