Nuclear Weapons An introduction

Nuclear Weapons An introduction Friends of the Earth Maria Hendrikaplein 5 9000 Gent Belgium Tel: +32 9 242 87 52 international@motherearth.org www.motherearth.org Nuclear weapons: an introduction Introduction Page 2 Introduction About this brochure The purpose of this brochure is to provide information about nuclear weapons for those interested in the topic. This is only a short introduction and it only includes basic information on: the nuclear chain; the physical, health, environmental, social and psychological effects of nuclear weapons; nuclear weapons and the law; and global stockpiles of nuclear weapons. It probably doesn’t provide you with everything that you would like to know. In the "further information" part you can find the contact details of some organisations campaigning against nuclear weapons, as well as addresses of some good web pages and recommendations for good books on nuclear weapons. So if you want to get more thorough information that’s where you can start. We hope that this brochure will help you to understand why we are campaigning for a world free from nuclear weapons! Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................ 2 ABOUT THIS BROCHURE .................................... 2 CONTENTS ...................................................... 2 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH .................................... 3 A SHORT HISTORY OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS ......... 4 THE NUCLEAR CHAIN...................................... 6 URANIUM MINING ............................................... 6 ENRICHMENT AND DEPLETED URANIUM ............... 7 REPROCESSING................................................. 7 TRITIUM ............................................................ 8 NUCLEAR TESTING ............................................ 8 THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS..... 10 PHYSICAL EFFECTS.......................................... 10 HEALTH EFFECTS ............................................ 11 ENVIROMENTAL EFFECTS ................................. 12 SOCIAL EFFECTS ............................................. 13 PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS............................... 14 NUCLEAR COLONIALISM ................................... 15 NUCLEAR GLOBALISATION ............................... 16 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND THE LAW .......... 18 AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW ...... 18 THE JUDGEMENT OF THE ICJ............................ 20 POSSIBLE LAWFUL USE? .................................. 20 NUCLEAR WEAPON STOCKPILES............... 21 UNITED STATES............................................... 22 US NUKES IN EUROPE..................................... 23 RUSSIA ........................................................... 23 FRANCE .......................................................... 24 CHINA ............................................................. 25 UNITED KINGDOM ............................................ 25 INDIA .............................................................. 26 PAKISTAN........................................................ 27 ISRAEL ............................................................ 27 NORTH KOREA ................................................ 28 IRAN ............................................................... 29 STATES THAT HAVE DISMANTLED NUCLEAR WEAPONS........................................................ 30 NUCLEAR W EAPON FREE ZONES ..................... 30 FURTHER INFORMATION .............................. 32 BOOKS AND WEBSITES ..................................... 32 SOME ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGNS AND ORGANISATIONS .............................................. 33 Thanks to the Green/EFA group of the European Parliament for their support in the production of this brochure. Nuclear weapons: an introduction Introduction “This world of ours is four billion six hundred million years old. It could end in an afternoon ……” Arundhati Roy Page 3 Friends of the Earth This guide was written by volunteers of Friends of the Earth Flanders & Brussels (formerly “For Mother Earth”). We are a national group of Friends of the Earth International, the world’s largest grassroots environmental federation, with groups in 70 countries on all continents. The organisation is active around issues such as climate change, energy, water, agriculture, forests and the growing influence of multi-national corporations. Since it was formed in 1991, For Mother Earth has organised many campaigns, peace walks and nonviolent direct actions on issues related to nuclear weapons. In 1992, The Walk Across America For Mother Earth highlighted the links between the development and testing of nuclear weapons, and the continuing exploitation of indigenous people in the United States. Since 1995 For Mother Earth has been organising nonviolent direct action against the US nuclear weapons at Kleine Brogel airbase in Belgium, as well as at the NATO headquarters in Brussels- particularly around the issue of NATO's illegal nuclear weapons policy. Together with the ‘Mayors For Peace’ network, Friends of the Earth calls for a nuclear free world by 2020. Friends of the Earth has played an active role in encouraging many Belgian mayors to join this network. We also take an active part in the Trident Ploughshares campaign against the British Trident nuclear weapons system, and have made links with many other groups of activists who using nonviolent direct action to prevent the horrors of nuclear war. For Mother Earth is a member of Abolition 2000 and the International Peace Bureau. Nuclear weapons: an introduction A short history of nuclear weapons… 16th July 1945: The United States conducts the world’s first nuclear weapon test at Alamogordo, New Mexico 6th and 9th August 1945: The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan 1946-58: The United States tests a total of 66 atomic and hydrogen bombs in the Marshall Islands. 29th August 1949: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb March 1950: The World Peace Council releases the Stockholm Appeal calling for an absolute ban on nuclear weapons. 3rd October 1952: Britain carries out its first atomic bomb test. 12th August 1953: The Soviet Union carries out its first hydrogen bomb test. August 1955: The first World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs is held in Hiroshima. December 1959: The Antarctic Treaty banning the use of Antarctica for any military purposes, including nuclear weapon tests, is concluded. 13th February 1960: France conducts its first nuclear device test. 16th October 1964: China conducts its first atomic bomb test. January 1967: The Outer Space Treaty is signed to prohibit placement of nuclear weapons in orbit around Earth or on celestial bodies. February 1967: Latin American countries sign the Treaty of Tlatelolco prohibiting nuclear weapons on the Page 4 Introduction seabed beyond the 12-mile coastal limit over which nations have sovereignty. July 1968: The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is signed, prohibiting nonnuclear states from building or acquiring nuclear weapons and obligating nuclear powers to work on arms control and disarmament. May 1972: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) concluded and the AntiBallistic Missile Treaty signed, by US and the Soviet Union. June 1973: The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War. 18th May 1974: India conducts its first nuclear test underground. May 1978: The United Nations General Assembly holds its first special session on disarmament. June 1979: SALT II treaty signed between US and Soviet Union. July 1980: The South Pacific island group of Palau adopts the world’s first nuclear-free constitution. June 1982: The U.N. General Assembly holds its second special disarmament session. Anti-nuclear citizens’ movements spread around the world. 1985: Mordechai Vanunu reveals details of the secret Israeli nuclear programme. August 1985: The Treaty of Rarotonga is signed, declaring the South Pacific nuclear-free. December 1987: The United States and the Soviet Union sign the START I treaty on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. February 1992: A declaration by the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Nuclear weapons: an introduction (North Korea) to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-weapons-free takes effect March 1992: South African president F.W. de Klerk reveals that his country has dismantled its nuclear weapons. January 1994: Ukraine signs an agreement with the United States and Russia to give up all the nuclear weapons deployed in the republic by the former Soviet Union. May 1995: The Non-Proliferation Treaty is extended indefinitely, in large part due to the agreement that a comprehensive test ban treaty would be ready for signature before the end of 1996. December 1995: The Treaty Bangkok, making Southeast Asia a nuclearweapon-free-zone, is signed. April 1996: The Treaty of Pelindaba, making Africa nuclear-weapon-free, is signed. 8th July 1996: The International Court of Justice issues an advisory opinion that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law." August 1996: The Canberra Commission, a panel of global opinion leaders that was established at the initiative of the Australian government, releases a report recommending specific steps for the elimination of nuclear weapons. September 1996: The U.N. General Assembly adopts the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. May 1998: India and Pakistan carry out underground nuclear tests. October 1999: The U.S. Senate rejects the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), drawing widespread international condemnation. Introduction Page 5 April 2000: The Duma, Russia's parliament, ratifies the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). December 2001: The US withdraws from the ABM Treaty. January 2002: US Nuclear Posture Review makes plans for a new generation of mini-nukes and a possible resumption of nuclear testing. January 2003: North Korea withdraws from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. April 2004: Former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed secret information to the press about the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal is released from prison after 18 years. May 2005: The Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference ends without any significant progress towards nuclear disarmament. October 2006: North Korea claims to have detonated its first nuclear weapon. The UN Security council responds with economic sanctions. November 2006: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan uses his final speech to call on world leaders to pursue nuclear disarmament. Nuclear weapons: an introduction The nuclear chain Page 6 The Nuclear Chain