NATO Chief Calls for Cooperative Missile Defense

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

Stories we're following today: Thursday October 14, 2010.

NATO Chief Calls for Anti-missile System - Slobodan Lekic in The Washington Post [link]

• NATO's secretary general urged member states on Thursday to endorse a proposed anti-missile system that would protect Europe and North America, saying that is the alliance's responsibility.
• Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO's new mission statement - expected to be adopted at a summit of alliance leaders next month in Portugal - would focus on streamlining and reforming the organization to deal with emerging threats.
• NATO is proposing to expand an existing system of battlefield missile defense to cover the territory of all alliance members against ballistic missiles from nations such as Iran and North Korea. Fogh Rasmussen has proposed that Russia also join the project, thus creating a network that would stretch "from Vancouver to Vladivostok."
• U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton also welcomed Fogh Rasmussen's emphasis on a constructive partnership with Moscow to address joint security challenges, saying that "we will work with Russia to make the world safer."
• Clinton came out against proposals to remove the alliance's remaining 200 tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, saying that NATO must remain a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist.

Senate Should Approve New START Arms Treaty - Lee McMinn in Citizen Times [link]

• The New START treaty [would be a sign of U.S. and Russian support for the NPT], cutting Russia's deployed weapons by nearly two-thirds and the U.S.'s by nearly half to totals of 1,550 warheads for each side. [New START] will provide the legal authority to inspect and verify the efforts and progress of both sides toward nuclear force reduction.
• Significantly, the New START treaty is supported by, among others, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz (both Republicans) and former Sen. Sam Nunn (a Democrat), all of whom are realists in international affairs.
• Senate ratification of the New START treaty is essential...

NNSA Authorizes Pantex to Begin Dismantlement of B53 - NNSA [link]

• Yesterday the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that it has authorized its Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, to begin dismantlement of the B53 weapons system.
• The B53 is one of the longest lived weapons ever fielded. This megaton-class weapon is about the size of a mini-van and weighs approximately 10,000 pounds. Its sheer size and weight provided many challenges for the project team responsible for developing a dismantlement process that meets the requirements of NNSA’s Seamless Safety for the 21st Century (SS-21) process.
• “Gaining authorization to begin dismantlement of the B53 is a significant step forward for NNSA and the nation,” said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Don Cook. “It confirms NNSA’s commitment to support President Obama’s goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons and their role in the U.S. national security strategy."

Former US Envoy Pessimistic on North Korea Nuclear Weapons - AFP [link]

• The former chief US negotiator in talks to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons said Wednesday he was less optimistic than ever before about the prospects for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
• Speaking during a visit to South Korea, Christopher Hill said the chances of persuading North Korea to give up its atomic weapons appeared bleak, according to Yonhap news agency.
• "I think it's very clear at this point that it is a more difficult proposition than ever before," Yonhap quoted Hill as saying. "They have continued to work on their systems for delivering nuclear weapons."
• Hill added that China had a key role to play in persuading Pyongyang to give up its arsenal. "China, once they understand this clearly and once they develop the consensus to move forward, I think, can put pressure on North Korea."
  

The Lighter Side

WV Candidate Channels Dr. Evil - Laicie Olson for Nukes of Hazard an Arms Control Center Blog [link]

• West Virginia's Republican nominee for Senate, John Raese, recommended Tuesday that the US put 1,000 lasers into space.  
• We shall call it the "Alan Parsons Project"…
• According to Raese, "We are sitting with the only technology in the world that works and it's laser technology. We need 1,000 laser systems put in the sky and we need it right now. That is [of] paramount importance."
• Riki Ellison, the chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said that Raese appeared to be referring to DPALs (diode pumped alkali lasers), which have shown great promise in the field of missile defense but - at least at current funding levels for the development of such programs - could take two decades to develop.
• Deploying [DPAL] technology in space would require the negotiation of a treaty among world powers.
• George Herbert Walker Bush promulgated a close relative of [the DPAL] program called GPALS, or Global Protection Against Limited Strikes, It never was deployed.