International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

[arun]

^^^ Washington Times, on the basis of the response of the US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation, Vann H Vann Diepen, to a question posed by US legislator Ed Royce, is also reporting that the US will oppose the deal to build the Chashma 3 and 4 nuclear reactors :

U.S. to oppose Chinese reactor sale to Pakistan

[Gerard]

North Korea warns of nuclear 'sacred war'

"All these war manoeuvres are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] by force of arms," KCNA reported the powerful National Defence Commission as saying.

"The army and people of the DPRK will start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war."

[Gerard]

Iran launches nuclear fusion bid

[Ameet]

India steps up NSG diplomacy to counter China-Pakistan deal
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-ste ... 77435.aspx

India has not only zeroed in on the 'Big 4' in the NSG - the US, France, Russia and Britain - but is also reaching out to other middling NSG members to project the deal's negative impact on the global non-proliferation regime and the fragile security situation in South Asia.

The government has asked its missions in these key NSG countries to convey the pitfalls of the deal and how it is targeted against India's vital interests, sources close to the government told the news agency.

The Track II group from the Indian side includes veteran diplomats and security experts like Naresh Chandra, former Indian ambassador to the US, and Vice Admiral (retd) P.S. Das, who is also involved with India-China Track II dialogue process. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and the joint secretaries dealing with Pakistan and with China, Y.K. Sinha and Gautam Bambawale respectively, also participated in the discussions, added the sources.

India's counter-attack strategy will revolve around three key points.

First, the Chinese deal to supply two additional reactors, Chashma-3 and Chashma 4, was not "grandfathered," under an earlier arrangement as China claims. China did not disclose two additional reactors at the time of joining the NSG in 2004.

Second, Indian interlocutors will argue that there is no comparison between India's deal with the US to that of China's with Pakistan as New Delhi was granted the clean waiver on account of its widely acknowledged impeccable non-proliferation record.

Thirdly, India will contend that it's not an energy deal, but a ploy to contain New Delhi by bolstering Pakistan's capacity to produce more nuclear weapons and will highlight the alleged abuse of foreign aid by Islamabad to modernize its military machine.

[Gerard]

U.S. strike on Iran likelier than ever, former CIA chief says

The former CIA chief predicted Iran, in defiance of the international community, planned to "get itself to that step right below a nuclear weapon, that permanent breakout stage, so the needle isn’t quite in the red for the international community." Hayden said that reaching even that level would be "as destabilizing to the region as actually having a weapon."

[Gerard]

North Korea Mouthpiece Threatens Another Nuclear Test

[abhishek_sharma]

Report finds Russians may not be in compliance, could sink new START pact

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 06048.html

[Gerard]

Japan panel recommends defence policy changes: reports

However, the panel recommends that Japan permit the transfer of nuclear arms through its territory -- something Japan has already secretly allowed US forces to do in the past, according to recently released documents.

The draft recommendations argue that the US "nuclear umbrella" to protect Japan is necessary and "does not necessarily contradict the goal of a total elimination of nuclear weapons", the Asahi said.

[Gerard]

Accounting and the Bomb

BRITAIN'S traditional policy on nuclear weapons can be summed up in a single quote. Ernie Bevin, the foreign secretary in Clement Attlee's post-war government, was referring to the condescending attitude of the nuclear-armed Americans when he said, in 1946:

“I don't want any other foreign secretary of this country to be talked to or at by a secretary of state in the United States as I have just had in my discussions with Mr Byrnes. We've got to have this thing [a nuclear bomb] over here whatever it costs. We've got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it."

[Vinu]

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/31/nucl ... games.html

Western officials also fear that Saudi Arabia could join a nuclear defense pact with Pakistan (both Sunni majority countries) in order to protect against intimidation from Shiite-majority Iran. Adding to that concern is the fact that European and American officials believe Saudi Arabia may already be contributing money to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.

And another one I came across:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020101

Khazaei criticized nuclear discrimination against Iran while “Israel has 230 nuclear warheads” and “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are deemed atomic and military powers."

KSA a deemed atomic power?

[JE Menon]

Worms crawling slowly out of the woodwork...