The ‘nuclear chain’ consist of uranium mining, the enrichment and depletion of uranium, the reprocessing and the storage or nuclear waste. At every step in the chain there are clear links to nuclear weapons, whether through design, or the theft or misuse of radioactive materials. Nowadays there are more than 2000 nuclear tests that have been carried out. They have had direct, serious and long-term adverse health and environment effects. The production of nuclear weapons is intimately bound up with the production of nuclear power, and the processing of uranium, which is the raw material for both nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel. This involves some very dangerous, and ecologically damaging processes. The “nuclear chain” starts with uranium mining and ends with the final storage of the nuclear waste. In between are the conversion and enrichment of the uranium, the production of fuel rods, the fission of radioactive material in the nuclear reactor, exchanging, reprocessing and interim storage of the spent fuel. The immense amounts of radioactive waste that arises at every single process, presents an as yet unsolved problem. Each point in the nuclear chain creates a high risk to health and to the environment. Dr. Katsumi Furitsu, a doctor who investigated the health effects of nuclear weapons stated: "If Hiroshima and Nagasaki on one side and Chernobyl on the other side have their specificity there's nevertheless a great similarity in the health injuries caused by nuclear radiation". There are also clear links to nuclear weapons at every step of this chain, whether through design, or the theft or misuse of radioactive materials. Uranium mining Uranium is the heaviest element in nature. Natural uranium consists of three different isotopes - more than 99% is U238; 0,01% is U-234; 0,71% is U-235. The chemical properties of these isotopes are identical, but their atomic weight is slightly different. U-235 is the only isotope of uranium which can be used for nuclear fission (splitting the atom to produce energy) and is used in nuclear power stations and nuclear weapons. Uranium is naturally radioactive. This means that as the element decays, it emits radiation. One of the most dangerous products created as Uranium decays is the gas Radon-222 which easily spreads during the mining and the further processing of uranium. As well as being dangerous due to its radioactivity, uranium is chemically toxic. A 1300 megawatt reactor consumes around 33 tons of uranium a year. To produce this amount of uranium, 440.000 tons of uranium ore (stone containing the uranium) have to be mined. This mining uses a huge amount of land, which are radioactively polluted and become uninhabitable. Lots of overburden, and less useful ore, is also mined and dumped next to the mines. No matter how uranium is mined, there will be radioactive contamination of the environment as well as impacts from noise, dust, sulphur dioxide fumes, etc. However, every mining method has its particular environmental and health risks: • Open pit mining is used to mine shallow deposits. It causes large amounts of dust, and the release of radon gas. Due to the low grade of the uranium ore, economically viable open pit mines tend to have enormous dimensions (such as the Rössing mine in Namibia). In deep mines, miners have to face risks associated with the release of radon gas, and dust, as • Page 7 Nuclear weapons: an introduction The nuclear chain well as the effects of radiation. The yellowcake is transported (often over Improved ventilation reduces the huge distances) to enrichment plants in Japan, France, the UK, Russia or the miners doses but increase the USA for processing. The processing contamination around the involves converting the yellowcake into ventilation shafts. To keep the uranium hexaflouride (UF6), a dangerous groundwater out of the mine, large radioactive gas. The gas is then either amounts of water contaminated centrifuged of diffused through fine with radioactivity and toxic metals screens to be enriched in the "fissile" are pumped out and released to U235 which itself can start chain rivers and lakes. reactions; in this form of enrichment, the • In "In-situ Leaching", a leaching uranium gains military value: depending liquid solution is forced through on the enrichment the uranium can then the underground ore body itself to be used as fuel for power, research or dissolve the uranium. The liquid military reactors, or for nuclear weapons. (ammonium-carbonate, sodiumcarbonate, or sulphuric acid) is The leftover material is composed mostly injected by drill-holes and the of the uranium 238 isotope, is known as uranium bearing solution is depleted uranium (DU). This waste, pumped back to the surface. The which is produced in large quantities by environmental problems are the enrichment process, is nowadays obvious, with the ever-present used for military purposes, as it is a very possibility that the solution of dense material. The US-army used DUsulphuric acid, oxidant, and ammunition and armoury during the Gulf uranium contaminate the War. It is quite likely that vaporised and groundwater. burnt DU contributed to the mysterious "Gulf War Syndrome". The effects on the Once mined, the ore is milled to extract civilian population in the areas the uranium, in the form of “yellowcake”. contaminated by DU are very similar to Mills are usually located near the mines. those that result from nuclear fallout. While half of the radon gas contained in the ore is released during mining, the Reprocessing other half is released during the milling process. The remaining rocks (known as Reprocessing is a military technology for tailings) are simply left in large pools next dissolving spent nuclear fuel in nitric acid to the mill. to extract the plutonium that was created as a result of the fuel being burned. The Much of the uranium used in nuclear plutonium extracted from the spent fuel weapons was mined and milled on land of nuclear power plants can be made into owned inhabited by indigenous peoplenuclear weapons. This means that any causing massive health, social and country with a "civilian" nuclear power environmental problems in already industry is also a potential nuclear marginalized communities. weapon state. In fact, this is the route by which India, Pakistan and Israel were Enrichment and depleted able to acquire their nuclear weapons. uranium The nuclear powers are now experimenting with mixed-oxide (MOX) Before the uranium can be used in the reactors that burn blended nuclear power plant or in nuclear uranium/plutonium fuel. The reason? To reactors, it has to be enriched, which get rid of the excess plutonium created in means that the small amount of the weapons programmes. The net effect of isotope Uranium 235 in the rock has to creating and burning MOX fuel is, in fact, be increased. larger amounts of plutonium, and larger Page 8 Nuclear weapons: an introduction The nuclear chain amounts of highly radioactive nuclear Governments of nuclear-weapons states waste. have shown an alarming and sometimes Most of the world's commercial wilful disregard of public and reprocessing (80% or so) is undertaken environmental health. There has been: at Cogema's facilities at La Hague. Most • deliberate secrecy and of the rest is done at BNFL's Sellafield misinformation about the safety of plant. nuclear tests; There is a proposal to begin the • non-existent or inadequate reprocessing of US nuclear warheads identification and monitoring of into MOX in Belgium. highly exposed populations; • little study of the effects of Tritium dangerous, long-lived radioactive wastes in an underground or Tritium is a radioactive isotope of submarine environment; and Hydrogen, and an essential component • no significant attempt, in most of the H-bomb. Like all radioactive cases, to clean-up test sites and materials, it decays naturally, so a to deal with the longer-term health constant supply of tritium must be and environmental effects of maintained in order to keep a nuclear nuclear testing. arsenal functioning. Nuclear test sites are in effect unstudied, Tritium has no use in electricity unlicensed and high-level radioactive production, and does not occur naturally. waste dumps, without legislative or But it has to be manufactured by public scrutiny such as environmental irradiating another element, lithium, in a impact assessment. Test sites seldom nuclear reactor. The lithium is then meet the most basic criteria for a nuclear processed to extract the tritium. waste repository such as exclusion of The irradiation of lithium can also be ground water, lack of fractures or done in a "civilian" nuclear power station. fissures, and high absorption of radionuclides. At Moruroa there is Nuclear Testing already disturbing evidence of the The primary purpose of nuclear tests is leakage of radionuclides (tritium, Iodinethe development of reliable and effective 131 and caesium-134) from beneath the nuclear weapons. coral atoll. More than 2,000 nuclear tests have been As with the mining of Uranium, the carried out by the nuclear weapon states. nuclear tests sites have often been They have had direct, serious and longlocated in areas inhabited by indigenous term adverse health and environment people. These groups include Aboriginal effects. Every human alive now and over people in Australia (especially at the the next tens of thousands of years will former British test site at Maralinga), carry radioactive elements created by Micronesian and Polynesian Pacific nuclear tests, causing an increase in islanders, Uygur people in China, their lifetime cancer risk. Western Shoshone people in Nevada Increases in the rates of radiation-related and the Kazakh people. The effects have cancers have been documented in been far broader than those related to military personnel involved in nuclear radiation and often involve: tests, and also within communities • displacement from traditional downwind of test sites in Australia, lands and disruption of traditional Kazakhstan, the United States and the communities; Micronesian Pacific Islands. It is • economic, social and military estimated that due to atmospheric testing domination; and alone, 430,000 fatal human cancers • non-radiation related health were caused up to the year 2000, with an problems such as, in the Marshall eventual total of 2.4 million. Nuclear weapons: an introduction Islands and French Polynesia, outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning. The nuclear chain Page 9 The nuclear chain, showing nuclear waste and the links between "civilian" and military use Page 10 Effects of nuclear weapons on the news from any global conflict. It’s very difficult to write, let alone read, what these weapons can do to people. But it's vital that we understand the differences. With a conventional weapon, most of the damage is done by the sheer force of the explosion. In contrast, much of the power of nuclear weapons comes from