Warning: long post. Observing the frequent travels of the IAEA’s Olli Heinonen to Iran of late, Andreas Persbo suggests that the negotiation of new safeguards measures may be underway for the still-incomplete gas-centrifuge enrichment plant at Natanz, currently undergoing low-level operations. This raises a rather interesting question: just how does the IAEA conduct safeguards at …
What to do with British Pu?
by | 2008-08-27 | 3 Comments
Here’s an interesting factoid. The UK and US each possess about 100 MT of separated plutonium. However, the UK stockpile is largely civilian, whereas the US stockpile is almost entirely military. The UK is currently engaged in a debate about what to do with this plutonium. Last year the Royal Society published a report on …
Here We Go 'Round The Mulberry Bush
by | 2008-08-27 | 9 Comments
Comeback time already? I’m pretty sure this was made of concrete. Following are some excerpts from a translation of the August 26, 2008 statement of the North Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman. The full text appears in the comments. The official English translation is now available here. The 3 October agreement — which stipulates the second-stage …
Reflections on Chris Ford
by | 2008-08-26 | 3 Comments
We’ve just had a public holiday in the UK and, in consequence, a long weekend but I wanted to add a few thoughts to Jeffrey’s post last Friday about Chris Ford’s resignation. Being the US representative at NPT meetings is a pretty thankless task, but Dr Ford did it very well. What made him a …
