Volume 7 : Issue 2, June 2009 The Bulletin of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament & Peace

EDITORIAL Contents EDITORIAL / 1 Smitu Kothari / Obituary Note / Zia Mian / 3 INCE our last issue in March, there is A. OBAMA'S PRAGUE SPEECH AND AFTER / 4 a complete standstill on the "nuclear I. Excerpts from US President Barack Obama's Prague Speech Sdeal" front. The qualifying prefix, on April 5/ 4 "Indo-US", had of course become some- what both redundant and misleading by II. CNDP Press Release on Obama's Call for a "world without then with the 45-member Nuclear nuclear weapons"/ 6 Suppliers Group (NSG) eventually granti- III. Neither Disarmament nor Peace / Economic and Political ng the hard fought for waiver, at the end of Weekly Editorial / 7 a nail-biting tussle, followed by India sign- IV. Response to President Obama's Prague Speech: Bridging the ing the India-specific safeguards (i.e. Vision and the Corridors of Power / Judge C G Weeramantry inspection - of its nuclear reactors volun- V. We Welcome the Initiatives for a Nuclear Weapon-free World tarily designated as "civilian") agreement / Statement by Japan Council against A & H Bombs / 9 with the International Atomic Energy B. TOWARDS NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT/ 13 Agency (IAEA), on February 2 last year. I. Regional and Global Nuclear Disarmament: Going Beyond the And, even more so, as the US appears to NPT / Achin Vanaik / 13 have quite a few laps fallen behind the II. Imagine There's No Bomb / Malcolm Fraser, Gustav Nossal, major competitors France and Russia in Barry Jones, Peter Gration, John Sanderson and Tilman Ruff/23 securing substantive contracts in the com- C. REPORTS FROM NPT PREPCOM MAY 2009 / 25 ing days. The prefix of course remains pro- foundly meaningful in tracing and compre- I. Letter from UN Building, New York / John Hallam / 25 hending the genesis of the "deal" and how II. NPT PrepCom concludes with agenda but no recommendations: the US under Bush eventually pulled it A qualified success / Michael Spies and Ray Acheson / 28 through amidst considerable rough weath- D. NUCLEAR POWER / 29 er. How Pakistan and China were tamed. I. "The Politics of Nuclear Energy and Resistance": National How New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Convention / Concept Note / 29 Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and II. Nuclear isn't necessary / Arjun Makhijani / 34 Denmark were finally bulldozed. (It is not III. Is Nuclear Power a Viable Solution for our Energy Security? for nothing a spokesperson of the Indian / Ullash Kumar.R.K / 37 Congress Party had publicly suggested that IV. Support International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): (just dethroned) Bush - a universally hated Time to Ban the Bomb and the Reactor / Alice Slater / 39 figure - be honoured with Bharat Ratna - V. Stories of Grassroots Struggle from Andhra: the highest Indian civilian award, on the Campaign against Uranium Projects in Nalgonda occasion of the last Republic Day.) Be that / Saraswati Kavula / 43 as it may, as we had reported last time, India is yet to "ratify" the agreement with VI. Proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Haripur: the IAEA. The process remained stalled Chronology of Resistance / Santanu Chacraverti / 45 understandably because of the intervening VII. Jadugoda Tribals Live under the Shadow of Nuclear Terror parliamentary election. / Tarun Kanti Bose / 47 2 While talking of parliamentary and thereby the expenditure pat- limitations in terms of his refusal election, the Congress has come tern is overwhelmingly front- to put forward a specific time- back to power, for another five- loaded tending to crowd out all frame and assertion of his faith in year term, at the head of its some- other rational alternatives; it is the dubious "deterrence" doctrine, what retooled coalition, United intrinsically hazardous across the even if only implicitly. Coming Progressive Alliance (UPA), with complete fuel cycle - right from from the mouth the head of the significantly increased numbers, mining to power plant - as it most powerful state on the planet though still quite a distance behind involves production and process- and the only one which had com- the halfway mark on its own. ing of radioactive materials; there mitted horrendous mass murders (Never mind the cacophonous is no safe and dependable method through the actual use of this noises suggesting otherwise.) The for waste disposal let alone dis- unique weapon, the declaration is "deal" hardly ever surfaced as an mantling of the outlived facilities; of historic proportions. It has con- "election issue", rather surprising- it is potentially catastrophic - chill- sequently reenergised the global ly, given all the eyeball grabbing ingly demonstrated by the anti-nuclear movements which had tamashas enacted on the floor of Chernobyl accident on April 26 in any case been gearing up for the the Indian parliament in July last 1986; has a large technological upcoming (Nuclear) Non- year. That