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Monday, June 29, 2009 

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Physicians first confronted the horrors of nuclear war in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the late 1950's and early 1960s physicians played a key role in the debate over atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactive fallout.

In the 1970s physicians began to discuss ideas to foster medical cooperation between physicians of the two superpowers in order to spearhead a worldwide movement away from nuclear disaster. For these efforts, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.


It's time to finish the job we started: the total elimination of nuclear weapons.


ICAN is a new campaign initiated by IPPNW, a federation of medical professionals in 60 countries. The organisation received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for uniting doctors across the Cold War divide to raise awareness of the threats posed by nuclear weapons. Its prescription for survival was, and remains, the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.


ICAN focuses on the roots of the nuclear weapons problem - the continued possession of nuclear weapons by a small minority of countries who risk their use by design, accident, miscalculation or by terrorists, and whose weapons are an incentive to others to also become nuclear armed.


Nuclear weapons are not like other weapons - there is no other weapon that can kill hundreds of millions of people in a few hours and bring about the end of human civilisation. According to the Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in January 2007, just 50 of today's nuclear weapons could kill 200 million people.


The 26,000 nuclear weapons in existence, with hundreds on hair trigger alert ready to launch in just minutes, are illegal, immoral and genocidal; they can destroy our cities, health, water catchments and our food chain, and they routinely deplete funds and attention from achieving human security. Nuclear weapons have no legitimate purpose. To possess them and thereby threaten their use is utterly immoral. They are the ultimate weapons of terror.


Nuclear weapons are futile against any of today's real security threats. Nuclear weapons cannot address climate change, depletion of water & environmental degradation, poverty, hunger, overpopulation, pandemics such as AIDS or avian flu, failing states, non state armed groups or terrorists, organised crime, or trafficking in drugs, people and arms.


In fact, nuclear weapons budgets and policies make most of these problems much worse because they divert enormous financial and technical resources from where they are really needed. In addition, the development of nuclear weapons directly adds to environmental degradation, and mistrust rather than cooperation between nations.


ICAN aims to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention to ban the development, possession and use of nuclear weapons.


ICAN's priorities:

1. Negotiate nuclear weapons abolition

The abolition of nuclear weapons is achievable through a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC). The majority of UN Member States call for immediate negotiation of such a treaty, which would prohibit the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat, or use of nuclear weapons. The NWC would provide for the elimination of nuclear weapons in much the same way comparable treaties have banned landmines and chemical and biological weapons.

2. No new nuclear weapons

The nuclear weapon states must immediately stop upgrading, modernizing, and testing new nuclear weapons. Producing new nuclear weapons undermines the goal of non-proliferation, and violates the legal obligations of the nuclear weapon states under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to negotiate disarmament in good faith. The five original nuclear weapon states made an 'unequivocal undertaking' at the NPT Review Conference in 2000 to 'accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament.' The hypocritical claim that nuclear weapons are valuable instruments of policy and power projection in some hands but are intolerable threats when owned by others must be abandoned.

3. Reduce the likelihood of nuclear weapons use

Nuclear weapons must be taken off high alert. This would greatly decrease the chance of accidental use. Every nuclear weapon state should commit itself to a 'No First Use' policy – a pledge never to initiate a nuclear exchange – as an interim step toward abolition and to reduce the stimulus to nuclear proliferation. Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones, which shrink the geographical space in which nuclear weapons can play a role, should be expanded globally.



11:55 PM 
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009 

You are currently threatened with nuclear weapons. Right now.

Everyone you care about and all future generations are at threat from approx 23,300 nuclear weapons. Thousands remain ready for launch, 24/7, within minutes.

All nuclear reactors use and produce the raw fuel capable of being diverted for nuclear weapons. If you oppose WMDs, you should strongly oppose uranium mining, nuclear power and the fuel chain.

Click here for the ICAN Video

Nuclear power was born of the weapons race – the two are intrinsically linked via:
i) expertise,
ii) infrastructure,
iii) covert research and
iv) the fuel itself, namely enriched uranium, its lethal byproduct plutonium (0.001 of a gram is deadly) and tritium (from heavy water used in many reactors).

General Electric and DuPont's Hanford weapons facility, overseen primarily by Westinghouse, produced the plutonium used in the Manhattan Project – instantly killing 130,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Despite:
'I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'....'
- General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander Europe during World War 2 and later US President.

GE also produced neutron triggers for Hydrogen Bombs and remains a major contractor for the US Department of Energy's nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities.
(http://www.newday.com/films/DeadlyDeception.html and
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16)

The UK's Calder Hall at Sellafield, England, billed as the world's first civil nuclear power station in 1956, was producing not just electricity but also plutonium for nuclear weapons.
(www.corecumbria.co.uk)

India's first nuclear bomb was produced using fuel from a Candian made research reactor, 'capable of manufacturing enough plutonium for one to two bombs a year.'
(www.fas.org/nuke/guide/india/nuke)

Nobel Prize winning physicist Hannes Alven described the peaceful and military atom as 'Siamese twins.'
- 'An Illusion of Protection', Executive Summary, Medical Association for the Prevention of War.


NEW NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS RAISE WEAPONS CONCERNS
13 May 2008: ABC radio's 'AM' story on increased interest in nuclear power due to rising oil prices included an interview on the links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Transcript: here.

Indeed, over 20 countries which have built N-power or research reactors are known to have used their 'peaceful' nuclear facilities for covert weapons research and/or production.

In some cases the military research development was small-scale and short-lived, but in other cases nation states have succeeded in producing nuclear weapons under cover of a peaceful nuclear program: India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa and now North Korea.
(Institute for Science and International Security, 'Nuclear Weapons Programs Worldwide: An Historical Overview', and Dr. Jim Green, 'Research Reactors and Nuclear Weapons', paper prepared for the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, 2002).

