Selected news, articles, think-pieces, and other documents relevant to the negotiation, implementation, and compliance with the following nuclear-related arms control treaties and agreements: Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow Treaty), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT).
Cyclotrons: Making Medical Isotopes Possible without Nuclear Reactor
The Star Online, 20 February 2012, www.thestar.com
By Petti Fong
Canadian scientists say they have developed a technique to produce medical isotopes in hospitals and clinics without the need for a nuclear reactor. The announcement, on the final day of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Vancouver, could signal the end to a crisis that has shaken up the medical community, politicians in Ottawa, and patients throughout Canada.
Two aging nuclear reactors produce about 75 percent of the global supply of medical isotopes. One of them, the reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, about 180 kilometers north of Ottawa, produces 40 percent of the supply of the raw materials needed to produce the isotopes.
But the era of dependency on nuclear reactors in the production of isotopes is over, said Tom Ruth, senior scientist at TRIUMF, the national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics based in Vancouver. "It's clearly a financial issue with the government as they don't want to invest more money into the existing reactor (at Chalk River)," he said Monday. By upgrading equipment already stored in a dozen hospital basements across Canada, the scientists say they can manufacture the isotopes without the nuclear component.
The reactor previously produced about half the North American supply of molybdenum-99, which decays into the technetium-99m isotope used in the majority of nuclear medicine procedures like diagnostic imaging and cancer treatments. Chalk River produced the molybdenum-99 and shipped it to two processing centers in the United States, which then shipped the finished isotopes back to Canada. But the Chalk River reactor faces full shutdown in 2016, and the United States has also told Canada it will decrease or stop exporting the highly-enriched uranium by 2019.
The process of developing the medical isotopes through a particle accelerator known as a cyclotron has been done for four decades but not on a commercial scale. Adjustments made to the cyclotron now enables scientists to write a recipe to produce the finished isotopes which will make it no longer necessary to ship the raw materials to the United States. "We have now successfully performed this process at the commercial scale," said Paul Schaffer, head of nuclear medicine at TRIUMF.
There are 18 cyclotrons in Canada in 12 facilities - six in Vancouver and two each in Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal. Over the next few years, another seven new cyclotrons are planned to come online throughout the country.
Schaffer said there are still regulatory hurdles that must be met through Health Canada. Several industrial partners and regional health authorities across the country are now starting to talk about how to fund and implement the commercial production of medical isotopes.
B.C. Cancer Agency researcher François Bernard said it was previously thought that it would be too costly to produce the isotopes outside of a nuclear reactor but the new process has challenged that notion. "We will be able to produce Canada's needs," he said. "It's essentially a win-win scenario for health care, because you end up removing your dependence on a single source of technetium-99m, but you also make other isotopes more widely available."
Using only one cyclotron, the new method could produce a fresh supply for a large metropolitan area every day, Bernard said. "For the price of one nuclear reactor, you can buy hundreds of cyclotrons, and by buying cyclotrons, not only do you make technetium available but you also make the other isotopes for [positron emission tomography (PET)] imaging."
Nukes Onboard Yekaterinburg during Submarine Fire
Reuters Online, 14 February 2012, www.reuters.com
By Guy Falcounbridge
Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed.
Russian officials said at the time that all nuclear weapons aboard the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine had been unloaded well before a fire engulfed the 167-metre (550 feet) vessel and there had been no risk of a radiation leak. But the respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that throughout the fire on December 29 the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads.
"Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl," Vlast reported. The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world's worst nuclear accident. Neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has responsibility for military matters, would immediately comment on the report. A spokesman for the navy could not be contacted.
The fire started when welding sparks ignited wooden scaffolding around the 18,200-tonne submarine at the Roslyakovo docks, 1,500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow and one of the main shipyards used by Russia's northern fleet. The rubber covering of the submarine then caught fire, sending flames and black smoke 10 meters (30 feet) above the stricken vessel. Firemen battled the blaze for a day and a night before partially sinking the submarine to douse the flames, according to media reports.
Vlast reported that immediately after the fire the Yekaterinburg sailed to the navy's weapons store, an unusual trip for a damaged submarine supposedly carrying no weapons and casting doubt on assurances that it was not armed. "K-84 was in dock with rockets and torpedoes on board," the magazine said, adding that apart from the nuclear weapons the submarine was carrying torpedoes and mines as well as its two nuclear reactors.