would, however, not overlap with the weapons pro- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review stop the ruling party claiming pop- gramme and thereby tends to pro- Conference early next year. (The ular endorsement for the deal and vide a strong political push final round of the meeting of the the further process to follow - i.e. towards that; and further accentu- Preparatory Committee installation of new nuclear power ates a highly centralised "develop- (PrepCom) has just been over.) plants - is likely to be stepped con- ment" pattern which is by its very The key towards the goal of uni- siderably up. The only possible nature deeply destructive of ecolo- versal nuclear disarmament, how- hiccup that is visible at the gy. ever, appears to be a Nuclear moment is paucity of investible Coming back to the election, Weapons (Abolition) Convention. funds given the serious downturn that is now just behind us, it needs The then Indian Prime Minister in global economy. But that may be mentioned here that the Prime Rajiv Gandhi had suggested not be too great a hurdle. Ministerial candidate of the BJP, broadly on that line at a special It is precisely in this context, a the second largest party, had made session of the UN General national convention on "The a bold public declaration as Assembly way back on June 9, Politics of Nuclear Energy and regards his determination to carry 1988. That makes it especially Resistance" is going to held from out further nuclear test explosions, incumbent upon the ruling June 4 -6 in Kanyakumari, the "if required", to promote the Congress Party, swearing by the southernmost tip of India and just weapons programme just on the legacy of the departed leader, to a stone's throw away from eve of the fifth and final round of push that "Peace Plan" with all sin- Koodankulam - site of an upcom- polls. With that in mind, consistent cerity. We have included a number ing nuclear power plant, to deliber- with our firm stand in favour of of thoughtful articles covering all ate its implications on the lives of global, regional and national these including a personal dispatch affected local populace in particu- nuclear disarmament, we welcome from a delegate attending the lar and people and environment in the drubbing that his party has PrepCom. general and chalk out appropriate received. Regardless of whether it At the end, we pay our rich responses. This issue is dedicated has got anything to do with that and sincere tribute to the memory to that event. A number of articles declaration. of Smitu Kothari, a longstanding and reports of grassroots struggles On April 5, the newly elected friend of the CNDP and the Peace has been included here to befit the President of the United States Now, who passed away on the occasion. Here, in this editorial issued an open call for a "world March 23 last. note, we would only recall that without nuclear weapons". We do nuclear power is, as of now, uneco- strongly welcome that even while nomic and highly capital intensive being keenly aware of the serious 3 Smitu Kothari: In memoriam

Zia Mian

MITU Kothari, one of as part of the Pakistan-India he co-authored for "Out of The South Asia's leading peace Peoples Forum for Peace and Nuclear Shadow": Sand justice scholar-activists Democracy, founded in 1994. "There is a hidden history of passed away on March 23 last. One of his last projects was edit- opposition to the nuclear future Smitu was well known for his ing a volume of essays, "Bridging in South Asia. Far removed from many years of working on behalf Partition," on the history, vision the centres of political authority, of the poor and the dispossessed, and experience of the Pakistan- at the sites where nuclear facilities indigenous peoples, people dis- India peoples peace processes. have been and are being built, be placed by development projects, A central feature of these civil it uranium mines or nuclear human rights, and many other society initiatives was a shared power plants, local communities causes. He was also an important vision that it was necessary to have fought back. Their struggles figure in the Pakistan-India peo- challenge the state (be it India or are often not couched in the lan- ple to people peace process and Pakistan) and its claim to define, guage of big ideas of social the creation of a movement represent and negotiate the change and protest, but in the against nuclear weapons in both national interest. Nowhere was small traditions of livelihoods, countries. this challenge more important community rights, displacement, Over the past three decades, than the question of national the environment, public health, during a contentious period of security and nuclear weapons. the right to information. They India-Pakistan relations in which Smitu was involved with both have marched, fasted, blockaded, both states developed nuclear anti-nuclear movements in India occupied, gone to court, they weapons, diverse civil society ini- and in Pakistan. He recognized have protested to survive. As the tiatives to build national and early