Harper - Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:47 amEDWARDS: Harper targeted over Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 8:53 AM
Subject: Harper targeted over Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
Background:
HEU (highly enriched uranium) is also called "weapons-Grade uranium". It is immediately weapons-usable material.
It's the same stuff that was used as an explosive material in the Hiroshima bomb -- an atomic bomb so simple in design (a so-called "gun-type" nuclear weapon) that there was no need to test it beforehand. There was no doubt that it would explode with enough force to destroy the heart of a city like Hiroshima.
Any well-equipped criminal organization or terrorist group Could make a powerful atomic bomb from weapons-grade uranium -- a device that could be detonated by remote control with devastating effect. Obviously, this material (HEU) must never become an article of civilian commerce, because everything that is commercially traded -- diamonds, heroin, cash, you name it -- will eventually fall into the hands of criminals.
Historically, Canada has been rather carefree in its use of HEU, although it has had to purchase the material from the United States (since Canada has no facility for enriching uranium). For a period of time, HEU was used as fuel for the NRU reactor at Chalk River. For several years, HEU was even used as fuel for the tiny subcritical "Slowpoke" research reactors used at various University campuses.
And HEU has been used -- and is still being used -- as the "target" material for the production of medical isotopes at Chalk River.
20 years ago, in 1992, the Schumer amendment was passed in the USA, designed to stop all exports of HEU for civilian use. At that time the NRU reactor was re-configured to use LEU (low enriched uranium) as fuel, as were the Slowpoke research reactors. LEU is not weapons-usable material.
But Canada continued to use HEU as the target material in the production of medical isotopes, because it was much cheaper to do so than to use LEU targets instead. The profitability of the isotope business was considered more important than the non-proliferation objective of eliminating civilian traffic in HEU. Canada managed to get around the Schumer amendment.
13 years ago, in 1999, the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute (NCI) launched a lawsuit to stop all further shipments of HEU to Canada because the Schumer amendment was violated. Although there was a provision in the law for exporting HEU in special circumstances, this was only to be allowed if the recipient was making all possible efforts to "convert" the operation to one that used LEU only. NCI argued that Canada was making no such effort, despite repeated verbal promises to do so, for those promises were not accompanied by any discernible action to fulfill the stated commitment.
Once again the Canadian government promised to convert to LEU and once again it got around the Schumer amendment.
Chalk River continues to use HEU targets for isotope production.
Two years ago, in April 2010, President Obama hosted a non-proliferation summit of world leaders in Washington D.C., stressing the importance of eliminating all civilian traffic in HEU, once and for all. Prime Minister Harper was there and gave solemn assurances -- once again -- that Canada would move to eliminate the use of HEU is isotope production.
But in the Fall of 2010, the privately-owned isotope-production company Nordion (which was, once upon a time, the only profit-making part of AECL -- before Brian Mulroney privatized it) signed a 10-year contract with Russia to obtain Russian-produced isotopes -- using HEU as target material -- to make up for any shortfall in production at Chalk River.
This move completely undercuts the global commitment to eliminate civilian use of HEU, violates the commitments made by the Government of Canada not once but several times to eliminate the use of HEU in isotope production, stymies other isotope-producing countries from moving away from HEU due to their inability to compete with the much cheaper HEU alternative embraced by Canada, provides an incentive for Russia to continue utilizing HEU, and once again reveals Canada as a "spoiler" of international efforts to cooperate in making the world a safer place (as in Canada's scuttling of the Kyoto accord and Canada's refusal to label asbestos as a dangerous material.)
Ironically, a number of Canadian research teams have demonstrated that the same medical isotopes now produced using HEU targets at Chalk River can be produced by cyclotrons and other particle accelerators without requiring any kind of uranium -- especially not bomb-grade HEU.
Gordon Edwards.
