Nuclear and Missile Trade and Developments NUCLEAR- AND MISSILE-RELATED TRADE AND DEVELOPMENTS FOR SELECTED COUNTRIES, MARCH - JUNE 1999 by Clay Bowen, Erik Jorgensen, Gaurav Kampani, and Fred Wehling The material in this overview is drawn from selected abstracts that appear in the Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ nuclear and missile databases. Transactions of nuclear and missile technologies, parts, and materials are listed according to the recipient country. Other developments are listed according to the country where the event or development took place. Laboratory in New Mexico. The espionage and military sites—the main vertebrae of reportedly occurred in the mid-1980s but it China’s strategic backbone.” According to ASIA was not detected until 1995 when US intelli- the report, China spent more than half of the gence analyzed Chinese nuclear tests and $15 billion on high-technology equipment found that the technology used was very such as computers. Most sales occurred in similar to America’s latest nuclear warhead 1993 after President Clinton loosened export design, the W-88. China has denied the US rules on computers. The report also states ANGLADESH B allegations of nuclear theft and Chinese that “several of the Chinese buyers later sup- Nuclear Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao plied nuclear, missile, and military equipment The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commis- said that the allegations were groundless to Iran and Pakistan.” Some of the sales listed sion reported in late March 1999 that the and irresponsible. in the Wisconsin Project report are: (1) com- Bangladeshi government is considering re- James Risen and Jeff Gerth, New York Times, 6 puter and imaging equipment with potential viving plans for a small nuclear power plant March 1999, p. A1; Walter Pincus, Washington for uranium prospecting sold to the China Post, 7 March 1999, p. A19; Inside China To- in Rupper. An agreement for a 60-MW unit day [Online], <http://www.insidechina.com/>, National Nuclear Corp.; (2) equipment that was signed with Belgian firms in 1970, but 12 March 1999. could be used to develop powerful anti-air- the project fell through when Bangladesh craft radar sold to the China National Elec- separated from Pakistan. Financing has not A Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Con- tronics Import-Export Corp.; (3) gear that yet been negotiated. trol report, titled “U.S. Exports to China, could be used to develop C-802 and C-801 Nucleonics Week, 25 March 1999, pp. 17-18. 1988-1998: Fueling Proliferation,” states that cruise missiles sold to the China Precision since 1988, China has purchased high-tech- Machinery Import-Export Corp.; and (4) com- nology strategic equipment from the United puter equipment sold to the Chinese Acad- CHINA States worth over $15 billion. US exports in- emy of Sciences that could be used to Nuclear cluded equipment used in nuclear weapons develop a fusion nuclear reactor. China also According to US officials, China’s recent production, cruise missiles, aircraft radar, and purchased “semiconductor manufacturing progress in the miniaturization of its nuclear other military goods. Furthermore, “some of equipment, high-speed oscilloscopes (used warheads was accelerated by the theft of [the] dual-use equipment was licensed di- in nuclear weapons tests), precision ma- nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National rectly to leading Chinese nuclear, missile, chines tools (used in weapons and long- The Nonproliferation Review/Fall 1999 179 Nuclear and Missile Trade and Developments range missiles), and vibration testing gear 13 June 1999. The suspected test was car- fer theater missile defense (TMD) technol- (for nuclear weapons and missiles)” from the ried out at the Lop Nor test facility, although ogy to Taiwan it would be “considered a United States. it is not clear whether the blast produced a hostile act and would certainly lead to seri- Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, nuclear yield. If the test produced a yield, ous consequences,” and would be the “last “U.S. Exports to China 1988-1998: Fueling Pro- China would be in violation of its announced straw” in US-China relations. The senior liferation,” April 1999. moratorium on nuclear testing. Chinese official said that a TMD system in Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, Washington Taiwan might give it a “false sense of secu- Western diplomatic officials believe that Times, 18 June 1999, p. A5. rity” providing the motivation to declare in- China may be preparing to decommission dependence. Furthermore, China “reserves some of its older military nuclear processing The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry the right to attack Taiwan if the island de- facilities and designate large amounts of (MINATOM) has approved a proposal that clares independence.” According to China’s waste material for geological disposal. The allows the Tvel nuclear group to negotiate a Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, any transfer Lanzhou uranium plant and the plutonium