The magazine said that if one of the torpedoes had exploded it could have threatened the nuclear missiles, leading to an extremely dangerous nuclear accident. Media reports of what happened at the time of the fire were contradictory and foreign journalists were unable to gain access to the high security zone. Russia's worst post-Soviet submarine disaster was in August 2000 when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea killing all 118 crewmen aboard.
Russia Expects Next Nuclear Bomber by 2030
Global Security Newswire, 14 February 2012, www.nti.org
Russia has announced plans to prepare within two decades a next-generation bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons to targets, Interfax reported on Monday.
"We are developing an advanced long-range aviation system and we have entered the stage of project tender. I think we will inform the General Staff chief and defense minister in February about the advanced aircraft which is to be developed and to join the new and upgraded air force in the 2030s," Russian air force commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said
"Among the main state tasks that the command of the air force's long-range aviation tackles, is that of being part of the Russian strategic nuclear deterrence forces," Zelin added. "This question is in the focus of attention and we have been dealing with this problem substantively and in detail. Everything that has to do with strategic aviation is of priority importance in the development of the air force and is not to be reviewed."
Moscow intends by the end of this decade to switch out its Su-24 bomber aircraft for Su-34 planes, ITAR-Tass reported. Zelin described the plan in responding to a query by ARMS-Tass on a crash of an Su-24 jet. The Russian air force now holds 124 Su-24 planes, he said; the service expects this year to receive 10 Su-34 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry could move to acquire as many as 20 Borei- and Yasen-class class submarines by the end of the decade, the Xinhua News Agency quoted General Staff chief Gen. Nikolai Makarov as saying on Tuesday. Makarov said his country's military modernization plan calls for procuring 16 of the vessels. "If such an opportunity appears, we will order two couples of Borei 955 and Yasen 855 submarines additionally," he said.
Obama Seeks More Money for Nuclear Arms, Nonproliferation
Global Security Newswire, 13 February 2012, www.nti.org
By Chris Schneidmiller
The Obama administration is seeking a bump in funding for programs to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal and to prevent the spread of atomic arms around the world, according to budget figures released on Monday. The White House spending plan calls for the Energy Department's semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] to receive $11.5 billion in fiscal 2013, which begins on October 1.
The requested funding for the nuclear agency, just shy of 5 percent above the amount allocated in the current budget, demonstrates President Obama's "commitment to a 21st century nuclear security enterprise by giving us the resources we need to take innovative approaches to some of our greatest nuclear security challenges, make key investments in our infrastructure and revitalize our existing facilities," NNSA chief Thomas D'Agostino said in a press release.
The budget would provide $7.6 billion for NNSA efforts to "maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent," according to the spending request issued by the Management and Budget Office. That would represent a $363 million boost from the amount appropriated by Congress for this year and aligns closely to the spending level the administration first sought for fiscal 2012.
"This budget meets the goals of the Nuclear Posture Review by continuing nuclear-weapon life extension programs - such as upgrades to the W-76 and B-61 nuclear weapons - by improving and replacing aging facilities - such as increasing investments in funding for the Uranium Processing Facility - and by sustaining the existing stockpile through underlying science, surveillance, and other support programs," according to the budget document.
The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review was a key assessment of the nation's nuclear strategy, forces and readiness. The administration aims to freeze development of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which would conduct work on materials such as plutonium employed in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Associated Press reported.
Recent reporting had indicated that given existing federal budget troubles, funding for the project estimated to cost up to $6 billion might be reduced or zeroed in favor of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Complex in Tennessee. Under the proposal, funding for the Los Alamos site would be cut by $165 million and building would be pushed back by no less than five years, the watchdog Project on Government Oversight said.
"To meet the NPR goals, but still stay within the discretionary spending caps, the NNSA and the Department of Defense are reducing and stretching out the schedule of several weapons life extension programs and are restructuring plans for maintaining plutonium capabilities," the budget plan states. That means the administration is seeking $372 million less for weapons programs than it had anticipated requesting as of 2011. Republicans - who are already speaking out against the overall White House budget offering - might find the development difficult to swallow given the administration's pledge to spend $85 billion on nuclear arms complex modernization over a decade.
President Obama offered the pledge in 2010 as he sought GOP support for the New START nuclear arms control deal with Russia. Thirteen Republican members of the Senate voted in favor of the treaty, which entered into force in February 2011.
