Sunday, October 24, 2010

Nuclear Abolition News and Analysis

uclear Abolition News | IDN Trident Launch | Credit: CND
By Jamshed Baruah
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

LONDON (IDN) - British scientists are calling for axe to fall on nuclear weapons research. In a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, 36 science professors plead for protecting core scientific research on compelling issues such as climate change and resource shortages by cutting investment in developing new atomic arsenal.

The Scientists for Global Responsibility, as they are called, include ex-Royal Society head, Sir Michael Atiyah and Nobel Prize winner, Sir Harold Kroto. They highlight how £2 billion a year, over 25% of the government's total scientific research and development budget, is currently spent by the Ministry of Defence as evidenced by the UK Defence Statistics 2010.

READ MORE...
http://www.nuclearabolition.net/

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Time for the Nuclear Test Ban


Daryl G. KimballPROLIFERATION ANALYSIS, AUGUST 24, 2010

Twenty years ago, a popular movement in Soviet-controlled Kazakhstan forced Moscow’s communist regime to halt nuclear weapons testing at proving grounds in their homeland where more than 456 explosions had contaminated the land and its people. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev would authorize only one more test (in Russia) and then declare a moratorium in October 1991, prompting U.S. legislators to initiate a U.S. test moratorium. The last U.S. nuclear test explosion was conducted on September 23, 1992.

Just four years later, the world’s nations concluded the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to prevent proliferation and help end the nuclear arms race. President Bill Clinton was the first of 182 national leaders that have signed the treaty, yet the CTBT must still be ratified by the United States and eight other hold-out states before it can formally enter into force.

On the occasion of the first International Day against Nuclear Tests on August 29, President Barack Obama should reiterate his 2009 pledge to pursue reconsideration and ratification of the CTBT. The United States should also use the upcoming September 23 foreign ministerial meeting at the UN on the CTBT to rally support for the treaty. American action on the treaty would prompt a chain reaction of ratifications by the eight other hold-out states, including China and India, and bolster the global drive to prevent proliferation.

A growing list of bipartisan national security leaders agree that by ratifying the CTBT, the United States can strengthen its security by limiting the ability of other states, such as China or even Iran, to proof test sophisticated nuclear weapons designs that could pose a threat to U.S. and international security.

They also agree that after 1,030 U.S. nuclear test explosions, there is simply no technical or military rationale for resuming testing. Contrary to myth, the United States has never relied on nuclear testing to ensure that proven warhead designs still work, but rather to perfect new types of nuclear bombs, which the U.S. military no longer needs nor wants.

Nevertheless, some U.S. senators—many of whom have not examined the topic in detail—are reluctant to give up the testing option. But since the Senate’s brief and partisan rejection of the CTBT in 1999, there have been significant advances in U.S. programs to extend the life spans of proven warhead designs and nuclear test monitoring that should address earlier concerns that led many senators to vote no. As former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz stated on April, 17, 2009, his fellow Republicans “might have been right voting against it some years ago, but they would be right voting for it now, based on these new facts.”

Since 1994, each warhead type in the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal has been determined to be safe and reliable through a rigorous certification process. Life Extension Programs (LEPs) have refurbished and modernized major warhead types. The September 2009 study by the JASON independent technical review panel concluded that the “lifetimes of today’s nuclear warheads could be extended for decades, with no anticipated loss in confidence.” JASON found “no evidence that accumulation of changes incurred from aging and LEPs have increased risk to certification of today’s deployed nuclear warheads.”

The Obama administration’s strong support for higher nuclear weapons laboratories’ budgets—$80 billion over the next 10 years—should also help change attitudes. Key House and Senate appropriations committees have approved the administration’s $7 billion request for fiscal 2011 nuclear weapons complex activities, a 13 percent increase from the year before. Senators of both parties should recognize that further delay of CTBT ratification would create greater uncertainty about U.S. nuclear policy that could jeopardize the emerging political consensus for higher funding to maintain the shrinking U.S. nuclear stockpile in years ahead.

The United States’ capability to detect and deter possible cheating by other countries will also be significantly greater with the CTBT than without it. The CTBT and its global monitoring network, international data center, and option for on-site inspections would augment existing U.S. national test monitoring assets.