[Gerard]

Nagasaki mayor to express doubts about Japan pacts with U.S., India

[abhishek_sharma]

Rethinking the "nuclear revolution"

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/201 ... revolution

[Gerard]

No genetic effects in children of A-bomb survivors

[Philip]

America's "left handed" apology for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.For the first time ever,the US's ambassador attened the annaul remembrance day functions at Hiroshima.But there was no statement or apology from him.The most shameful event of the 20th century grates on the mind and the reason why the US is afraid of apologising is bcause hard-liners in its security estavlishment DO intend to blitz America's enemies in the future with nuclear weapons,while they preach nuclear non-proliferation.Robert Fisk lifts the veil off the US's duplicitous stance.

An apology fatally devalued by the passage of 65 years

[Pratyush]

The apology for what, AFIK, the fire bombing of Tokyo in April 1945 killed more people, in a single day then the Hiroshima bomb killed in one year.

So why only Hiroshima, what about the other cities that were fire bombed. both in Germany and Japan.

Because when mass murder of humans is committed then the use of one weapon over another does not makes any difference. They both kill indiscriminately. Causing an equal amount of horror for the victims and the survivors. Saying that the power of the weapon was too great is irrelevant. because the dead don't care what killed them. Nuke or Napalm.

It is hypocrisy of the highest order that only the A-bomb victims are remembered but the victims of other city killing attacks are not. They both should get an apology or not at all.

JMT and am awaiting the brickbats.

[Gerard]

Bizarrely, our fear of nuclear weapons has faded, and our interest in the Hiroshima anniversary has dwindled accordingly

Japan’s Nuclear Dilemma

The ‘deep dilemma’ for Japan it argued, was how to effectively appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons while relying upon their protection, a theme echoed by Japan’s biggest business daily, the Nikkei, in its editorial the same day.

What is the Japanese word for 'hypocrisy'?

[Gerard]

US-Vietnam nuke deal likely to allow enrichment

Russia accuses US of loose weapons control

The ministry also said secret information from the U.S. Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory had ended up at the hands of a drug dealing gang in 2006.

Russian troops dig canal to bar fire from atom site

Echo Moskvy radio station said army troops excavated the canal to prevent the flames from advancing into the Sarov nuclear arms facility, ringed by forest in the Niznhy Novgorod region around 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of Moscow.

Most in Arab world want nuclear Iran

[Gerard]

U.S. Says Iran Nuclear Plant No Proliferation Threat

[chaanakya]

^^ 偽善 (Gizen)

[RajeshA]

Pakistan's effect on Iran

[Gerard]

Merkel seeks 10-15 years extension for nuclear plants

Chancellor Angela Merkel called Sunday for Germany's nuclear power plants to be given an extension of 10 to 15 years past their current legal shutoff date in about 2022.

[Johann]

The apology for what, AFIK, the fire bombing of Tokyo in April 1945 killed more people, in a single day then the Hiroshima bomb killed in one year.

So why only Hiroshima, what about the other cities that were fire bombed. both in Germany and Japan.

Because when mass murder of humans is committed then the use of one weapon over another does not makes any difference. They both kill indiscriminately. Causing an equal amount of horror for the victims and the survivors. Saying that the power of the weapon was too great is irrelevant. because the dead don't care what killed them. Nuke or Napalm.

It is hypocrisy of the highest order that only the A-bomb victims are remembered but the victims of other city killing attacks are not. They both should get an apology or not at all.

JMT and am awaiting the brickbats.

Well said Pratyush - strategic bombing intended to produce mass civilian casualties and mass terror is fundamentally wrong no matter what weapon is employed. London, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, they were all fundamentally incompatible with the laws of war - its a little too close to terrorism. Indeed Hamas uses the same logic to blow up buses in Israel.

This is the fundamental tension between the modern idea of total warfare, where there are no non-combatants, no civilians, and liberal humanistic notions that say we ought to limit death and destruction in warfare to the absolute minimum.

Permitting the deliberate targeting of civilians to break morale and public support for a war/government is like permitting torture in interrogation - there may be enemies who are awful enough to deserve such terrible measures, but its a slippery slope that will brutalise those use such measures.

