Information below - from Nuclear Energy Information Service, Illinois' Nuclear Power Watchdog for 25 Years www.neis.org

"There is no technical demarcation between the military and civilian reactor and there never was one. What has persisted over the decades is just the misconception that such a linkage does not exist." From the Los Alamos National Laboratory dated August, 1981

In order to get plutonium for weapons, one needs a reactor, whether it is a "research" reactor....... or a commercial reactor

FISSIONABLE MATERIALS: It is the same nuclear fuel cycle with its mining of uranium, milling, enrichment and fuel fabrication stages which readies the uranium ore for use in reactors, whether these reactors are used to create plutonium for bombs or generate electricity. In the end, both reactors produce the plutonium. The only difference between them is the concentration of the various isotopes used in the fuel. Each year a typical 1000 mega-watt (MW) commercial power reactor will produce 300 to 500 pounds of plutonium -- enough to build between 25 - 40 Nagasaki-sized atomic bombs.

....…..It takes about 15 pounds of plutonium-239 or uranium-235 to fashion a crude nuclear device. The technology to enrich the isotopes is available for about one million dollars....

....even the most technically advanced nations cannot keep track of their materials and technology. In an inventory taken between October, 1980, and March, 1981, the U.S. government could not account for about 55 pounds of plutonium and 159 pounds of uranium from its weapons facilities. The explanation given for this Missing material was "accounting error" and that the materials were "stuck in the piping."

."Mechanized civilization has just reached the ultimate stage of barbarism. In a near future, we will have to choose between mass suicide and intelligent use of scientific conquests. This can no longer be simply a prayer; it must become an order which goes upward from the peoples to the governments, an order to make a definitive choice between hell and reason."Albert Camus August 8, 1945,

the Chinese are building a massive strategic naval base on Hainan island, in the South China Sea, south of Hong Kong.

.................A reputed British daily has described the base as a "vast, James bond-style edifice capable of concealing up to 20 nuclear-powered submarines and which will enable China to project its power across the region".............…

…………………….China reportedly possesses five nuclear submarines and is looking to double the fleet............................".

Inaction is no longer an option. Millions of people stopped smoking cigarettes, so stop buying (usually tap) water in toxic plastic bottles. How about charging for waste removal by volume and weight?

Hope in a Time of Crisis Here is a sample of the menu of solutions Peace Island is offering: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy; Micro-Finance: Empowering Individuals to Make a Difference; Remaking Our Food System; Restoring Ethical Decision-Making in Government; Sustainability: The New Business Model. Peace Island speakers actually have practical ways to move our constipated system into peaceful sustainability.

Obstacles Twin Cities churches have denied space to peace groups during the RNC because it's "too political" (read: we-might-lose-our-tax-status). It's that "peace threat" aggravated by media hype about Republicans versus protesters. If everybody is on one side or the other then we're screaming at each other from the sidelines with nobody on the field. Peace Island is about confronting problems, not people.........................".

World affairs discussed during meeting Montgomery Advertiser By Jenn Rowell (USA) May 7, 2008 Military officers at Air War College learn more air power tactics, leadership and strategy.........................Three instructors who took students around the world in early March formed a panel Tuesday night for the Alabama World Affairs Council meeting in Montgomery. The instructors have diverse areas of specialties and offered their assessments on those regions of the world. ……………………………One of the major issues in the European theater is that of Russia. Conversino took students to Ukraine and Russia, ………

………Ukraine is pro-West and also weary of Russia, as are Poland and other countries in the vicinity, Conversino said.

A problem for neighboring countries and most others is the condition of Russia's nuclear arsenal, the second largest in the world. The arsenal is aging and improper disposal could cause major environmental problems. The weapons also could end up in the hands of non-state agents, since in many cases, nuclear waste disposal includes digging a hole, tossing a barrel in and covering it with dirt, Conversino said.........................".

