Arms Control Today back issues from May 2004:
Curb Nuclear Weapons Excess
May 01, 2004; ... More than a decade has passed since the end of the Cold War and President George H. W. Bush's 1992 decision to end the production of new nuclear weapons. Today, U.S. military might is unrivaled. By far, its greatest security challenge is stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and reducing the ...
Coddling the Nuclear Weapons Complex
May 01, 2004; ... U.S. nuclear spending has soared since a 1995 decision to adopt a complex, simulation-based "virtual testing-virtual prototyping" strategy as the paradigm for "stewardship" of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. At the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), it is as if the Cold War ...
Don't Just Trust, Verify-Dismantling North Korea's Nuclear Program
May 01, 2004; ... The world is no longer willing to trust North Korea ... The development of a successful verification regime will be a formidable balancing act testing all of the parties' political and diplomatic skills. February's second round of six-party talks in Beijing aimed at ending North Korea's ...
Does the United States Need a New Plutonium-Pit Facility?
May 01, 2004; ... The need for such a massive and expensive new facility is highly dubious, unless the U.S. wants to maintain a Cold War-sized nuclear arsenal or launch a misguided effort to develop a new class of nuclear weapons. Each nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal contains a "pit," a hollow shell of ...
Iran and IAEA Agree on Action Plan; U.S., Europeans Not Satisfied
May 01, 2004; ... IRAN AND THE International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached agreement in early April on an action plan to complete the agency's investigation of Iran's nuclear program. As a critical IAEA meeting approaches, however, Tehran's simultaneous decision to move forward with two nuclear projects ...
U.S. Lifts More Sanctions on Libya
May 01, 2004; ... THE WHITE HOUSE announced April 23 that it is easing additional sanctions on Libya as a reward for Tripoli's progress toward dismantling its chemical and nuclear weapons programs and eliminating its longrange missiles. Libya had pledged to end the programs in December 2003. White House ...
Plan B: Using Sanctions to End Iran's Nuclear Program
May 01, 2004; ... Effective sanctions need to be designed that could be quickly implemented and rapidly affect Iran's nuclear behavior in the event it wavers in fulfilling its commitments. On October 21, 2003, Iran vowed to sign and abide by the Additional Protocol to the Safeguards Agreement, to suspend ...
U.S. Punishes 13 Companies for Iran Deals
May 01, 2004; ... A COMMON BUSH administration refrain is that foreign companies can either do business with the United States or "rogue regimes," but not both. The United States underscored that message April 1 by imposing sanctions on 13 foreign companies for trading with Iran, while waiving penalties on six ...
U.S., North Korea Jockey For China's Support as Working Group Nuclear Talks Approach
May 01, 2004; ... AS NORTH KOREA and the United States prepare for a new round of multilateral talks concerning Pyongyang's nuclear program, both sides are lobbying for the support of China in an effort to gain diplomatic leverage in future talks. In April, Vice President Dick Cheney and North Korean ...
IAEA Concerned About Iraqi Nuclear Facilities Security
May 01, 2004; ... THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency (IAEA) has told the UN security Council that some declared Iraqi nuclear facilities may not be sufficiently secured and that Iraqi nuclear material may have leaked out of the country. IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei wrote in an April 11 ...
Libya to Keep Limited Missile Force
May 01, 2004; ... THE UNITED STATES and United Kingdom have agreed "in principle" to allow Libya to keep at least some of its medium-range Scud B missiles, a Department of State official told Arms Control Today April 21. However, Libya must modify the missiles to conform with range and payload limitations it ...
NATO Expands, Russia Grumbles
May 01, 2004; ... RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER Sergei Ivanov is calling upon the United States and NATO not to let relations with Russia slip into a "cold peace" following the March 29 addition of seven new members into the Western military alliance. In an April 6 speech in Washington, Ivanov struck the shrillest ...
New Life for the MX Missile?
May 01, 2004; ... A vestige of the Cold War, the mammoth, 10-warhead MX missile is on schedule to become history next fall just like the superpower conflict that spawned its creation. Yet, Pentagon planners are already contemplating the missile's possible reincarnation. Air Force Space Command has ...
U.S. Shifts Focus in Iraq WMD Hunt
May 01, 2004; ... CHARLES DUELFER, THE head advisor to the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), provided some new details about the still-fruitless search efforts for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during a recent Senate hearing but presented little new evidence regarding prohibited Iraqi weapons ...
GAO: U.S. May Miss Chemical Destruction Deadline
May 01, 2004; ... THE GENERAL ACCOUNTING Office is warning that the United States may once again fail to meet a key milestone for destroying chemical agents. More troubling, GAO noted, are warnings that the United States may miss the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) ultimate 2012 deadline if these problems ...
GAO: Deployment Looms, But Missile Defense Remains Unproven
May 01, 2004; ... SOME PENTAGON PROJECTS to build missile defense systems are showing progress, but it remains uncertain whether key elements set for deployment this September will work as intended, according to an April 2004 report by the General Accounting Office (GAO). "System effectiveness will be ...
