Fighting for More Nuclear Spending

On the radar: Saving nuclear funds from budget realities; Bushehr, 4 decades late; Intelligence and Iran; A letter from Tehran; Keeping nuclear terror at bay; and prospects for N. Korea’s program.

September 12, 2011 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Mary Kaszynski

Budgeting for a nuclear anomaly? - Both the House and Senate shaved some funds from nuclear modernization spending in their FY12 Energy and Water appropriations bills. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) apparently did not like that outcome and are seeking assurances to protect the recent nuclear spending hikes. They wrote a letter to the president requesting that NNSA budgets be exempt from any continuing resolution that could hold nuclear funds at FY11 levels.

--Reps. Turner and Heinrich argue that complex modernization, life extension programs, naval reactor development, and key nonproliferation goals could be adversely affected by budget shortfalls. John Bennett reports. http://ow.ly/6rPwE

Early Tweet - @FAScientists: Nuclear Plan Conflicts with New Budget Realities http://bit.ly/r0xSdL”

Troubled history and troubling outlook for Bushehr - Iran’s Bushehr reactor is being inaugurated today after 37 years of planning, construction, setbacks, and delays. The reactor alone does not help Iran obtain nuclear weapons. However, “it is plagued with many of the elements that have contributed to the world's major nuclear mishaps, from technical problems to political miscalculations to natural disasters,” writes analyst Ali Vaez in Foreign Policy.

--Most worrisome, Iran does not have an independent regulatory system, lacks experienced operators, and refused to ratify several conventions on nuclear safety. Bushehr also sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates. This leaves Bushehr “highly vulnerable to a nuclear catastrohpe,” writes Vaez. http://ow.ly/6rPS0

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All-Star panel on Iran and the intelligence community - How reliable is our intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program? A new report of the Iran Task Force of the Atlantic Council seeks to answer that question, with lessons from Iraq and beyond. The report launches on 9/15, with a panel featuring Sen. Check Hagel, Amb. Stuart Eizenstat, Barbara Slavin, Olli Heinonen, David Albright and Paul Pillar. Event details and RSVP here.

Iran offers return to nuclear talks - In a letter to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, Iran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said his country was prepared for another round of nuclear talks. Reuters reports. http://ow.ly/6rSC4

Preventing nuclear terror - The world has not seen an incident of nuclear terrorism thanks to some combination of efforts to secure vulnerable materials and luck. To avert nuclear terrorism in the future, states will need to take individual and collective actions to secure nuclear material, phase out HEU in civilian applications, and account for radiological materials, writes Mark Fitzpatrick and Nigel Inkster of IISS. http://ow.ly/6rQzf

Hecker on North Korea - In a recent lecture on the problems with and prospects for North Korea’s nuclear program, Dr. Sigfreid Hecker took note of some potential developments. He mentioned that the North could undertake a third nuclear test to develop a nuclear warhead and that the North’s enrichment facility could be reconfigured to produce enough uranium for two bombs per year. George Jahn reports for AP. http://ow.ly/6rRmq