Senate confirms Obama’s science team, while UK calls for strengthened nuclear nonproliferation treaties

Holdren, Lubchenco confirmed

Last night John Holdren was confirmed by the Senate as director of the Whitehouse Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jane Lubchenco was confirmed as the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Both individuals will serve this country and the taxpayers honorably; there is much work to be done and no time to waste,” said Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV), chairman of the US Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation .

The two positions had been held up in the Senate by an anonymous hold that was believed to have been placed by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) . Two other senators were believed to have placed holds on the positions in order to negotiate more favorable terms with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on legislation involving the 2009 budget and trade sanctions on Cuba.

Yucca Mountain

The elimination of most of the funding for Yucca Mountain in the 2010 administration budget, due to pressure from Reid, is starting to focus attention on how to cope with the highly radioactive waste produced by power plants. In an article in US News & World Report , Kent Garber looks at the success of the nuclear waste repository in Carlsbad, New Mexico. “Since opening in 1999, it has received more than 60,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste from the country’s nuclear defense facilities,” he writes. The success is due to support from members of the local community, who wanted the jobs. In Nevada, however, public support for a nuclear waste repository is low.

“By abandoning Yucca Mountain, the administration is essentially walking away from $8 billion of investment and 25 years of research and study,” says Garber, “although experts say that as long ago as the early 1990s, there were already serious doubts that the repository would ever be built.” Instead waste will likely be stored on-site at the nuclear power plants for the foreseeable future.

UK emphasizes nuclear nonproliferation regime

How the world deals with nuclear issues is part of the challenge in dealing with global poverty, climate change, and financial instability, said UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday, 17 March, in London. He pointed out that the global targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions cannot be achieved without a heavy investment in nuclear power.

“It is more than about security, vital as that is, it is more than about nuclear power and meeting the challenges of energy shortages and climate change, important as they are, it is about the values of this global society we are trying to build and it is about the very idea of progress itself, about the foundations upon which we build our common security and a sustainable future for our planet. In short it is about what kind of world we are and what kind of world we want to be.”

The speech pointed out that Iran “has the same absolute right to a peaceful nuclear programme - civil nuclear programme - as any other country” but made equally clear that “Iran’s current nuclear programme is unacceptable.” Brown proposed new diplomatic engagements with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program and emphasized that the nuclear weapons states need to do more to disarm their nuclear weapon stockpiles, as they agreed to do so under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is up for review next year. Brown called for the 2010 NPT review conference to renew and refresh the protocols at the heart of the treaty, as the likelihood that a non-state actor could acquire nuclear weapons is higher than it’s been in years.

“The only way to guarantee our children and our grandchildren will be free from the threat of nuclear war is to create a world in which countries can have confidence, refuse to take up nuclear weapons in the knowledge that they will never be required,” said Brown.

The prime minister announced that the UK will double its contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear security fund, which helps countries improve the security at nuclear power plants, and there will be more investment at the UK’s atomic weapons establishment on nuclear forensics , so that if a nuclear bomb is detonated then the uranium can be tracked back to its manufacturer. Brown also asked for the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (which it declined to do in 1999) and start global negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty .

“States have national interests but capping the production of weapons usable fissile material and outlawing the testing of nuclear weapons are two powerful and achievable goals that I believe are consistent with the long term needs and interests of every state,” he said.

Paul Guinnessy

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