Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Monday, September 27, 2010

Disingenuousness Rules the Nuclear Roost By Russ Wellen

Disingenuousness Rules the Nuclear Roost

By Russ Wellen, September 27, 2010

It's bad enough that Israel, along with North Korea, Pakistan, and India, maintains an unacknowledged nuclear arsenal outside the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). But, unlike the other three, which are all too happy to trumpet their possession of nukes to their neighbors and world, Israel continues to keep up the farcical, not to mention insulting, pretense that it's nuke-free. Worse, the United States enables it in the ultimate game of don't ask, don't tell.
Obviously that doesn't sit well with Arab states, not to mention Iran. At the 2010 General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week, they once again called for Israel to join the NPT. But, on Friday, their resolution, even though it was nonbinding, was rejected by the other members states of the IAE. Reuters reported:

Washington had urged countries to vote down the symbolically important although non-binding resolution, saying it could derail broader efforts to ban nuclear warheads in the Middle East and also damage fresh Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
"The winner here is the peace process, the winner here is the opportunity to move forward with a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East," said Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But as Steve Hynd at Newshoggers writes:

That Israel seems able to entirely dictate the agenda, with the US bending over to accommodate its demands that it hang onto both its nuclear arsenal and the almost non-existent veil of "ambiguity" draped over it, does not seem to me to bode well for Middle-Eastern peace or for regional disarmament.

To expand on that, Washington seems to think that helping Israel keep up non-nuclear appearances might make Israel less inclined to once again undermine the Israel-Palestine peace process. Especially since, as the World Bank pronounced last week: "If the Palestinian Authority maintains its current performance in institution-building and delivery of public services, it is well-positioned for the establishment of a state at any point in the near future."
To even suggest that facilitating Israel's silence about its nuclear weapons program paves the way for both peace in the Middle East and making it a nuclear-free weapons zone is yet another slap in the face to the Arab states and Iran. The latter, especially, can scarcely be expected to to surrender to the the view that its obstructionism, however maddening, around a program that nowhere close to weaponized, is an exponentially -- not to mention "existentially" -- greater threat than a state that has had nukes for years and refuses to admit as much.
The other discordant nuclear note of the week arrives courtesy of Greg Mello in a Los Alamos Study Group mailing. On September 14, the 23 Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee issued a press release that stated: "Due to the failure of the Democrat [sic] Congress to enact a single Appropriations bill so far this year to provide funding for Federal Government programs and agencies, a CR [Continuing Resolution] will be necessary to continue government operations past the end of the fiscal year, which expires on September 30th." They insist that the CR "be 'clean' and free of any extraneous spending or policy provisions" and focused instead on "continuing the activities of government at the absolute minimum level necessary until we finish our work on the fiscal year 2011 spending bills."
Amazingly, the "extraneous spending" to which they seek to put a stop for now includes not only typical Democratic measures like a "$1.9 billion increase for new Race to the Top grants, $250 million increase for new and expanded programs to implement the health care bill," but a "$624 million increase for programs related to the unratified START Treaty."
If the Republicans are cutting off their nose to spite their face, their owed grudging credit for sticking to their big government principles. Wait: isn't it more likely that they're intent on hitting the Obama administration up for an even larger increase in nuclear-weapons spending next year?

Klaatu Barada Nikto

By Jeffrey | 23 September 2010

The nutjobs at it again, suggesting that aliens — extraterrestrials, not undocumented workers — are monitoring US “nuclear sites.” Lee Speigel of AOL’s Weird News Team offers a nice summary:

UFOs have monitored and possibly tampered with American nuclear weapons, according to a group of former Air Force officers who will make their claims public next week at a Washington, D.C., news conference.
“While most of the incidents apparently involved mere surveillance, in a few cases, a significant number of nuclear missiles suddenly and simultaneously malfunctioned, just as USAF security policemen reported seeing disc-shaped craft hovering nearby,” says Robert Hastings, author of “UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites.”
On Monday, at the National Press Club, Hastings will present six former Air Force personnel who will break their silence and disclose dramatic first-hand experiences with UFOs at nuclear weapons sites.

