Aletho News

States back nuclear test ban, right to civilian nuclear

By J.T. Nguyen | DPA | May 4, 2010

New York – More governments attending the United Nations nuclear review conference Tuesday called for an effective ban on nuclear tests and defended their right to possess nuclear energy for peaceful uses.

Indonesia announced it has begun the lengthy national process of ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). If it ratifies the treaty, just eight countries, including the United States and China, would need to ratify it for the treaty to enter into force.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who was attending the UN review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York, told reporters the eight remaining countries should follow Jakarta’s example. Those countries are China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

The treaty bans nuclear tests in the atmosphere to prevent radioactive fallout on the earth. But some countries called for a ban on all forms of nuclear explosions.

During the NTP debate, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia, representing African states, said the CTBT should enter into force as early as possible and it should be a total ban.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who was speaking on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum, and others joined him in demanding the treaty enter into force.

CTBT has been signed by 182 countries, of which 151 have ratified it by adopting national laws to implement the treaty. But the treaty demands that the world’s 44 countries with nuclear technology must all ratify before it enters into force.

Many government envoys called for their inalienable right to have nuclear energy for peaceful uses, as the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities focused on whether that country has plans to produce nuclear weapons rather than civilian energy as Tehran claims. Western government have accused Iran of diverting its advanced uranium enrichment programme to weapons.

Smith said the group of Pacific nations “fully support the rights of non-nuclear-weapon states to enjoy the benefit of peaceful nuclear energy within the framework that reduces proliferation risk and adheres to the highest international standards of safeguards and security.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said more than 60 countries are considering building nuclear power plants for civilian uses and between 20 and 30 of them would have completed the projects by 2030.

The second day of NPT debate in the UN General Assembly in New York was welcomed by some countries that suffered the Cold War nuclear weapon expansion of the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, whose country still bears an “open wound” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion in 1986, said civilian nuclear energy has become a rising international issue.

“We underscore the vital need of peaceful nuclear technology for sustainable development of nations, provided that nuclear activities are subject to full scope safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Gryshchenko said.

Gryshchenko said his country, Russia and Belarus will convene an international conference in April 2011, to mark the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl and discuss progress in returning to normal life in countries and regions affected by the radioactive fallout.

May 5, 2010 - Posted by aletho | Militarism