[Mb-civic] Reviving nuclear nonproliferation - Gunnar Stalsett - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Reviving nuclear nonproliferation

By Gunnar Stalsett  |  September 30, 2005

HURRICANES RITA and Katrina and the Asian tsunami before them were 
reminders of the vulnerability of societies in different parts of the 
world. But as terrible as these events were, the potential devastation 
from a nuclear attack would be infinitely worse.

No nation is prepared to come to the rescue of those affected by a 
nuclear holocaust. And if the timeframe for rebuilding New Orleans and 
the Gulf Coast region will be measured in years, and the 
tsunami-affected areas in decades, renewal after a nuclear explosion 
would take generations.

That terrorists might obtain nuclear weapons is the greatest danger to 
global security. The Harvard scholar and former US defense official 
Graham Allison has stated that if a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb had been 
used to attack the World Trade Center instead of two airplanes, up to 1 
million people would have been killed.

It is a deep irony that at a time like this, when there should have been 
strong action, the conference held every five years to review the 
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty ended in failure last spring. We cannot 
wait another five years to revisit the issue. With this in mind, Norway, 
together with Britain, Australia, and other nations, has proposed steps 
to toughen the nonproliferation treaty.

It had also been hoped that this issue would be addressed at the recent 
World Summit marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. 
However, because of disagreements among member states, language covering 
nuclear proliferation was deleted from the declaration that was issued, 
and there was little progress. It would be tragic if this were allowed 
to stand. Serious discussions on nonproliferation should be held during 
the UN General Assembly over the next several weeks, and such talks must 
be intensified thereafter.

On Norway's border with Russia, many decommissioned nuclear submarines 
from the former Soviet fleet contain nuclear material. With the United 
States, Norway has a program to safeguard this material from 
misappropriation by hostile forces. Such programs should be greatly 
expanded, with rigorous international mechanisms to prevent misuse. This 
should be part of a number of real consequences for noncompliance with 
the treaty.

Under a tougher nonproliferation treaty, Iranian and North Korean moves 
to build or possess nuclear weapons would be violations of international 
law. Many in favor of strengthening the treaty share the American fear 
of nuclear terrorism, and believe that closer international cooperation 
will make dire outcomes far less likely.

The world has seen in the wake of Katrina and the Asian tsunami that the 
least fortunate among us often bear the brunt of these horrors. And as 
the Economist of London recently put it, any terrorist incident using 
nuclear weapons would have a devastating impact on the world economy, 
and consequently, on the plight of the world's poor. Such a scenario 
should be a wakeup call to bring nations to their senses. All nations, 
especially the United States, should work to revive, strengthen, and 
universalize the nonproliferation treaty and ultimately move toward a 
world free of nuclear weapons.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/30/reviving_nuclear_nonproliferation/
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