No doubt, the aliens downloaded the US Additional Protocol declaration like everyone else.
But seriously, what is it about aliens and nuclear weapons that seem to link the two in the popular imagination?
Read Full Story →

Clinton PDDs and PRDs

By Jeffrey | 24 September 2010 |

I somehow missed the fact that the Clinton Library has posted online six declassified Presidential Decision Directives (PDD) and two Presidential Review Directives, most of which involve nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense and space policy.
Read Full Story →

Two Time Bombs in New START

By joshua | 26 September 2010 | 1 Comment

According to the preamble of New START, the Treaty’s measures “will enhance predictability and stability, and thus the security of both Parties.” The preamble also deems the Treaty part of an effort “to forge a new strategic relationship based on mutual trust, openness, predictability, and cooperation.” But as I’ve described it in my latest column at the Bulletin, the spirit of the U.S. Senate’s resolution of ratification — whose complete and final text is now available at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website — seems closer to the rigorous and mistrustful enforcement of numerical parity.
Consider this an early warning, not a complaint. The Senate’s gimlet eye is only to the advantage of ratification, since some senators are unlikely to vote “yes” unless convinced that America “won” the negotiation — and not necessarily in the sense of a “win-win” outcome. But the unsparing language of the resolution also underscores the Treaty’s deferral of a pair of neuralgic issues, either of which could unravel the entire fabric someday: missile defense and conventional prompt global strike (CPGS).
(Warning: long and wonky post.)
Read Full Story →

India, Argentina ink agreement on peaceful uses of N-energy

India and Argentina have signed an agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, according to Department of Atomic Energy.

Agreement between the Government of India and the Argentine Republic for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy was signed at Vienna by Dr. S. Banerjee, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Dr. Norma Boero, President of the Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina (CNEA) yesterday.

The agreement was signed on the on the sidelines of the 54th general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a DAE release said.

“This is an inter-governmental agreement and the scope of cooperation is wide,” Mr. Banerjee told PTI from Vienna today.

“We have lot of commonality and therefore possibilities of exchange of information on operation and maintenance of reactors,” he said.

In addition there could be scope for service assistance to Argentina with the Indian expertise on en-masse coolant replacement of nuclear power reactors, Mr. Banerjee said adding, “We are also looking forward for cooperation in Research and Development (R&D) in various peaceful uses of nuclear energy.” http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article792992.ece

Russia to begin 2nd stage of Tianwan nuclear power plant construction next year

Russia to build 2 VVER-1000 reactors at Tianwan plant in China
Russia's Atomstroyexport will begin construction next year of two VVER-1000 reactors at Jiangsu Nuclear Power's Tianwan plant in China, according to Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state-controlled Rosatom. Russia is expected to secure about $1.75 billion for the Tianwan expansion project. RIA Novosti (Russia)http://en.rian.ru/business/20100927/160731550.html

GE Hitachi in talks with NPC for 6 reactors

India at table with GE, Westinghouse, Areva for reactor projects
The Nuclear Power Corp. of India is in talks with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy for six reactors rated at 1,350 megawatts each. Officials said the company will also begin talks with Westinghouse Electric for six 1,154-megawatt reactors. Meanwhile, the state-run Indian company and French group Areva are expected to sign an early-works agreement within a month for two reactors of 1,650 megawatts each for a project in Maharashtra, India, an NPCIL official said. Business Standard (India)

Allred says Otter energy ad greenwashes record

Idaho governor touts nuclear as a clean source of power
Idaho Gov. C.L. Otter said he believes nuclear is among energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal in terms of cleanliness. He said he supports the development of nuclear power. Google/The Associated Press http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2Uh9uuje6EPnS4CL2N0TY_S9cJAD9IECLVG1

Energy roulette

Opinion: Government must consider nuclear power in RES
Though the Senate is making a commendable effort with its renewable-energy standard, the proposal leaves behind nuclear power and natural gas because of an "uncertainty about market demand," the Washington Post editorial board writes. If the government wants to truly counter climate change, the newspaper argues, it must look toward what technologies cut carbon usage the most -- such as nuclear power -- rather than what could be the most stable market investment. The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/26/AR2010092603020.html?sub=AR

Nuclear training facility opened Will provide training for technicians

Md. college opens training center for nuclear technicians
The College of Southern Maryland has opened its Center for Nuclear Energy Training, a two-year program that will award associate degrees to graduates who qualify as nuclear technicians. Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, which runs the Calvert Cliffs facility in Maryland, financed the program. The curriculum will "ultimately provide the expertise needed to achieve employment in an industry that leads to jobs paying good wages and keeps jobs from being outsourced," said Wilson Parran, president of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners. Southern Maryland Newspapers Online

Former N.J. Gov. Christie Whitman ‘comfortable’ as a nuclear advocate

Whitman takes up role as ambassador for nuclear energy
Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman is an ambassador for the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a group formed by the Nuclear Energy Institute. Whitman has been heading talks and giving speeches about nuclear energy's benefits. "Since I'm comfortable with nuclear power, it wasn't much of a stretch," she said. J. Scott Peterson, a spokesman for NEI, said the group hired her because of her expertise and because she is well-known. The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.)