Searching For Ways to Roll Back Nuclear Proliferation
May 01, 2004; ... An interview with State Department Policy Planning Director Mitchell Reiss NEARLY A DECADE ago, Mitchell Reiss wrote an acclaimed book, Bridled Ambition, which sought to explain why some countries had chosen to abandon their nuclear weapons programs. "Just as all cancers are not ...
U.S., Russia Still SORTing Out Nuclear Reductions
May 01, 2004; ... NEARLY TWO YEARS after concluding a treaty to reduce the size of their deployed strategic nuclear forces by roughly two-thirds, neither the United States nor Russia have finalized plans on how to accomplish that task. U.S. and Russian government officials met April 8-9 in Geneva to ...
India, Pakistan Set Confidence-Building Talks
May 01, 2004; ... INDIAN AND PAKISTANI officials are scheduled to meet later this month in the Indian capital New Delhi for formal discussions on nuclear confidence-building measures. The talks come in the wake of groundbreaking peace talks between the two bitter South Asian nuclear rivals earlier this year. ( ...
Energy Dept. Reshuffles Nonproliferation Program
May 01, 2004; ... THE DEPARTMENT OF Energy announced April 14 that it is shifting control of its program aimed at retrieving tons of previously exported, U.S.-origin nuclear fuel that could be used to build nuclear weapons. Energy secretary Spencer Abraham said the move would "refocus and strengthen our ...
Security Council Unanimously Adopts Resolution on Denying Terrorists WMD
May 01, 2004; ... THE UN SECURITY Council April 28 unanimously adopted a resolution calling on states to take steps to deny and punish terrorists seeking weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. Despite its seemingly unobjectionable purpose, however, the U.S.-ihitiated resolution required several ...
Brazil Denies IAEA Full Access to Enrichment Sites
May 01, 2004; ... THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT continues to refuse to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to eyeball equipment at its uranium enrichment plant, citing the need to protect its industrial secrets. IAEA inspectors who have recently visited enrichment facilities at Resende ...
U.S. Accuses Burma of Seeking Weapons Technology
May 01, 2004; ... U.S. OFFICIALS ARE warning that another new concern may be emerging in the clandestine world of proliferation: Burma. During a March 25 House International Relations Committee hearing, Assistant secretary of State Matthew Daley testified that the United States has "reason to believe" ...
Israeli Subcommittee Faults Intelligence on Iraq
May 01, 2004; ... An investigation into Israel's failure to provide accurate intelligence on Iraq's weapons capabilities found that Israeli intelligence agencies suffered from a closed "information loop," as well as other failures. The conclusions are the result of an eight-month investigation by the ...
Law of the Sea Convention Marooned in Senate
May 01, 2004; ... A HANDFUL OF Republican senators are warning that U.S. accession to the UN Law of the Sea Convention might undermine a U.S.-led initiative to intercept dangerous weapons as well as U.S. sovereignty. Their opposition has helped hold up Senate consideration of the treaty, despite Bush ...
CWC, CTBT Membership Ranks Grow
May 01, 2004; ... Several states deposited ratification instruments to key arms control treaties in April. After depositing its instrument of ratification with the United Nations March 31, Rwanda joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) April 30. Rwanda is the 162nd state-party to the convention and the fifth ...
CORRECTION
May 01, 2004; ... In the April 2004 issue, the article "Congress Critical of Bush Nuclear Weapons Budget" incorrectly stated that Linton Brooks, head of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear security Administration, testified March 24 that the United States did not plan to "lower the number of deployed ...
After Long Delay, Energy Department Releases Weapons Advisory Committee Report
May 01, 2004; ... SUCCUMBING TO PRESSURE from nongovernmental groups and members of Congress, the Department of Energy has finally turned over a closely held report by an internal advisory committee that critiques the department's weapons and nonproliferation activities. Although generally favorable toward the ...
Congress Appears in No Rush to Pass Additional Protocol Implementing Legislation
May 01, 2004; ... THE IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION for an additional protocol to the U.S. safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remains tied up in a Senate committee, but Republicans and Democrats hope to see action taken on the bill before the July 4 recess. Both, however, ...
U.S. Defends New Nuclear Weapons Research
May 01, 2004; ... U.S. RESEARCH INTO new nuclear weapons designs will not spur other states to do the same nor impede U.S. nonproliferation efforts, the Bush administration asserted in a March 31 report to Congress. Other world officials suggest otherwise. The Bush administration sought and won a repeal ...
IAEA Advancing Code on Research Reactors
May 01, 2004; ... At its General Conference this September, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will consider adoption of an international legal agreement addressing research reactor security, dubbed the Code of Conduct on the Safety of Research Reactors. The move follows March approval of the ...
Vanunu Released From Prision
May 01, 2004; ... Mordechai Vanunu was released from prison on April 21, 18 years after his arrest for revealing secrets about Israel's nuclear weapons program. Vanunu offered details and pictures of Israel's Diamona nuclear reactor to The Sunday Times in 1986, undermining Israel's policy of "nuclear ambiguity" ...
CLARIFICATION
May 01, 2004; ... In the March 2004 issue, the article "U.S. Will Not Join Landmine Treaty; Position on Fissile Material Cutoff Pact Uncertain" paraphrased Assistant secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker as saying that an earlier ...