North Korea has provided two recent real-world tests of U.S. and global monitoring capabilities. In October 2006, the treaty’s International Monitoring System (IMS) easily detected Pyongyang’s relatively low-yield (0.6 kiloton) nuclear explosion at 22 seismic stations. Telltale radioactive gases from this test were also detected by South Korea and the United States, as well as one of the international network’s radionuclide monitoring stations 4,600 miles away in Canada.

North Korea’s second nuclear test in May 2009 was detected by 61 seismic stations, which provided precise geographical information that could have been used to pinpoint an on-site inspection. However, such treaty-mandated inspections will only be available when the CTBT enters into force.

Despite powerful U.S. and international test monitoring capabilities, some skeptics worry that small-scale, clandestine tests cannot be detected with absolute certainty. This argument misses the point of verification and implies that low-yield tests are worth the high risk of getting caught. The one country that might be able to conduct low-yield testing successfully—Russia—already possesses a large and advanced nuclear weapons arsenal. Additional testing would do little to increase the threat Russia already poses.

On the other hand, countries with less nuclear test experience or design sophistication, such as China, India, Pakistan, or Iran, would be unable to conceal tests in the numbers and yields required to master more advanced warheads. Without the treaty in force, the United States does not have the option to seek short notice, on-site inspections to investigate suspicious events.

Some test ban treaty skeptics erroneously charge that because the treaty does not define “nuclear test explosion,” some states, such as Russia, believe very low-yield “hydronuclear” tests are permitted. The record is clear: the CTBT bans “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.” As the Russian government explained to the Duma in 2000, “[F]ull-scale and hydronuclear tests with the emission of fissile energy…directly contradict the CTBT.”

Nuclear testing is a dangerous and unnecessary vestige of the past. U.S. inaction on the CTBT is self-defeating and counterproductive. The United States has neither the intention nor need to renew testing, yet its failure to ratify the CTBT undermines both U.S. leadership credibility and the United States’ ability to improve the detection and deterrence of testing by others.

Following the approval of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), President Obama should undertake the major high-level campaign that will be needed to push the CTBT through the Senate in 2011. And it is the Senate’s responsibility to the nation to reconsider the CTBT on the basis of an honest and up-to-date analysis of the facts and issues at stake.

Daryl G. Kimball is executive director of the Arms Control Association.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

TodaysNetworkNews: HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI ATOMIC BOMB ANNIVERSARY, UN Secretary-General,


TodaysNetworkNews | 2009年08月11日

TodaysNetworkNews: 06 August 2009 - UNTV: United Nations: On the occasion of the 64th anniversary this week of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls on the world to "convince leaders, once and for all, of the waste, futility and dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction."

On the occasion of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, and issued an urgent call that we must disarm.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
Sixty-four years ago, atom bombs rained down on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Upon seeing such horror and devastation, people throughout the world thought such carnage must never happen again. But thousands of nuclear weapons remain in global arsenals. The risk of nuclear terrorism is real.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Hiroshima (Japan) 06 August 2010


Secretary-General's remarks at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony

Hiroshima no minasama konichiwa. Ohayo gozaimasu.

We are here, on hallowed ground, to see, to feel, to absorb and reflect.

I am honored to be the first UN Secretary-General to take part in this Peace Memorial Ceremony on the 65th anniversary of this tragic day. And I am deeply moved.

When the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I was one year old. Only later in life, could I begin to understand the full dimension of all that happened here. As a young boy, I lived through the Korean War. One of my earliest memories is marching along a muddy road into the mountains, my village burning behind me. All those lives lost, families destroyed -- so much sadness. Ever since, I have devoted my life to peace. It has brought me here today.

Watakushiwa sekai heiwa no tameni Hiroshima ni mairimashita.

We gather to pay our solemn respects to those who perished, sixty-five years ago, and to the many more whose lives forever changed. Life is short, but memory is long.

For many of you, that day endures, as vivid as the white light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rains that followed. To you, I offer a message of hope. To all of you, I offer my message of peace. A more peaceful world can be ours. You are helping to make it happen. You, the survivors, who inspired us with your courage and fortitude. You, the next generations, the young generation, striving for a better day.

