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UN chief presents next steps to rid world of nuclear weapons_English_Xinhua
- Highlighting recent progress in efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday urged nations to build on the momentum, laying out a number of steps to move the process forward.
Speaking at a meeting in New York focusing on his five-point action plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons, the secretary-general cited "encouraging" developments over recent months, including the renewed commitment by the leaders of the United States and Russia, a breakthrough in the Conference on Disarmament, and the "historic" Security Council summit in September.
"We need to sustain this momentum, and build on it," he stated, noting that the review conference for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to be held in May 2010, is just a few months away. "Now is the time."
The secretary-general's action plan, presented in October 2008,begins with a call for the parties to the NPT to pursue negotiations on nuclear disarmament, either through a new convention or through a series of mutually reinforcing instruments backed by a credible system of verification.
U.S., Russia study ways to extend START verification | Politics | Reuters
U.S. negotiators working to conclude a new strategic arms treaty with Russia are discussing ways to continue nuclear weapons monitoring until the new accord can be ratified, a State Department spokesman said on Monday.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in July to work on a new treaty that would cut their deployed strategic nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads.
No Need for New Nuclear Warheads, Agency Says | Union of Concerned Scientists
— The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today released the executive summary of a new report that should put an end to claims that new nuclear weapons are required to maintain a safe, secure and reliable nuclear arsenal, according to experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
"This new scientific report should be the final nail in the coffin for proposals to build new nuclear weapons," said Stephen Young, senior analyst in the Global Security Program at UCS. "The report finds that we can maintain our nuclear weapons indefinitely by simply continuing to do what we are already doing."
The report, by a prominent, independent scientific panel called the JASON group, concluded that the United States can maintain current high levels of safety, security and reliability indefinitely without designing a new generation of warheads or testing current warheads. The panel found that the arsenal can be maintained by two existing programs: the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which monitors the arsenal for signs of aging, and the Life-Extension Program, which refurbishes existing warheads with new components.
Key Physicists Say No New Nukes Needed : ScienceInsider
The secretive JASON group of academic physicists have given a thumbs up to the current program of refurbishing nuclear warheads in the U.S. stockpile instead of building new, more reliable ones. The report should bolster efforts by the Obama Administration to keep dead the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, a Bush-era program to build new nukes. Bush's Energy Department and Pentagon officials had argued that flaws in the refurbishment program were a key rationale for new bombs, but Obama disagreed. (Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover, tried to revive the program this past summer, but failed.) The strong endorsement of the status quo by JASON, says Arms Control Wonk:
should drive a stake through the heart of the RRW and warhead “replacement” in general.
They turned back arguments that refurbishment efforts—known as Life Extension Programs— introduced enough changes to the bombs so as to raise questions about their effectiveness:
JASON finds no evidence that accumulation of changes incurred from aging and LEPs have increased risk to certification of today’s deployed nuclear warheads.
NTI: Global Security Newswire - Marshall Islands Ratifies Nuclear Test Ban
The Marshall Islands has become the 151st state to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a press release issued today (see GSN, Oct. 9).
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization called the Oct. 28 move "highly symbolic." The United States from 1946 to 1958 conducted 67 nuclear test blasts in the atmosphere above the Marshall Islands' Bikini and Enewetak atolls.
The treaty to date has been signed by 182 nations and ratified by 151 countries. In the Pacific islands region, 12 states have signed and 10 countries have ratified the treaty. Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu have yet to join the list of signatories.
Before it can enter it to force, the treaty must be ratified by the 44 "Annex 2" countries. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.
AFP: US, Japan to call for nuke-free world: reports
US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama plan to issue a joint statement calling for a world without nuclear weapons when they hold talks Friday, reports said.
In the statement, tentatively entitled the US-Japan joint initiative for a nuclear-free world, they would welcome rising international momentum toward arms reduction and non-proliferation, the Yomiuri said Thursday.
In their joint effort, the United States would seek to raise the global momentum, while Japan would push the message from its perspective as the only country to have been hit with atomic bombs.
The statement would be based on the UN resolution adopted in September at a Security Council summit hosted by Obama, Jiji Press said.
AFP: Russia to boost Obama with nuclear treaty: report
Moscow and Washington want to reach a deal on a key nuclear disarmament treaty before US President Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying Friday.
The source, quoted in the Kommersant daily, said the Obama administration wanted to sign an agreement on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) before the Nobel ceremony and that Moscow was willing to oblige.
"On December 10 the ceremony for awarding Nobel laureates will take place... Our partners want the document to be signed before the Nobel Peace Prize is given to Barack Obama," the Kremlin source was quoted as saying.
Germany to U.S.: Take Away Your Nukes! - TIME
Germany's new coalition government put the finishing touches to its policy program this weekend, promising moderate tax cuts to help support the economy, a reduction in the length of compulsory military service, and the continued operation of the nation's aging nuclear power plants. No big surprises there. But one detail could have interesting international repercussions: the man designated to be foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, is pushing for the U.S. to remove its remaining nuclear weapons from German soil.
It’s Not Iran, Stupid by Gordon Prather -- Antiwar.com
President Obama sent a message, via Energy Department Secretary Steven Chu, to the September meeting of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reaffirming the commitments he made, to seek "a world without nuclear weapons," in his "electrifying" speech in Prague and in his United Nations Security Council Resolution 1887.
In making their decision to award Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee "attached special importance to Obama’s vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons."
BBC NEWS | Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Committee said he won it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".
The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to support international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament.
Mr Obama - woken up with the news early on Friday - said in an address at the White House that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the award.
He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of some of the "transformative figures" who had previously received the award.
Speaking outside the White House, he said he would accept the prize as a "call to action".