Disarmament is hampered by – and weapons proliferation is also aided by – the heavily flawed safeguards system of the regulator, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which it has acknowledged is 'fairly limited' and runs on a 'shoestring budget'. To touch on this - some (very few) nuclear facilities being subject to Safeguards does not mean they will be inspected, nor do inspections apply to military facilities - only 'civil' ones.

The IAEA's Illicit Trafficking Database recorded over 650 confirmed incidents of trafficking in nuclear or other radioactive materials since '93 (nearly 100 in '04 alone). These activities have the potential to provide fissile materials for nuclear weapons or a wider range of radioactive materials for use in 'dirty bombs'.

Australia-China uranium export deals will involve Australian yellowcake first arriving at a jointly military-run conversion plant, also exempt from IAEA Safeguards (disclosed in the Q&A of the signed Agreements). And China has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Additionally: 'Whether or not Aussie uranium goes directly into Chinese warheads .. or whether it is used in power stations in lieu of uranium that goes into Chinese warheads .. makes little difference. Canberra is about to do a deal with a regime with a record of flouting international conventions.'
- The Taipei Times Editorial, 21/1/06.

and: 'As China ramps up it's power capacity it is aiming to double the proportion sourced from nuclear energy to 4% by 2010. While it had enough uranium resources to support its nuclear weapons program, Madame Fu said China would need to import uranium to meet it's power demands.'
- An admission from China's Australian Ambassador Madame Fu Ying at a Melbourne mining club meeting that Australia supplying uranium to China would support their nuclear weapons program by freeing up their own uranium reserves for this purpose. ('The Australian', 2/12/05, 'China warning on uranium', paragraph 10).

A US/India nuclear deal signed in Dec 2006 allows India (which is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) to retain 8 reactors exclusively for military use, exempt from UN inspections. 'The deal could also put pressure on Australia – one of the world's largest suppliers of uranium – to also sell material to India's growing nuclear sector... US critics charged that the pact erodes efforts to contain the spread of nuclear know-how, noting that it leaves India's military nuclear plants outside the safeguards and inspections regime that will cover its civilian plants.' ('Bush signs controversial nuke deal with India', Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 2006).

'Given India's uranium ore crunch and the need to build up our minimum credible nuclear deterrent arsenal as fast as possible, it is to India's advantage to categorize as many power reactors as possible as civilian ones to be refueled by imported uranium and conserve our native uranium fuel for weapons grade plutonium production.' - K. Subrahmanyam, former head of the India's National Security Advisory Board.

'Whatever reactors we put under safeguards will be decided at India's discretion. We are not firewalling between the civil and military programs in terms of manpower or personnel. That's not on.' - India had no intention to quarantine its military program from its civilian program because nuclear scientists would work across both programs. - India's chief scientific adviser, Rajagopala Chidambaram, in an interview with The Hindu newspaper (The Age, 16/8/07).

The IPCC (around 2,500 international scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) considered a scenario involving a ten-fold increase in nuclear power over this century and calculated that it could produce 50-100 thousand tonnes of plutonium. The IPCC concluded that the security threat "would be colossal". (IPCC, 1995, 'Climate Change 1995: Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific-Technical Analyses').

'The development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the development of atomic energy for bombs are in much of their course interchangeable and interdependent.'
- Dean Acheson & David Lilienthal, 'A report on the international control of atomic energy, 16 March 1946.

In 1968 a serious proposal was put forward for nuclear power at Jervis Bay, NSW by then Prime Minister John Gorton, who later admitted that the intention was not only for nuclear energy but also to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

'Almost every action, every piece of research, technological development or industrial activity carried out in the peaceful uses of atomic energy could also be looked upon as a step in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. There is such an overlap in the military and peaceful technologies in these areas that they are virtually one.'
- Sir Phillip Baxter, former head of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, published in Quadrant, 1968.

More recently, the development of the nuclear supply chain in Australia could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in our region (The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Aug 2006).

'Every known route to bombs involves either nuclear power or materials and technology which are available, which exist in commerce, as a direct and essential consequence of nuclear power.'
- Dr. Amory Lovins, director of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado.

'Reprocessing (of uranium fuel) provides the strongest link between commercial nuclear power and proliferation.'
- US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment Nuclear Proliferation and Safeguards, June 1977.

'Any country has the right to master these (nuclear) operations for civilian uses. But in doing so, it also masters the most difficult steps in making a nuclear bomb.'
- Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

'The push to bring back nuclear power as an antidote to global warming is a big problem. If you build more nuclear power plants we have toxic waste at least, bomb making at worse.'
- Former US President Bill Clinton, Sep 2006.

'Nuclear energy is a bad fuel, a dirty fuel, a dangerous fuel. This is not a good industry to encourage, and anyone who has an electricity program ipso facto ends up with a nuclear weapons industry.'
- Former Prime Minister Paul Keating, Herald Sun Oct 16 2006.

'If the world as a whole chose nuclear power as the option of choice to replace coal-fired generating plants, we would face a dramatic increase in the likelihood of nuclear weapons proliferation. For eight years in the White House, every weapons-proliferation problem we dealt with was connected to a civilian reactor program. And if we ever got to the point where we wanted to use nuclear reactors to back out a lot of coal then we'd have to put them in so many places we'd run that proliferation risk right off the reasonability scale.'
- Former US Vice President Al Gore.

'You can't separate the two because if you can enrich uranium up to 5 per cent or so needed for nuclear power reactors then by putting it through the system time and again, you can get it up to the 93 per cent needed for nuclear weapons and therefore it's a dual purpose technology, usable for both purposes'.
- Dr Frank Barnaby, former British Atomic Weapons Establishment physicist describing the secretive Silex laser uranium enrichment program at Lucas Heights, Sydney.
Click here for the 7.30 Report Transcript.