Work begins on new sarcophagus for Chernobyl reactor

by Staff Writers Kiev (AFP) Sept 24, 2010 A French company has begun work on erecting a new sarcophagus to confine the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 in the world's worst nuclear disaster, a spokeswoman for the operation said Friday. Workers from France's Novarka are laying rails that will be used to slide a new sarcophagus over the reactor, said Maya Rudenko, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian state enterprise responsible for securing the reactor.
"It's the first large-scale operation by Novarka for this project," Rudenko said. The Ukrainian authorities over the last three years have carried out preliminary work to clean up the site and demolish buildings, she added.
The fourth reactor at a power station in the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl, around 100 kilometres north of Kiev, exploded in April 1986, contaminating a swathe of Europe, with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia the worst affected.
The remains of the reactor were hastily covered with a concrete sarcophagus in 1986, but the structure is now cracked and unstable.
A consortium made up of French construction companies Bouygues and Vinci won a tender in 2007 to build a new sarcophagus, financed by an international foundation.
The 108-metre-high arched structure, weighing 20,000 tonnes, will be assembled close to the reactor and then slid on rails over the existing sarcophagus.
The project will cost a total of at least 870 million euros (1.17 billion dollars), according to estimates by the Ukrainian government.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Iran denies nuclear plant computers among 30,000 hit by worm

by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Sept 26, 2010 The malicious Stuxnet computer worm has hit 30,000 industrial computers in Iran, officials said on Sunday, but denied the Islamic republic's first nuclear plant at Bushehr was among those infected. So far, Stuxnet has infected about 30,000 IP addresses in Iran, Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the ministry of industries, was quoted as saying by the government-run newspaper Iran Daily.
Stuxnet, which was publicly identified in June, was tailored for Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities.
The worm is able to recognise a specific facility's control network and then destroy it, according to German computer security researcher Ralph Langner, who has been analysing the malicious software.
Langner said he suspected Stuxnet was targetting Bushehr nuclear power plant, where unspecified problems have been blamed for delays in getting the facility fully operational.
Siemens said its software has not been installed at the plant, and an Iranian official denied the malware may have infected nuclear facilities.
"This virus has not caused any damage to the main systems of the Bushehr power plant," Bushehr project manager Mahmoud Jafari said on Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television network.
"All computer programmes in the plant are working normally and have not crashed due to Stuxnet," said Jafari, adding there was no problem with the plant's fuel supply.
The official IRNA news agency meanwhile quoted him as saying the worm had infected some "personal computers of the plant's personnel."
And he told Fars news agency that so far, five versions of the malware had been detected in Iran.
Echoing Jafari's denial, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation in charge of safety and security, Asghar Zarean, said neither the plant nor the organisation's computers were affected.
"Due to the precautions we have already employed for our systems, in our investigations we have not come across any penetration by the virus into our systems," Zarean was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The self-replicating worm has been found lurking on Siemens systems mostly in India, Indonesia and Pakistan, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to researchers.
Telecommunications minister Reza Taqipour said "the worm has not been able to penetrate or cause serious damage to government systems."
According to Iran Daily, telecoms official Saeed Mahdiyoun said "teams of experts had begun to systematically eliminate the virus."
Meanwhile Liayi said given its complexity, Stuxnet was "likely a (foreign) government project," without giving details.
The newspaper cited various experts who suggested the United States and Israel were behind the malware, evoking the "West's electronic warfare against Iran."
Liayi said industries were currently receiving systems to combat Stuxnet, while stressing Iran had decided not to use anti-virus software developed by Siemens because "they could be carrying a new version of the malware."
"When Stuxnet is activated, the industrial automation systems start transmitting data about production lines to a main designated destination by the virus," Liayi said.
"There, the data is processed by the worm's architects and then engineer plots to attack the country."
Iran's nuclear ambitions are at the heart of a conflict between Tehran and the West, which suspects the Islamic republic is seeking to develop atomic weapons under the cover of a civilian drive.
Tehran denies the allegation and has pressed on with its enrichment programme -- the most controversial aspect of its nuclear activities -- despite four sets of UN Security Council sanctions.http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_denies_nuclear_plant_computers_among_30000_hit_by_worm_999.html