Together, you have made Hiroshima an epicentre of peace. Together, we are on a journey from ground zero to Global Zero – a world free of weapons of mass destruction. That is the only sane path to a safer world. For as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will live under a nuclear shadow.

And that is why I have made nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation a top priority for the United Nations – and put forward a five-point plan.

Our moment has come. Everywhere, we find new friends and allies. We see new leadership from the most powerful nations. We see new engagement in the UN Security Council. We see new energy from civil society. Russia and the United States have a new START treaty. We made important progress at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington last April, which we will build upon in Korea.

We must keep up the momentum. In September, I will convene a high-level meeting in support of the work of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations. We will push for negotiations towards nuclear disarmament. A Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. A Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. Disarmament education in our schools – including translating the testimonies of the survivors in the world's major languages. We must teach an elemental truth: that status and prestige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Sixty-five years ago, the fires of hell descended upon this place. Today, one fire burns, here in this Peace Park. That is the Flame of Peace ? a flame that will remain lit until nuclear weapons are no more. Together, let us work for that day ? in our lifetime, in the lifetimes of the survivors. Together, let us put out the last fire of Hiroshima. Let us replace that flame with the light of hope. Let us realize our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons so that our children and all succeeding generations can live in freedom, security and peace.

Thank you. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=901

http://www.un.org/sg/


Hiroshima urges end of nuclear umbrella


Roos, Ban among 55,000 at 65th anniversary of bombing


Staff writer

HIROSHIMA — At a memorial ceremony attended for the first time ever by a U.N. secretary general and a U.S. representative, Hiroshima on Friday marked the 65th anniversary of its atomic bombing by calling on Japan to withdraw from the U.S. nuclear umbrella and accelerate the progress made over the past 18 months to eliminate nuclear arms.



Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010

ANALYSIS

Obama runs risk with Roos in Hiroshima

Attendance may touch off backlash in U.S.


Major antinuke groups want more


NAGASAKI (Kyodo) Two major antinuclear groups on Monday separately urged greater efforts toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Welcoming the participation of U.S. Ambassador John Roos and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a ceremony commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs said in a declaration, "By working with hibakusha worldwide, let's make it clear that 'nuclear weapons and humankind cannot coexist.' "

The group known as Gensuikin also called for the enactment of Japan's three nonnuclear principles into law. At a meeting of the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, Yoshinari Akashi, acting head of its Nagasaki chapter, criticized Prime Minister Naoto Kan's remarks that the U.S. nuclear umbrella "continues to be necessary for Japan."

The group known as Gensuikyo adopted a resolution urging nations to begin negotiating a treaty banning nuclear weapons.


Nagasaki issues plea to mark fateful day in '45

Mayor laments 'lack of sincere commitment'

NAGASAKI (Kyodo) Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue appealed Monday for the world to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons and for the central government to demonstrate its leadership on the issue on the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of his city.

In this year's Peace Declaration during a ceremony in the city's Peace Park attended by representatives of a record 32 countries, including for the first time nuclear weapons states Britain and France, Taue said people have the "responsibility to realize a world without the fear of nuclear weapons."

The ceremony followed the first-ever visit to Nagasaki by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon last Thursday and was held three days after a ceremony to mark the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which was attended by a U.S. ambassador for the first time. The United States did not send a representative to Nagasaki.

The U.S. Embassy issued a comment after the memorial, saying Ambassador John Roos did not attend the service due to scheduling conflicts, but he hopes to attend the Nagasaki ceremony in the future.




Thursday, June 17, 2010

War is not good for anyone





I am Junko Haga. I was in the 5th grade when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Today, I'd like to tell the story about my personal experience of this wartime bombing.

More than half of a century has passed since World War II (WW2) ended. Thanks to the strong convictions and efforts of "Never Repeat the Tragedy" by the people who lived through this wartime, Japanese have enjoyed years of peace without any war casualties for the first time since the beginning of the Meiji Era.

More than 80% of Japanese citizens alive today were born after WW2. Maybe for the people who were born after WW2 in modern, free, peaceful, and developed Japan, the stories of wars and the atomic bombs may sound like an old tale told by an ancient people. But it is a reality that 2,500,000 Japanese died for their country and 550,000 of them were killed in the fire bombings of the cities.