thermal (heat) and ionising (nuclear) radiation, The construction, testing and use of caused by the splitting or joining together nuclear weapons cause significant of atoms. The effects of a nuclear physical, health, environmental, social, weapon increase in relation to its and psychological effects at a local and explosive power. Also, a blast some global scale. distance above the earth would create A few examples are: different effects than one exploded at (or - the release of thermal and ionising below) ground level. radiation To take one example, if a 20 kiloton - impact on the human immune system nuclear bomb (about twice as powerful - radioactive contamination of as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima) was atmosphere, soil and ground water. exploded on a city, the heat and blast -“nuclear war survivors syndrome” generated would vaporise all people and - disproportionate impact on indigenous buildings in the immediate area, and peoples, worldwide make a crater that might be as much as - rich countries use military power to 100 metres in diameter. The wind pursue economic globalisation created by the blast could be several hundred km/hr. The destruction of Physical effects buildings would increase death and injury “It was a blinding flash, everything due to flying glass and other debris. around me turned sheer-white. The ring of light, like a halo around the moon The release of ionising radiation is a shone and spread like a rainbow. The phenomenon unique to nuclear next moment, a big column of flame explosions and causes additional reached up to the sky and detonated like casualties alongside those caused by a volcanic explosion in the air. It was a blast and thermal effects. There would sight no words can describe.” be a number of deaths from radiation (Quote from a survivor of the Hiroshima sickness, for which there is really no bomb.) effective medical treatment. Nuclear weapons: an introduction The effects of nuclear weapons Damage caused by the Hiroshima bomb Large amounts of earth, water and other debris in the area surrounding the explosion would be sucked up to form a “mushroom cloud” of radioactive debris. When this material returned to earth, as fallout, the effects could be spread even further, and might make the city (and an area of countryside stretching tens of kilometres downwind) uninhabitable for many weeks or even years. A nuclear weapon is not just a big bomb. It does not have the same make up as a terrorist bomb or heavy artillery fire seen Page 11 Effects of nuclear weapons by radiation. The situation of radiation injuries was unknown at that time, even Health effects in Japan. Only in 1957, the Supporting "In the dim light of a hospital room, Law of Atomic Victims was passed, and seven years old Jimmy was Kasuko was legally admitted as a remembering the day on which he was Hibakusha, but he had to conceal his told he had leukaemia. He remembered being in order to survive. his mother's tears, his father's In 1963 he had a high fever, his body bewildered anger, the alien feeling of the changed stiff and black. It took him three hospital's environment. His mind years to get back his original skin colour, replayed the nausea and the diarrhoea and, during the nights, Kasuko was caused by radiation therapy and extremely scared, he heard the voices of chemotherapy, his hair falling out and the dead..." kids laughing at him... Jimmy died gently, utterly exhausted having lost so much Jimmy and Kasuko's stories are two of blood. His tissue had broken down the hundreds of thousands similar stories completely, and he was bleeding from related to the nuclear age. every body opening . His bed looked like Radiation released from each step in the a battlefield." nuclear weapons production cycle cause cancer, congenital defects, mental "On August 9, 1945, when the atomic retardation, immune destruction, cancer, bomb was dropped over the city of stillbirths and other health problems. Nagasaki, Kasuko Yamashina was working at a distance of two kilometres from ground zero. He tried to get home after the dropping of the bomb, but the fire was too fierce for him to approach the district, so that night he had to sleep under a bridge alone. His house was located at a place situated about 350 metres from ground zero. As soon as the fire went down, he reached the house finding out that his parents were burned by the heat of 4,000 degrees and lay Injuries caused by the Hiroshima bomb scorched black and carbonised. He couldn't find his brother and his sister, Similar syndromes have been observed and all that he could see were burned among the workers exposed to radiation bricks and dead bodies. in nuclear power plants in Japan, or in On the August 15, the war was over, but down-winders living in the irradiated by that day Kasuko body had changed. zones near Hanford, and in the He had black bleeding from the gums, Chernobyl children, as well as the areas and he wasn't able to walk because of close to the nuclear test sites. fierce shivers caused by high fever. Under that condition he left Nagasaki to In 1984 the United Nations Human enter a hospital in his home town. Rights Committee noted that "it's evident On 19th September, the headquarters of that the designing, testing, manufacture, General Mac Arthur set up a press code, possession and deployment of nuclear ordering him and the other victims never weapons are among the greatest threats to speak about the atomic bombs. to the right to life which confront mankind They announced that all the persons who today" and concluded that "the should die of radiation effects, would die production, testing, possession, by December 1945. Those who would deployment and use of nuclear weapon live at that time, would have been spared Nuclear weapons: an introduction Page 12 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Effects of nuclear weapons should be prohibited and recognized as Elsewhere, rivers have been polluted crimes against humanity." and open reservoirs and lakes have In human terms the cost has been been used to hold large quantities of astronomical. Rosalie Bertel has liquid radioactive materials. In 1957, a estimated that "the global victims of the waste storage tank at the Chelyabinsk radiation pollution related to nuclear nuclear weapons site in Russia exploded weapon production, testing, use and and a radioactive cloud dispersed over waste conservatively number 13 million." more than 200 square kilometres of an agricultural region containing numerous rivers and lakes. Nearly all the trees Environmental effects within the most radioactive zone were The production of nuclear weapons has damaged or killed. Radioactive waste polluted vast amounts of soil and water has been routinely dumped into Lake at hundreds of nuclear weapons facilities Karachay, recognized as the world's all over the world. Many of the most radioactive body of water, also at substances released, including Chelyabinsk. plutonium, uranium, strontium, cesium, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls The environmental damage resulting (PCBs), mercury and cyanide, are from nuclear technology is not limited to carcinogenic and/or mutagenic and the two largest nuclear weapons states, remain hazardous for thousands, some the United states and Russia. All nuclear for hundreds of thousands, of years. weapons and nuclear energy producing Contaminants from nuclear weapons nations have caused some level of production and testing have often environmental contamination, both in travelled far down wind and down their own countries and abroad - such stream. Production facilities for nuclear as, nuclear testing in the South Pacific, weapons are heavily polluted, for Nevada, Kazakhstan, China, India and example in the United States there are Pakistan; water and airborne discharges over 4500 contaminated Department of from reprocessing plants in the UK and Energy sites. France; and uranium mining in Namibia, Canada, former East Germany and The manufacture and testing of weapons Australia. involves the leakage of nuclear material. Of all the activities concerning nuclear Moreover, the ongoing production of both weapons, testing has been the most nuclear weapons and nuclear power destructive of the environment. Even continues to create nuclear waste. The placing tests underground does not avoid mining of uranium causes radioactive atmospheric pollution. Radioactivity pollution of the atmosphere and also released from atmospheric nuclear otherwise damages the environment. testing — including plutonium, strontium, Further pollution occurs during the cesium, carbon-14, and radioactive transport and processing of the uranium. iodine — has been widely dispersed Production of nuclear weapons involves throughout the world. Underground tests the generation of large quantities of have contaminated soil and groundwater. waste material and contamination of Many square miles in Russia, Belarus surrounding areas. Clean-up of and the US have been rendered contaminated sites, disposition of excess unusable by contamination of the soil. fissile material and dismantling of nuclear Also the Irish sea and the Arctic Ocean weapons also contaminates the have been poisoned. environment. New technologies will need to be developed in order to retrieve In Russia nuclear submarines, some still radioactive materials which have been armed with nuclear warheads, are released into the environment either rusting away in the fjords of Murmansk. through accident or by design. Nuclear Nuclear weapons: an introduction warfare would result in the wholesale destruction of the environment. Page 13 Effects of nuclear weapons look after ones own family, large reservoirs of external, easily mobilized skilled workers, material resources, and organizational skills. The massive and simultaneous destruction of economic and human resources would result in an inability to provide immediate and sufficient human and material aid to damaged areas. There will be no time to adapt and to innovate as nations did in World War II. More importantly, the lack of outside aid would create a sense of individual and common isolation. Aid symbolizes a reconnection with a larger, normal world. This connection helps provide the impetus for rebuilding the damaged society, creating a sense of vitality and ability to dispel the continuing perception of isolation. It also has an important function for binding together society, restating a common thread of hope and shared aspirations. Economic destruction, loss of political leadership (especially at the local level), and the need to mobilize resources for relief and recovery would present extraordinary demands on weakened political institutions. In the interest of implementing survival programs, legal norms and practices would have to be suspended for prolonged periods in many areas. The character of political institutions and authority would almost certainly change, especially if hostilities