President, CCNR
www.ccnr.org
=================================
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Harper targeted over Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
harper-targeted-over-nordions-bomb-grade-uranium-deal-with-russia/article2375970/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2375970
JEREMY TOROBIN, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/c33vyl3
Stephen Harper flies to Seoul next week for a nuclear security summit where not everyone will see his country as a model player: A Canadian company is accused of frustrating efforts to wean the world off bomb-grade uranium.
Ottawa-based Nordion Inc. is the world’s biggest producer of medical isotopes, the life-saving radioactive tools used to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases. But it relies on materials drawn from highly enriched uranium – and has cut a 10-year deal to get supplies from Russia.
That has a coalition of American arms-control advocates and non-proliferation experts, and some members of the U.S. Congress, complaining that Canada is slowing efforts to ensure bomb-grade uranium does not fall into terrorists’ hands.
Mr. Harper signed on to efforts to reduce the civilian use of highly enriched uranium (HEU), as a key part of the first nuclear security summit U.S. President Barack Obama convened in 2010. But Canada’s willingness to move quickly is being questioned.
Like all nations that produce medical isotopes, Canada has pledged to phase out the production of HEU-based isotopes for the more expensive low-enriched uranium (LEU) version. Nordion, the biggest player in the global isotope market, supplying half of U.S. needs, is considered central to these efforts.
But in the fall of 2010, Nordion entered into a 10-year deal with a Russian company to ensure a steady source in the years ahead. While the deal includes a commitment to work on converting to LEU, the timeline has not been set. And it means Nordion could use Russian supplies to get around the provisions of a bill before the U.S. Congress to tighten controls on American HEU.
As a result, critics say, Russia now has less incentive to get rid of its HEU – despite the fact that both Canada and the U.S. have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to "secure" Russian nuclear materials [i.e. to prevent them from being made available for theft or diversion] – and Nordion has less incentive to convert to LEU more quickly.
In addition, they say, because Nordion’s HEU-based isotopes are cheaper to produce, others converting to LEU can’t compete, and that’s unlikely to change now that Nordion has a long-term supplier in Russia.
“This deal basically makes it impossible for people using the safer material to compete,” said Miles Pomper, a Washington-based senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “It discourages other countries from converting, which means there’s more HEU in other places, too.”
MORE:
http://tinyurl.com/c33vyl3
More related to this story
MDS Nordion taps Russian isotope supplier
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
mds-nordion-taps-russian-isotope-supplier/article1721881/
Nordion sells its Belgian operations
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
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With thorium, we could have safe nuclear power
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/
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- - - - - - -
Canada in hot seat at nuclear summit for uranium use
http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/news/story/2012/03/26/
obama-north-korea.html
Harper joins world leaders in Seoul for nuclear security summit
CBC News
Posted: Mar 26, 2012 2:45 AM ET
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2012 2:01 PM ET
Canada may be the subject of some controversy at the nuclear security summit, which opens today in Seoul, South Korea.
The U.S. and several European countries are calling on countries such as Canada to phase out the use of highly enriched uranium, which Canada uses to make medical isotopes for medical diagnoses. Canada is the largest producer of medical isotopes.
"Highly enriched uranium can be used to make bombs, and the U.S. is calling on Canada and others to move toward using a lower grade," the CBC's Laurie Graham reports from the conference.
For Canada, "the cost of converting to get into a lower grade would be very expensive. Canada had promised in 2010 to start phasing out using it at the last summit. It's been sharply criticized for not moving fast enough, and no doubt that criticism will continue."
Ottawa-based MDS Nordion Inc., a major provider of medical isotopes, signed a supply agreement with a Russian company in 2010 to import the isotopes derived from cheaper highly enriched uranium.
But arms-control advocates abroad have said the 10-year deal hampers international efforts to halt the civilian use of the weapons-grade material, which could be used to make bombs in the wrong hands.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said at the nuclear security conference that while the country applauds the goal of reducing the use of highly enriched uranium, it has a responsibility to humanity to provide isotopes used to diagnose diseases such as cancer.
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/news/story/2012/03/26/
obama-north-korea.html
----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 8:53 AM
Subject: Harper targeted over Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
Background:
HEU (highly enriched uranium) is also called "weapons-Grade uranium". It is immediately weapons-usable material.