Pediatrician fights for worldwide disarmament
James Yamazaki's years of studying the effects of nuclear arms inform his advocacy against them
Daily Bruin John Guigayoma, May 5, 2008 - "......Professor James Yamazaki was a UCLA pediatrician, a World War II prisoner of war and a published memoirist who is currently a leading advocate for worldwide nuclear disarmament. Yamazaki will receive the 2008 Socially Responsible Medicine Award on June 8 from the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility for his "lifelong work on the effects of radiation and public health," according to the organization's Web site.
Physicians for Social Responsibility is a public health organization that works toward reducing threats from nuclear weaponry and environmental degradation...........................................Yamazaki's latest project, "Children of the Atomic Bomb," a Web site about the survivors of the 1945 U.S. nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that left generations of families with genetic deformities......................"My mind just boggles at the thought of this man," Yamamoto said. "What motivates him every morning is to get the message out there and really spread the word of peace. That's what he's devoted his life to - to peace."
The Web site is under the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and was launched in 2006, more than 60 years after the bombs were dropped.
.........................................In 1949, the U.S. government called on a 33-year-old Yamazaki to be the physician in charge of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Nagasaki, a program that investigated the impact of the bomb on the target areas and the effects of the attack on survivors.
Yamazaki focused his research on newborn babies that were still in the womb when the bomb hit. His team searched for expecting mothers through decimated hospitals and homes. Many of the pregnant women they found lost their children to stillbirths and miscarriages..
When they examined the babies who were born, the researchers' predictions were confirmed. Among those infants, they found significant numbers with stunted growth and eye problems. The most important discovery was cases of abnormally small heads and mental retardation.
"The most sensitive part of the human body was the fetal nervous system. With a certain amount of radiation, you could predict that the brain could have extensive malformation," Yamazaki said.
Yamazaki also continued to research the effects of nuclear radiation on survivors in Hiroshima and after U.S. test bombings in the Marshall Islands......................................

In 2006, the Children of the Atomic Bomb Web site began as another effort to spread the word about the condition of the survivors in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.......................................................".

Nuclear guinea pig in damages claim Norwich Evening News David Bale 24 April 2008 A Norwich veteran of nuclear testing is part of a group that has served a writ at the High Court claiming unlimited damages from the Ministry of Defence.

Solicitors acting for the 180 claimants, known as the Atomic Veterans Group, which includes David Freeman from Thorpe St Andrew, are claiming damages as survivors, their dependents and representatives, or those directly affected by atomic bomb testing in the 1950s and early '60s.

According to the High Court writ, each claim is for personal injuries and the total value of all the claims is in excess of £50,000 and unlimited......................................................More than 20,000 men were sent to Australia and the Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s to witness hundreds of atomic blast tests.

Successive governments have insisted the problems are coincidence, but earlier this year it emerged that eight Manx veterans will get at least £8,000 compensation each for the day they were ordered into the bomb blast zone.

BBC documentary reveals government reckless in drive for nuclear weapons World Socialist Website By Trevor Johnson 29 April 2008 - "In a recently aired documentary, "Windscale: Britain's Biggest Nuclear Disaster," the BBC investigated the history of the first British nuclear power station and its role in the development of nuclear weapons.

It presented strong evidence that the Windscale fire of 1957-the first fire in any nuclear facility-was caused by the flagrant abandonment of safety measures.

This took place because of pressure from the British government to produce bomb-making material. The programme explained how the 1957 fire brought Windscale to the brink of a major nuclear disaster, in which many of the people working there could have been killed and a wide area around the site left contaminated for decades.

The uranium industry and its supporters routinely claim that the safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ``ensures'' that Australian uranium (and by-products such as plutonium) will not be used for nuclear weapons
However, only a fraction of safeguards-eligible nuclear facilities and stockpiles are actually inspected by the IAEA.....................In addition to IAEA safeguards, countries buying Australian uranium must sign a bilateral agreement.

However, there are no Australian inspections of nuclear stockpiles or facilities using Australian uranium. Australia is entirely reliant on the partial and underfunded inspection system of the IAEA. The most important provisions in bilateral agreements are for prior Australian consent before Australian nuclear material is transferred to a third party, enriched beyond 20 per cent uranium-235, or reprocessed.

However, no Australian government has ever refused permission to separate plutonium from spent fuel via reprocessing..................

..............As for the alleged benefits of the industry, uranium accounts for just one-third of 1 per cent of Australia's export revenue. The industry makes an even smaller contribution to employment.

Claims about the greenhouse ``benefits'' of nuclear power typically ignore more greenhouse-friendly renewable energy sources and the use of several types of renewables to supply reliable base-load power (for example, geothermal, bioenergy, solar thermal with storage, and sometimes hydro).

Furthermore, as the limited reserves of high-grade uranium ore are used up and low-grade ore has to be used, greenhouse emissions from mining and milling uranium will become substantial.

