Nuclear Non-Proliferation

[cavalier]

I don't know if this made the news in other parts of the world, but I've just been reading in the newspaper that Australia and China have just ratified an agreement allowing the export of uranium to Beijing. The agreement was made last year, and followed 12 months of negotiations over safguards to ensure the fuel would ot be used in nuclear weapons.
There's something I'm curious about, how do these safeguards work?

Given a recent conversation I took part in on a different thread, I want to make it clear that it is not my intention in this thread to point the finger at China and question their motives for buying uranium. I am just interested to understand the safeguards.

 

[flowperson]

Hi Cav:

My understanding is that there is an international organization that has been tasked by the UN to police such agreements and to carry out periodic on site inspections to affirm that materials covered under such agreements is not being utilized for weapons work or research. I believe it's called the IAEA or something similar.

Roughly it interacts with signatory nations to the international non-proliferation treaties. Interestingly non-signatories include India ( which just signed a weapons materials deal with the USA and whose work will NOT be subject to inspections ), Israel ( which officially does not posses or manufacture nuclear weapons, wink, wink ), N Korea, and a few others.

Iran does allow such inspections and has always been cleared of suspicion officially, even though they are the latest to be accused by the Neocons in the USA of conspiring to create nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Iran is also a signatory to non-proliferation treaties.

Confusing huh?

flow....

 

[wil]

I believe all of this stuff works, wink wink nod nod.

Mister can you buy me beer and cigarettes for my dad?

I think there are good intentions, and then there is negotiation, all is fair in love war and world domination.

Most any country has and will sign or say anything to get what they want.

 

[cavalier]

Thanks flow, wil
When I was writing before I was thinking about how the US's deal with India undermines the international non-proliferation agreement.
Away from nuclear armaments, there's also the fact that Israel is suspected of selling US technology to China.
You mentioned negotiations wil. One of the interesting things about Australia selling uranium to China was that it took 12 months of negotiations to sort out the safeguards, that makes me wonder. What safeguards did Australia want but didn't get? and what safeguards did China agree to but didn't want to carry out?

 

[wil]

When I was writing before I was thinking about how the US's deal with India undermines the international non-proliferation agreement. ....One of the interesting things about Australia selling uranium to China was that it took 12 months of negotiations to sort out the safeguards, that makes me wonder. ...

Yes India has shown Korea and Iran, that if you put up the good fight...but keep developing, when you get your weapons...walla, you are now a member of the club...a power to be reckoned with and respected, instead of berated before the world court...you now have bargaining chips that you never have to mention...

As for negotiations...my cynical self says the chinese didn't need the material for 12 months...they were planning ahead...and the year of negotiations simply saved face for the australians...

 

[flowperson]

The uranium for the first bomb's construction at Los Alamos during WWII came from the Belgian Congo and was refined at Hanford in Washington state and at Oak Ridge Laboratories in Tennessee which were both built and developed specifically for the Manhattan Project, just in case anybody's interested in historical factoids. That's where all of this crap began. I'm still torn as to whether any of it was necessary, but science and technology "marches on" with both sides of the coin of reality in play.

But new discoveries in science now teaches us that the "initial conditions" of any new developments ALWAYS are critical in determining final outcomes. The deception and subterfuge continues to contribute to our collective peril perhaps ? I have this distinct impression that the powers that be view all of this stuff as some sort of football match to be "won" as opposed to that which has the power to determine humankind's continuance.

flow....