On the other hand there is also a well founded horror of weapons (tactical or strategic) that have effects that persist well after a conflict is over - fissile weapons, chemical and biological weapons (even those like Agent Organge that were intended against vegetation but delivered cancer to humans), cluster weapons, land mines, etc.

I think it says something about that universal horror that August 1945 was the first and *last* time they were used in the 65 years that have passed....

[Hitesh]

Actually Johann,

I have no doubt that US or the western powers would do it all over again. After WWI, all the western powers were saying that the evils of WWI should never been repeated and how horrible war was including gas and trench warfare and this time we will be more humane, blah blah blah. Guess what? WWII happened and it was far more brutal than WWI, more brutal than anybody could have imagine.

I don't doubt for a second that when another world war takes place again, it will be a far more brutal and deadly form of total warfare.

By the way, the carpet bombing and the mass use of Agent Orange taken place in Vietnam totally disproved your point.

[Johann]

I don't doubt for a second that when another world war takes place again, it will be a far more brutal and deadly form of total warfare.

and that is perhaps why the Cold War didn't turn hot? Remember, MAD did not come in to effect until the thermonuclear weapon was fully introduced in to superpower arsenals in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it was only in the late 1960s with solid fueled SRBMs guaranteed a massive second strike to the superpower's homelands no matter what.

Guess what? WWII happened and it was far more brutal than WWI, more brutal than anybody could have imagine.

So why then weren't chemical weapons used in WWII? There were more than enough stocks on both sides. In fact India's own stocks of chemical weapons prior to signing the CWC came from WWII-era manufacture of mustard gas shells. Like nuclear weapons after 1945 possession was one thing, but no one wanted to get in to the horror of a gas war.

By the way, the carpet bombing and the mass use of Agent Orange taken place in Vietnam totally disproved your point.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure which point you are referring to. Agent Orange was used as a defoliant, not an anti-personnel weapon. It wasn't until Admiral Zumwalt's son got cancer from exposure that the military bureaucracy under extreme pressure began to admit to itself that perhaps it was toxic. This is much like the struggle to honestly establish what the carcinogenic effects of Depleted Uranium ordnance are.

The heaviest use of 'carpet bombing' in Vietnam were on North Vietnamese troops in the battlefield and on supply lines in the jungle. I don't think you can compare that to Dresden or Tokyo, which in any case was (in my opinion wrongly) never subjected to the same moral scrutiny as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hanoi was never threatened with being wiped off the map, which would have been easy enough to do conventionally.

That kind of use of strategic bombing to wipe out enemy settlements in toto was actually more likely to be seen by the USAF in the Korean War, where it was even more morally and strategically indefensible than against Germany or Japan where the population was solidly behind Hitler and Tojo, and where cities were major industrial and/or command centres for the war. In Korea many of the targets for its B-29s were little more than agrarian villages or small towns held by communist forces where the indifferent civilian population was press ganged in to the war by the North Korean communist party. Rather than breaking the will of the enemy population, it pushed them deeper in to its arms. Those suffering caused by those bombings against populations who were not really committed parts of the war effort produced a propaganda bonanza that allows Kim family mafia to squeeze the life out of its unfortunate citizens to this day. Try youtubing a song by the band Cake called "I bombed Korea every night"

[Hitesh]

I don't doubt for a second that when another world war takes place again, it will be a far more brutal and deadly form of total warfare.

and that is perhaps why the Cold War didn't turn hot? Remember, MAD did not come in to effect until the thermonuclear weapon was fully introduced in to superpower arsenals in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it was only in the late 1960s with solid fueled SRBMs guaranteed a massive second strike to the superpower's homelands no matter what.

Yes but there were pretty close calls such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and nobody wanted to jump the gun like the Western powers did not want to jump the gun before the onset of WWII and was bending their asses in every way they could to avoid another world war and Hitler did not oblige them. What happened if we had another modern day equivalent of Hitler or Stalin that was totally determined to start a world war no matter what. Imagine Osama Bin laden with the resources of a state like Germany at his disposal.

Guess what? WWII happened and it was far more brutal than WWI, more brutal than anybody could have imagine.