or the threat of hostilities persisted. Both old and new political structures would be likely to suffer from greatly reduced credibility. Decentralization of political power and more authoritarian methods of political, social, and economic control would be probable responses to postattack conditions. However, even before any outbreak of nuclear war, the presence of nuclear weapons has an enormous potential to distort social and economic priorities. Each of the nuclear weapons states has spent billions of dollars on constructing, maintaining and protecting its nuclear The burial of radioactive materials is presently being promoted as the solution to radioactive waste disposal. However, at present, there are no known disposal routes for long-lived radioactive materials. The burial of these materials must not be confused with their safe containment and isolation from the environment. Whether the storage containers, the store itself, or the surrounding rocks will offer enough protection to stop radioactivity from escaping in the long term is impossible to predict. One of the most likely mechanisms of pollution in connection with waste disposal in rock is the contamination of groundwater. Underground waters may come into contact with radioactive elements that have leached out from the waste and contaminate the drinking water of both local and distant communities. Social effects To understand the effects of a nuclear war it is important to distinguish it from conventional war or a natural disaster. In particular, all the factors that would make it possible to cope with a normal emergency situation would be lacking: limited damage, a relatively small number of casualties, surviving political or social leadership, a desire to perform common emergency work rather than Page 14 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Effects of nuclear weapons powerful psychological effects of the fear weapons. It is not necessary to point out of radioactivity, and the "loss of trust" that this money could have been better were described in studies of the nuclear spent on providing health care, education accident at Three Mile Island. The or other public services. spread of radioactive fallout would create the image of nuclear threat and The development of nuclear weapons vulnerability across wide areas. also makes it necessary to create an unaccountable "nuclear elite", made up The very short period required to carry of scientists, military and civil servants, out highly destructive nuclear attacks who work largely in secret to control the would intensify the emotional impact, development, testing and deployment of particularly those reactions associated nuclear weapons. This makes the with denial of the true extent of the presence of nuclear weapons damage or fostering flight from damaged incompatible with a democratic society. areas. It is possible to link an increased Robert J. Lifton, in his study of Hiroshima importance of the military, and a general survivors, described the psychological increase in militarism, to a growth of effect as "a sudden and absolute shift xenophobia, racial and religious from normal existence to an intolerance, as well as male chauvinism. overwhelming encounter with death.” The possession of nuclear weapons The reaction, as reported by a witness to leads to an increased importance of the the disaster, Father Siemes: "Among the military within society. This can support passers-by, there are many who are other forms of oppression within society. uninjured. In a purposeless, insensate Many feminist peace activists, for manner, distraught by the magnitude of example, have paid attention to the links the disaster, most of them rush by and between militarism and the patriarchal none conceives the thought of organizing structures that oppress women. In many help on his own initiative. They are nuclear weapon states, an increase in concerned only with the welfare of their militarism is associated with a growth in own families." In some cases even xenophobia, as well as racial and families were abandoned. The result of religious intolerance. this experience was a deep fear of returning to the cities to rebuild the any It would cost around 260 billion dollars form of normal life that may be possible per year, over the next 10 years, to solve after a nuclear attack. the world’s most pressing social and Families would be broken up by death, environmental problems. This is less severe injury, disease, evacuation, or than half of what the United States military and labour conscription. The spends each year on nuclear weapons. young, elderly, and handicapped would suffer disproportionately since they depend most on society's material and Psychological Effects institutional resources. For example, the From a psychological point of view, young and elderly showed significant limited nuclear war probably is the worst increases in accidental death attributed of all worlds. to neglect in Great Britain in World War The imagery of nuclear war, the II. The loss of material and institutional widespread casualties, and the intense resources in urban-industrial attacks fear of radioactivity would lead to the would make survival in the post-attack "nuclear war survivor syndrome". This period difficult for individuals and groups powerful sense of personal vulnerability, alike, compounding the psychological helplessness, guilt, isolation and fear, stresses of the attack itself. Satisfying was seen to varying degrees in the even the simplest survival requirements Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. The Nuclear weapons: an introduction (food, shelter, and clothing) would become major tasks. The entire post-war generation has lived under a cloud of fear - sometimes described as the 'shadow of the mushroom cloud', which pervades all thoughts about the human future. This fear, which has hung like a blanket of doom over the thoughts of children in particular, is an evil in itself and will last so long as nuclear weapons remain. The younger generation needs to grow up in a climate of hope, not one of despair that at some point in their life, there is a possibility of their life being snuffed out in an instant, or their health destroyed, along with all they cherish, in a war in which their country may not even take part. Page 15 Effects of nuclear weapons retaliation for something their government may or may not have done. Nuclear Colonialism Worldwide, the number of victims of the nuclear age has been estimated at 13 million. It is often ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples that have felt the strongest impact of the nuclear chain. Their living areas have been consciously chosen as sites for the production and testing of nuclear weapons, or for the storage of nuclear waste, often with no voice in the decision making process. It is possible to talk of “environmental racism”, or “nuclear colonialism”. This nuclear colonialism can be observed in many parts of the world. The South Pacific has been the site of nuclear tests by the US, France and UK. Australia was the site of nuclear testing and uranium mining, Algeria was a site for nuclear testing before gaining independence. In the Soviet Union, nuclear tests took place far from the political centre of Moscow, on the land of the Nenet. They saw their traditional hunting grounds vaporised during the largest nuclear test ever conducted in 1961. In the United States, it was land traditionally used by the Western Shoshone Indians that was used for the Nevada Test Site. The impact of these tests has led to the contamination of the land and an increase in the number of cancers, and other health problems. Burnt body in Hiroshima A nuclear strategy requires the ability to imagine killing millions of people in an instant. This “genocidal” mentality is not necessarily aimed at particular population groups, but rather the indiscriminate targeting of inhabitants of a particular country or city. It depends on mental processes such as 'psychic numbing' and the 'language of nonfeeling', which allow people to remain sane whilst carrying out insane policies. Governments also have to psychologically prepare their populations for the idea that such insane and evil strategies are rational and necessary. This requires demonising the enemy. During the Cold War for example, the Russians were demonised in order to try to make it acceptable that in some circumstances it would be justifiable to kill millions of them within minutes, in Western Shoshone Indians in protest. Nuclear weapons: an introduction Effects of nuclear weapons Page 16 Nuclear globalisation The possession of nuclear weapons is often justified in terms of protecting national security. But, nuclear weapons are also used to protect the “vital economic interests” of the nuclear weapon states such as oil fields and shipping lanes. Although the cold war arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union were designed to provide the capacity to annihilate the opposing superpower, the use of nuclear weapons was also a way of holding the third world (in the case of the United States) and the communist satellite states (in the case of the Soviet Union) in check. The use of nuclear intervention was threatened on several occasions by the United Kingdom against former colonies. Following the end of the cold war, the rationale for maintaining large stockpiles of nuclear weapons becomes even less clear from a purely military point of view. The possession of nuclear weapons enables the rich countries (and their military and economic allies) to reinforce their control over the exploitation of natural resources, and maintain a control over patterns of global trade. The quote from Thomas Friedman (below) indicates the role that militarism in general (and nuclear weapons in particular) play in ensuring that the economically powerful countries have access to commodities and markets. "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas... And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps." -- Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree Nuclear weapons: an introduction Effects of nuclear weapons Page 17 Estimated annual cost of global human and environmental programs, compared to the annual military expenditures Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons and the law The use or threat of nuclear weapons violates a number of international treaties and customary international law. On 8th July 1996, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion that stated: “the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law” The court could not state definitively that the use of nuclear weapons would always be illegal (for example, in extreme self defence). However, even if the very survival of the state was as stake, the use of nuclear weapons would still have to be in accordance with the rule of international law, and no state could give a realistic scenario in which this would be