'It's a nonsense to suggest that laser enrichment of uranium has only a civil application. If you can enrich Uranium-235 by 10% you can enrich it to higher percentages to make it weapons usable. The point is that it's disingenuous to say that Silex are producing or experimenting only for civil purposes.'
- Former Australian Diplomat and author of 'Fact or Fission? The Truth About Australia's Nuclear Ambitions', Richard Broinowski.

Further to this:'From the point of view of someone concerned about arms control, is any enrichment facility suspect?'
'Oh, of course'.
- Physicist C. Paul Robinson, former director of Sandia National Laboratories, also led nuclear weapons programs at Los Alamos and served as a U.S. arms control negotiator in the late 1980s. (On Line News Hour,May 27, 2005.)

'If we look to the history of nuclear weapons development, we can see that those countries with nuclear weapons developed them before they developed nuclear power programs. They have produced the special nuclear materials required for nuclear weapons using facilities operated specifically for this purpose - enrichment plants producing (very) high enriched uranium, or reprocessing/plutonium extraction plants together with reactors designed and operated to produce low burn-up plutonium. Indeed, in some of the countries having nuclear weapons, nuclear power remains insignificant or non-existent.'
- John Carlson, head of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office.

And then: 'John Carlson, Director of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, has admitted that Australians will not inspect Chinese nuclear facilities to ensure compliance with controls safeguarding non proliferation. He also confirmed that international inspectors would not visit enrichment or conversion facilities in China to ensure Australian uranium did not end up in nuclear weapons.'
- The Age, 5/9/06.

Note: Only 10 Chinese nuclear facilities (including reactors, enrichment plants and reprocessing plants) are currently subject to IAEA safeguards (this doesn't mean they will be inspected). Of these, only 3 Chinese nuclear facilities were inspected by the IAEA in 2005 (IAEA 2005 Annual Report) and, as mentioned, all military facilities are outside the safeguards system of the IAEA.

'It is clear that no international safeguards system can physically prevent diversion or the setting up of an undeclared or clandestine nuclear (weapons) program.'
- IAEA, 1993.

On uranium exports alone, Australia's uranium, once irradiated in nuclear power reactors, have produced over 86 tonnes of plutonium .. enough for about 8,600 nuclear weapons (Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, 2003-04, Annual Report, Annex C, www.asno.dfat.gov.au).
If even the smallest amount of this uranium ends up in nuclear weapons then mining companies like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are responsible for a major WMD problem.

Yet a resounding 92% of Australians polled agree that 'Australia should help negotiate a global treaty to ban and destroy all nuclear weapons' (Roy Morgan research 1998).

USA: A survey carried out in 1997 by Lake, Sosin and Snell said in the US found that 87% of those polled felt, 'the US should negotiate an agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons.'

UK: A poll carried out by MORI in 2005, on behalf of Greenpeace, showed a majority (54%) of the British public oppose the development of a new nuclear weapons system. Only one in three (33%) support their development.

Russia: In 1998 61% of Russians polled by Vox Populi commissioned by TASS said, 'All nuclear weapons states should eliminate such weapons.'

India: 62% of Indians polled by The Hindu in 1998 said, 'India should not produce nuclear bombs.'

Japan: In a Japanese poll by Asahi Shimbun in 1998 78% agreed that, 'all nuclear weapons states should eliminate such weapons.'

Norway: Similarly 92% of Norwegians polled in 1998 by 4 fakta A/S agreed 'Norway should work actively for a ban on nuclear weapons'.

Belgium: 72% of Belgian polled in 1998 by Market Response said they were for 'an initiative on behalf of Belgium with an aim of initiating talks concerning a treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons''.

Canada: 93% of Canadians polled in 1998 by the Angus Reid Group agreed that, 'Canada should take a leadership role in global negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons.'

Turkey: In 2004, an Infakto poll, commissioned by Greenpeace, found that 72% of Turkish people supported the idea of making Turkey a nuclear-free zone and 75% would support Turkey leading an international campaign for international nuclear disarmament.'

Now, ignoring the risks of radioactive 'dirty bombs', the ticking time bomb of high level radioactive wastes, and the direct, recognised threats posed by nuclear power plants, 9 countries (the USA, Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea) hold the world's population to ransom with some 23,300 nuclear weapons. These weapons are fueled by uranium and its byproducts. Just 50 of today's nuclear weapons (Hydrogen bombs) could kill 200 million people, according to the statement of the Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists when on 17/1/2007 they moved the hands of the 'Doomsday Clock' two minutes closer to midnight, to rest at 11.55.

'It is important to remember just how indiscriminately destructive these weapons are; to remain passionate about them being outlawed; and to be unyieldingly intolerant about arguments for their retention or use. We are right to be enraged about them, and to maintain that passion and commitment as long as we live.' - Gareth Evans, 17/8/07, Chief Executive of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, former Australian Senator, Foreign Minister and deputy Labor leader.



What about Climate Change?
Nuclear energy is a moot point. Time scale, immense costs, wastes, water and weapons issues aside, it would attempt to address only electricity greenhouse emissions - just one source of the problem, ignoring the 64% (International Energy Agency) of non-electricity global greenhouse emissions: industry, transport, agriculture and deforestation.

'Saying that nuclear power can solve global warming by itself is way over the top.'
- Alan McDonald, senior IAEA energy analyst, 2004.

'Expansion of nuclear fuel cycle activities need not be part of a response to climate change.'
'The draft report appears to the Review Panel to underestimate the challenge that will confront Australia if it should choose to expand the scope of its nuclear activities.'
'In our view it is unrealistic to believe that a reactor could be operating in as little as ten years. Similarly, the view that only 20 people a year would need to undergo relevant training and education is an underestimate.'
- From the Australian Government's official peer review of the Ziggy Switkowski draft report, chaired by (pro-nuclear) Australian Chief Scientist Dr Jim Peacock, 9/12/2006.