US does not know source, purpose of Stuxnet worm: official

Arlington, Virginia (AFP) Sept 24, 2010 - The United States is analyzing the "Stuxnet" computer worm but does not know who is behind it or its purpose, a top US cybersecurity official said Friday. "One of our hardest jobs is attribution and intent," Sean McGurk, director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), told reporters. "We've conducted analysis on the software itself," McGurk said during a tour of the Department of Homeland Security facility outside Washington which is responsible for coordinating government cybersecurity operations. "It's very difficult to say 'This is what it was targeted to do,'" he said of Stuxnet, which some computer security experts have said may be intended to sabotage a nuclear facility in Iran.

The worm has been found lurking on Siemens systems in India, Indonesia, Pakistan and elsewhere, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to software security researchers. McGurk said Stuxnet had been found not only in power facilities but water purification or chemical plants which use the particular Siemens system it targets. "We haven't seen any impacts or effects of what it does," he said. "We know that it's not doing anything specifically malicious right now." McGurk said he could not say who is behind the worm. "It would be premature to speculate at this time," he said. "We're not looking for where it came from but trying to prevent the spread," he said, adding that Siemens is "reaching out to their customer base" to deal with the infection.

Africa's uranium business turns risky

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Africas_uranium_business_turns_risky_999.html Niamey, Niger (UPI) Sep 24, 2010 Suddenly, the uranium mining industry is becoming a risky business, it seems. Islamic militants who kidnapped seven people at a French-owned uranium mine in Niger Sept. 16 have warned Western firms that "steal our wealth Â… to leave promptly."
In recent months, the steep rise in the price of uranium oxide, used to fuel nuclear power plants, has attracted Canadian, Australian and Chinese companies to challenge the monopoly in Niger held by France's state-owned nuclear giant, Areva.
It remains to be seen whether these companies will be prepared to risk moving into Niger but uranium is much in demand and that's liable to grow as government around the globe shift to nuclear power as oil reserves shrink.
Nowhere is the nuclear drive stronger than in the Middle East, where oil has been the engine of economic growth.
Al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, which claims to hold the hostages seized in Niger, declared in a statement France shouldn't take military action against it and cast its warning further afield.
It said Western firms "that steal our wealth and take advantage of our people should know that they are legitimate targets for the mujaheddin and they should leave promptly because our land is not a field for plunder and our wealth is not something to be taken advantage of."
That may be little more than jihadist rhetoric to cover a kidnap-for-ransom enterprise and there is considerable skepticism that AQIM has the resources to conduct such a campaign.
But the colonial legacy of France, Britain and Belgium and the backing they have given African dictators in return for access to the continent's wealth is sure to strike a chord among impoverished Africans whose leaders have plundered their countries' natural resources to enrich themselves.
France, which started giving up its 16 colonies in north and west Africa in the 1960s, has been a leading proponent of such a policy.
For decades, this produced corrupt and brutal, yet stable, African partners for France, helping it fend off the rival influences of Britain, the United States and more recently China.
These included President Omar Bongo of resource-rich Gabon, a notorious plunderer who died in June after 41 years in power in what is now the fourth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
France has often provided military support for these dictators. From 1997 to 2002, France intervened militarily in its former African colonies 34 times -- 26 of them outside the umbrella of the United Nations.
In June 2009, African analyst Khadija Sharife, writing in Foreign Policy in Focus, observed: "France drew up secretive defense agreements, which are still active today, that authorized it to legally maintain military bases in the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Togo, Cameroon, Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Senegal and other countries Â…
"Clauses contained within the agreements also ensured that France was legally entitled to be informed of and maintain priority access to natural resources, including uranium, oil and gas."
Still, French influence has been waning in Africa. But President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed when he was elected three years ago he would restore French influence in the former colonies and French-speaking countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, once ruled by Belgium.
The DRC, fabulously wealthy in natural resources, has been steadily plundered by warring factions over the last two decades. It is the world's largest French-speaking nation and if peace is ever restored would be a vital economic partner for Paris.
France's desire to have access to the wealth of the DRC and neighboring Congo-Brazzaville was illustrated by the decision by a French appeals court in October 2009 to halt a judicial investigation into the alleged plundering of their countries' riches by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, Omar Bongo of Gabon and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.
The latter is a former Spanish colony but Paris has courted its despotic rulers because the country's a burgeoning oil producer of growing strategic importance.
The charges of pillaging these nations with the connivance of successive French governments and using the loot to buy real estate in France were brought against the trio of African tyrants by the anti-corruption group Transparency International.
A senior investigating magistrate ruled in May 2009 that there was a case to answer, much to the dismay of Paris. State prosecutors sought to have the investigation stopped, and the appeals court ruled in their favor.