on the need to organize and statements against nuclear cross-border networks for peace present the enormous diversity of weapons from scientists, academ- and cooperation have been taking voices, traditions and approaches ics, journalists, writers and poets, root. Over the years, it has that make up the peace move- doctors, former soldiers, civic evolved into a sophisticated and ment as an act of resistance groups, and social movements influential people-to-people dia- against the nuclear state, and as a from India and Pakistan gathered logue at many levels. This citizens' way to provide intellectual and in this volume show, there are diplomacy movement has organizational resources for now new forces joining the strug- embraced thousands of activists, would be activists and the public. gle…. scholars, business people and This culminated in the edited vol- The tasks that confront the retired government officials with ume, "Out of The Nuclear peace movements in India and interests in issues ranging from Shadow," published in India in Pakistan are unprecedented. Not national security, cross-border 2001 and in Pakistan in 2002. only must they educate their fel- conflict, development, education, Smitu believed that a progres- low citizens in what it means to ecology, the rights of women and sive anti-nuclear politics had to be live with nuclear weapons in their minorities, arts and culture, and rooted in the lives and conditions midst, they must do so without economy and trade, to mention a of ordinary people, in their aspi- creating such fear that people are few. Travelling between the two rations for peace and justice, and immobilised. They must organise countries when visa restrictions in the struggle to transform the to abolish nuclear weapons but permitted, meeting in third coun- basic structures that shape our cannot concentrate simply on the tries when opportunity allowed, lives and societies, and the world technology, politics, economics Smitu was a significant player in today. This view was expressed and culture of nuclear weapons many of these efforts, including most clearly in the introduction because nuclear weapons cannot 4 be abolished from South Asia or between states and globally that tist at the Princeton University, US. globally while leaving everything are the causes of insecurity, con- He is a prominent peace activist and else unchanged. The solution to flict, and war." closely associates with the CNDP, the bomb does not lie only in the His gentle presence, his kind and Peace Now. area of nuclear weapons, the voice, and thoughtful and loving bomb is not its own answer. To wisdom, will be missed by many. abolish nuclear weapons will require confronting and trans- Zia Mian is a highly acclaimed forming the fundamental struc- Pakistani-American physicist, nuclear tures of injustice within and expert, an author and research scien-

A. Obama's Prague Speech and After I. Excerpts from US President Barack Obama's Prague Speech on April 5, 2009 on Nuclear Weapons and Disarmament

OW, one of those issues that technology to build a bomb has weapons is inevitable, then in I'll focus on today is funda- spread. Terrorists are determined some way we are admitting to Nmental to the security of our to buy, build or steal one. Our ourselves that the use of nuclear nations and to the peace of the efforts to contain these dangers weapons is inevitable. world - that's the future of are centered on a global non-pro- Just as we stood for freedom nuclear weapons in the 21st cen- liferation regime, but as more in the 20th century, we must stand tury. people and nations break the together for the right of people The existence of thousands rules, we could reach the point everywhere to live free from fear of nuclear weapons is the most where the center cannot hold. in the 21st century. And as dangerous legacy of the Cold Now, understand, this matters nuclear power - as a nuclear War. No nuclear war was fought to people everywhere. One power, as the only nuclear power between the United States and the nuclear weapon exploded in one to have used a nuclear weapon, Soviet Union, but generations city - be it New York or Moscow, the United States has a moral lived with the knowledge that Islamabad or Mumbai, responsibility to act. We cannot their world could be erased in a Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or succeed in this endeavor alone, single flash of light. Cities like Prague - could kill hundreds of but we can lead it, we can start it. Prague that existed for centuries, thousands of people. And no So today, I state clearly and that embodied the beauty and the matter where it happens, there is with conviction America's com- talent of so much of humanity, no end to what the consequences mitment to seek the peace and would have ceased to exist. might be - for our global safety, security of a world without Today, the Cold War has dis- our security, our society, our nuclear weapons. I'm not naive. appeared but thousands of those economy, to our ultimate survival. This goal will not be reached