It's the same stuff that was used as an explosive material in the Hiroshima bomb -- an atomic bomb so simple in design (a so-called "gun-type" nuclear weapon) that there was no need to test it beforehand. There was no doubt that it would explode with enough force to destroy the heart of a city like Hiroshima.
Any well-equipped criminal organization or terrorist group Could make a powerful atomic bomb from weapons-grade uranium -- a device that could be detonated by remote control with devastating effect. Obviously, this material (HEU) must never become an article of civilian commerce, because everything that is commercially traded -- diamonds, heroin, cash, you name it -- will eventually fall into the hands of criminals.
Historically, Canada has been rather carefree in its use of HEU, although it has had to purchase the material from the United States (since Canada has no facility for enriching uranium). For a period of time, HEU was used as fuel for the NRU reactor at Chalk River. For several years, HEU was even used as fuel for the tiny subcritical "Slowpoke" research reactors used at various University campuses.
And HEU has been used -- and is still being used -- as the "target" material for the production of medical isotopes at Chalk River.
20 years ago, in 1992, the Schumer amendment was passed in the USA, designed to stop all exports of HEU for civilian use. At that time the NRU reactor was re-configured to use LEU (low enriched uranium) as fuel, as were the Slowpoke research reactors. LEU is not weapons-usable material.
But Canada continued to use HEU as the target material in the production of medical isotopes, because it was much cheaper to do so than to use LEU targets instead. The profitability of the isotope business was considered more important than the non-proliferation objective of eliminating civilian traffic in HEU. Canada managed to get around the Schumer amendment.
13 years ago, in 1999, the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute (NCI) launched a lawsuit to stop all further shipments of HEU to Canada because the Schumer amendment was violated. Although there was a provision in the law for exporting HEU in special circumstances, this was only to be allowed if the recipient was making all possible efforts to "convert" the operation to one that used LEU only. NCI argued that Canada was making no such effort, despite repeated verbal promises to do so, for those promises were not accompanied by any discernible action to fulfill the stated commitment.
Once again the Canadian government promised to convert to LEU and once again it got around the Schumer amendment.
Chalk River continues to use HEU targets for isotope production.
Two years ago, in April 2010, President Obama hosted a non-proliferation summit of world leaders in Washington D.C., stressing the importance of eliminating all civilian traffic in HEU, once and for all. Prime Minister Harper was there and gave solemn assurances -- once again -- that Canada would move to eliminate the use of HEU is isotope production.
But in the Fall of 2010, the privately-owned isotope-production company Nordion (which was, once upon a time, the only profit-making part of AECL -- before Brian Mulroney privatized it) signed a 10-year contract with Russia to obtain Russian-produced isotopes -- using HEU as target material -- to make up for any shortfall in production at Chalk River.
This move completely undercuts the global commitment to eliminate civilian use of HEU, violates the commitments made by the Government of Canada not once but several times to eliminate the use of HEU in isotope production, stymies other isotope-producing countries from moving away from HEU due to their inability to compete with the much cheaper HEU alternative embraced by Canada, provides an incentive for Russia to continue utilizing HEU, and once again reveals Canada as a "spoiler" of international efforts to cooperate in making the world a safer place (as in Canada's scuttling of the Kyoto accord and Canada's refusal to label asbestos as a dangerous material.)
Ironically, a number of Canadian research teams have demonstrated that the same medical isotopes now produced using HEU targets at Chalk River can be produced by cyclotrons and other particle accelerators without requiring any kind of uranium -- especially not bomb-grade HEU.
Gordon Edwards.
President, CCNR
www.ccnr.org
=================================
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Harper targeted over Nordion’s bomb-grade uranium deal with Russia
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
harper-targeted-over-nordions-bomb-grade-uranium-deal-with-russia/article2375970/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2375970
JEREMY TOROBIN, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/c33vyl3
Stephen Harper flies to Seoul next week for a nuclear security summit where not everyone will see his country as a model player: A Canadian company is accused of frustrating efforts to wean the world off bomb-grade uranium.