The NY Independent System Operator Confirms Andrew Cuomo’s “PowerNY” Energy Plan to Shut Down Indian Point Nuclear Plant Would Cause Electrical Grid Instability and More Frequent Blackouts.

http://thisweekinnuclear.com/
Listen to the Podcast Here
New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo makes no bones about it. He plans to shut down Indian Point Nuclear Plant if he is elected. His opposition to the plant is no secret. He has been an out spoken critic of the plant for years, even though Federal inspectors and independent safety assessments agree the plant is safe. As part of his bid for Governor, Cuomo published his long term energy plan, “PowerNY” in which he calls for the two Indian Point nuclear energy facilities to shut down in 2013 and 2015.
PowerNY states,

Andrew Cuomo has long been a supporter of closing the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester and has argued that the federal government should not renew the plant’s operating license when it expires in 2013.

PowerNY says New York must “find alternate sources of generation and transmission” so they can replace Indian Point. Last week, however, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) released its latest Reliability Assessment of the electrical grid in New York. They are the independent non-profit organization that controls the flow of electricity throughout the state. They are responsible for ensuring the electrical grid is safe and reliable. In this report the NYISO concluded that without Indian Point the system would become unreliable and blackouts more frequent. Here is what they said:
PowerNY says New York must “find alternate sources of generation and transmission” so they can replace Indian Point. Last week, however, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) released its latest Reliability Assessment of the electrical grid in New York. They are the independent non-profit organization that controls the flow of electricity throughout the state. They are responsible for ensuring the electrical grid is safe and reliable. In this report the NYISO concluded that without Indian Point the system would become unreliable and blackouts more frequent. Here is what they said:

Reliability violations would occur if the Indian Point Plant were to be retired at
the latter of the two units’ current license expiration dates using the Base Case load forecast assumptions.

In layman’s terms, that means the grid would become unstable and blackouts much more likely if Indian Point is shut down. In fact, if you read the report in detail it states that blackouts would be almost four times more likely than allowed by ISO rules if Indian Point is taken out of service. The NYISO also stated

Under stress conditions, the voltage performance on the system without Indian Point would be degraded.

This means that during peak loads like those that occur on warm summer days voltage on the grid would drop to dangerously low levels. When this occurs grid operators are sometimes forces to implement rolling blackouts to prevent loss of large portions of the electrical supply system. This “degraded voltage” condition also causes accelerated wear and tear on industrial motors, household appliances and electronics because as voltage drops the current draw of the machines rises. This can cause the appliances to short circuit and fail.
The report also says that electricity generated outside the regions would be unable to reach southern New York and New York City because of “transmission constraints.” Simply put, there are not enough transmission lines to bring that huge quantity of energy the long distances needed to replace Indian Point.
The NYISO is not alone. Experts from the National Academy of Sciences also say alternatives are not available. The NAS says existing power plants and transmission lines won’t be able to replace Indian Point. New power plants would have to be built in the lower Hudson Valley or large transmission lines would need to be built to bring the power in from far away. The NAS calls both of these unlikely because of the lack of funding and because permitting and finding suitable locations for such facilities would be difficult.
If you live in New York you should keep this in mind when you go to the polls in November. Andrew Cuomo’s energy plan is a feel good fantasy that wont work in the real world.
John Wheeler

Cyber Attacks Test Pentagon, Allies and Foes By SIOBHAN GORMAN in Washington and STEPHEN FIDLER in London