So why then weren't chemical weapons used in WWII? There were more than enough stocks on both sides. In fact India's own stocks of chemical weapons prior to signing the CWC came from WWII-era manufacture of mustard gas shells. Like nuclear weapons after 1945 possession was one thing, but no one wanted to get in to the horror of a gas war.

After WWI ended, they did an assessment of how effective the gas warfare was and combined with the modern advances in warfare such as tank warfare that quickly made trench warfare obsolete, it was no surprise that military commanders questioned the effectiveness and utility of such weapons and whether it gave a bang for the buck. It didn't and as an effective military option, it quickly died out. But one form of chemical warfare did persisted and that was the use of napalm.

By the way, the carpet bombing and the mass use of Agent Orange taken place in Vietnam totally disproved your point.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure which point you are referring to. Agent Orange was used as a defoliant, not an anti-personnel weapon. It wasn't until Admiral Zumwalt's son got cancer from exposure that the military bureaucracy under extreme pressure began to admit to itself that perhaps it was toxic. This is much like the struggle to honestly establish what the carcinogenic effects of Depleted Uranium ordnance are.

The heaviest use of 'carpet bombing' in Vietnam were on North Vietnamese troops in the battlefield and on supply lines in the jungle. I don't think you can compare that to Dresden or Tokyo, which in any case was (in my opinion wrongly) never subjected to the same moral scrutiny as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hanoi was never threatened with being wiped off the map, which would have been easy enough to do conventionally.

During Operation Linebacker II and other operations involving the use of carpet bombing, they were used against urban centers in Hanoi during Vietnam and the damages were so devastating that the North Vietnamese came to the peace negotiating table because they wanted the bombing to stop. It was effectively killing the cities of North Vietnam. 3 million North Vietnamese civilians died in those carpet bombing.

That kind of use of strategic bombing to wipe out enemy settlements in toto was actually more likely to be seen by the USAF in the Korean War, where it was even more morally and strategically indefensible than against Germany or Japan where the population was solidly behind Hitler and Tojo, and where cities were major industrial and/or command centres for the war. In Korea many of the targets for its B-29s were little more than agrarian villages or small towns held by communist forces where the indifferent civilian population was press ganged in to the war by the North Korean communist party. Rather than breaking the will of the enemy population, it pushed them deeper in to its arms. Those suffering caused by those bombings against populations who were not really committed parts of the war effort produced a propaganda bonanza that allows Kim family mafia to squeeze the life out of its unfortunate citizens to this day. Try youtubing a song by the band Cake called "I bombed Korea every night"

But on the other hand if utilized properly in conjunction with a ground invasion, it can demoralize the enemy and make the enemy lose the will to fight knowing that they will be killed more brutally if they continue to resist.

[Johann]

What happened if we had another modern day equivalent of Hitler or Stalin that was totally determined to start a world war no matter what. Imagine Osama Bin laden with the resources of a state like Germany at his disposal.

Hi Hitesh,

I think that is where nuclear deterrence comes in to effect. Stalin was deterrable. So was Mao. So was Khomeini, so was Saddam, and so is Kim Jong-Il.

And now that the world know what nuclear weapons are it is very unlikely that any *national* movement, even a religious one will entrust someone with a Hitlerite death-wish with nuclear weapons.

After WWI ended, they did an assessment of how effective the gas warfare was and combined with the modern advances in warfare such as tank warfare that quickly made trench warfare obsolete, it was no surprise that military commanders questioned the effectiveness and utility of such weapons and whether it gave a bang for the buck. It didn't and as an effective military option, it quickly died out. But one form of chemical warfare did persisted and that was the use of napalm.

a) Napalm is not a chemical weapon, it is an incendiary, but a particularly horrible one, like white phosphorous

b) chemical weapons never went out of style as far as military planning between the world wars. If anything they got steadily more lethal with the development of sophisticated nerve gasses to replace the crude earlier blister agents. Both the Soviets and us in NATO assumed offensive use on the battlefield in Europe if the balloon ever went up - most of that horrible cumbersome NBC kit and decontamination procedures was expected for chemical warfare as much as radioactive fallout.

The decision not employ them, and then to pursue their elimination was a fundamentally political decision, not a military one.