Describing Prime Minister John Howard's endorsement of nuclear fuel as 'the biggest crock of baloney I've heard,' 'How can you talk about a serious alternative form (of energy) if you can't even answer questions about cost, reliability, protection from terrorism and nuclear waste? I mean it's crazy. Especially when there are so many other opportunities.'
- Dr David Suzuki, The Canberra Times, 18/10/2006.


Even the number of the 'advanced' reactor concepts being studied involve a 'closed' fuel cycle that involves reprocessing and thus the actual or potential separation of weapons-usable plutonium (or weapons-usable uranium-233) from irradiated fuel or targets.
- www.energyscience.org.au.

In relation to nuclear weapons and 'Fourth Generation' reactors:
www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/nfc/power-weapons/g4nw

As for China's 'advanced' Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) designs:
Its efficiency is how much heat it takes to make a megawatt of electricity.
Mark Horstman: What is the efficiency of this reactor?
Ye Danmeng: Its efficiency is about thirty one percent.
Narration: Surprisingly, that's less efficient than a coal-fired power station in Australia. And there's much more at stake running a water-cooled reactor like this one. Pipes become brittle; water becomes radioactive; valves have to withstand enormous pressures; and if the cooling system fails, the core can melt down. There's only seconds to make the right decision in an emergency. - 'Catalyst', ABC TV, Feb 2007.

In relation to weapons proliferation and 'pebble bed' reactor designs:
- The nature of the fuel pebbles may make it somewhat more difficult to separate plutonium from irradiated fuel, but plutonium separation is certainly not impossible.
- Uranium (or depleted uranium) targets could be inserted to produce thorium targets could be inserted to produce uranium-233.
- The enriched uranium fuel could be further enriched for weapons.
- The reliance on enriched uranium will encourage the use of and perhaps be used to produce highly enriched uranium for weapons. And in China's pebble bed test reactor, 'What to do with growing piles of nuclear waste is a problem that not even this reactor can solve'. - 'Catalyst', ABC TV, Feb 2007.

In relation to weapons proliferation and fusion reactors (which remain a dream due to 'insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges' - World Nuclear Association, 2005):
- The production or supply of tritium can be diverted for use in boosted nuclear weapons.
- The fusion reactor's neutron radiation can be used to bombard a uranium blanket (leading to the production of fissile plutonium) or a thorium blanket (leading to the production of fissile uranium-233).
- Again, research is facilitated in support of (thermonuclear) weapons programs.
- 'Iraq took full advantage of the IAEA's recommendation in the mid 1980s to start a plasma physics program for 'peaceful' fusion research. We thought that buying a plasma focus device ... would provide an excellent cover for buying and learning about fast electronics technology, which could be used to trigger atomic bombs.'
- (Hamza, Khidhir, 1998, 'Inside Saddam's secret nuclear program', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sep/Oct Vol.54, No.5).

In relation to weapons proliferation and thorium reactors:
- Neutron bombardment of thorium (indirectly) produces uranium-233, a fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons.
- The USA has successfully tested weapons using Uranium-233 cores, and India may have investigated the military use of Thorium/Uranium-233 in addition to its civil applications.
- 'Thorium (Th-232) absorbs a neutron to become Th-233 which normally decays to protactinium-233 and then U-233. The irradiated fuel can then be unloaded from the reactor, the U-233 separated and fed back into another reactor as part of a closed fuel cycle.' - World Nuclear Association, 2006.
- 'No thorium system would negate proliferation risks altogether.'
- Friedman, John S., 1997, 'More power to thorium?', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 53, No.5, September/October; Feiveson, 2001.

Indeed, 'the paper-moderated, ink-cooled reactor is the safest of all.'
(Hirsch, Helmut, Oda Becker, Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt, April 2005, 'Nuclear Reactor Hazards: Ongoing Dangers of Operating Nuclear Technology in the 21st Century').


Uranium is a finite resource. Nuclear power is un-insurable, too slow (10 years to build a plant plus another 10+ years to generate net energy gain) and is anything but 'emission free' as fossil fuels and greenhouse gases are part of every stage of the fuel cycle.

The nuclear industry has little to do with any energy 'need'. It operates and survives based only on taxpayer subsidies, the mining market and the weapons industry. The truth is irrefutable.

Currently, over 95% of the world’s radiopharmaceuticals are generated from highly enriched (bomb-grade) uranium (HEU), an unnecessary nuclear weapons proliferation hazard. Prompt conversion of the global medical isotope supply chain to low enriched uranium (LEU, containing less than 20% uranium 235, so not viable for weapons production) is technically feasible. Clinicians are thus uniquely placed to advocate conversion to the use of LEU, while pressuring their imaging and isotope providers to end reliance on HEU, thereby blocking on  of the most vulnerable pathways to producing a “terrorist bomb”.
- Dr Bill Williams (ICAN), letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, Nov 2008.

Had nuclear reactors existed during WW2 much of Europe and the UK would have been rendered totally uninhabitable by conventional bombing alone.

Nuclear power is a 20th Century white elephant; it being a 'solution' for climate change is a red herring (for new uranium export deals and politics); the Australian Liberal Party's Report is a trojan horse and we could face a pandora's box of consequences.

If you oppose WMDs, you should strongly oppose uranium mining, nuclear power and the fuel chain.

Boycott all those involved in the designing, building, testing, storing, maintaining and fueling of such weapons - and tell them so: Boeing, IBM, Toshiba (BNFL & Westinghouse), Hitachi, Mitsubishi, GE, Siemens, Rosebank, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Silex Systems, their shareholders and many more.

See also: www.sea-us.org.au/weapons.html
and: www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/power-weapons

www.icanw.org



1:45 AM 
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Monday, April 13, 2009 


This is a partial list of international nuclear incidents and accidents.