weapons have not. In a strange Some argue that the spread of quickly - perhaps not in my life- turn of history, the threat of these weapons cannot be time. It will take patience and per- global nuclear war has gone stopped, cannot be checked - that sistence. But now we, too, must down, but the risk of a nuclear we are destined to live in a world ignore the voices who tell us that attack has gone up. More nations where more nations and more the world cannot change. We have have acquired these weapons. people possess the ultimate tools to insist, "Yes, we can." Testing has continued. Black mar- of destruction. Such fatalism is a Now, let me describe to you ket trade in nuclear secrets and deadly adversary, for if we believe the trajectory we need to be on. nuclear materials abound. The that the spread of nuclear First, the United States will take 5 concrete steps towards a world ate them. That's the first step. to address this threat. North without nuclear weapons. To put Second, together we will Korea broke the rules once again an end to Cold War thinking, we strengthen the Nuclear Non- by testing a rocket that could be will reduce the role of nuclear Proliferation Treaty as a basis for used for long range missiles. This weapons in our national security cooperation. provocation underscores the need strategy, and urge others to do the The basic bargain is sound: for action - not just this afternoon same. Make no mistake: As long Countries with nuclear weapons at the U.N. Security Council, but as these weapons exist, the United will move towards disarmament, in our determination to prevent States will maintain a safe, secure countries without nuclear the spread of these weapons. and effective arsenal to deter any weapons will not acquire them, Rules must be binding. adversary, and guarantee that and all countries can access Violations must be punished. defense to our allies - including peaceful nuclear energy. To Words must mean something. the Czech Republic. But we will strengthen the treaty, we should The world must stand together to begin the work of reducing our embrace several principles. We prevent the spread of these arsenal. need more resources and authori- weapons. Now is the time for a To reduce our warheads and ty to strengthen international strong international response - stockpiles, we will negotiate a new inspections. We need real and now is the time for a strong inter- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty immediate consequences for national response, and North with the Russians this year. countries caught breaking the Korea must know that the path to President Medvedev and I began rules or trying to leave the treaty security and respect will never this process in London, and will without cause. come through threats and illegal seek a new agreement by the end And we should build a new weapons. All nations must come of this year that is legally binding framework for civil nuclear coop- together to build a stronger, glob- and sufficiently bold. And this eration, including an international al regime. And that's why we must will set the stage for further cuts, fuel bank, so that countries can stand shoulder to shoulder to and we will seek to include all access peaceful power without pressure the North Koreans to nuclear weapons states in this increasing the risks of prolifera- change course. endeavor. tion. That must be the right of Iran has yet to build a nuclear To achieve a global ban on every nation that renounces weapon. My administration will nuclear testing, my administration nuclear weapons, especially devel- seek engagement with Iran based will immediately and aggressively oping countries embarking on on mutual interests and mutual pursue U.S. ratification of the peaceful programs. And no respect. We believe in dialogue. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. approach will succeed if it's based But in that dialogue we will pres- After more than five decades of on the denial of rights to nations ent a clear choice. We want Iran to talks, it is time for the testing of that play by the rules. We must take its rightful place in the com- nuclear weapons to finally be harness the power of nuclear munity of nations, politically and banned. energy on behalf of our efforts economically. We will support And to cut off the building to combat climate change, and to Iran's right to peaceful nuclear blocks needed for a bomb, the advance peace opportunity for all energy with rigorous inspections. United people. That's a path that the Islamic States will seek a new treaty But we go forward with no Republic can take. Or the govern- that verifiably ends the produc- illusions. Some countries will ment can choose increased isola- tion of fissile materials intended break the rules. That's why we tion, international pressure, and a for use in state nuclear weapons. need a structure in place that potential nuclear arms race in the If we are serious about stopping ensures when any nation does, region that will increase insecurity the spread of these weapons, they will face