Former Director of the U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium Project reveals toxic effects of America's Military Operations The Canadian Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD. 19 April 08 - "After more than 5 years of unprovoked and unjustified war in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Somalia the use of uranium weapons -- the perfect "dirty bomb" and consequent destruction of each nation's infrastructure, has released all kinds of toxic materials turning these nations into a toxic wastelands.

Consequently the number of casualties continues to escalate while U.S. and British officials arrogantly refuse to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require provide prompt and effective medical care to "all" exposed individuals and to clean up all environmental contamination

…………………………While uranium weapons contamination remains and will remain a serious hazard and can't be cleaned up the hazardous materials that have been dispersed throughout these regions intensifies the adverse health and environmental effects.

The extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination is not limited to combat zones in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan but includes facilities and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested including Vieques; Puerto Rico; Colonie, New York; Concord, MA; Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana; and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii................................

...…………..Beyond these diagnosed medical problems we must look at what will happen in the future because of extensive air, water, soil, and food contamination. It is obvious that war with the use of today's weapons such as uranium weapons and consequent releases of complex toxic materials causing immediate and eternal adverse health and environmental effects can no longer be justified................................." .

Ministry of Defence's' shameful new claim to nuclear test veterans Sunday Mirror Uk By Susie Boniface 20/04/2008 - "Ministry of Defence chiefs have told Britain's nuclear veterans they were SAFER watching A-bombs being tested than they were if they had stayed at home.

The unbelievable claim comes as the Government faces a multi-million-pound demand for compensation.

It is part of a 25-page dossier which is expected to form the backbone of the MoD's defence against 700 veterans of the 1957-62 Christmas Island tests who are taking them to court.

But it has been met with astonishment by politicians, scientists and vets who have watched the frightening toll of cancers, miscarriages and genetic illnesses strike them, their children and grandchildren.
Dr Ian Gibson, a Labour MP fighting for the vets, said: '"It is absolute nonsense and plainly the most astonishing bit of so-called science I've ever heard of'.............

22,000 servicemen were forced to watch the tests...while top brass and scientists were kept a safe distance away.Other countries have since admitted liability and paid compensation.....Radiation expert Dr Mark Little, of Imperial College London, damned the MoD's science. He said that even people on the other side of the world received small doses from the six British tests. Dr Gibson said................................":

Impact of nuclear war worse than predicted, study reports
by Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News April 7, 2008 - "A regional nuclear exchange would decimate the protective ozone layer from pole to pole, triggering human health problems and causing environmental havoc for at least a decade, a new study says.
India and Pakistan already have enough weapons in their arsenals to spark the global environmental nightmare if they were to exchange missile fire over, say, the Kashmir Pass border dispute, says the study by University of Colorado scientists.

The study includes variables not considered in previous "nuclear winter" scenarios and finds that global environmental catastrophes will be much worse than previously thought.

The study, using computer models, found that a nuclear war between two countries involving 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear devices on each side would cause massive fires in cities and loft some 5 million metric tons of soot 50 miles into the stratosphere.
The soot would absorb enough solar radiation to heat surrounding gases, said lead author Michael Mills of CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. That would set in motion a series of chemical reactions that would break down the stratospheric ozone layer that protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

"We would see a dramatic drop in ozone levels that would persist for many years," said Mills. "At mid-latitudes the ozone decrease would be up to 40 percent, which could have huge effects on human health and on terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems."
A paper on the subject, "Massive Global Ozone Loss Predicted Following A Regional Nuclear Conflict," written by scientists from CU, UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, appears this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences..............................."

Nuclear Weapons: The Greatest Peril to Civilization Yale Global, Ted Turner 25 March 2008 - ".....................…………The thing that really upsets me, one of the things that upsets me, is that with nuclear annihilation, and it will happen sooner or later if we don't get rid of the weapons, the weapons are going to get rid of us. I mean, at some point... because just remember a couple of months ago that B-52 bomber took off from Nebraska and flew down to one of the Gulf Coast states - was it Louisiana or Texas - and they had six armed hydrogen bombs on the plane that got on accidentally - and they didn't even know they were on there and for several days they were missing. When they landed they didn't know they had them on there...................

……… we're going to exterminate all the higher forms of life with nuclear war. There won't be anything left except maybe a few cockroaches. That's a hell of a thing to have done to ourselves.