the case. Page 18 Nuclear weapons and the law International Treaties The Advisory Opinion of July 8th 1996 makes it quite clear that nuclear weapons would generally breach all of the following: - The Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868 because unnecessary suffering would be caused; - The Martens Clause, 1899 because humanity would not remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from established custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of public conscience; - The Hague Conventions, 1907 because unnecessary suffering would be caused and there would be no guarantee of the inviolability of neutral nations; - The UN Charter, 1945 because such a use of force would not be proportionate; - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 because long-lasting radioactive contamination would interfere with innocent people’s inherent right to life and health; - The Geneva Conventions, 1949 because protection of the wounded, sick, the infirm, expectant mothers, civilian hospitals and health workers would not be ensured; An Introduction to International Law International Law The July 8th 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) outlines the sources of international law related to nuclear weapons. Advisory Opinions are intended to provide UN bodies with guidance regarding legal issues and are not directly binding on the UN or its member States. However, the ICJ has authoritatively interpreted laws which States, acknowledge they must follow, including humanitarian law and the UN Charter. Nuclear weapons: an introduction - The Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977 because there would be massive incidental losses of civilian lives and widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment. - The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), 1968 is being violated by all of the nuclear weapons states, as they are not fulfilling their obligation to negotiate in good faith a nuclear disarmament. Serious violations of these treaties and declarations are defined as criminal acts under the Nuremberg Principles, because Principle VI defines crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Specifically, Nuremberg Principle VI (a) defines Crimes against Peace as: ’Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of ... a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances ... Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned.’ Nuremberg Principle VI (b) defines War Crimes as ’violations of the laws or customs of war’ and Nuremberg Principle VI (c) defines Crimes against Humanity as ’murder, extermination ... and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population ... when ... carried on in execution of, or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime’. Customary International Law As well as the rules of international law that are contained in treaties, there are also "customary" laws regarding the ways in which wars can be fought. These can be summarised thus: Rule of Proportionality The Rule of Proportionality... prohibits the use of a weapon if its probable effects would likely be disproportionate to the value of the anticipated military objective. Nuclear weapons and the law Page 19 Rule of Necessity The Rule of Necessity provides that, in conducting a military operation may use only such a level of force as is ’necessary’ or ’imperatively necessary’ to achieve its military objective. Rule of Moderation The law of war recognises a general principle of moderation, expressed in the Hague Regulations by the maxim that ’the right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited’ (Article 22). This principle is a basis of and generally overlaps with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Rule of Discrimination including the Requirement of Controllability The Rule of Discrimination prohibits the use of a weapon that cannot discriminate in its effects between military and civilian targets. This is a rule designed to protect civilian persons and objects. The law recognises that the use of a particular weapon against a military target may cause unintended collateral or incidental damage to civilian persons and objects and permits such damage, subject to compliance with the other applicable rules of law, including the principle of proportionality. However, the weapon must have been intended for - and capable of being controlled and directed against - a military target, and the civilian damage must have been unintended and collateral or incidental. Rule of Civilian Immunity Occupying much the same ground as the Rules of Discrimination and Proportionality is the Rule of Civilian Immunity. The law of armed conflict prohibits ’the directing of attacks against civilians, making them immune from such attack’. The international humanitarian principles used to assess the legality of nuclear weapons are well established in the international legal order. These Page 20 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons and the law customary rules are binding on all states of which is the overriding consideration at all times. of humanity" and states "In view of the unique characteristics of nuclear weapons, ... the use of such weapons in The judgement of the ICJ fact seems scarcely reconcilable with respect for such requirements". In conclusion, the ICJ Advisory Opinion, as a whole, gives a strong presumption of illegality. Of the fourteen Judges sitting, ten determined that the use of nuclear weapons would generally be unlawful. Further, six judges were of the view that all uses of nuclear weapons would be unlawful per se. The International court of Justice, The Hague The ICJ Advisory Opinion states: "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law". The ICJ also envisioned no circumstances in which the use of nuclear weapons would be compatible with international law saying, "none of the states advocating the legality of the use of nuclear weapons under certain circumstances, including the ’clean’ use of smaller, low yield, tactical nuclear weapons, has indicated what, supposing such limited use were feasible, would be the precise circumstances justifying such use; nor whether such limited use would not tend to escalate into the all-out use of high yield weapons" The ICJ acknowledged the "unique characteristics of nuclear weapons, and in particular their destructive capacity, their capacity to cause untold human suffering, and their ability to cause damage to generations to come". The ICJ refers to "the principles and rules of law applicable in armed conflict at the heart Possible Lawful Use? The only possible loophole that may have been left by the ICJ was when the Court stated in para 105, 2E: "However, in view of the current state of international law, and of the elements of fact at its disposal, the Court cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence, in which the very survival of a State would be at stake." However, it is clear that this possible exception cannot apply to any of the nuclear weapons currently deployed by the nuclear weapon states. If a nuclear weapon existed that was of low yield and where its effects could be confined to a particular military target then it might be that its use would not be unlawful under this exception of self-defence. It would, however, still have to be used in accordance with the rules of international law. “Nuclear weapons, the ultimate evil, destabilize humanitarian law which is the law of the lesser evil. The existence of nuclear weapons is therefore a challenge to the very existence of humanitarian law” Judge Bedjaoui, president of the Internationaal court of justice 1996 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles Country United States Russia France China United Kingdom India Pakistan Israel North Korea Nuclear stockpile 5735-9960 7200-16000 350 400 200 40-45 60 75–400 1-10 Page 21 First nuclear test 1945 1949 1960 1964 1952 1974 1998 1979? 2006 Nuclear weapons stockpiles There are currently around 36000 nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals, estimated to be 2667 times the firepower experienced in the entire six years of World War II. These weapons are primarily in the five Nuclear Weapon States - USA, UK, Russia, France and China. These countries are recognised under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as “Nuclear Weapon States” (NWS). They are the countries that had tested nuclear weapons before 1st January 1967. The other states that have tested nuclear weapons but remain outside the NPT regime are: India, Pakistan, Israel and North-Korea. There are a number of other “states of concern” that have signed the NPT, but may be developing nuclear weapons. Worldwide estimated nuclear stockpiles Nuclear weapons: an introduction United States The United States is the only country to have used a nuclear weapon in war. In August 1945 it bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As of January 2006, the U.S. stockpile contains almost 10,000 nuclear warheads. This includes 5,735 active or operational warheads: 5,235 strategic and 500 nonstrategic warheads. Approximately 4,225 additional warheads are held in the reserve or inactive stockpiles, some of which will be dismantled. Through the Cold War, the United States nuclear posture was based around the “triad” of land, air and sea based nuclear weapons. The US developed a massive number of nuclear weapons, and ensured that a large number of them would be able to survive a nuclear attack by basing them on submarines, or aircraft, or in missiles which could be moved around the country. In the event of any attack these surviving nuclear weapons could be launched in retaliation. The result would be the almost complete devastation of the US and its opponent, as well as many other neighbouring countries as a result of radioactive contamination. This held the United States and the Soviet Union in a position where neither could attack the other for fear of being destroyed itself. To reflect the fact that both countries would be destroyed, this policy became known as Mutually Assured Destruction, or “MAD”. There were, however, numerous examples of human error or computer malfunction almost leading to the accidental launch of nuclear weapons. Both the United States and the Soviet Union used huge amounts of financial and environmental resources developing, testing and deploying their nuclear weapons. This MAD position was held up by the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, signed between the US and the Soviet Union, which banned the development of missile defence systems capable of destroying incoming nuclear missiles. The effect of Page 22 Nuclear weapons stockpiles such missile defence systems would have been to destabilise the MAD policy, by giving one country the possibility of surviving a nuclear attack. The United States and the Soviet Union also signed a number of arms control treaties to limit the number of nuclear weapons held by each side. