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The Nuclear Cycle And The Cycle Of Hostility Part Three
Washington (UPI) Jul 10, 2008 The recommendation of a State Department advisory panel that the United States band together with other existing nuclear powers to build safeguards into the growing market for reactor capacity risks fanning nationalistic hostility in the Third World to global anti-proliferation regimes, say some critics. A task force of the International Security Advisory Board -- chaired by former Pentagon and World Bank official Paul Wolfowitz -- produced the report, titled "Proliferation Implications of the Global Expansion of Civil Nuclear Power," in response to a request from Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph. The report says the United States must embrace a coming large expansion in global nuclear power generation -- despite the proliferation risks it poses -- to ensure that nuclear supplier nations work together to build tough new safeguards into the growing market. But critics charge this kind of thinking only exacerbates suspicion about the role of the United States and its First World allies among less developed aspirant nuclear powers. The suggestion that existing nuclear powers should monopolize production to stop the proliferation of fuel processing technologies that also can be used to make weapons material "causes nostrils to flair in the Third World," said Brian Finlay of the Stimson Center. Finlay, a proliferation expert who has worked with Third World governments on proliferation issues, said there was "a longstanding sensitivity (among aspirant nuclear nations) to any policy that appears to be trying to restrict technology transfer." Finlay's main criticism of the advisory panel's report is that it "fails to create a pathway we can move down towards ending this adversarial relationship with the Third World." He called for "out-of-the-box and innovative thinking about the regulation of nuclear technology" to break what he called "the cycle of hostility" of non-nuclear but aspirant nations toward their perceived "big brothers" who already have the technology to process and reprocess nuclear fuel. The tough restrictions to which the report recommends aspirant nuclear nations must sign up as the quid pro quo for getting guaranteed fuel and technology could "provoke something of a backlash" among them, Finlay added. But the former U.S. nuclear negotiator and government scientist who led the task force that wrote the report told United Press International the real cycle was one of fear -- bred by the prospect of uncontrolled nuclear proliferation. "Iran is saying, 'You can't infringe on our sovereign rights as a nation'" to develop nuclear power and fuel production, said C. Paul Robinson. But its neighbors have rights, too. "They are worried. They're saying, 'If they have the right (to a nuclear program), we have the right to defend ourselves'" and develop their own nuclear programs. "Somebody has to do something, or they (the neighbors) are going to take matters into their own hands," Robinson concluded. "The world seems headed in a very bad set of directions," acknowledged Robinson. He added a lot of work is still required to implement the kind of safeguards regimen the report recommends. For starters, most of the supplier nations have no equivalent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Robinson said, which reviews and must approve all exports of nuclear technology by U.S. firms. Supplier nations need "some mechanism that would bind their (commercial) nuclear suppliers to their national policies. ... There's got to be national enforcement" of any deals among supplier nations. "There are no easy solutions," said Robinson, but he added he is still "sanguine about the prospects" for success. Henry Sokolski, an expert who heads the Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center, disputes that view and the recommendations of the task force: "If you cannot trust a country not to break its pledges not to make bombs, you ultimately have no way of ensuring that they won't." Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Rice warns Iran: US will defend Israel
Tbilisi (AFP) July 10, 2008US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Friday that Washington had beefed up its security presence in the Gulf and would not hesitate to defend Israel and other allies in the region. |
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