News
Publish date: September 18, 2008
News
“An effective deterrent against the spread and use of WMD cannot be unilateral in nature,” said Thomas D’Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. “Let me be clear when I say I believe the United States has a special responsibility in advancing nonproliferation and global security. But we should not and cannot do it alone.”
D’Agostino said his agency is promoting development of standards that would serve as a comprehensive guideline on issues such as export controls, physical protection of nuclear material and safeguards, GSN reported.
“Together we must build a system that excludes the possibility that proliferators could [exploit] just one weak link,” D’Agostino said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Safeguards are a particular area of concern, due to the increasing burden on the United Nations’ nuclear monitor, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Officials with the UN nuclear watchdog now conduct inspections in 145 nations to ensure that their nuclear sites, material and work are not being put to weapons purposes, GSN reported.
The number of facilities checked under safeguards agreements has more than tripled in 25 years, while the quantity of weapon-grade uranium and plutonium under safeguards has grown six times, according to an NNSA document shown to GSN.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.