See also: Nuclear Weapons Accidents - www.NuclearFiles.org

20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear WarLet the Facts Speak - An Indictment of the Nuclear Industry (pdf). 


14 April 09, Japan - N-plant pipe data falsified

Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. announced Monday that they had found falsified data in the inspection records of components they manufactured for use in nuclear power plants.

Fire breaks out at N-plant

NIIGATA - A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported. - The Daily Yomiuri Online

7 April 09, Brits' nuclear sub accident surfaces

A BRITISH nuclear-powered submarine with 130 crew crashed into Australia's continental shelf off the coast of Perth in a potentially deadly accident that was covered up at the time.

The incident caused a 5200-tonne Royal Navy attack submarine, HMS Trenchant, armed with cruise missiles, to become "grounded" off Rottnest Island in July 1997, according to information just released in the British parliament.

The accident was one of 13 collisions involving Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines since 1988 and was released last week by Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth.

- The Australian


6 April 09, Indonesia goes cold on nuclear power

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday backed away from a plan to build a nuclear reactor in one of the world's most seismically active countries.

Dr Yudhoyono said Indonesia would develop existing energy sources and explore renewable alternatives before pursuing the nuclear option.

- The Age

16 Feb 09, mid-Atlantic - French and British Nuclear Subs Collide

  • Submarines collide in Atlantic Ocean
  • Both were carrying nuclear weapons
  • the submarines did not damage their nuclear parts in the crash

    A senior Navy source said: “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion. “But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.” - The Sun


12 November 08, UK - Lost nuke 'left in Greenland'

THE US abandoned a nuclear weapon under the ice in northern Greenland in 1968, it has been claimed.

Using testimony of those involved and declassified documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, the BBC yesterday reported that despite a desperate search of the crash site near a US military base at Thule, the weapon was never found. - The Age


31 Oct 08, UK - Nuclear missile site fire undetected

A FIRE at a US nuclear missile launch site burned itself out and was undetected for five days, US military sources say. – news.com.au



11 Oct 08, UK - Britain's nuclear weapons factory 'nearly overwhelmed' by flood

Alarm systems at Britain's nuclear weapons factory were put out of action for 10 days by last summer's floods, leaving tens of thousands of people without warning in the event of anuclear accident. More: The Telegraph.

24 Sep 08, Sydney - WATER SEEPING AT LUCAS HEIGHTS NUCLEAR REACTOR
CHRONIC water seepage at Australia's only nuclear reactor has sparked plans to build a plant to treat the water in a sign the problem might never be fixed. More here.


9 Sep 08, France - Incident at nuclear plant

A SECURITY incident has occurred at a French nuclear site already under scrutiny because of a series of safety scares over the summer, France's ASN nuclear safety authority said overnight.

ASN said two fuel units became snagged in a reactor at Tricastin in southern France overnight when site workers were attempting to remove them during maintenance work. More: here.


25 August 08, Spain - Nuclear Plant Closed After Fire

A NUCLEAR power station shut down after an electrical generator fire today, safety officials said, the latest incident at a station that has already been
hit with record fines for its safety record.

The incident came just weeks after the government vowed to take action
against another nuclear station over a radioactive leak last year. More: here.


21 July 08, France - New uranium Leak at Areva Nuclear Plant

French nuclear firm Areva has found a uranium leak at a factory in southeastern France, but there is no danger to the environment, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said on Friday.

The news came a day after the government ordered safety tests at all the country's 19 nuclear power plants following another leak at an Areva facility earlier this month.

However, Energy and Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo moved to reassure the public over the latest incident. 'We mustn't over-exaggerate,' he told reporters, saying there were 115 such 'little anomalies' in France's nuclear industry each year. - Planet Ark.

10 July 08, France- Nuclear leak Pollutes Water and Closes Nuclear Plant
A nuclear power plant in a tourist region of southern France has been closed after a uranium leak polluted the local water supply. French nuclear company Areva said on Tuesday 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclear site.
Waste containing unenriched uranium leaked into two rivers at the Tricastin plant at Bollene, 40km (25 miles) from the popular tourist city of Avignon; people in nearby towns have been warned not to drink any water or eat fish from the rivers since Monday's leak. - BBC, Guardian and Planet Ark.

27 June 08, UK - British Warheads Could Accidentally Explode
The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) has warned in a declassified manual that some British warheads could set off a popcorn-like chain reaction.On Thursday, the New Scientist repeated the findings of the MoD that had been declassified in a manual one month ago: A design flaw in some British warheads could set off a chain explosion, 'like popcorn,' if dropped. The 'popcorn effect' is when one weapon explodes causing another to explode and so on.

A typical Trident missile contains three to six warheads and submarines can carry up to 24 missiles.

Although the MoD admits that 'popcorning' is only theoretically possible, it predicts that the worst case scenario could kill people a kilometer away. - Duncan Gardham, 'Nuclear Missiles Could Blow Up 'Like Popcorn',' Daily Telegraph, reported in The Sunflower, Issue 132.

19 June 08, USA - US 'loses nuclear missile parts'
THE US military has lost more than one thousand 'sensitive' nuclear missile parts, officials close to the Pentagon say. A recent investigation condemning the US military's accidental shipment of nuclear cones to Taiwan also found that the US Air Force doesn't know what happened to many other nuclear parts, The Financial Times reported. - Herald Sun

16 June 08, Japan - Small radioactive water leak within TEPCO nuclear plant
Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked within a Tokyo Electric Power Co nuclear power facility located in northern Japan, where a strong earthquake hit on Saturday, company officials said. -  Planet Ark


5 June 08, Slovenia - Leak Shuts Down Nuclear Plant, EU Alerted
Slovenia today began shuttting down its only nuclear power plant in Krsko following a leak in the cooling system.In Brussels, the European Commission issued an EU-wide radiation alert following the incident in the central European state that currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency. - Herald Sun
5 June 08, USA - Cyber Incident Blamed for Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown
A nuclear power plant in Georgia was recently forced into an emergency shutdown for 48 hours after a software update was installed on a single computer.


