Restraints Fray as Nuclear Age Grows Globally

[cal04]

The declaration last Monday by North Korea that it had conducted a successful atomic test brought to nine the number of nations believed to have nuclear arms. But atomic officials estimate that as many as 40 more countries have the technical skill, and in some cases the required material, to build a bomb.

That ability, coupled with new nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East, risks a second nuclear age, officials and arms control specialists say, in which nations are more likely to abandon the old restraints against atomic weapons.

The spread of nuclear technology is expected to accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on atomic power. That will give more countries the ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same equipment and a little more effort, bomb fuel — the hardest part of the arms equation.

Signs of activity abound. Hundreds of companies are now prospecting for uranium where dozens did a few years ago. Argentina, Australia and South Africa are drawing up plans to begin enriching uranium, and other countries are considering doing the same. Egypt is reviving its program to develop nuclear power.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/world/asia/15nuke.html?hp&ex=1160884800&en=f8f228bbaa1cf974&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[jpak]

1. K&R Big Time

:nuke:

[rodeodance]

5. the World needs the US in a leadership position. This is scary.

[Hope springs eternal]

7. No, it needs the US to step down

every country has the right to pursue nuclear weapons. And maybe it's time for another superpower to take over.

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

8. Who do you recommend?

This should be good.

[Dover]

2. Great news for the military industrial complex. Another arms race.

More projects, more money....yippeeeeee!

[Eric J in MN]

3. This is where the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war...

...has led us.

Every nation figures it needs nuclear weapons to deter the US from attacking thanks to Bush.

[daleo]

9. I couldn't agree more

A key aspect of non-proliferation was that nuclear countries had tacitly promised not to invade non-nuclear countries. Bush threw that away, with this inevitable consequence.

[leesa]

4. Just what the Neocons wanted....lots of money to be made in the arms race.

[rodeodance]

6. Sam Nunn quote: more

...Concern about the situation led the International Atomic Energy Agency to summon hundreds of government officials and experts from around the world to Vienna in September to discuss tightening restrictions on who is permitted to produce nuclear fuel.

“These dangers are urgent,” Sam Nunn, an expert on nuclear proliferation and a former Democratic senator, told the group. “We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe and, at this moment, the outcome is unclear.”

But even the atomic agency itself exemplifies some of the underlying tensions inherent in the development of nuclear energy.

For decades, the I.A.E.A., known as the world’s nuclear policeman, has pursued its other mandate — to promote safe nuclear power — by running technical aid programs with roughly a hundred states. Some of that knowledge could be useful in a weapons program, though the aid is meant exclusively for civilian use.

The agency still helps Pakistan, which exploded a nuclear bomb in 1998. It also helped North Korea until a decade ago. Even today, it is assisting Iran, which many experts fear is close to mastering the basics of making a bomb. It has 14 programs under way with Iran, including a study on upgrading a nuclear research laboratory, as well as helping it start up its Bushehr reactor.