U.S. military and civilian networks are probed thousands of times a day, and the systems of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters are attacked at least 100 times a day, according to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general. "It's no exaggeration to say that cyber attacks have become a new form of permanent, low-level warfare," he said.
More than 100 countries are currently trying to break into U.S. networks, defense officials say. China and Russia are home to the greatest concentration of attacks.
The Pentagon's Cyber Command is scheduled to be up and running next month, but much of the rest of the U.S. government is lagging behind, debating the responsibilities of different agencies, cyber-security experts say. The White House is considering whether the Pentagon needs more authority to help fend off cyber attacks within the U.S.
"The Obama administration is very focused on this. The president has designated [cyber security] as a critical national asset," said an Obama administration official, adding that agencies responsible for cyber security have been staffing up, including Homeland Security's development of SWAT teams to respond to cyber attacks on critical infrastructure. "Not only do we have a strategy, but we have moved beyond that to implementation."
NATO's systems are behind the U.S.'s, said one person familiar with U.S. assessments of NATO's systems after a recent trip the deputy defense secretary made there. "The Chinese totally owned them," this person said, adding that NATO hadn't installed many of the basic network security patches, because it had decided some of its computers were too important to ever turn off.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai denied Friday that the alliance's computers were regularly compromised. Apart from a couple of disruptions to its public website, there have been no successful infiltrations of NATO's classified systems, he said.
In the U.K., "we expect to see increased resources for cyber-security operations as part of the upcoming security and defense spending review, and hope to work even more closely with the U.S. on such operations," said Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the U.S., on Friday.
Meanwhile, cyber weapons are being developed at a rapid pace. Many countries—including the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, the U.K., Pakistan, India and North and South Korea—have developed sophisticated cyber weapons that can repeatedly penetrate and have the ability to destroy computer networks, cyber-security specialists say.
Some U.S. intelligence officials and analysts worry that cyber weapons may become the next "loose nukes" problem. "The question is: When will these leak to al Qaeda?" said James Lewis, a cyber-security specialist at the Center for Strategic and International studies who regularly advises the Obama administration. "These are very tightly controlled, but some number of years from now, nonstate actors will have really good stuff."
Stuxnet alarmed officials both in the Pentagon and U.S. industry, because it targeted the core of industrial computer-control systems. "Instead of messing with the nervous system, you're going right to the brain now," one U.S. official said.
Gen. Keith Alexander, the chief of the new U.S. Cyber Command told a congressional panel this week: "What concerns me the most is destructive attacks that are coming, and we're concerned that those are the next things that we will see."
The danger, Gen. Alexander said, is that such attacks can do damage that is difficult to reverse and can't be fixed by blocking Internet traffic, destroying computers and other automated devices connected to the Internet before the government or a company can respond.
"That could cause tremendous damage," he said. "If that were to happen in a war zone, that means our command and control system and other things suffer."
Another danger, he said, is that such an attack could be mounted on the U.S. electrical or banking sector, and the affected company would largely be on its own to defend itself.
The White House is still trying to figure out how the government could aid the response to an attack on the private sector. If there were an attack today, Gen. Alexander said, his Cyber Command does not have the authority to respond to it.

More at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703793804575511961264943300.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

EU nuclear waste disposal plans 'not safe' claim scientists Emily Shelton

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/599919/eu_nuclear_waste_disposal_plans_not_safe_claim_scientists.html16th September 2010

Experts warn EU proposals for deep geological disposal of radioactive waste have ‘serious potential for something to go badly wrong’

Recent proposals from the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European ‘Implementing Geological Disposal’ Technology Platform (IGD-TP) claim there is a scientific consensus in support of deep geological disposal but Dr Wallace suggests this consensus is a ‘political rather than scientific one’.

The EU Commission is expected to publish a draft nuclear waste plan this autumn with ambitions for the first geological disposal facilities for nuclear waste to be ready by 2025.

Greenpeace is calling on EU leaders to look at alternatives, such as near surface or above ground storage or deep bore holes. Storing waste above ground was seen by Dr Wallace as the 'least bad option' because corrosion and leaking could be prevented.

more...

Iran: Computer Malware Attacked, Failed to Harm Nuclear Plant

Photo: AP

The reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is seen, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, 21 Aug 2010

from VOA News: Top Stories by Elizabeth Arrott

The head of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant has confirmed a computer worm infected some of the facility's software, but says the plant's main systems are all safe.

Bushehr Project Director Mahmoud Jahfari told state media an attack by the Stuxnet computer worm has had no impact on the operations of the nuclear power plant.

Jahfari said investigations showed that some private software belonging to Bushehr employees had been contaminated. He added that authorities are working to counter the attacks.

Iranian authorities had earlier acknowledged the worm has infected systems throughout the country, but said it had caused no serious damage.

Stuxnet, a self-replicating worm, has distinguished itself as the first known to be designed to take over industrial control systems. It is able to penetrate computer systems not connected to the internet.