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US government and military began the search for a new nuclear posture, and a new enemy on which to target its nuclear weapons. Over the 1990s, the US identified a number of “Rogue States”. These were mainly developing countries which were capable of developing weapons of mass destruction, and which threatened the global supremacy of the US. They included Libya, North Korea, and Iraq. Following the election of George W. Bush, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, US nuclear policy took another step in this direction. This was position was made more firm in the Nuclear Posture Review of January 2002. This review detailed a new “triad” which was based around a combination of nuclear conventional weapons, missile defence and an updated nuclear weapon infrastructure, able to resume the testing of a new generation of nuclear weapons. The Defense Department is upgrading its nuclear strike plans to reflect new presidential guidance and a transition in war planning from the top-heavy Single Integrated Operational Plan of the Cold War to a family of smaller and more flexible strike plans designed to defeat today's adversaries. The number of nuclear weapons in the active stockpile will be reduced to between 1,700 and 2,200. These weapons will be based on Trident submarines (based at Kings Bay in Georgia and Bangor in Washington state), and long range nuclear bombers (the B2 based at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, and the B52) as well as on land based Intercontinental Ballistic missiles Page 23 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles (Minuteman missiles stationed across mentioned, but the figures give an the United States). The United States will indication of the capacity of each base. also retain a number of tactical nuclear weapons, a few hundred of which are Russia based in Europe. Russia continues to move from its Cold US Nukes in Europe The NATO allies still retain an arsenal of up to 480 secret, and largely forgotten, US nuclear weapons in Europe, in direct contravention of obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). These weapons are all thought to be B61 gravity bombs, with a yield that can be varied between 0.3 kilotons and 170 kilotons. They are stored at airbases in the territory of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO): Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy and Turkey and Britain. Very little direct information is available about the presence of these weapons in Europe. The countries which host them refuse to either confirm or deny their presence. However, pressure from antinuclear activists and members of parliament has forced more openness on the issue in recent years. The most recent estimates on the numbers of nuclear weapons at each base are: Site Ramstein (Germany) Buechel (Germany) Lakenheath (UK) Incirlik (Turkey) Aviano (Italy) Ghedi Torre (Italy) Volkel (The Netherlands) Kleine Brogel (Belgium) Total Weapons 130 20 110 90 50 40 20 20 480 War nuclear stockpile, further reducing its total nuclear forces, but also announcing plans for new weapon systems and upgrades of existing ones. As of early 2006, Russia had approximately 5,830 operational nuclear warheads in its active arsenal. This includes about 3,500 strategic warheads and 2,330 nonstrategic nuclear weapons. Russia also has around 10,100 nuclear warheads waiting to be dismantled. The number of nuclear weapons that Russia possesses will be reduced to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012, after the agreement signed between President Putin, and George W. Bush. The START (Strategic Arms Reduction) and INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) treaties signed between the Soviet Union and the US have already reduced the size of the arsenal from its levels at the height of the Cold War. However, it is possible that much of this reduction might well have taken place in any case, after the collapse of the Russian economy made the maintenance of a massive nuclear arsenal impossible. Russia is currently receiving aid from the United States to maintain, dismantle, and account for, its nuclear stockpile. The fact that the START II treaty will not enter into force (being replaced by the much less rigorous informal agreement between Bush and Putin) means that the Russia nuclear force will retain certain weapons that would otherwise have been eliminated. The Russian government appears to be attempting to reassert its nuclear strength after years of decline in order to underscore its status as a powerful nation. To this end, President Vladimir Putin said Russia has reinstated largescale military exercises, and military officials made several statements about the role of Russia's nuclear posture. Storage vaults for the weapons exist in other sites (Memmingen and Noervenich in Germany, Akinci and Balikesir in Turkey), but these are in "caretaker status" and probably not hosting bombs, at present. Until 2001 nuclear weapons were also stored at Araxos in Greece. It is not known whether each base effectively hosts the number of bombs Page 24 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles would leave a stockpile of some 6,500 Russia currently deploys 549 operational nonstrategic warheads. ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles). Eventually, Russia will deploy only two types of ICBMs: Topol-M and France Topol-M1, but the deployment of the new France possesses around 350 nuclear missiles has been delayed by lack of weapons. France currently has two funding, and restrictions imposed by nuclear weapon systems: submarinearms reduction treaties signed with the launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) US. carried by nuclear-powered ballistic Today there are 12 nuclear armed missile submarines (SSBNs) and submarines -six Delta IVs based with the medium-range air-to-surface missiles Northern Fleet and based in Gadzhiyevo carried by Mirage 2000N and Super on the Kola Peninsula, and six Delta III Étendard aircraft. subs based at Rybachi on the Three squadrons with a total of 60 Kamchatka Peninsula; and in Mirage 2000Ns currently have nuclear Gadzhiyevo. roles, carrying the Air-Sol-Moyenne Two Borey-class subs are under construction at the Severodvinsk shipyard on the Kola Peninsula--both of them behind schedule. Portée (ASMP) supersonic missile equipped with a single TN-81 warhead. Two of these squadrons (named Dauphiné and La Fayette) are based at Luxeuil-les-Bains, 130 kilometres southwest of Strasbourg. The third squadron (Limousin) is at Istres, 40 kilometres northwest of Marseille. France intends to eventually replace all of its Mirage aircraft with the Rafale, its new multipurpose fighter-bomber. Russian strategic bombers are deployed with two divisions of the 37th Air Army and include 78 aircraft. Russia continues to upgrade its Blackjack bombers with improved avionics and communications equipment and to modify them to carry new types of missiles with conventional and nuclear warheads. In October 1991 and January 1992, as part of the U.S./Russian Presidential Nuclear Initiatives, Russia announced that it would take several unilateral steps to withdraw and eliminate some nonstrategic nuclear weapons. In a 1992 letter to the U.N. secretarygeneral, President Boris Yeltsin pledged that production of warheads for groundlaunched tactical missiles, artillery shells, and mines had stopped and that all such warheads would be eliminated. In addition, Russia would dispose of half of all airborne and surface-to-air warheads, as well as one-third of all naval warheads. In 2004, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that "more than 50 percent" of all these warhead types have been "liquidated." With a Russian nonstrategic stockpile of some 19,600 warheads in mid-1988, the implementation of the Yeltsin initiative The 40,500-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle can accommodate 35-40 aircraft. Nuclear capability aboard the carrier remains with a squadron of Super Étendards, presumably equipped with about 10 ASMPs. France is the only country to still deploy nuclear weapons aboard aircraft carriers. France currently operates four SSBNs of two classes: three Le Triomphant-class subs and one Le Redoutable-class sub. A Triomphant-class sub can carry 16 M45 SLBMs, each with a capacity of six TN75 warheads. The navy rolled out Le Triomphant from the Cherbourg shipyard on July 13, 1993 and made it operational in September 1996. It commissioned the second Triomphant-class sub, Le Téméraire, in December 1999, some six months behind schedule, and successfully test-launched an M45 missile from the sub in May 1999. The third sub, Le Vigilant, was commissioned cost of the Triomphant-class program at nearly 16 billion euros (about $20 billion). This includes construction of the submarines, maintenance, personnel, and 25 years of operation. Adding the costs of missiles and warheads brings the total to 32 billion euros (about $40 billion). Although France is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is bound by Article VI's goal of nuclear disarmament, it shows no signs of giving up its remaining arsenal. Instead, it is making plans to develop, buy, and deploy new nuclear weapons, and to maintain its existing arsenal, for years to come. A new nuclear missile, known as the M51, will replace the M45. The missile, now designated M51.1, is scheduled to enter service in 2010 in order to coincide with the commissioning of Le Terrible. Page 25 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles on November 30, 2004, and is replacing targeted primarily at Asian bases and the soon-to-be decommissioned facilities. L'Indomptable in France's Strategic It is likely that U.S. plans for a missile Oceanic Force (FOST). defence system will provoke China to upgrade its nuclear arsenal, and A fourth Triomphant SSBN, Le Terrible, specifically to deploy missiles with many is under construction at the Cherbourg warheads to ensure that it can penetrate shipyard and is scheduled for its initial any missile defence “shield”. patrol in 2010. One estimate has put the China has had difficulties with its ballistic missile submarine program. China's "fleet" consists of one Xia-class sub built at Huldao Naval Base and Shipyard and launched in April 1981. Information on Chinese non-strategic nuclear weapons is limited and contradictory, and there is no official evidence of their existence. Several lowyield nuclear tests in the late 1970s, and a large military exercise in June 1982 simulating the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, suggest that they may have been developed. According to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, these non-strategic weapons may consist of atomic demolition munitions, aircraft bombs, and short-range missiles. China is developing land-attack cruise missiles with a range of 