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki alone, 210,000 people were killed instantly by the first atomic bombs in human history. It is said that total casualties from the war eventually reached about 3,250,000. This number is about 1/36th of the total population of Japan today.

I became one of the children of single mothers who lost their husbands from the atomic bombs. Japanese people today live in peace without war for the first time since the Meiji Era. As a piece of Japanese history, I'd like to share my childhood wartime memories from more than half a century ago.

I was in the first grade at elementary school when the Great East Asian War started on December 8th, 1941. Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945, when I was in the fifth grade. Those 3 years and 8 months were completely painted only in war colors.


I was living at that time in Higashi Kannon-cho , about two kilometers from Ground Zero, where the Peace Memorial Atomic Bomb Dome stands today. In the early Spring of 1945, the first American B29 squadrons started to pass over our house. We heard the radio announcement: "The enemy's bombers are approaching from Toyogosuido toward Kure Army Port.” A siren warning air alert sounded. Then, the silver-colored B29 bombers passed through the sky reflecting the sunlight.

Blackish colored carrier-based aircraft flew low over our house. There was a metallic sound, queen-queen. Our house seemed to be located right on the flight route. The house and bomb shelter kept shaking all night until dawn. As many as 150 aircraft were said to have passed over during that night.

At the beginning of April, suddenly school students and their families started moving away from the city to escape the bombings. I moved with my family to Kannon Mura, Saeki-gun, one station before Miyajima. The house we moved into had a yard with red and white Oleanders like our house in the city. Rice paddies were green and frogs sang at night. It was a quiet, peaceful place so different from the city.

My father and my siblings who were in high school came back to the countryside house on Saturdays and went back to our city house early Monday mornings. Two months had passed since we had moved to the countryside. It was August 6th, a hot day with blue skies from early morning. I was walking with some schoolmates in formation towards the school. We heard small blasting sounds, bruun-bruun, coming from somewhere. We saw a lone B29 bomber flying over us unbelievably high up in the sky. The B29 looked so small like a toy plane, very different from the ones we saw when they passed over our city house in squadron formation. The lone B29 flew over shining and glittering. But we didn't pay any special attention to it and hurried on to school.

All the students were forming in the school yard preparing for the 8:15 a.m. morning gratitude ceremony. Everybody was looking up towards the sky, watching the small B29's circling flight.

I heard some voices saying: "That is a spy plane....""They are spying on us..." The gong of the morning ceremony went off. Suddenly everything turned bright! I thought a huge lightning bolt had struck me. It was an eye-blinding flash as if several suns exploded all at once.

Before we could tell if it was real or just an illusion, the blast sound of the explosion came and the ground began shaking up and down, right and left - as if a huge bomb had dropped and exploded just next to me. I fell down. I thought, "I am dying now!!"

"Get in the bomb shelter!!" It was the voice of the vice-principal.

I forced my eyes open. Everything was covered by thick gray sand and dust. I felt like I was standing alone in an opaque part of a deep ocean floor. At the time, I sensed somebody was running. I came to myself, and started running desperately towards the bomb shelter in the hill behind the school building. At the very moment I finally got in the shelter there was a huge sound. The people at the entrance crumbled from the blast pressure of the explosion. Clay from the ceiling and walls fell out like hail stones.

"Cover your ears and eyes!!" It was the voice of my homeroom teacher, Mr. Fujita, who drew me into the shelter pulling my hand at the entrance.

None of us had said anything until then. At that time we started to utter some strange and meaningless words. I, too, felt like saying something and clinched the back of a person in front of me. I felt his back shivering. ”Don't speak!!”, the teacher said. All voices ceased at once. Everybody was breathing quietly. I don’t know how long this lasted.... Then the words: "Go outside. Get in your group formation!" We left the shelter at the teacher's order.

The air was opaque with debris. Everybody was covered with sand dust from tip to toe, as if we were all wearing sand dust-colored uniforms.

This is the memory of my experience of the moment of the first atomic bomb explosion on the earth. The solo B29 which was flying circles over us dropped an Area Weapon A-bomb from 8500 meters above Hiroshima.