The incident occurred on March 7 at Unit 2 of the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley, Georgia. The trouble started after an engineer from
Southern Company, which manages the technology operations for the plant, installed a software update on a computer operating on the plant's business network. 
More: The Washington Post

May 08, USA - Simulated Attack Reveals Security Flaws at Livermore Lab

A recent mock terrorist infiltration conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), located near San Francisco, showed that fissile material necessary for building nuclear weapons was not hard to obtain.

In Building 332, the faux-invaders found access to approximately 2,000 pounds of weapons-grade uranium and deadly plutonium, a surplus bountiful enough to build at least 300 nuclear weapons.

While the security failures exposed at Livermore seem unacceptable to most, many experts believe that many more exist, and remain undiscovered due to inherent flaws in the 'force-on-force' simulated attacks. The mock intrusions generally occur at night or on weekends when the lab's employees are safe at home and not susceptible to hostage-taking, and when the defenders are given advance notice of the attack.

The exercises also do not assess the lab's capability of withstanding an attack from a rogue aircraft passing along one of the flight paths to or from one of the nearby airports. - Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.


23 May, 08 - Alice Springs Uranium Explorers to admit to leak at Canadian Operation

A company applying for a uranium exploration licence near Alice Springs has admitted it may have leaked uranium into one of North America's largest lakes.

Cameco is the world's largest uranium producer and along with Paladin Energy is applying to explore the Angela and Pamela deposit 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

The company has told Canadian nuclear regulators their plant at Port Hope may have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario.

The plant has been closed since last year to clean up contaminated soil deposits, but the company says trace elements of uranium could have flowed into the lake.

Their application to explore near Alice Springs now lies with mines minister Chris Natt. More: ABC News

26 March, 08 - US sent Taiwan nuclear missile components by mistake.

The United States mistakenly sent Taiwan four fuses used to trigger nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles in late 2006 and only discovered the error last
week, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Nose cone assemblies containing the fuses were recovered Monday from Taiwan where they had been held in storage after being shipped there as helicopter
batteries, senior Pentagon officials said. More.

25 Jan, 08 Japan - video of the Monju reactor leak of 1995.

Following an announcement this week that the infamous Japanese Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor would be reopened, activists in Japan have leaked suppressed video footage of the disaster that led to its closure in 1995.

The infamous sodium spill, an accident that long ago earned itself a place in the history of nuclear power in Japan, has returned one more time to haunt government and industry officials with images they had hoped they would never see again. More.

10 Dec, 07 Germany - Child Cancer Risk Higher Near Nuclear Plants - Study



28 Nov, 07 USA - The nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories have had almost 60 serious accidents or near misses in the past seven years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. More: CNN

3 Nov, 07 USA - New Tracker Shows United States Nuclear Reactors, Safety Records.

A new web-based tool unveiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) can provide you with possibly more information than you'll be comfortable knowing about.


3 Nov, 07 - USA - Pipe Bomb found at nuclear plant
Authorities say a nuclear power plant in Arizona has been locked down after security guards discovered a pipe bomb in a contract worker's truck.

Plant operator Arizona Public Service called the discovery an 'unusual event' and sealed off the site, with no traffic entering or leaving the grounds.

A bomb squad from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department declared the pipe bomb a 'credible explosive device.' More: ABC News

31 Oct 07, Radiation leak at Russian nuke plant
YEKATERINBURG, Russia: Safety breaches have caused a radiation leak at a major nuclear reprocessing plant in the Ural mountains, Russia.

The Mayak plant, dubbed 'Russia's ticking time bomb' by environmentalists, suffered a series of accidents in 1949, 1957 and 1967 but these were hushed up by Soviet governments. Nuclear weapons and nuclear waste are reprocessed at the highly secretive plant, about 2000km east of Moscow. Foreigners are not usually allowed access because of its sensitive work with nuclear weapons. More: The Australian


29 Oct 07, USA - Security upgrades at several nuclear sites are laging, auditors find. More than a year after Congress told the Energy Department to harden the nation's nuclear bomb factories and laboratories against terrorist raids, at least 5 of the 11 sites are certain to miss their deadlines, some by many years. More: The New York Times

5 Sep 07, Nuclear bombs mistakenly flown over US. A B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, prompting an Air Force investigation and the firing of one commander, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. More: Forbes/Associated Press

1 Sep 07, UK's nuclear accidents blamed on poor safety.
TWO of the UK's most serious nuclear weapons accidents in the 1980s were caused by continual lapses in safety procedures, according to newly declassified government reports released to New Scientist under freedom of information laws. What is more, the accidents were of greater seriousness than previously admitted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). More: New Scientist Tech

31 Aug 07, USA - A one-two punch to Vermont's lone reactor
Two mishaps within 10 days at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant including collapse of a cooling tower and faullty valve.
In its formal report on the incident, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a third glitch cropped up during Thursday's shutdown: An automatic system designed to control pressure levels in the reactor failed to kick in as the plant shut down, forcing control room operators to do the work.
The NRC said this happened 'for some unknown reason,' and that Vermont Yankee 'is investigating the event.' More: Forbes/Associated Press

31 Aug 07, TOKYO - Japan halts nuclear research units on safety concerns. Japan has halted work at three nuclear research units run by its Atomic Energy Agency due to concerns over the handling of fuel material and other problems, Kyodo news agency said on Friday. The Science and Technology Ministry suspended activities at the units in Tokaimura, Ibaraki prefecture, after the agency reported 46 problems including procedural flaws, Kyodo said. - www.enn.com