The Egyptians battlefield use of blister agents on the North Yemeni insurgency in the 1960s is a matter of record, and the heavy use by Iran and Iraq in the 1980s is also well known. Iraq would have almost certainly used gas on Coalition forces in 1991 if they had not been warned of severe consequences.

During Operation Linebacker II and other operations involving the use of carpet bombing, they were used against urban centers in Hanoi during Vietnam and the damages were so devastating that the North Vietnamese came to the peace negotiating table because they wanted the bombing to stop. It was effectively killing the cities of North Vietnam. 3 million North Vietnamese civilians died in those carpet bombing.

I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers and some of these facts from.

By the Vietnamese government's most recent figures (1995) 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed in the *entire* war, and that is in both north and south, and at the hands of the South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, and US governments.

Linebacker II was nothing like Dresden or Tokyo which aimed to burn entire cities down - instead what they targeted ports, rail yards, POL storage, bridges, airfields, radars, SAM sites, and military factories - the kind of 'point' targets that the US 8th Air Force had such trouble hitting in WWII, but which 30 years later with computers was much simpler.

Even so the USAF did not send B-52s to hit targets in central Hanoi and Haiphong for fear of civilian casualties.

Thanks to this, as well as N.Vietnamese civilian evacuations and civil defence measures the number of civilian casualties was in the region of 2,000 people, *and* most of Hanoi was certainly still standing at the end of the campaign.

There are no shortage of pictures of what Berlin and Tokyo looked like after the bombers reduced them - hundreds and hundreds of square miles of burned out shells and rubble, and greasy, ashy spots where people were incinerated.

Please see Marshall Michel's "The 11 Days of Christmas"

But on the other hand if utilized properly in conjunction with a ground invasion, it can demoralize the enemy and make the enemy lose the will to fight knowing that they will be killed more brutally if they continue to resist.

Please see "The Bomber War" by Neillands for a more detailed history of strategic bombing in the European theatre.

The area bombing of cities as envisioned in WWII was meant to take the war to the home front, to break morale, reduce support for the war, and hinder production and the war economy. It is meant as a warm-up, or in the best case scenario a substitute.

These are exactly the kinds of strategic aims of terrorism, and just like terrorism the justice of the cause, and the awfulness of the foe are not sufficient justification.

My point about Korea is that the assumptions that were true about German and Japanese cities were absolutely untrue about Korean towns and villages. Bombing them was not only wrong but strategically unproductive at best, but in truth actually strategically detrimental.

[RajeshA]

Living With a Nuclear Iran BY ROBERT D. KAPLAN: The Atlantic

Iran can be contained. The path to follow? A course laid out half a century ago by a young Henry Kissinger, who argued that American chances of checking revolutionary powers such as the Soviet Union depended on our credible willingness to engage them in limited war.

[Gerard]

Investigation after crane drops heavy load on nuclear sub

[Gerard]

Nuclear Scrutiny to Turn to Israel

[Amber G.]

Former Los Alamos scientist indicted on nuclear charges

Washington (CNN) -- A former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear scientist and his wife were indicted on charges of trying to provide nuclear secrets to Venezuela, but U.S. officials stressed the Venezuelan government knew nothing about the plans.
The officials said they have no information from the undercover operation that Hugo Chavez's government has any plans to try to build a nuclear weapon.
Pedro Mascheroni, 75, and Roxby Mascheroni, 67, are U.S. citizens who worked as contractors at Los Alamos in New Mexico, officials said Friday.
In 2008, Mascheroni, who had left the laboratory years earlier, had a series of conversations with an undercover FBI agent posing as an official of the Caracas government, according to the indictment.
"Mascheroni allegedly said he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years and that under his program Venezuela would use a secret underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium and an open, above-ground reactor to produce nuclear energy," the Justice Department said.
According, to a U.S. Justice Department statement, Mascheroni allegedly asked about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship and described how he expected to be paid for his classified nuclear work for Venezuela. Mascheroni said his fee for producing certain information was $793,000, the indictment alleges.
<snip>.