Everybody wandered, "Even though we were at war what could cause such devastation beyond our imagination?" It was the result of the Area Weapon A-bomb explosion in the sky 580 meters over Hiroshima city 43 seconds after it was released from 8500 meters by the tiny B29 which was circling over us that morning.


There was the tragic sudden death of humans within 500 meters from the Ground Zero, where the Peace Memorial Atomic Bomb Dome is now located. The buildings within two kilometers of Ground Zero were completely disintegrated. Our house in the city was destroyed, almost completely annihilated.



Later our teacher, Mr. Fujita, told us it was very fortunate that all of his students survived even though the school was located in the Gulf of Hiroshima district where the blast and blast pressure from Ground Zero traveled over water without any barrier to prevent direct damage. Even today I think we were saved by our teacher’s proper judgment, leadership, and our daily training.

At day, only one member of my family, my older brother who was a second year high school student, was missing. All of us, school personnel, school friends, our family, and all of our relatives, searched for him. But now more than a half century later, he is still missing .


On August 15th, 1945, my father who was listening to the termination of the war broadcast by the Emperor suddenly started to cry shaking his shoulders. "If only this had come 10 days, just 10 days earlier!!" Until then I had believed that fathers never cried. But I saw tears of grief shed by a father who lost his son by the A-bomb only ten days before the war officially ended. That was the moment I as a child thought, "Nothing in the universe can replace my father's loss of my brother."

"No matter what condition he is in, I want to find him and take him home". It was the end of summer. My father kept looking for information about my brother even half a year later. My father passed away quietly a short time after he moved back to his birth place because of declining health. My mother who did not know until her death if her son was alive or had died must have been very sad.

One year later, we received a notice, "Your son is presumed dead from the A-bomb explosion." His name was erased from the family register of our hometown. But my mother never erased him from her heart.

"Why? He did not even have time to flower... He may have lost his memory.... He may have become completely disabled.....He may have been institutionalized...He may be waiting for me to come looking for him....I want to take care of him just only one day...Did he die without suffering?"


Often during the rest of her life my mother mentioned these words to me, a tomboy and her youngest daughter. I lived with my mother after my older sisters married and left home. It was 32 years ago this Fall that my mother joined my father in heaven. She lived long enough to watch her children reach adulthood.

By chance I happened to see a documentary film, "Drawings by the Victims of the War" on NHK Television on Atomic Bomb Memorial Day a year before last. The film brought back memories of that utmost tragic time, of scenes in a city devastated by the bomb and fear that there could be another bomb attack.

I remembered my oldest sister and I starting to walk along the railway tracks toward our house, hoping my brother might get there somehow. We crossed over Fukushima bridge and arrived Tennmann Bridge.


They were scenes of the numerous rows of skeletons, identities unknown, laid between street train rails. There were hundreds of bodies on both sides of the river banks of those who crawled on the ground to reach the river. After drinking the river water they passed away along the banks. The river was filled with hundreds of floating bodies. Those unforgettable horrific memories came right back to me. I almost shut off the television because my body was stiffening up. But I made myself keep watching.


The memories I had were from the experiences of a small child viewed through a child eyes while walking through the city in the hand of an older sister who suffered and tried to forget that experience. I felt a strong renewed impact after viewing those drawings and listening to their explanations. These people saw and experienced far more sad, tragic, cruel and hellish scenes than I.

Even though thinking "I will never see him again", still more than half a century later, I couldn't accept my older brother's death as a reality. But after watching this telecast, I finally was able to believe that my parents and my brother met together in heaven at last.

Suddenly all at once, something came out from my whole body. Tears flowed down my cheeks and ran onto my chest as if I had a fountain in my body. It was the first time I have felt "peace of mind" since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. After more than 50 years those tears were a prayer for the peaceful repose of my brother’s soul.

When summer approaches every year, the time when white and scarlet oleander flowers start to bloom and kikyo bell flowers start to bear small light-blue buds, somehow deep inside, my heart gets a heavy feeling, influenced by the souls of those who perished in the war.

I believe that we the people of this generation have to make efforts through future peace activities to carry on that peace born from the lives of the Hiroshima victims.

Thank you very much for your attention in listening to my story of childhood memories of a half century ago. I deeply appreciate it.


