Arak Reactor Redesign Moving Forward

Arak reactor modifications underway - “Six world powers will help Iran redesign its Arak heavy water reactor so that it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium, according to a document released by the state news agency IRNA on Saturday,” writes Bozorgmehr Sharafedin for Reuters… “Iran will act as project manager… while China “will participate in the redesign and the construction of the modernized reactor [and the United States] will provide technical support and review of the modernized reactor design.”

--“‘The primary design of Arak reactor will take one year. Then the (P5+1) working group has three months to approve it,’ Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency, was quoted as saying on Saturday by state broadcaster IRIB. During the process the Arak heavy water reactor will be reconfigured so it cannot yield fissile plutonium usable in a nuclear bomb.” Read the full story here. http://reut.rs/1ShKUiU

--See also the official document on the Arak reactor - http://bit.ly/1QG3jIC

Projections on Iran ICBM were off - “For many years, U.S. intelligence officials have publicly assessed that Iran could possibly flight-test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by 2015,” writes Greg Thielmann for The National Interest… “Adm. William Gortney, chief of Northern Command, answered for the record a question on the issue from a March 19 congressional hearing with this new conclusion: ‘Iran will not be able to deploy an operational ICBM until later this decade at the earliest.’”

--“In combination with adoption of the Iran nuclear deal’s constraints on Iranian warhead development, this update in threat projections concerning a potential Iranian ICBM should lead to changes in U.S. policy: The third phase of missile defense deployments to Europe should be suspended… Washington should press for negotiations on an intermediate- and long-range flight test ban throughout the Middle East.” Read the full story here. http://bit.ly/1QFZqTT

Russia’s Cold War throwback - “The horror and reactions to the Paris massacre have overshadowed a troubling new twist in the U.S.-Russian rivalry that could prove even more terrifying,” warns Joe Cirincione in The World Post. “Russian state media recently ‘accidentally’ revealed plans for a bizarre new nuclear torpedo… designed to swim 6,000 miles... It would detonate… a hydrogen bomb equal to a million tons of TNT or more but ‘salted’ with special metals to vastly increase the amount of radiation it would pour into a U.S. port city.”

--“The explosion would create a radioactive tsunami. The purpose, according to Russian TV, would be to devastate ‘the important components of the adversary's economy in a coastal area and [inflict] unacceptable damage to a country's territory by creating areas of wide radioactive contamination that would be unsuitable for military, economic or other activity for long periods of time’”

--“We thought that such grotesque concepts had been buried with the Cold War, along with notions of doomsday machines… But unless Obama acts soon, his nuclear policy legacy may be the launch of a terrifying arms race that threatens destruction far beyond the horrors committed by ISIS." Get the full story here. http://huff.to/1jgUpCX

Military-industrial complex rears its head - “The ink is barely dry on the Air Force's press release announcing the selection of Northrop Grumman as the prime contractor to build 100 new bombers, and the bomber lobby is already pushing to double that amount,” reports William Hartung. “The recommendation to dramatically up the Air Force's bomber buy came from a study by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies… affiliated with the Air Force Association (AFA), which routinely advocates for more spending on virtually anything that flies, as might be expected given its membership of retired Air Force personnel.”

--“AFA's operations depend on generous membership fees from over 600 companies, including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the firms that competed for the bomber contract… The 100 bombers currently proposed will cost at least $1 billion each once development costs and inflation are taken into account...Given the immense costs of current plans, building 200 bombers instead of the proposed 100 does not make fiscal sense." Read more at The Huffington Posthere. http://huff.to/1NNgd18

Tweet - @ArmsControlNow: Photos: The Ruins of the USSR's Secret Nuclear Cities | via @WIRED bit.ly/1OcfOde

NGO’s oppose Navy budget gimmicks - “[Friday] a bipartisan coalition of non-governmental organizations sent a letter to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, urging the committee leadership to oppose use of a budget gimmick called the ‘national sea-based deterrence fund’ (NSBDF)... While the Navy has not requested funding for the NSBDF, it essentially endorsed a separate funding mechanism in its annual report to Congress,” writes Erica Fein for WAND.

-- “According to [Pentagon Comptroller Michael] McCord, the Pentagon sees the writing on the wall. Budget gimmicks will not solve the problem. In 2014, the former Pentagon Comptroller, Robert Hale, urged military leaders to show some ‘courage’ and actually prioritize needs instead of advocating an all-of-the-above approach. Especially as our nation grapples with modern-day threats, we must question whether nuclear weapons will keep us safe in the 21st century.” Get the full story here. http://bit.ly/1MA3npn

Tweet - @theatomproject1: UN Sec-Gen hails 50th anniversay of @UN resolution leading to treaty on non-proliferation of #NuclearWeapons. http://bit.ly/1TcxJAH

Australia not actually a nuclear weapons state - “It seems there is a proposal for Australia to seek nuclear-weapons state status under the NPT on rather weak claim that the UK had conducted nuclear tests down under in the 1950s… Leah and Rovere argue that if Australia wanted to develop nuclear weapons, its historical involvement in British testing would give it the right to do so, a right which they believe the United States should publicly recognise,” writes Jeffrey Lewis for ArmsControlWonk.

--“To put it politely, this is a stretch. Australia’s contributions to the British nuclear programme did not amount to common ownership; what’s more, hosting another country’s nuclear tests was hardly unique to Australia… The NPT’s drafters had no doubt that the treaty’s definition of a nuclear-weapon state exclusively meant the US, UK, China, France and the Soviet Union, the states acknowledged to have manufactured and detonated a nuclear device by the time the talks got serious.” Read more here. http://bit.ly/1YrB6GV

Quick Hits:

--“Reorienting Pentagon Priorities,” by Taxpayers for Common Sense. http://bit.ly/1I8pGDN

--“JCPOA Will Be Implemented by All Parties,” by Pierre Goldschmidt for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. http://ceip.org/1R3Ns5P

--“RBS under fire over £4.5bn backing for nuclear bomb companies,” by Rob Edwards for The Ferret. http://bit.ly/1Oq4ZCM

--“JCPOA is a complex deal that its implementation entails rigorous efforts by all sides: Kimball,” by Javad Heirannia for Tehran Times. http://bit.ly/1O9Z6v8

--“Study estimates Israel's nuclear weapon count stands at 115,” by Yossi Melman for The Jerusalem Post. http://bit.ly/1P68Qbi

Events:

--“Beyond the Budget Deal,” featuring Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer Mike McCord. Monday, November 30th from 8:30 - 9:30 AM at Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, 2nd Floor Conference Center Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1LxzkuA

--“3-D Printing the Bomb? The Challenge for Nuclear Nonproliferation,” featuring Tristan Volpe, Matthew Kroenig, and Bruce Goodwin. Tuesday, December 1st from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://ceip.org/1j5BjiR

--“House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services joint hearing on Russian Arms Control Cheating: Violation of the INF Treaty and the Administration’s Responses One Year Later,” featuring Rose Gottemoeller and Brian McKeon. Tuesday, December 1st from 3:30 - 6:30 PM. Webcast on committee website here. http://1.usa.gov/1kRDSqK

--“PONI 2015 Winter Conference,” featuring Tom Countryman and TBA feature panel. Wednesday, December 9th and Thursday, December 10th at Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave., Washington, DC. RSVP here: --“Reducing the Risk of Nuclear War in the Nordic/Baltic Region,” featuring Barry Blechman, Alex Bollfrass and Laicie Heeley. Tuesday, December 15th from 12:00 - 1:30 pm at The Stimson Center, 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1kRxVdf