contract with China to design the core of a of a TMD system to Taiwan would be an production complex at Guangyuan in fast breeder reactor (FBR). The contract will encroachment on China’s sovereignty and Szechwan Province are reportedly slated for include the possibility of transferring highly territorial integrity. Tang also said that closure. Some Western analysts dispute that enriched uranium and reactor control rods China is against any transfer of TMD tech- China would shut down the Guangyuan fa- to China. All sales and transfers will be sub- nology to Japan. Tang suggested that a cility as it is China’s only remaining pluto- ject to Russian export regulations, and the TMD system would “violate Japan’s consti- nium production facility, although China has process will be monitored by MINATOM. tutional pledge to maintain only defensive supposedly stockpiled a large amount of Nuclear Engineering International, 22 June 1999, military capabilities.” p. 4. weapons-grade plutonium. The decommis- John Pomfret, Washington Post, 6 March 1999, sioning of the plants was ordered by Chi- p. 13; John Pomfret, Washington Post, 8 March nese Premier Zhu Rongji to force the China Missile 1999, p. 13. National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to cut According to a US Department of Defense its workforce and carry out structural reor- intelligence report, China is continuing to On 10 March 1999, a US grand jury indicted ganization. China is building a second, larger secretly transfer missile and weapons tech- a Chinese citizen and a naturalized Canadian uranium enrichment facility utilizing gas nologies to Middle Eastern and Asian coun- on charges of smuggling US missile tech- centrifuges at Lanzhou with Russian help. tries despite promises to stop. The classified nology to China. Both individuals, Yao Yi of This facility will replace an older gaseous report concludes, “the Chinese are prolifer- China and Collin Xu of Canada, and their diffusion plant at the site. According to Chi- ating on a consistent basis without techni- companies, Lion Photonics of China and nese officials, the first enrichment facility at cally breaking agreements with the United Lion Photonics Inc. of Canada, allegedly at- Hanzhong has been completed and is pro- States,” by going through government- tempted to smuggle out fiber optic gyro- ducing low-enriched uranium. The Sino- owned companies. China is believed to have scopes from a Massachusetts firm to China. Russian project originally called for the supplied Iran with specialty steel compo- According to court papers, the Chinese firm construction of further centrifuges at nents for building missiles and telemetry said that it would use the gyroscopes on a Hanzhong, but China relocated them to equipment to test them. China is presently railroad project. After the first application Lanzhou. The first stage of the Lanzhou training 10 Iranian scientists on inertial guid- was rejected by US customs, the manufac- project involves the construction of a ance techniques. Reportedly, China trans- turer of the gyroscope received another ap- 500,000 SWU per year plant. A second ferred US-manufactured equipment plication for the same device from the 500,000 SWU per year plant is to be built disguised as cookware to a missile produc- Canadian firm. Suspicious, the manufacturer later at Lanzhou. Officials said that the plant tion facility in Pakistan. A separate intelli- alerted US Customs, who set up a success- was transferred to Lanzhou to prevent lay- gence report concludes that China has ful sting operation. offs, maintain the location as a uranium en- provided North Korea with high-grade steel Inside China Today [Online], <http:// richment site, and conform to Chinese used for missile frames under the guise of www.insidechina.com>, 10 March 1999. strategy of having multiple, dispersed, stra- assisting the North Korean space program. tegic nuclear processing locations. When the Bill Gertz, Washington Times [Online], <http:// China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sun Lanzhou plants are completed, China will www.washtimes.com>, 15 April 1999. Yuxi denied a Newsweek magazine allegation have a gas centrifuge enrichment capacity that China had seized two US cruise missiles According to a senior Chinese official, the of 1.5 million SWU per year by 2005. that did not detonate when the United States Mark Hibbs, NuclearFuel, 17 May 1999, p. 11. United States has been warned against sell- attacked suspected terrorist bases in Af- ing to Taiwan any military equipment that ghanistan in 1998. Sun referred to the allega- could enhance the latter’s defensive ability According to US military sources, China con- tion as a “groundless fabrication.” against missile attacks. The Chinese official ducted an underground nuclear test on 12 or China Times [Online], <http:// said that if the United States decided to trans- www.chinatimes.com>, 23 March 1999. 180 The Nonproliferation Review/Fall 1999 Nuclear and Missile Trade and Developments INDIA the Cold War deterred both sides from using India Albert S. Chernyshev said that 10 nuclear weapons.