Edition

More Nuclear Accidents are Likely, Says UN Chief

IN THIS ISSUE: More nuclear accidents are likely, North Korea using front companies for nuke program, Italy extends nuclear moratorium, Asia's nuclear reactors face tsunami risk, It's time for plan B, Obama's disarming nuclear influence.

Published on April 21, 2011

 

UN Chief: More Nuclear Accidents are Likely, World Must Work Together to Handle Them

Jim Heintz | Associated Press

Soltanieh

The world must prepare for more nuclear accidents on the scale of Chernobyl and Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, the U.N. chief warned Wednesday, saying that grim reality will demand sharp improvements in international cooperation.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others portrayed the growth of nuclear power plants as inevitable in an energy-hungry world as they spoke at a Kiev conference commemorating the explosion of a reactor at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear reactor 25 years ago.

"To many, nuclear energy looks to be a relatively clean and logical choice in an era of increasing resource scarcity. Yet the record requires us to ask painful questions: have we correctly calculated its risks and costs? Are we doing all we can to keep the world's people safe?" Ban said. "The unfortunate truth is that we are likely to see more such disasters."     Full Article



Follow the Nuclear Policy Program
 RSS News Feed Twitter
Footer information begins here
More from Proliferation News


Global Security Newswire
North Korea is employing foreign missions and front firms to illegally sell and acquire missile- and nuclear-associated technology, according to a January U.N. Panel of Experts report.     Full Article

Andrew Davis and Alessandra Migliaccio | Bloomberg
Italy will extend a moratorium on its nuclear program indefinitely and overhaul its energy strategy to focus on traditional and renewable sources because of concerns sparked by the atomic crisis in Japan.     Full Article

Dawn
The skeleton of what will soon be one of the world's biggest nuclear plants is slowly taking shape along China's southeastern coast right on the doorstep of Hong Kong's bustling metropolis.

Three other facilities nearby are up and running or under construction. Like Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant they lie within a few hundred miles (kilometers) of the type of fault known to unleash the largest tsunami-spawning earthquakes.     Full Article

The New York Times
A 14-year effort to negotiate an international treaty banning the production of nuclear weapons fuel is getting nowhere. Under the terms of the United Nations' Conference on Disarmament, all 65 participants must agree. Pakistan, which is racing to develop the world's fifth largest arsenal, is refusing to let the talks move forward.     Full Article

Scott Sagan | The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
In his famous address in Prague two years ago this month, President Barack Obama promised to "reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy," and committed to making concrete progress toward "a world without nuclear weapons." His critics derided this nuclear vision as a utopian fantasy, and claimed that US nuclear policy declarations were unlikely to have positive effects on other governments. But a careful analysis suggests otherwise.     Full Article
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.