House Funding Bill Threatens Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security Programs

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

Stories we're following today: Friday February 18, 2011

House Funding Bill Cuts $1 Billion From Nuclear Security and Nonproliferation - Josh Rogin for "The Cable" [link]

• The House GOP funding bill currently under debate would slash over $1 billion from the government agencies that work to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of rogue states and terrorists -- money that Senate Republicans fought to increase only last fall during the debate over the New START treaty with Russia.
• The continuing resolution (CR) that the House is expected to pass this week would reduce the administration's $11.2 billion request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by $1.1 billion, or 10 percent. The NNSA maintains the nation's nuclear stockpile, runs the nuclear lab complex, and fights the illegal trade of nuclear technology and material. Non-proliferation programs face the most drastic reductions.
• The House leadership has exempted "security" spending from their proposed cuts in the bill, but the NNSA is part of the Energy Department and so falls outside of the GOP's definition.  "Part of the problem is the indiscriminate budget cutting by House Republicans that reduces all programs except those strictly labeled defense, even though they are hacking away at the most useful federal program to prevent the gravest threat to the United States, nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists," John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, said.
• When the House sends the bill over to the Senate next week, Senate Republicans will push to restore the NNSA funding, multiple congressional aides close to the process told The Cable.

Russia and US at Odds Over Missile Defense - The Associated Press

• Talks between the U.S. and Russia over a new anti-ballistic missile system for Europe are stuck on a key point, with Moscow demanding to jointly run the system and the U.S. refusing to yield.
• Russia is insisting on shared control of the missile defense program with the U.S. and NATO, which President Barack Obama has flatly opposed because it would essentially give Russia responsibility for protecting NATO from nuclear missile threats. The U.S. is offering Russia a more limited role.
• After years of opposition, Russia agreed last fall at least to talk about cooperating on the anti-ballistic missile plan for Europe, which the U.S. says may one day be needed if Iran develops nuclear weapons.  However, Moscow has refused so far to budge from its demand for joint control.

Nuclear Powers to Discuss Nuclear Disarmament, Verification Issues - Martin Matishak for Global Security Newswire [link]

• The five recognized nuclear powers plan to convene later this year to discuss possible confidence-building measures toward atomic disarmament and other nonproliferation issues, a key U.S. diplomat said yesterday.
• France has offered to sponsor talks with its fellow nuclear states and permanent U.N. Security Council members -- China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- to examine ways to make good on various commitments they made at the end of last year's Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference, according to Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller.
• The meeting would take place in Paris, possibly in June, and continue a process that began in September 2009 when the five nations came together for the first time to discuss verification and transparency measures related to disarmament in London.
• Delegates to that two-day conference in London "looked at ways for participants to increase their mutual understanding by sharing definitions of nuclear terminology and information about their nuclear doctrines and capabilities," according to a release from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Officials also gave presentations on strengthening stability and increasing confidence among the nuclear powers through transparency and other measures.
• "It is very notable at this point that we are turning that London experience into a process that will involve the P-5, over time, in an increasingly detailed set of discussions about how to verify and have confidence in reduction processes," Gottemoeller told the audience.

Analysts Say Egypt Must Remain Free of Nuclear Weapons - André de Nesnera for Voice of America [link]

• Egypt has two nuclear research reactors located at Inshas, near Cairo. They are used for peaceful purposes, such as medical research and nuclear engineering experiments. But analysts agree that Egypt sought to acquire a nuclear weapons capability back in the 1960s.
• Analyst Mark Fitzpatrick, from London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), says Egypt does not have the most modern technologies that could be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.  "[A few years ago], some highly-enriched uranium particles were discovered by the IAEA and I think they are still investigating the source of that. That all has not yet come out in IAEA reporting, so there is some small cloud hanging over Egypt's nuclear program. I am not saying they are going for nuclear weapons, but they did some things that were not fully in accordance with the rules."
• Some experts have questioned whether a government replacing President Hosni Mubarak might reconsider some of Cairo's policies on weapons of mass destruction...Analysts say given Cairo's leadership in the Middle East, it is essential that Egypt remains free of weapons of mass destruction to guarantee stability in that part of the world.

North Korea May Attack Again in 'Months,' U.S. Says - Viola Gienger for Bloomberg [link]

• North Korea may stage another attack “in months and not years,” said Navy Admiral Robert Willard, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to be training his son “on a compressed timeline” in “coercive measures” like the attacks last year that killed 46 sailors on the South Korean Cheonan warship and four people on the island of Yeonpyeong, Willard told a forum sponsored by the Asia Society in Washington today.
• The U.S. is working with South Korea on efforts to “be prepared for a next provocation should it occur,” said Willard, who leads the U.S. Pacific Command. “These provocations have raised the ire of the South Korean people in a way that we haven’t seen,” Willard said, echoing comments by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on a trip to the region last month. “The South Korean level of tolerance for a next provocation is very low.”
• Gates, who said last month that the combination means North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the U.S., has sought to persuade China to put more pressure on its neighboring regime to comply with United Nations resolutions.