…………………………..The great military powers of today are not going to be the powers of tomorrow. The countries that are going to be the great powers of tomorrow are the ones with the best educational systems, the ones with the best health care, the ones with the best science and technology, the ones with the best businessmen, the ones with the most integrity. ……"

Violation of Human Rights In SF Area: Interview with Karen Parker, UN International Attorney
IndyBay.org by Cathy Garger
Mar 21st, 2008 - "A raging human rights battle is brewing between the Department of Energy and the people of the greater San Francisco/San Jose area. Citizen activists and environmental rights groups are up in arms over the right of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to explode toxic and radioactive materials into California's air. …………

………….The Livermore Laboratory is seeking to increase these frequent San Francisco Bay area "blasts" from the current 1,000 lbs. to 8,000 lbs. annually. The new permit states that up to 350 lbs. of materials may be detonated per explosion, "with no more than one detonation occurring in any given hour." Under current provisions, up to 100 lbs. of materials per explosion are allowed.

Among the five dozen substances listed in the permit, public opposition centers around the most hotly contested nuclear weapons material called "Depleted" Uranium. A product of nuclear processing, Depleted Uranium is used in munitions which, when fired or exploded, produce up to 80 percent ceramic Uranium Oxide aerosols. This hazardous material is used in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq - and presumably in Somalia as well. The use of Depleted Uranium in combat has been declared illegal under the UN Sub Commission of Human Rights. Its use is also a violation of various treaties, conventions, and international laws.

On the matter of the extent that Depleted Uranium causes harm, Ms. Parker has written, "DU weapons 'kill' in inhumane ways, causing cancers, kidney problems, eye problems, lung diseases, and according to the medical researchers who have investigated it, many other serious conditions. Additionally, DU weapons cause disabilities in the children of those exposed - cranial-facial anomalies, missing limbs, grossly deformed and non-viable infants and the like - so in this sense are teratogenic."

"As these conditions can occur to non-combatants or may arise long after military operations have concluded, DU weapons are necessarily inhumane. The teratogenic nature of DU weapons raises the possibility of a genocidal effect. Finally, DU weapons unduly contaminate the natural environment, including water and agricultural land necessary for the subsistence of the civilian population for beyond the lifetime of that population...................................."

A Less than Grand Strategy: NATO's New Vision, The Preemptive Use of Nuclear Weapons Global Research by Spencer Spratley March 21, 2008 - '"A few months ago, a report was published entitled "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership". It was written by five generals and it proposes a new vision for the NATO alliance and a strengthening of ties between the United States and the European Union. ………

….The report contains some shocking and alarming statements …………'The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction, in order to avoid truly existential dangers." …………In sum, nuclear weapons remain indispensable, and nuclear escalation continues to remain an element of any modern strategy."

In short, the publication suggests that NATO should adhere to the Bush administration's credo of "strike first" and that the definition of "proportional" can, and must, include the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The flawed logic is that the Western world should be prepared to use nuclear weapons in order to prevent their "enemies" from developing and/or using those same weapons. It goes without saying that that this position carries with it a whole host of problems.

The following issues immediately spring to mind:

1) The naive belief that "mini-nukes" are somehow a safe and proportional response to perceived threats is an unproven and frightening proposition which contains the potential to plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust. ………

..2) A policy of preemptive use eliminates any real notion of deterrence. If a government felt it was being targeted for attack or regime change, what incentive would there be for that nation to refrain from striking first with WMD's or any other means at their disposal?

3) It's difficult to imagine a scenario where this policy would not, in fact, encourage the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (and weapons of all kinds). Common sense suggests that nations who feel cornered would likely adopt an attitude of, "If we're gonna be hit, lets make sure we can hit back."

4) The publication does not address the long-term implications of a preemptive attack. Decapitating the leadership of a nation and laying waste to its terrain does not provide any reason to hope that from the ashes of such a calamity would emerge a model state which would pose no further threat to the Western world. …………………

……..The report itself contains other flaws and arguments which only serve to polarize groups and nations and move us further from a spirit of co-operation and understanding...........................................................".

Big boys' undermining non-proliferation regime
11 Feb 2008 The following is an excerpt from the speech of of Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy: "………………………………………
The big boys continue to say we need nuclear weapons, we need to develop more modern nuclear weapons, we need mini-nukes, we need bunker busters, but it is bad for you to have nuclear weapons.
Simply if you go anywhere people will tell you this is called double standard. It is not sustainable. And I try as much obviously in my job to make sure that we do as much to avoid proliferation but we are working against the tide. Unless as Frank Walter mentioned weapon states have to lead an example. They have to show the way that we are making our way to move towards nuclear disarmament.