20 August 07, Tenn. USA - Nuclear fuel problems kept secret
A three-year veil of secrecy in the name of national security was used to keep the public in the dark about the handling of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant - including a leak that could have caused a deadly, uncontrolled nuclear reaction.The leak turned out to be one of nine violations or test failures since 2005 at privately owned Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., a longtime supplier of fuel to the U.S. Navy's nuclear fleet. More: The Guardian
3 Aug 07, Nuclear safety reports called into question - Gaps in global database blamed on regulators. A scare in BulgariaTo inform the public about nuclear-plant mishaps, a United Nations agency in 1989 helped create a Richter-like scale rating them from zero to seven. Chernobyl was pegged as a seven. Three Mile Island rated five. How many mishaps have occurred over the years - and is the rate getting better or worse? It's hard to know. That's because every day, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency deletes from its web site any rated incident that's more than six months old. The Agency says it doesn't want to penalize more-forthcoming countries by making it look like they have poor safety records. More: NuclearNo.com

28 July 07, Australia - New reactor closed down
Australia's new $400 million Lucas Heights nuclear research reactor, opened by the Prime Minister, John Howard, three months ago, has been shut down after three uranium fuel plates came loose.
It is expected to be out of operation for eight weeks while the problem is fixed, the chief executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Dr Ian Smith, said yesterday.
Dubbed OPAL, the reactor is powered by 16 fuel assemblies, each containing 21 uranium plates about eight centimetres square.
In three assemblies one plate had become dislodged and risen 'a few centimetres' , a Lucas Heights spokeswoman, Sharon Kelly, said.
'It was only noticed when we did a routine shutdown to do a fuel change,' she said, adding that the reactor had been working normally.
'It is possibly a manufacturing problem. We have to find out why they got loose.'
Although there was no danger, the nuclear safety authority had been informed, she said.
Engineers will use the unplanned shutdown to study another fault, a minor water leak, noticed in February.
Ms Kelly said no radioactivity had escaped as a result of either problem. - Richard Macey

27 July 07, Australia - Defence warned on waste
The Australian Defence Department has been forced to 'significantly improve' its regulations and handling of radioactive material after a high-level inquiry into contamination at a Brisbane barracks.
Australia's nuclear watchdog told the review 'that Defence's management of its regulatory requirements' needed significant improvement.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson ordered the review after revelations in The Australian in April of the tritium contamination and a botched 'clean-up' during which contractors used Chux Super Wipes to wipe down radioactive surfaces and left them in a tea room to dry.
The Australian also revealed that the British high commission and a British optics firm, which repaired the army compass and gunsights containing the tritium fluid as a light source, complained about tritium levels. - The Australian

27 July 07, Australia - Sydney's reactor to be shut down to fix 'faults'
The new OPAL research reactor at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear plant is to be shut down for eight weeks because of technical faults, officials say. Chief executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Ian Smith, said the supply of nuclear medicines would not be affected by the temporary shutdown as arrangements were in place to import these products [as could be done all along, as with routine shut downs].- AAP [The reactor complex also sits on two known fault lines]

24 July 07, Japan - Fire at nuclear plant

A small fire broke out today at a partly constructed nuclear power station in northern Japan, the third blaze at the plant this month. It comes a week after an earthquake caused a radioactive spillage at another atomic plant. The operator, Hokkaido Electric Power (Hepco), said there was no danger of a radiation leak and there were no injuries during the incident at the Tomari plant. - The Guardian

23 July 07, Japan - Nuclear plants ill-equipped for fires








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Wednesday, April 08, 2009 

Category: News and Politics


Imagine there's no bomb

Malcolm Fraser, Gustav Nossal, Barry Jones, Peter Gration, John Sanderson and Tilman Ruff (ICAN).
April 8, 2009

For the first time, a US president has been elected with a commitment to nuclear weapons abolition, and President Barack Obama has outlined a substantive program to deliver on this, and shown early evidence that he is serious. He needs all the support and encouragement in the world. We do not know how long this opportunity will last. Unlike the last one, at the end of the Cold War, it must not be squandered. An increasingly resource- and climate-stressed world is an ever more dangerous place for nuclear weapons. We must not fail.

Like preventing rampant climate change, abolishing nuclear weapons is a paramount challenge for people and leaders the world over - a pre-condition for survival, sustainability and health for our planet and future generations.

Read the full piece:
www.theage.com. au/opinion/ imagine-theres- no-bomb-20090407 -9zj0.html



3:13 AM 
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Monday, February 04, 2008 

Category: News and Politics
4 Feb 2008
Most Canadians, Americans and Russians want a nuclear weapons-free world (polls)

A new poll shows that when it comes to nuclear weapons, 88% of Canadians believe they make the world a more dangerous place, while just 6% believe they make it safer.
73% support the elimination of all nuclear weapons in the world through an enforceable agreement.

Additionally, the public opinion study 'Americans and Russians on Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Disarmament', (John Steinbruner & Nancy Gallagher) showed that 73% of Americans and 64% of Russians polled favour 'all countries agreeing to eliminate all of their nuclear weapons assuming that there is a well-established international system for verifying that countries are complying'.

– Published in Arms Control Today, Jan 31 2008.
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Monday, October 08, 2007 

ICAN urges Japanese PM to reject India nuclear deal

1 October 2007

Assoc. Prof Tilman Ruff, ICAN Australian Management Committee Chair, visited Japan, an influential member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), requesting that the proposed transfer of nuclear materials and dual-use nuclear technologies from the United States to India, as spelled out between those two countries in the text of an agreement dated 1 August 2007, does not proceed.

Dr. Ruff urged Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura "to closely examine the multiple ways in which this agreement conflicts with the NSG's guidelines and undermines the goal of nuclear non-proliferation that is the Group's sole reason for existence".

Japanese citizens have also written to the Australian Ambassador "to convey our grave doubts and concerns about this announcement," regarding the Australian government's willingness to export uranium to India if the US-India nuclear agreement is implemented.