Ottawa-based Nordion Inc. is the world’s biggest producer of medical isotopes, the life-saving radioactive tools used to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases. But it relies on materials drawn from highly enriched uranium – and has cut a 10-year deal to get supplies from Russia.
That has a coalition of American arms-control advocates and non-proliferation experts, and some members of the U.S. Congress, complaining that Canada is slowing efforts to ensure bomb-grade uranium does not fall into terrorists’ hands.
Mr. Harper signed on to efforts to reduce the civilian use of highly enriched uranium (HEU), as a key part of the first nuclear security summit U.S. President Barack Obama convened in 2010. But Canada’s willingness to move quickly is being questioned.
Like all nations that produce medical isotopes, Canada has pledged to phase out the production of HEU-based isotopes for the more expensive low-enriched uranium (LEU) version. Nordion, the biggest player in the global isotope market, supplying half of U.S. needs, is considered central to these efforts.
But in the fall of 2010, Nordion entered into a 10-year deal with a Russian company to ensure a steady source in the years ahead. While the deal includes a commitment to work on converting to LEU, the timeline has not been set. And it means Nordion could use Russian supplies to get around the provisions of a bill before the U.S. Congress to tighten controls on American HEU.
As a result, critics say, Russia now has less incentive to get rid of its HEU – despite the fact that both Canada and the U.S. have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to "secure" Russian nuclear materials [i.e. to prevent them from being made available for theft or diversion] – and Nordion has less incentive to convert to LEU more quickly.
In addition, they say, because Nordion’s HEU-based isotopes are cheaper to produce, others converting to LEU can’t compete, and that’s unlikely to change now that Nordion has a long-term supplier in Russia.
“This deal basically makes it impossible for people using the safer material to compete,” said Miles Pomper, a Washington-based senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “It discourages other countries from converting, which means there’s more HEU in other places, too.”
MORE:
http://tinyurl.com/c33vyl3
More related to this story
MDS Nordion taps Russian isotope supplier
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
mds-nordion-taps-russian-isotope-supplier/article1721881/
Nordion sells its Belgian operations
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
nordion-sells-its-belgian-operations/article1914881/
With thorium, we could have safe nuclear power
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/
opinion/with-thorium-we-could-have-safe-nuclear-power/article2030383/
- - - - - - -
Canada in hot seat at nuclear summit for uranium use
http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/news/story/2012/03/26/
obama-north-korea.html
Harper joins world leaders in Seoul for nuclear security summit
CBC News
Posted: Mar 26, 2012 2:45 AM ET
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2012 2:01 PM ET
Canada may be the subject of some controversy at the nuclear security summit, which opens today in Seoul, South Korea.
The U.S. and several European countries are calling on countries such as Canada to phase out the use of highly enriched uranium, which Canada uses to make medical isotopes for medical diagnoses. Canada is the largest producer of medical isotopes.
"Highly enriched uranium can be used to make bombs, and the U.S. is calling on Canada and others to move toward using a lower grade," the CBC's Laurie Graham reports from the conference.
For Canada, "the cost of converting to get into a lower grade would be very expensive. Canada had promised in 2010 to start phasing out using it at the last summit. It's been sharply criticized for not moving fast enough, and no doubt that criticism will continue."
Ottawa-based MDS Nordion Inc., a major provider of medical isotopes, signed a supply agreement with a Russian company in 2010 to import the isotopes derived from cheaper highly enriched uranium.
But arms-control advocates abroad have said the 10-year deal hampers international efforts to halt the civilian use of the weapons-grade material, which could be used to make bombs in the wrong hands.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said at the nuclear security conference that while the country applauds the goal of reducing the use of highly enriched uranium, it has a responsibility to humanity to provide isotopes used to diagnose diseases such as cancer.
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/news/story/2012/03/26/
obama-north-korea.html