The worm was detected earlier this year and has spread around the world. Iran is believed to be the most heavily affected, suffering an estimated 60 percent of the attacks.

The director of information technology at the Iranian Ministry of Industries and Mines, Mahmud Liai, told state media "an electronic war has been launched against Iran."

Several cyber experts point to the sophistication of the worm as an argument it might be the work of a state program, while political observers suggest the same, given that Iran has suffered disproportionately.

Political Science Professor Said Sadek of the American University in Cairo.

"It is very clear there was an attempt to send a strong message to Iran and its nuclear program by informing the Iranian authorities that their program is not immune and that someone can enter and penetrate and destroy and sabotage the whole process," Sadek said.

Sadek says because of the secrecy of the Iranian government and its tendency to downplay negative developments, it is difficult to tell what the full impact of Stuxnet may be.

The Bushehr plant is not believed to play any significant role in what many Western nations believe is Iran's desire to build a nuclear weapon, a goal Tehran denies.

Iran Fights Malware Attacking Computers - New York Times

Stuxnet, which was first publicly identified several months ago, is aimed solely at industrial equipment made by Siemens that controls oil pipelines, electric utilities, nuclear facilities and other large industrial sites. While it is not clear that Iran was the main target — the infection has also been reported in Indonesia, Pakistan, India and elsewhere — a disproportionate number of computers inside Iran appear to have been struck, according to reports by computer security monitors.
Given the sophistication of the worm and its aim at specific industrial systems, many experts believe it is most probably the work of a state, rather than independent hackers. The worm is able to attack computers that are disconnected from the Internet, usually to protect them; in those cases an infected USB drive is plugged into a computer. The worm can then spread itself within a computer network, and possibly to other networks.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency in Iran on Saturday quoted Reza Taghipour, a top official of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, as saying that “the effect and damage of this spy worm in government systems is not serious” and that it had been “more or less” halted.
But another Iranian official, Mahmud Liai of the Ministry of Industry and Mines, was quoted as saying that 30,000 computers had been affected, and that the worm was “part of the electronic warfare against Iran.”
ISNA, another Iranian news agency, had reported Friday that officials from Iran’s atomic energy agency had been meeting in recent days to discuss how to remove the Stuxnet worm, which exploits some previously unknown weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows software. Microsoft has said in recent days that it is fixing those vulnerabilities.
It is extraordinarily difficult to trace the source of any sophisticated computer worm, and nearly impossible to determine for certain its target.
But the Iranians have reason to suspect they are high on the target list: in the past, they have found evidence of sabotage of imported equipment, notably power supplies to run the centrifuges that are used to enrich uranium at Natanz. The New York Times reported in 2009 that President George W. Bush had authorized new efforts, including some that were experimental, to undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other networks that serve Iran’s nuclear program, according to current and former American officials.
The program is among the most secret in the United States government, and it has been accelerated since President Obama took office, according to some American officials. Iran’s enrichment program has run into considerable technical difficulties in the past year, but it is not clear whether that is because of the effects of sanctions against the country, poor design for its centrifuges, which it obtained from Pakistan, or sabotage.
“It is easy to look at what we know about Stuxnet and jump to the conclusion that it is of American origin and Iran is the target, but there is no proof of that,” said James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and one of the country’s leading experts on cyberwar intelligence. “We may not know the real answer for some time.”
Based on what he knows of Stuxnet, Mr. Lewis said, the United States is “one of four or five places that could have done it — the Israelis, the British and the Americans are the prime suspects, then the French and Germans, and you can’t rule out the Russians and the Chinese.”
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Iran Fights Malware Attacking Computers - New York Times

Nuclear Consistency: As Easy as 1-2-3?

Charles K. Ebinger, Director, Energy Security Initiative
Govinda Avasarala, Research Assistant, Energy Security Initiative

The Brookings Institution

September 23, 2010 —

In the international civilian nuclear arena, it appears that the Orwellian maxim applies: all states are equal, but some are more equal than others. In early August the Wall Street Journal reported that the United States and Vietnam are in advanced negotiations for a civilian nuclear cooperation accord, also known as a “123” agreement. By all accounts, the agreement under discussion would not impinge upon Vietnam’s right to enrich uranium, a process that is required to create new reactor fuel, but one that also confers the key ability to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. The deal follows hard on the heels of the Bush administration’s famous (or infamous) 123 agreement with India that allowed a non-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to continue domestic enrichment and reprocessing while enjoying the benefits of civilian nuclear trade with the United States.