[arun]

P.R. China seems hell bent on cocking a snook at the Nuclear Supplier Group, of which she is also a member, in order to supply nuclear reactors to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Reuters quoting a VP working for China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) :

China in talks to export Pakistan bigger nuke plant -CNNC

[arun]

^^^ Further developments on PR China‘s bid to supply nuclear power reactors to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

PR China silent on its obligation of obtaining NSG approval for supply nuclear power reactors to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan despite voluntarily joining the NSG. PR China‘s Foreign Ministry issues a statement which is silent on the need of NSG approval:

China, Pakistan civilian nuclear cooperation consistent with int'l obligations: Chinese FM

Thomas D'Agostino, U.S. Under Secretary for Nuclear Security insists that NSG approval is required for PR China’s supply of Nuclear Reactors to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

Atom body should address China-Pakistan deal -- U.S.

[Gerard]

Exercise at nuclear submarine yard exposes serious safety failings

[Gerard]

Admiral stirs questions on Israel's "nuclear" subs

Contributing a preface and summation chapter for the recently published "Israeli Vessels in the Fourth Dimension", former admiral Shaul Chorev writes that the five major powers -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- have deployed submarines with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. With India planning to match them by decade's end, Chorev writes, it would be "the sixth country in the world to have a sea-based strategic deterrence capability" -- implying, by default, that Israel's submarines carry conventional arms only.

[Gerard]

Firefighters 'lost control' of blaze at Aldermaston nuclear weapons base

[krisna]

^^^^
Can China sell nuclear reactor wihtout areva approval? to pakistan
regarding the supply of nuclear reactor to pakistan by china

The Chashma technology is Chinese. China has, therefore, the right to export it, but in the case of Pakistan, it needs the clearance of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), since Pakistan is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Beijing has been trying to circumvent the need for prior clearance by the NSG by projecting Chashma III and IV as coming under the purview of the original agreement on Chashma I ( the grand-father provision ). Its contention has not yet been accepted by some NSG member-countries, including the US. Despite this, Beijing has hinted on more than one occasion that it will go ahead with the supply of Chashma III and IV even without the approval of the NSG.

However, China's one gigawatt technology is not indigenous. China bought it from Areva, a French company formed by the merger of Frematome, Cogema and Technicatome.In November 2007, AREVA agreed to a €8 billion deal with the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group to supply them with two EPRs (European Pressurised Reactor) in Taishan, Guangdong. Under the terms of the agreement, AREVA will also help operate the plant, including the reprocessing of the spent fuel.

Based on the EPR technology of French origin,the Chinese claim to have developed a technology of their own called CPR--1000 (Chinese Pressurised Reactor). According to the magazine "Nuclear Engineering International, "the CPR-1000 is a Generation II, 1080MW pressurized water reactor, based on French- three-loop design. Over 60 design improvements have been made by the Chinese, including modifications to the control room, fuel, and the introduction of half speed turbo generators (supplied by Alstom). However, Areva retains intellectual property rights for the CPR-1000, which constrains overseas sales. To sell abroad the Chinese would need agreement from Areva on a case-by-case basis, which seems unlikely as the CPR-1000 could be in competition with the Areva/MHI Atmea 1 design."

Even if one accepts the plausibility that Chashma III and IV could be grand-fathered under the original agreement relating to Chashma I, the grand-father clause cannot apply to the CPR--1000 reactor, which will have three times the capacity of Chashma I and whose technology was acquired by the Chinese three years after China joined the NSG after accepting its safeguards against sales to non-signatories of the NPT.

India should takes note of this and inform the relevant french people. Hope Sarkozy is aware of this. His country is going to lose immensely if he allows this in money where as India will have more trouble with china-pakistan combo if the deal goes thru.
It is really galling that pakistan gets it by hook or crook after what India had to go thru legally and being a good boy all these years with sanctions.

[Gerard]

Interview with Stewart Brand

'Techno-hippy' and lifelong green Stewart Brand says a shift to nuclear power and GM food is needed to prevent global warming

[Sanatanan]

News about subcritical test conducted recently by USA:
Obama’s DOE Conducts Nuclear Experiment

[D Roy]

China-Pakistan Deal Harbinger of Nuclear Exceptionalism?