Meanwhile another $2.5 billion is proposed for NNSA initiatives to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and related materials. That amount, if approved, would constitute a $163 million boost from the amount allocated for this year and "reflects completion of accelerated efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years," according to the budget.
"This proposal fully funds administration priorities to secure and dispose of nuclear material, to develop technologies to prevent, deter, or detect nuclear proliferation, and to implement international nonproliferation treaties, regulatory controls and safeguards," the document states. The Energy Department expects by the close of next year to have extracted in excess of 4,300 kilograms of vulnerable nuclear material across the globe - enough to fuel more than 170 nuclear warheads.
"The savings that make it possible to fund these priorities come from restructuring the Pit Disassembly and Conversion project and transitioning the Second Line of Defense (SLD) program to a sustainment phase," the budget says. "By the end of 2012, SLD will have exceeded its original goals, having installed radiation detection equipment at almost 500 foreign ports or crossing sites, including all 383 customs sites in Russia. SLD will continue its efforts to improve deployed capabilities and continue to provide foreign partners with mobile detection equipment."
The agency's work to disassemble retired nuclear warheads would receive $51.3 million in fiscal 2013. The full complement of weapons retired by fiscal 2009 are to be taken apart within the next 10 years, according to the NNSA press release. NNSA would receive some funding each year through the Defense Department.
The budget says the "administration also continues its commitment to sustaining and modernizing U.S. strategic delivery systems, thus ensuring an effective deterrent in the face of evolving challenges and technological developments." The first replacement for today's Navy fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines is to be acquired in 2021. The Pentagon said recently it would delay the program by two years.
The budget also commits Washington to "sustain the Air Force's Minuteman 3 missile through 2030; and modernize the heavy bomber force so it can serve for the indefinite future." In addition, the Defense Department's ballistic missile defense activities would receive $9.7 billion under the Obama budget plan.
The administration requested $328 million for the Homeland Security Department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, a $39 million increase over its estimated total funding for this budget cycle.
Russia's Bulava-Carrying Subs to Enter Service in Summer
Ria Novosti, 09 February 2012, en.ria.ru
Russia's newest nuclear-powered submarines, the Yury Dolgoruky and the Alexander Nevsky, will be put into operation in the summer, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Thursday. The Yury Dolgoruky will enter service in June and the Alexander Nevsky in August, he said. The Borey-class subs will be armed with Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles but Serdyukov did not say exactly when the troubled missile will enter service.
The Yury Dolgoruky's construction began in 1996 at the Sevmash shipyard and was completed in 2008. It has a crew of 130 and will be armed with 16 Bulava SLBMs and six SS-N-15 cruise missiles. President Dmitry Medvedev said in late December that the flight tests of the Bulava SLBM were completed and it will now be adopted for service with the Russian Navy.
Russia successfully test launched two Bulava missiles on December 23. They were the 18th and 19th test launches of the troubled Bulava. Only 11 launches have been officially declared successful. But some analysts suggest that in reality the number of failures is considerably larger. Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer said that of the Bulava's first 12 test launches, only one was entirely successful. Despite several previous failures officially blamed on manufacturing faults, the Russian military has insisted that there is no alternative to the Bulava.
The Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM, developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (since 1998), carries up to 10 MIRV warheads and has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). The three-stage ballistic missile is designed for deployment on Borey-class nuclear submarines.
CTR Program Eliminates Nine Nuclear Warheads
Global Security Newswire, 08 February 2012, www.nti.org
The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program [CTR] in November [2011] supported the elimination of nine nuclear warheads and nine mobile [intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)] launchers, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) announced on Tuesday.
The Nunn-Lugar program that month also supported disposal of three submarine-fired ballistic missiles and 98.36 metric tons of Russian chemical nerve agent, the lawmaker said in a press release. In addition, it ... provided protection to five nuclear-weapon train shipments.
Since being established in 1991 to secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states, the CTR program has assisted in deactivation of 7,610 strategic nuclear warheads and destruction of 792 ICBMs, 498 ICBM silos, 191 mobile ICBM launchers, 677 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 492 SLBM launchers, 33 ballistic missile-capable submarines, 155 strategic bombers, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles and 194 nuclear test tunnels, according to the announcement.
The effort has also provided safeguards for 556 nuclear-weapon train shipments, boosted security at 24 nuclear weapons storage facilities and constructed 38 biological agent monitoring stations. It supported the removal of all nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, nations that once respectively held the world's
third-, fourth- and eighth-largest nuclear arsenals, Lugar's office said. [...]