November 1, 2007

Junko Haga

Suginami, Tokyo



Profile:

Born 1934, Housewife

Area being bombed: Hiroshima

Graduated from college in 1957, worked as a public high school teacher

Married, 3 children, 4 grandchildren (all in healthy condition)

Lives with husband



Older brother: He was a second year student at Hiroshima High School when he disappeared at the time of the Hiroshima A-Bomb detonation. His body was never found and he was later presumed dead from the initial blast.

Father: A year after the bombing he died from illnesses caused by atomic bomb radiation

All family members received secondhand atomic bomb radiation exposure when they went into Hiroshima after the A-bomb explosion to search for my brother


Translated by Aiko & Paul Damrow


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Battle over drafting of agreements continues in final week of NPT confab

The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference entered its final week on May 24 with nuclear weapon states and the nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and others at loggerheads. With a substantial number of issues to be addressed, including an action plan for nuclear disarmament, the denuclearization of the Middle East, and the strengthening of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the increasingly tense negotiations are taking place in and out of the conference venue with the aim of adopting a final document of agreements on May 28.

On May 24, the three Main Committees resumed debate. Each committee agreed to its revised draft, after failing to reach agreement earlier, and the committee chairs were set to submit the drafts that evening. These three revised documents will then be integrated into a single draft. Libran Cabactulan, president of the conference, will present the integrated draft of the final document to the conference on the morning of May 25, then negotiations over this draft will continue at the general assembly and other sites.

One of the main areas of conflict concerns the action plan for nuclear disarmament found in the draft submitted by Main Committee 1. The initial draft reflected the intentions of non-nuclear states with the provision that an international conference to create a road map for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons be convened in 2014 as well as mention of a nuclear weapons convention.

However, the nuclear weapon states oppose setting target years for the abolition of nuclear arms, while the NAM nations argue that nuclear disarmament cannot advance without target years and they seek to have this language restored in the draft of agreements. This confrontation between the two sides is becoming increasingly fierce.

Meanwhile, NAM is employing a tactic of endeavoring for concessions from the United States over the "Resolution on the Middle East." Some European diplomats see this attitude as one taking advantage of the U.S. wish for the success of the conference.

Another focal point with regard to this 1995 NPT resolution is whether a blueprint can be established for making the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction, which would include the de facto nuclear weapon state of Israel. The United States wants to avoid naming Israel in these terms, but the U.S. response to this issue could result in an Arab backlash and the breakdown of negotiations.

In regard to the additional protocol regarding the IAEA, considered essential for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, a great gap exists between the keen backers of the protocol, nations which include Japan and which seek strong language for this measure, and some of the NAM countries, which are wary of those backing the protocol and argue that the issue should be left to the discretion of each nation.

(Originally published on May 25, 2010)

http://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/mediacenter/article.php?story=201005251444414_en

Sunday, May 23, 2010

NPT News Review 24 May 2010

Front page article from the NPT News in Review, the daily NGO newsletter from the
2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference
Monday, 24 May 2010

Complete PDF of this edition

Friday saw the release of three new texts: the Subsidiary Body I draft action plan on nuclear disarmament; the Subsidiary Body II text on regional issues, including actions for implementing the 1995 resolution on the Middle East; and the second Main Committee III draft chair’s report. Delegations discussed the latest MCI, MCII, and MCIII texts throughout the day in the relevant committees. It became clear that while there is generally more agreement over the texts than there was a week ago, delegations have still not reached consensus. Open discussions were not held on the subsidiary body texts introduced on Friday, but both provide insights into the status of the closed deliberations.

At UN, deadline aired for abolishing nuke weapons


By CHARLES J. HANLEY
The Associated Press
Friday, May 14, 2010; 8:13 PM

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States, Russia and other nuclear powers would agree to a global conference in 2014 to negotiate a timetable for abolishing nuclear arms, under a draft committee report submitted Friday, halfway through a monthlong conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051405143.html

NPT Meeting Coverage


Committee Chairmen of 2010 Review Conference Report on progress towards advancing key pillars of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty




2010 NPT Review Conference Calendar of Events


UN Vido
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
http://www.un.org/en/conf/npt/2010/videos.shtml