Budget Cuts Should Include Missile Defense

Today's top nuclear policy stories, events, and analysis with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today - Wednesday, April 13, 2011:

What Parts of the Government Should be Permanently Furloughed? - Joe Cirincione in Foreign Policy [link]

• Cut the Missile Defense Agency. The military services would do a better job determining what they need, what works, and how much to spend.
• The MDA functions primarily as an in-house lobbyist for systems the services have not asked for and do not need.
• We could save half of the over $10 billion budgeted this year for missile defense by eliminating this redundant agency and the programs it promotes.

Nations Seen On Course to Meet Nuclear Security Pledges - Global Security Newswire [link]

• Nations that participated in the April 2010 Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington are on course to meet the security pledges made one year ago, according to an expert assessment released on Monday.
• Published by the Arms Control Association and the Partnership for Global Security, the expert report finds that "states' progress in meeting their commitments shows the great potential of the summit process to move the nuclear security agenda forward and reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism," co-author Robert Golan-Vilella of the Arms Control Association said in provided remarks.
• "Despite the progress so far, it is important to recognize that the nuclear security challenge will not be solved once the 2010 commitments are completed," report co-author Michelle Marchesano of the Partnership for Global Security said in a released statement. "The next summit must acknowledge that nuclear material security is a long-term challenge that will require stable funding and a global commitment."

EVENT: Countdown to Zero - April 13, 9 p.m. EST [link]

• The History Channel, 9 p.m. EST
• "A stunning documentary about the escalating global nuclear arms crisis."
• Your living room.

Is Japan's Nuclear Crisis Really as Severe as Chernobyl? - Peter Finocchiaro for Salon Media Group [link]

• Japanese authorities increased the "severity rating"of the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan [yesterday]...Historically, the only other nuclear incident to garner that distinction has been the 1986 Chernobyl disaster...We turned to Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on nuclear security issues, to understand the severity of the current situation, and potential end-game scenarios in Japan.
• I think it alarmed a lot of people that now suddenly the Japanese government is saying the nuclear crisis is on par with Chernobyl. Is that characterization accurate? - I think the Japanese authorities finally were forced to publicly recognize the severity of this disaster. They were trying to keep the public calm, to preserve some credibility for the nuclear power industry, so they tried to use reassuring language in their statements, and were hesitant to compare what was going on at Fukushima to Chernobyl. And, of course, it's not Chernobyl. It's different.
• Would you say, right now, there's as big a risk of meltdown as there has been during this entire ordeal? - Yes. They've been struggling to keep the fuel rods covered with water. And they partially succeeded. Still, it's likely that all three reactors have suffered at least partial meltdowns. But we don't know for sure what's going on. You can't open the door and look in. It doesn't work that way.
• Follow the link above to read more of Joe's anaylsis of the on-going crisis in Japan.

EVENT: The Obama Administration and the Future of Nuclear Arms Control - April 15, 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. EST [link]

• The Political Science Association of Boston College is hosting a conference on teh future of nuclear arms control featuring the nation’s leading scholars and practitioners in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
• The conference will include a series of panels examining pressing challenges confronting today’s nuclear policymakers, including the development of North Korea’s nuclear program, the negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, and the international response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
• Speakers include Ambassador Christopher Hill, Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver; David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent, New York Times; Professor Frank N. von Hippel, Co-Chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials; and Joseph Cirincione, President of the Ploughshares Fund.
• The keynote address will be delivered by Ambassador Marcie Berman Ries, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Nuclear and Strategic Policy.

U.S. Dealings With North Korea Get Tougher - Evan Ramstad for The Wall Street Journal [link]

• The State Department announced that, once again, an American citizen has been detained in North Korea. Unlike the detentions of two journalists in 2009 and a human-rights worker early last year, U.S. officials revealed no details of the current situation.
• Already, the American diplomats were facing two other major hurdles. The first was North Korea’s revelation last November that its uranium enrichment program had advanced significantly. Such a program will be much harder for the U.S. and other countries to verifiably contain than North Korea’s work on plutonium. (And even that hasn’t gotten very far.)
• The second is the effect that the U.S. decision to join European nations in supporting rebels against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has had in Pyongyang. After the air attacks in Libya by the U.S. and others, North Korea’s state media said Libya made a mistake in giving up its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003 and that North Korea’s “military first” policy was “proper in a thousand ways.”
• Meanwhile, the new developments are also likely to reshape expectations that have built up among some U.S. academics and North Korea analysts about a visit former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will make to Pyongyang later this month with some former European leaders.
  

View from the Dark Side

Sen. Kyl: Obama’s Goal for Nuclear Weapon-free World is 'Loopy' - John T. Bennett for The Hill [link]

• Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) called President Obama’s goal of a nuclear weapon-free world “loopy” on Tuesday while charging the administration with allowing Moscow too much sway over America’s atomic arsenal and missile defense plans. In a breakfast speech on Capitol Hill, Kyl slammed the administration for basing its nuclear-weapons and missile-defense plans on “trying not to offend the Russians.”
• Kyl also criticized the administration for “rewriting” U.S. deterrence policy to fit its desires for a nuclear weapon-free planet. Reducing U.S. atomic arms will only cause rogue states — and even U.S. allies — to “try to match” the U.S. stockpile, he said. 
• Some senior Pentagon and administration officials have said they want closer cooperation with Russia on missile defenses in Europe that are designed to thwart strikes from Iran. But Kyl objects, saying “it would be a very large mistake to make Russia a partner on missile defense.” Greater cooperation with Moscow, he warned, “could drive a wedge” between Washington and key allies in Europe.