1,500-2,500 kilometres for aircraft, ships, and subs. China China has a nuclear arsenal of around 400 nuclear weapons, based on land, air and sea. China's bomber force is antiquated, based on Chinese-made versions of outdated Soviet aircraft. However, it has been modernising its air force by buying from Russia. The planes are based at Suixi, Guangdong Province, and at Wuhu airfield, 250 kilometres west of Shanghai. The Chinese medium range nuclear missiles, currently deployed in eight locations, are gradually being retired. A new generation of long-range missiles are being constructed and will be United Kingdom Britain only has one nuclear weapon system, based on board 4 Trident nuclear submarines. In July 1998, Britain's Labour government announced several changes to its nuclear force resulting from its Strategic Defence Review: • Only one British submarine will patrol at any given time, and that boat will carry a reduced load of 48 warheads--half the number the Conservative government had planned. • The submarine will patrol at a reduced state of alert, its missiles de-targeted. It will be capable of firing its missiles within several days, not minutes as during the Nuclear weapons: an introduction Cold War. It will also carry out a range of secondary tasks. • Britain will maintain fewer than 200 operationally available warheads, a one-third reduction from the Conservative plan. • Britain will purchase a total of 58 rather than 65 Trident II D-5 missiles from the United States. Although the total explosive power of Britain's available nuclear weapons is now less than at the end of the Cold War, the weapons are more accurate, and able to hit a larger number of targets. The United States and Britain share a pool of Submarine Launched missiles, and the targeting information is received via US satellites, making the force highly dependent on the United States. Trident also has a "substrategic" role that could be used to threaten any country challenging British economic interests, such as oil fields or shipping lanes. The current Trident nuclear missiles will reach the end of their operational life in 2024. Although Britain has signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the British government is committed to maintaining a nuclear weapon system. Page 26 Nuclear weapons stockpiles Indian government officials reaffirmed India’s commitment to a nuclear no-firstuse policy. But an Indian foreign ministry official told Defense News in 2000 that a “‘no-first-strike’ policy does not mean India will not have a first-strike capability.” India has several types of aircraft that could be used to deliver nuclear weapons, but considering range, payload, and speed, the most likely are the MiG-27 and the Jaguar. India deploys three types of ballistic missile, the 150-kilometer-range Prithvi I. The short-range Prithvi (“earth”) shortrange ballistic missile began development in 1983 and was first tested in 1988. Of the two versions, only Prithvi I is assessed by the CIA as having a nuclear role. The two-stage Agni (“fire”) I and II intermediate-range ballistic missile have a range of 1,500 kilometres. Rumours persist concerning Indian plans for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, referred to as the Surya. Most components needed for an ICBM are available from India’s indigenous space program, and conversion would take about a year or two after a decision to do so. In addition to air- and land-based nuclear-capable forces, India is working on at least two naval systems, the Sagarika (“oceanic”, submarine based) and the Dhanush (“bow”, based on a surface ship), which may be equipped to carry nuclear warheads in the future. Work on the Sagarika missile began in 1991 and it is now in advanced development. During the tense standoff between India and Pakistan in January 2002, new naval chief Adm. Madhvendera Singh made some ambiguous comments about naval nuclear weapons in his initial news conference. “We have a triad of weapons for a second strike and one of the triad is at sea,” he said. “The most powerful leg India The size and type of India’s nuclear arsenal is difficult to determine. Various sources suggest that India has a stockpile of approximately 40–50 nuclear warheads. An unnamed Defence Ministry source told Defense News in late 2004 that in the next five to seven years India will have 300-400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons distributed to air, sea, and land forces. In May 1998 India tested both fusion and fission designs of nuclear weapons. Construction is scheduled to begin soon at Kalpakkam on a new 500-megawatt sodium-cooled fast breeder nuclear reactor, which will produce plutonium. During 2001, a year that ended in heightened tensions with Pakistan, Page 27 Nuclear weapons stockpiles nuclear-capable missile, although other missiles in the Pakistani armed forces could be set up to carry a nuclear warhead. Pakistan The choice of the name Ghauri is highly It is extremely difficult to estimate the symbolic. Muslim Sultan Muhammad number and types of nuclear weapons in Ghauri defeated the Hindu ruler Prithvi Pakistan's arsenal. Outside experts Raj Chauhan in 1192. Prithvi is the name estimate the country has about 60 India has assigned to its short-range nuclear weapons. ballistic missiles. It carried out a series of tests of these weapons on 28th and 30th May 1998. Israel Measurement of these tests suggests that the yields were around 9–12 kilotons The Israeli nuclear programme remains shrouded in secrecy. Estimates of the and 4–6 kilotons respectively, lower than the Pakistani government announced. number of nuclear weapons possessed Chinese tests in the 1960s used similar vary, but could be as high as 400. designs, and it is suspected that the The programme began shortly after the second world war, with the search for Chinese assisted Pakistan's program in uranium in the Negev dessert. The Israeli the 1970s and 1980s. government received support from French nuclear scientists, and the It is also unclear how much weaponsDimona nuclear reactor and plutonium grade uranium Pakistan has. separation facility was built with French Like other nations that have developed cooperation, in exchange for the role nuclear weapons, Pakistan does not played by Israel in the Suez crisis. Israel seem content with a first-generation also had access to data from French nuclear weapon and may be pursuing nuclear tests. The United States and other designs and refinements. The 40Norway also supplied nuclear materials. to 50-megawatt thermal Khushab United States inspectors visited Dimona reactor, at Joharabad in the Khushab seven times during the 1960s, but they district of Punjab, can produce weaponswere unable to obtain an accurate grade plutonium. Loading the reactor's picture of the activities carried out there, target materials with lithium could largely due to tight Israeli control over the produce tritium. Plutonium separation timing and agenda of the visits. The reportedly takes place at the "New Labs" Israelis went so far as to install false reprocessing plant next to the Pakistan control room panels and to brick over Institute of Nuclear Science and elevators and hallways that accessed Technology (Pinstech) in Rawalpindi. certain areas of the facility. The Pakistan is attempting to increase and inspectors were able to report that there enhance its nuclear forces significantly was no clear scientific research or over the coming years. It may intend to civilian nuclear power program justifying match India's plan to deploy a nuclear such a large reactor - circumstantial triad of air-, land-, and sea-based evidence of the Israeli bomb program weapons. but found no evidence of "weapons U.S.-manufactured F-16s are most likely related activities" such as the existence to be used by the Pakistani Air Force to of a plutonium reprocessing plant. deliver nuclear weapons, although other French supplies of Uranium to Israel aircraft, such as the Mirage V or the stopped after the 1967 war, and Israel Chinese- produced A-5 could also be turned to South Africa as a source of used. uranium and tritium. However, by this According to bomb designer A. Q. Khan, time Israel almost certainly had two the Ghauri missile is Pakistan's only nuclear weapons which could have been Nuclear weapons: an introduction of the triad is in the navy and is hidden underwater and moving.” Page 28 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles The use of nuclear weapons was used during the war. By the Yom Kippur opposed by the United States who war of 1973, Israel had 13 nuclear offered Israel closer military cooperation weapons based on US made aircraft and in return. Jericho missiles. In 1979 satellite images revealed what It is likely that Israel is developing low was almost certainly a joint Israeli / yield nuclear weapons that could be South African nuclear test in the Indian used to destroy airfields, or buried Ocean. It is thought that more recently command posts. It is also continuing to Israel has been cooperating with India. develop sea launched nuclear weapons, with the purchase of three German Mordechai Vanunu provided detailed Dolphin Class submarines, suitable for information on the Israeli nuclear firing nuclear armed cruise missiles. programme in 1985. He was a technician from Dimona who lost his job, and At the end of 2006 the Israeli Prime secretly took photographs of the plant Minister Ehud Olmert admitted, in an before emigrating to Australia. Some of apparent slip of the tongue, that Israel his material was published in the London has got nuclear weapons. Although it Sunday Times. He was subsequently was widely assumed that they had a kidnapped by Israeli agents, tried and nuclear weapon program, also based on imprisoned. He remains in prison, having the information from Vanunu, this was spent many years in solitary the first time that the existence of these confinement. weapons was ‘officially’ admitted by His data shows a sophisticated nuclear Israel. programme, over 200 bombs, with boosted devices, neutron bombs, F-16 deliverable warheads, and Jericho North Korea warheads. The boosted weapons shown In 1964 North Korea began its nuclear in the Vanunu photographs indicate that research. Kim II Sung (father of the the weapons were sophisticated enough current leader Kim Jong II) built an to require testing. atomic energy research complex at He revealed for the first time the Yongbyon. underground plutonium separation facility The reason for the development of a where Israel was producing 40 kilograms nuclear programme was the threat that annually, several times more than the United States would launch a nuclear previous estimates. These facts have attack against North Korea and China increased the estimates of total Israeli during the Korean war. Until 1991, the nuclear stockpiles. United States stationed nuclear weapons Vanunu not only made the technical in South Korea. details of the Israeli program