Up and Atom: Winter 2007

News In Brief

India and Pakistan

The Institute for Science and International Security noted that India appears close to more than doubling its centrifuge capacity to between 5,000 and 6,000 machines that produce enriched uranium.

It also said satellite imagery shows that Pakistan may intend to start a new reprocessing facility "capable of separating weapons-grade plutonium out of spent reactor fuel."

Both countries posses nuclear weapons but remain outside the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. In India's case, refusal to sign the treaty has prompted criticism within the United States and abroad of Washington's decision to let America share its nuclear know-how and fuel with New Delhi.

Nuclear Winter Is Here Again

The idea that nuclear war would result in catastrophic global cooling (nuclear winter) was thought by many to be discredited. However, a paper presented to a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union by Rutgers University.

The "first comprehensive quantitative study of consequences between smaller nuclear states," presents new atmospheric models that predict what would happen to the global climate if 100 15-kiloton weapons were detonated.— they equivalent of the missiles from one Trident submarine or the equivalent of 0.1% of the worlds nuclear arsenal.

As well as millions of direct deaths the nuclear exchange could result in a seven degree drop in temperature across wide areas of the globe.

In testing their model they looked at two volcanic eruptions. One of them—the Tambora Volcano eruption of 1815 in Indonesia had clear world-wide effects. It led to crop loss and famine in Europe, in a year that became known as "The Year Without a Summer." However, the nuclear winter would be predicted to last ten years.

The paper can be viewed at
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acpd/6/11745/acpd-6-11745.pdf

Jordan Goes Nuclear

Jordan's king has said in an interview with an Israeli newspaper that he wants his country to develop a nuclear programme.

King Abdullah II told Israel's Haaretz newspaper that Jordan would use the programme for "peaceful and energy purposes and that he was already discussing his plans with the West.

“The rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole region, Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's going for nuclear programs."

Many observers see this as a move to counteract Israeli nuclear weapons and the alleged nuclear ambitions of Iran

Then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made a different argument just days before Blair’s Trident replacement announcement. Annan said Nov. 28 that the retention of nuclear weapons by some countries might motivate others to acquire such arms:

“By clinging to and modernizing their own arsenals…nuclear-weapon states encourage others…to regard nuclear weapons as essential, both to their security and to their status”

Nuclear Shutdown

2007 has not started well for the nuclear power industry. At Sizewell (see page 11) vast amounts of contaminated water flowed from a burst pipe and was only notice by workmen hours later. The safety control system did not set off any alarms despite the loss of 40,000 gallons of water.

An unspecified safety problem prompted an emergency shutdown at Russian nuclear power plant at Balakovo.

In the US the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant automatically shut down due to a broken air supply line connected to a steam generator.

Four nuclear power plants in the Northeast USA were alerted to look for potential safety problems because of a failure that caused a shutdown at Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear plant. Also the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was threatened with shutdown when a safety system was determined not to be working properly.

No one has been killed and none of the incidents have been classed as major. Aren’t we lucky - so far!

Chagossian Islanders

The Chagossians inhabited the island of Diego Garcia until 1971 when they were removed by the British to make way for a US base. No payment was made as part of this arrangement, although it has been claimed that the United Kingdom received a US$14 million discount on the acquisition of Polaris missiles from the United States.

The islanders won a successful court victory in May last year which should have allowed them to return. However, the British Government are still challenging this. They will be in court again early february. To give them vital support please contact Peter Lanyon 01603 722898.

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