That is no now a fantasy. When I see people like George Schultz or Henry Kissinger or Sam Nunn talking about abolition, these are not people who are naive or no aware of security deterrents. These are people who through their maturity have come to the conclusion that nuclear weapons as they call it is increasingly hazardous, decreasingly effective and if you really want to protect ourselves, you need to move towards nuclear abolition...........................................".

Top brass call for nuclear first strike
Sydney Morning Herald Ian Traynor in Brussels
January 23, 2008
"THE West must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new NATO.
The document, written by five of the West's most senior military officers and strategists, has been presented to the Pentagon and NATO's secretary-general.
They have called for root-and-branch reform of NATO and a new pact drawing the US, NATO and the European Union together in a "grand strategy".
...................................................The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policy makers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to NATO's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a NATO summit in Bucharest in April..............................

The authors are: General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and NATO's former supreme commander in Europe; General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former top soldier and former chairman of NATO's military committee; General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff; Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff; and Lord Inge, field marshal and former chief of the general staff and the defence staff in Britain.........................Guardian News & Media "

India fails to have its way with IAEA
THETIMES OF INDIA 12 Jan 2008 , Rajat Pandit , TNN NEW DELHI: - "Indian negotiators have so far failed to have their way with IAEA on two key issues in what will be yet another setback to the prospect of the operationalization of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
Though foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Friday said the three earlier rounds of talks with the international nuclear watchdog had progressed smoothly, expressing hope that "we would wrap it up in the next round of talks in mid-January", sources said India has failed to persuade IAEA to meet its concerns on two crucial issues. ………………………

………….While pointing out that it's not in the business of supplying fuel, IAEA is also wary of conceding anything to India which may become a precedent for other countries to ask for the same..........".

Iran, Russia, and the Bomb
Iran's black market dealings are shrouded in mystery, but its procurement networks for nuclear bomb ingredients have most likely focused on the former Soviet Union. Spero News By Rens Lee 21 Dec 07 - "……………………………..what lethal nuclear items Iran may already possess cannot be inferred from the performance of its uranium conversion and enrichment facilities and from the spotty intelligence that shaped the NIE. Indeed, Iran's highly publicized nuclear energy program could serve as a convenient cover for a parallel small scale-but potentially lethal-weapons-building effort that relies extensively on black market operations to obtain strategic nuclear wares.

Iran's black market dealings are shrouded in mystery, but its procurement networks for nuclear bomb ingredients have most likely focused on the former Soviet Union. Iran's legal nuclear cooperation with Russia, for example, could mask and facilitate a variety of illegal transfers, and also give Iran plausibility regarding its motives and actions. Also, Iran, like other aspiring nuclear actors, may seek weapons components by means of smuggling chains that they either patronize or control. ……

……….Russia, of course, has long been a focus of proliferation concern ………….Even the most modern security systems are vulnerable to insider theft, especially when senior personnel of the enterprise are involved. (The latter would know how to circumvent or defeat the various steps in procedures designed to contain nuclear material at authorized sites.)................................"

The war of Uranium, the ignored war
uruknet December 7, 2007 "The United States knows how to kill, but kills better with Uranium bombs. Nuclear war has started with the Trojan horse of the bombs and projectiles of uranium used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The effects of the uranium war came home in the bodies of the veterans that participated in the fist war of Golf, who transmitted to their women the destructives genetic effects in the "ardent sperm" and the women passed it to her children that were born with no arms and other mutations. 240.000 veterans of Golf War I are in permanent medical inability and more than 11.000 already died, almost everyone "Cannon fodder" (or of uranium) poor, from Latin origin, afro-American or Asian.
Tons of uranium has fallen over Iraq and Afghanistan. The effects of the metal powder deployed on the winds, the sand storms, the water, the soil and the living creatures affect also a big region that is breathing particles of uranium in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel.

The United States launched experimental mini atomic bombs in the surroundings of Kabul, without anybody knowing, except the victims. Since a decade children with no eyes no encephalon and with other horrendous genetic malformations are being born. The government of Washington and the big media maintain this tragedy in the darkness of secret. A handful of scientists, family of veterans of war and people of press struggles desperately to contain the proliferation of the radioactive contamination in Asian Europe.