and stockpile public but in his wake, Israel Under great pressure, North Korea began to acknowledge aspects of its signed the nuclear Non Proliferation nuclear programme. Treaty in 1986. This meant that the IAEA He was released from prison in 2004, (International Atomic Energy Agency) although he still faces considerable could conduct inspections of its nuclear restrictions on his movement and ability reactors. to speak to foreigners. After a number of inspections, North Korea withdrew access to its nuclear The 1991 Gulf War brought Israel to facilities. In 1993 the country threatened another nuclear alert. Several Iraqi Scud to withdraw from the Non Proliferation missiles were fired at Dimona, and the Treaty. By the end of 1993, the CIA had Israeli government threatened to use assessed that North Korea possibly nuclear weapons against Baghdad if Iraq possessed at least one nuclear weapon. used chemical weapons against Israel. Page 29 Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles In 1994 Kim Yong II and Jimmy Carter of Iran the US signed the ‘Agreed Framework’. Iran has signed the NPT, but suspicions This agreement stated that North Korea persist that the nation is developing would close its nuclear reactors capable nuclear weapons. of producing weapons grade, in The Iranian nuclear programme began in exchange for economic cooperation and the 1950s, and has received support the construction of two modern nuclear from the US, Russia and Argentina. The reactors (light water reactors, that are not programme currently consists of an able to produce plutonium for use in operational uranium mine, a nuclear nuclear weapons). reactor under construction in Bushehr, At the end of 2002 North Korea withdrew and an enrichment facility in Natanz. from the NPT. In further discussions, Iran signed the NPT in 1986. Despite the North Korea referred to the fact that it is fact that Iran claims that its uranium able to enrich uranium for specifically enrichment and nuclear power facilities military purposes, as it was no longer are purely intended for peaceful use, bound by the conditions of the treaty. In there are suspicions that the country is 2003 North Korea officially stated in developing nuclear weapons. According discussions with the US and China that it to the latest reports from the CIA, there is possessed nuclear weapons. no convincing evidence that Iran is At the start of 2006, the North Korean secretly constructing nuclear weapons. regime announced that it would test a In August 2005 talks between the EU nuclear weapon. The UN Security and Iran became deadlocked as Iran Council adopted a resolution that warned refused to stop the enrichment of North Korea not to test the weapon, but uranium. Iran claimed that uranium without threatening concrete sanctions. enrichment is allowed under the terms of On 9th October 2006, North Korea the NPT. The UN Security Council announced that, despite the resolution, it responded with the threat of a trade had conducted its first successful nuclear embargo against Iran. weapon test. The state press agency stated that it was “a historic event that The tension with Iran reveals the dual greatly encouraged and pleased the nature of the NPT. The international army and people. It will contribute to community is trying to convince Iran to defending the peace and stability on the stop enriching uranium, using technology Korean Peninsula and in the area around that originated in the West. The failure of it.” Iran to fulfil the wishes of the UN Security The US, China, Japan and South Korea Council has led to the introduction of threatened a trade embargo. At the start sanctions, while Iran has a right to enrich of 2007, North Korea agreed to uranium under the NPT. dismantle it’s nuclear facilities, in At the same time, the nuclear weapon exchange for supplies of oil and the states are doing little or nothing to live up guarantee from the United States that it to their obligations to disarmament under would not treat the country as a terrorist the NPT. country. Talks are set to start to normalise diplomatic relations between the two nations, and to end the trade embargo. Page 30 Nuclear weapons stockpiles regards to their territories within the Countries that have dismantled zone. nuclear weapons Regional NWFZs currently cover Africa, Latin-America, the South Pacific and There are a few countries that have South East Asia. The Sea Bed Treaty, abandoned active nuclear weapon the Antarctic Treaty, and the Outer programmes, or dismantled nuclear Space Treaty each prohibit certain weapons. nuclear related activities. North and South Korea have signed a treaty to South Africa gave up its nuclear denuclearise the Korean Peninsular, and weapons in the early 1990s. Austria and Mongolia have unilaterally declared themselves nuclear free zones. The Ceaucescu regime in Romania built up a stockpile of weapons grade A Central and Eastern Europe Nuclear plutonium, which was dismantled by the Weapon Free Zone was proposed by new government in 1989. Belarus at the United Nations General Assembly in 1990 and reiterated at the When the Soviet Union collapsed in Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty review 1991, the nuclear weapons on the conference in 2000. The zone would territory of Ukraine, Belarus and include Poland, the Czech Republic, the Kazakhstan were returned to Russia, Slovak Republic, Hungary and the Baltic and these countries signed the NPT. states, as well as Belarus, Ukraine, and possibly Moldova. It also might Argentina, Brazil, Libya and Taiwan have encompass the Balkans and non-NATO given up nuclear weapon programmes. Scandinavia. Creation of the zone would not alleviate Russian concerns about the eastward deployment of NATO's smart Nuclear Weapon Free Zones conventional weapons. It would, Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (NWFZs) however, be an important new prohibit the stationing, testing, use and confidence-building measure and a boost development of nuclear weapons inside for stability in the least stable region of a particular geographical region, whether Europe. it is a single state, a region, or area governed solely by international The creation of a NWFZ to cover the agreements. They have been identified whole of Europe would be an important in many fora, including the Nonstep towards the global abolition of Proliferation Treaty and the UN General nuclear weapons, and the creation of a Assembly, as being positive steps toward Nuclear Weapons Convention. nuclear disarmament. Nuclear weapons: an introduction There are eight existing regional NWFZs established by treaty. The provisions of each zone vary with the language of each respective treaty. Each treaty prohibits the manufacture, production, possession, testing, acquisition, and receipt of nuclear weapons. Each of the regional NWFZ treaties includes a protocol to be signed by the nuclear weapon states laying out negative security assurances and respect for the NWFZ. Some treaties have additional protocols for signature by states with Nuclear weapons: an introduction Nuclear weapons stockpiles Page 31 Nuclear weapon free zones Nuclear weapons: an introduction Further information Books and websites: This list of books and websites contains the sources used in writing this brochure, as well as places to look for further information. General introductions: Reaching Critical Will: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org Page 32 Further Information Enrichment and depleted uranium Campaign Against Depleted Uranium: http://www.cadu.org.uk Nukes and international law Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear policy, 2003, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An assessment of U.S. policies and actions regarding securityrelated treaties International Court of Justice: http:// www.icj-cij.org/ World Court Project UK: http://wcp.gn.apc.org/ Trident Ploughshares handbook: http://www.tridentploughshares.org/hb3 Alyn Ware and Devon Chaffee, 2002 Parliamentarians and Nuclear Weapons: a Briefing Book for the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament. PNND The history of nuclear weapons Nuclear Files: http://www.nuclearfiles.org/hitimeline/index.html Nuclear weapons around the world Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “Nuclear Notebook” http://www.thebulletin.org Natural Resource Defence Council: http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/tkstock/tssum.asp US nukes in Europe Natural Resourses Defense Council: U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe, 2005, Hans Kristenen http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/euro/euro.pdf Reaching Critical Will: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/disfacts/factsindex.html The effects of nuclear weapons Trident Ploughshares Handbook: http://www.tridentploughshares.org/hb3 US Airforce briefing paper: http://www.nautilus.org/nukestrat/USA/N SNF/WS3.pdf India and Pakistan Praful Bidwai and Achim Vanaik, 2000, New Nukes: India Pakistan and global Disarmament Signal Books, Oxford United States Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Lawyers’ Comittee on Nuclear policy, 2003, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An assessment of U.S. policies and actions regarding security-related treaties, Great Britain Fred Roberts, 1999, 60 Years of Nuclear History Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/nuke/trinity/nukeffct/ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/india/target/primer/part01.htm http://www.pgs.ca/pgs.php/Abolition/8/ Physicians for Global Survival: The Cato institute: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa009.html The nuclear chain Shelia Durie and Rob Edwards, 1982, Fueling the Nuclear Arms Race: The links between nucear power and nuclear weapons. Pluto Press, London, Uranium mining World Information Service on Energy (WISE): http://www.antenna.nl/~wise Nuclear weapons: an introduction Israel Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke Further Information International Peace Bureau 41, Rue de Zurich CH-1201 Geneva Switzerland Tel: + 41 22 731 64 29 Fax: + 41 22 738 94 19 http://www.ipb.org mailbox@ipb.org Page 33 http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/ U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu: Some anti-nuclear campaigns and organisations Friends of the Earth Vlaanderen & Brussel Maria Hendrikaplein 5 9000 Gent Belgium Tel: +32 9 242 87 52 Fax: +32 9 242 87 51 http://www.motherearth.org Mayors for peace City Hall Grote Markt 34 8900 Ypres, Belgium Tel: +32-57-38 89 57 2020visioncampaign.org Abolition 2000 c/o Pax Christi USA 532 West 8th Street Erie, PA 16502 USA Tel: +1 814 453-4955 Fax: +1 814 452-4784 http://www.abolition2000.org admin@abolition2000.org Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) 162 Holloway Road London N7 8DQ UK Tel: +44 20 7700 2393 Fax: +44 20 7700 2357 http://www.cnduk.org enquiries@cnduk.org