U.N. chief, Gorbachev call for end to nuclear arms | Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for world leaders to display political will to work toward genuine reductions and an eventual ban of nuclear weapons.
Addressing the same forum at the U.N.'s European headquarters, former president of the old Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev echoed the plea, declaring: "Nuclear weapons must be destroyed. We must rid ourselves of this threat."
"The greatest challenge in nuclear disarmament has always been the task of bridging the gap between words and deeds," declared Ban, speaking in the wake of a U.N. Security Council call last month calling for scrapping nuclear arsenals.
AFP: Obama to push nuclear-free world at Security Council
US President Barack Obama will on Thursday chair an unprecedented summit at the UN Security Council to rally world support for nuclear non-proliferation and advance nuclear disarmament.
The talks come as Iran's suspect energy program has once again been thrust into the spotlight, with world powers warning more sanctions could follow if Tehran refuses to comply with UN demands to rein in its nuclear ambitions.
The summit will be the first time the 15-member council will be chaired by an American president, with Obama having set combating nuclear proliferation as a priority of his new administration.
Associated Press: US rejoins nuke-test treaty session 10 years later
After a 10-year gap, the United States on Thursday rejoined a biannual conference designed to win more support — including from the U.S. Senate — for the treaty banning all nuclear bomb tests.
The session brought together foreign ministers and other envoys from more than 100 nations that have ratified or at least signed the 1996 treaty. A speech by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton scheduled for later Thursday represented the first U.S. participation since 1999.
The pact has lingered in a diplomatic limbo since a Republican-dominated Senate rejected it that year, but U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to now "aggressively" pursue ratification.
The Associated Press: Key elements in UN nuclear resolution
Key elements in the resolution adopted unanimously Thursday by the U.N. Security Council:
NUCLEAR-FREE
Resolved "to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."
COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY
Urged all states to ratify the treaty, which outlaws all nuclear tests everywhere. Lack of ratification by a handful of nations, including the U.S., has kept the treaty from entering into force.
FISSILE MATERIAL CUTOFF TREATY
Called for negotiation of a treaty that would ban production of fissile material used for nuclear weapons.
STRENGTHENING NONPROLIFERATION TREATY
President Obama's remarks to UN Security Council | knoxnews.com
Here's an excerpt from President Obama's opening remarks today at the United Nations Security Council summit on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.
"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or Moscow; Tokyo or Beijing; London or Paris -- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, and our very way of life."
Here's a link to news report from New York Times and below is the full text of Obama prepared remarks:
The Associated Press: US faces UN pressure on nuclear test-ban treaty
This time around, U.S. Senate skeptics who killed the nuclear test-ban treaty a decade ago must take into account a new, $1-billion verification network underpinning the pact, the treaty chief said Wednesday.
In 1999, "the system was a blueprint," Tibor Toth said of the high-tech web of stations on alert for nuclear bomb tests. Now "I could call it a `verification Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the all-out U.S. program that built the first bombs in the 1940s.
Toth, who heads the U.N.-affiliated Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of a conference of some 150 nations convened every other year to urge those that have not ratified the treaty, including the United States, to do so.
The two-day session will be held in parallel Thursday with a summit of the 15 U.N. Security Council members on the subject of nuclear nonproliferation, presided over by U.S. President Barack Obama.
BBC NEWS | Obama shelves Europe missile plan
US President Barack Obama has shelved plans for controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic in a major overhaul of missile defence in Europe.
The bases are to be scrapped after a review of the threat from Iran.
Mr Obama said there would be a "proven, cost-effective" system using land- and sea-based interceptors against Iran's short- and medium-range missile threat.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed the US decision, calling it a "responsible move".
The Associated Press: Washington talking about ban on nuclear blasts
A U.S. official says dialogue about a global ban on nuclear blasts is under way in Washington.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty outlawing all nuclear explosions will only enter into force once adopted by the 44 states that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. So far 35 have ratified the document, excluding the United States.
The U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino said Tuesday: "everyone is talking about what it takes" but acknowledged opinions were split.
Other holdouts include China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan.
On the Net:
* http://www.ctbto.org/
Churches back nuclear-free Africa | Ekklesia
Following recent action by Africa, a majority of the world's countries have now banned nuclear weapons from their national territory for the first time. The change happened when an all-Africa treaty entered into force in July. International civil society organizations including the World Council of Churches (WCC) played a catalytic role.
Taking a shared approach to a safer world, Africa became a nuclear-weapon-free zone when Burundi recently became the 28th state to ratify the Treaty of Pelindaba. A WCC delegation visited the central African country in March 2009 to encourage the step. The addition of 54 countries in Africa means that 116 nations are now within treaty zones banning nuclear weapons.
The WCC Central Committee has saluted Africa's new nuclear-free status in a September 2009 statement and invites further church support for such actions. The committee has also urged Russia and the United States "to join China, Britain and France in ratifying the treaty protocols that give Africa added protection" from nuclear attacks.
nrc.nl - Labour party wants US nuclear weapons removed from Dutch soil
Labour in the Dutch parliament wants the US to remove its nuclear weapons from the Netherlands. The presence of American nuclear arsenal at the Volkel airfield has never been officially admitted.
A Dutch poster from the 1970s protested the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.
A Dutch poster from the 1970s protested the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.
Labour member of parliament Martijn van Dam on Thursday asked defence minister Maxime Verhagen, a Christian democrat, to officially call on Washington to remove its nuclear weapons from Dutch soil.
Labour and the Christian democrats are coalition partners in the Dutch government, but Verhagen told parliament that he is not keen on following up on Van Dam's request. Verhagen said he opposes unilateral nuclear disarmament as long as international disarmament talks between the big powers are still ongoing.
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