Cancer increases in more than 1.000 percent. All of this is coming to knowledge because of the annual study "Censured Project" of the Sonoma University, California, about the 25 more hidden subjects by the great press of EE.UU. The implicit message of this fourth delivery of the most censured subjects is Do something to stop the criminality of George W. Bush! (EC):

They find hi levels of uranium in troops and civilians by Bob Nichols, Tedd Weyman, Stephanie Hiller, Juan Gonzalez, Niloufer Bhagwat J., Jennifer Lilling and Kenny Crosbie.

The civilian population and the occupation troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are contaminated with amazing levels of radioactivity because of depleted uranium and not depleted used abundantly by the United States after September 11 of 2001 in the making of tons of munitions. The investigators say that the nearest countries will also feel the effects. …………………..The Uranium Bombings contaminated the air, the water, the soil, leaving beings, and humans, including the American invaders that come back home sick..."

Bush's push for new nuclear weapons - New Scientist - 4 August 07 - "WHO wants a shiny new set of nuclear weapons? Hands up, the Bush administration. Who doesn't? Democrat-controlled Congress.
A statement just submitted to Congress by the Secretaries of Energy, Defense, and State argues that if the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" plan isn't approved, the US might have to re-test cold war stocks, breaching its moratorium. Critics say the new nukes are not needed and will antagonise other countries.

So far, Congress has sided with the critics, slashing the proposed budget and calling for detailed preliminary studies.Building new weapons and refusing to discuss treaties makes it "hard to convince the world we have peaceful intentions", says Phil Coyle of analyst group the Center for Defense Information.

'We have to fulfil our obligations and commitments if we expect non-nuclear parties to cooperate,' says Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association. President Bush has refused to seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban signed by former president Bill Clinton.............................................."

From Hiroshima to Iraq, 61 years of uranium wars - A suicidal, genocidal, omnicidal course Global Research, by Leuren Moret June 12, 2007".........................................Carpet and grid bombing with depleted uranium weaponry in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan has guaranteed permanent radioactive terrain contamination. The recent discovery that U.S. depleted uranium bombs dropped by Israel on Lebanon in 2006 contained enriched uranium4,5 suggests covert testing of fourth generation nuclear weapons.

The United States and its allies are fully aware that this weaponry violates the Geneva and Hague Conventions and the 1925 Geneva Poison Gas Protocol.6 It meets the definition of WMD in the U.S. Code7 in two out of three categories. And its use violates U.S. military law.8 since the U.S. is a signatory to The Hague and Geneva Conventions..................................Heavy grid and carpet bombing with depleted uranium by the U.S. military on the eastern side of Afghanistan beginning in 2001 guaranteed heavy contamination in areas where deep snows in the mountainous regions provide water for Pakistan and parts of western India.

By contaminating vital water supplies in vast regions with radioactive contaminants...............Radioactive wars with low level radiation will mutilate the DNA of all exposed living things. This is not just a war against people; it is a war against the environment. Few living things will escape the slow radioactive poisoning which mutilates DNA and is passed on to all future generations...........................Nuclear power plants deliver the same lethal fission products in their emissions over a period of months and years that a nuclear bomb delivers in a nanosecond. Chronic exposure to low level radiation in emissions released from nuclear power plants may be deadlier in many ways than one acute exposure to a nuclear bomb detonation............................

The agreement to build the world's first thermonuclear reactor, now located at Rokkasho in northern Japan, ironically was made in a 1985 summit between Reagan and Gorbachov. It will release the equivalent emissions in one year of 365 new nuclear reactors. There are only about 411 commercial nuclear reactors in the world. Japan will soon have the equivalent radioactive emissions of 419 nuclear reactors, in a country the size of California. Japan has a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake every 5 years!....................................................."

Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land - Christopher Bollyn Global Research, June 17, 2007 "Depleted uranium weapons, and the untold misery they wreak on mankind, are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. This exclusive report should break the media embargo imposed on the American people.Despite being a grossly under-reported subject in the mainstream, there is intense public interest in depleted uranium (DU) and the damage it inflicts on humankind and the environment.

While American Free Press is actively investigating DU weapons and how they contribute to Gulf War Syndrome, the corporate-controlled press ignores the illegal use of DU and its long-lasting effects on the health of veterans and the public.................'The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse,' Robert C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services wrote in an article about DU weapons entitled 'Silent Genocide' 'DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe it or touch it; the substance also alters one's genetic code,' Koehler wrote.

'The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator.'The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984 Department of Energy conference on nuclear airborne waste reported that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent....................

...Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size......................................"