nuclear roundup
Here’s a bunch of stories that, taken together, indicate more of a shake-up in the global order.
Iran has all but agreed that Brazil should be the mediator between Tehran and the United Nations – rather than the axis of the US, Britain and France inside the UN Security Council, plus Germany – to finally settle the Iranian nuclear dossier. According to the Fars news agency, after his visit early this week to New York, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, in a phone call with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told him that Iran had agreed with the Brazilian proposal for a nuclear fuel swap deal for the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer treatment. The proposal will be discussed in detail when Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visits Tehran by the end of next week.
Lula da Silva’s self-confidence is indicative of Brazil’s claim to the status of a major power — including in military terms. The military claim is reflected in the country’s National Defense Strategy, which was unveiled in late 2008. In addition to the mastery of the complete nuclear fuel cycle — which has since been achieved — the document calls for the building of nuclear-powered submarines.
It sounds harmless enough, but it isn’t, because the term “nuclear-powered submarines” could in fact be a cover for a nuclear weapons program. Brazil already had three secret military nuclear programs between 1975 and 1990, with each branch of its armed forces pursuing its own route. The navy’s approach proved to be the most successful: using imported high-performance centrifuges to produce highly enriched uranium from imported uranium hexafluoride, so as to be able to operate small reactors for submarines. At the appropriate time, the country’s newly acquired nuclear capabilities were to be revealed to the world with a “peaceful nuclear explosion,” based on the example set by India. The 300-meter (984-foot) shaft for the test had already been drilled. According to statements by the former president of the National Nuclear Energy Commission, in 1990 the Brazilian military was on the verge of building a bomb.
And this one here is a game-changer, or could be:
Israel would probably do well for itself by declaring its program and joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and much better to do it voluntarily than to be dragged kicking and screaming. Not much chance of that happening, however.