Read Dr Ruff's and the citizens' letter here.


26 July


For Immediate Release


Doctors say no to nuclear deal with India



The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) today urged the Australian Government to rule out export of Australian uranium to India.

"Are we seriously considering providing India, a known nuclear terror state, with the fuel to make more bombs? This prospect should frighten us all," said Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, chair of ICAN and President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War.

"India has produced nuclear weapons in blatant disregard for the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. They must not be rewarded with further fuel to make further weapons.

"We would be effectively heightening the risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan or China.

"The Government can't guarantee our uranium won't be used for nuclear bomb making. Safeguards could not prevent this. And, even if it is used for purely peaceful purposes, we'll be freeing up domestic reserves for their weapons program.

"India has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The US-India deal opens the floodgates for further global nuclear proliferation. 

"Australia must not blindly follow the US in a nuclear deal that will further undermine the entire non-proliferation regime," Assoc. Prof. Ruff concluded.

For further information and comment:

Associate Professor Tilman Ruff  +61 (0)438 099 231


..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>
 

Friends of the Earth MEDIA RELEASE 26/07/07


URANIUM SALES TO INDIA MUST BE REJECTED


In response to reports that foreign minister Alexander Downer is to propose to Cabinet that uranium sales be permitted to India, Friends of the Earth, Australia (FoE) has today called on the government to reject uranium sales to this rogue nuclear weapons state.


FoE national nuclear campaigner Dr. Jim Green said: "Proposed uranium exports to India must be rejected because India is a nuclear weapons state and is one of just three nations which has not ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Uranium sales would undoubtedly weaken the international non-proliferation regime and would increase the risk of other countries pulling out of the NPT and developing arsenals of nuclear WMD — and doing so with the expectation that uranium could still be procured."


Retired diplomat Professor Richard Broinowski noted last year: "The sale of Australian uranium to India would not just weaken our non-proliferation credentials — it would also signal to some of our major uranium customers, such as Japan and South Korea, that we do not take too seriously their own adherence to the NPT. They may as a result walk away from the treaty and develop nuclear weapons — against North Korea, China, or perhaps Russia — without necessarily fearing a cut-off of Australian supplies."


Green said: "India and Pakistan both tested a series of nuclear weapons in 1998. It is unwise and irresponsible to be supplying WMD feedstock in the form of uranium to the subcontinent given the history of regional tension and the active nuclear weapons programs in India and Pakistan. If Australia sells uranium to India, there will be pressure to sell uranium to other nations which refuse to sign and ratify the NPT, such as Pakistan and Israel."


"India has limited domestic reserves of uranium so in addition to the risk of direct use of Australian uranium in Indian nuclear weapons, there is the risk that Australian uranium sales would free up India's limited domestic reserves for the production of nuclear weapons."


FoE also challenged The Australian newspaper to get its facts straight. Green said: "The Australian's foreign editor has today claimed that the US-India deal is 'good for proliferation' though it clearly undermines the NPT and will do nothing to curtail India's weapons program. He claims that the US-India deal puts India's nuclear power industry under IAEA supervision but in fact limited IAEA safeguards already apply and the deal will only marginally increase their scope. Sheridan claims that the global warming considerations of uranium exports to India are 'substantial' but in fact they would be negligible, zero, or negative. And Sheridan's claim that the potential economic returns to Australia could be 'very significant' is ridiculous - even if India does expand its nuclear power sector, the economic returns to Australia would be minimal."


See: India to Buy Our Uranium - The Australian, 26/7/07


UPDATE 16/8/07:

"Whatever reactors we put under safeguards will be decided at India's discretion. We are not firewalling between the civil and military programs in terms of manpower or personnel. That's not on."
India had no intention to quarantine its military program from its civilian program because nuclear scientists would work across both programs. - India's chief scientific adviser, Rajagopala Chidambaram, in an interview with The Hindu newspaper.
- The Age, 16/8/07 Uranium sale to fuel arms race: Imran.

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Thursday, July 19, 2007 
"Unmanned aircraft crush worldwide enemies – from Nevada".

July 16, 2007.

The first unmanned remote attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq today looking to deliver 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles to the enemy - all from the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada.

The General Atomics* MQ-9 Reaper can be controlled via satellite link thousands of miles away from operational areas. The planes are launched locally, in this case Iraq and Afghanistan, but can be controlled by a pilot and sensor operator sitting at computer consoles in a ground station, or they can be "handed off" via satellite signals to pilots and sensor operators in Nevada's Creech Airforce Base or elsewhere.

The MQ-9 Reaper is the Air Force's first hunter-killer unmanned aircraft. It is the big brother to the highly successful and sometimes controversial Predator aircraft, which General Atomics* said this week had flown over 300,000 flight hours, with over 80% of that time spent in combat.

The company said Predator series aircraft have flown an average of 8,200 hours per month over the past six months while maintaining the highest operational readiness rates in the U.S. military aircraft inventory. The MQ-9 Reaper is twice as fast as the Predator - it has a 900-horsepower turbo-prop engine, compared to the 119-horsepower Predator engine - and can carry far more ordnance - 14 Hellfire missiles as opposed to two.

At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high - 25,000ft compared to 50,000ft - as the Predator.

According to the Air Force, the MQ-9 Reaper will employ sensors to find, fix, track and target critical emerging time sensitive targets. The Air Force is developing the ability to operate multiple aircraft from a single ground station, in effect, multiplying the overall combat effectiveness over the battlefield.

General Atomics* has built at least nine of the MQ-9s at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment. The Air Force's 432nd Wing a UAV unit formally established May 1, is to eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified, the Associated Press says. - www.networkworld.com/community

* General Atomics is the parent company of Heathgate Resources, operators of the Beverley uranium mine, South Australia. - www.sea-us.org.au
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