Ignoring the proliferation concerns present in an opaque Indian nuclear system or an embryonic Vietnamese program, what is most troublesome is the government’s rationale for permitting enrichment in Vietnam. According to Philip Crowley, State Department assistant secretary for public affairs, “if Vietnam chooses, exercising its right under the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] to enrichment, that is a decision for them to make. It’s not a decision for the United States to make.”
While Mr. Crowley is correct in citing the NPT—Article IV of the treaty declares the “inalienable right” for each country to pursue nuclear energy—his literal interpretation appears in stark contrast to the U.S. attitude to aspirant civilian nuclear states in the Middle East. The recent 123 agreement with the United Arab Emirates, which is on a fast-track to building a nuclear energy program, precludes enrichment and reprocessing. The UAE’s concessions were based on the grounds that the U.S. will not enter into a more lenient 123 agreement with any other nation in the Middle East. The hard line in the UAE deal with regard to enrichment is also evident in the Obama administration’s attitude to Jordan, a steadfast ally that signed the NPT in 1968, despite recently discovering abundant domestic reserves of natural uranium.
This unconcealed double-standard creates two problems: first, it makes it difficult for this administration, which has taken admirable steps to engage the countries in the Middle East, to show that it is not talking out of both sides of its mouth. Second, it undermines the administration’s condemnation of the nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan, despite the latter’s egregious proliferation record.
The Obama administration would be better served by adopting a singular nuclear energy cooperation policy. While some may dismiss such a stance as impeding necessary diplomatic flexibility, for a topic as sensitive as nuclear energy and non-proliferation, in regions as tumultuous as the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, unwavering principles are a good thing.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Brookings Foreign Policy Paper Series | Number 22 Realities of a Rising China and Implications for Russia’s Energy Ambitions

In the past decade, Russian-Chinese relations improved dramatically––reaching what appeared to be a high point in 2008 before Russia felt the full impact of the global economic downturn. Russia and China increased bilateral trade; concluded a range of economic and political agreements; and forged a new political institution in Central Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, all driven by a strong mutual interest in increasing their economic relationship, especially in the energy sphere. In 2008, after an often turbulent history marked by territorial grabs, an outbreak of war in the late 1960s, and tensions surrounding the migration of Chinese workers into Russia’s sparsely-populated Far East, Moscow and Beijing finalized a landmark border agreement. They resolved their last outstanding territorial disputes, reinforcing the agreement with a good neighborly relations treaty.

Against this backdrop throughout the 2000s, Russian and U.S. analysts debated whether Russia’s economic and energy relations with China would provide a longer-term alternative to Russia’s relations with Europe, and if a Russian-Chinese “authoritarian” model for economic development could eventually displace Western liberal capitalism given Russia’s and China’s impressive growth rates. The two countries’ seeming convergence on a number of political issues––such as questioning U.S. primacy in global political and financial matters, preserving the authority of the UN Security Council, institutionalizing the G20, opposing the independence of Kosovo, and resisting international efforts to impose sanctions on Iran and take harsh measures against North Korea––also encouraged speculation that improved Russian-Chinese relations could eventually translate into a “strategic partnership” that would act as a counterweight to the United States and the transatlantic alliance. Frequent cordial summits and high-level visits, and often enthusiastic Russian rhetoric about the excellent state of relations, seemed to put China at the top of Russia’s economic and strategic agenda.
The decade ahead, however, seems more challenging for Russian-Chinese relations than 2000-2010, given economic and demographic disparities between the two countries and a number of other trends tracking in China’s rather than Russia’s favor. China has recovered more quickly from the effects of the economic crisis and seen both its economic and political weight increase relative to other major regional and global powers. Russian concerns that Moscow does not have the capacity to compete economically with a rising China, and may even eventually be relegated by Beijing to the status of “junior partner” politically, have come to the surface.
Bilateral energy cooperation, which has been the most visible and commented-on feature of the Russian-Chinese relationship, is likely to continue to feature a one step forward, two steps back dynamic especially given increasing competition between Moscow and Beijing over access to energy resources in the Caspian region and Central Asia. Other differences in foreign policy and security perspectives make it difficult to envision the creation of a sustainable strategic partnership. Fears of an energy-fueled Russian-Chinese alliance against U.S. interests that darkened some American analyses of the relationship in the 2000s may fade to more nuanced shades of gray in 2010-2020, as Russia and Chinese interests begin to diverge.

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