consequences. for all. then we should put an end to the Just this morning, we were So let me be clear: Iran's dedicated production of reminded again of why we need a nuclear and ballistic missile activi- weapons-grade materials that cre- new and more rigorous approach ty poses a real threat, not just to 6 the United States, but to Iran's detect and intercept materials in human progress ends. neighbors and our allies. The transit, and use financial tools to There is violence and injus- Czech Republic and Poland have disrupt this dangerous trade. tice in our world that must be been courageous in agreeing to Because this threat will be lasting, confronted. We must confront it host a defense against these mis- we should come together to turn not by splitting apart but by siles. As long as the threat from efforts such as the Proliferation standing together as free nations, Iran persists, we will go forward Security Initiative and the Global as free people. I know that a call with a missile defense system that Initiative to Combat Nuclear to arms can stir the souls of men is cost-effective and proven. If Terrorism into durable interna- and women more than a call to lay the Iranian threat is eliminated, tional institutions. And we should them down. But that is why the we will have a stronger basis for start by having a Global Summit voices for peace and progress security, and the driving force for on Nuclear Security that the must be raised together. missile defense construction in United States will host within the Those are the voices that still Europe will be removed. next year. echo through the streets of So, finally, we must ensure Now, I know that there are Prague. that terrorists never acquire a some who will question whether Those are the ghosts of 1968. nuclear weapon. This is the most we can act on such a broad agen- Those were the joyful sounds of immediate and extreme threat to da. There are those who doubt the Velvet Revolution. Those global security. One terrorist with whether true international coop- were the Czechs who helped one nuclear weapon could eration is possible, given bring down a nuclear-armed unleash massive destruction. Al inevitable differences among empire without firing a shot. Qaeda has said it seeks a bomb nations. And there are those who Human destiny will be what and that it would have no prob- hear talk of a world without we make of it. And here in lem with using it. And we know nuclear weapons and doubt Prague, let us honor our past by that there is unsecured nuclear whether it's worth setting a goal reaching for a better future. Let us material across the globe. To pro- that seems impossible to achieve. bridge our divisions, build upon tect our people, we must act with But make no mistake: We our hopes, accept our responsibil- a sense of purpose without delay. know where that road leads. ity to leave this world more pros- So today I am announcing a When nations and peoples allow perous and more peaceful than new international effort to secure themselves to be defined by their we found it. all vulnerable nuclear material differences, the gulf between Together we can do it. around the world within four them widens. When we fail to years. We will set new standards, pursue peace, then it stays forever [Source: expand our cooperation with beyond our grasp. We know the .] materials. call for cooperation is an easy but We must also build on our also a cowardly thing to do. That's efforts to break up black markets, how wars begin. That's where

II. CNDP Press Release on Obama's Call for a "world without nuclear weapons" HE Coalition for Nuclear weapons" and his assertion that the US bears a special "moral Disarmament and Peace "the existence of thousands" of responsibility" to promote disar- T(CNDP) welcomes United these is the Cold War's "most mament as the only power "to States President Barack Obama's dangerous legacy". Equally wor- have used a nuclear weapon", call for a "world without nuclear thy is his acknowledgement that and his emphatic rejection of 7 the idea that the spread and fissile material production as Rajiv Gandhi plan for stage-by- thereby use of nuclear weapons intermediate measures is wel- stage abolition of these weapons is inevitable. come, he has made no proposal of terror and by taking a leading However, though he has for nuclear weapons elimination role in the global arena to have a talked of quite a few specific in the foreseeable future. Nuclear Weapons (Abolition) measures, this call is not accom- Despite limitations, Obama's Convention as the instrument panied by adequate changes in is a call of historic potential. The for effecting universal nuclear doctrines and strategic thinking. statement puts nuclear disarma- disarmament in a time-bound Obama continues to adhere to ment on the global agenda and manner. the fatally flawed doctrine of opens an opportunity to make nuclear deterrence, rely on the creative, principled and realistic Anil Chaudhury, Praful Bidwai, dangerous "Star Wars"-style proposals for concrete steps G. Subramanian Ballistic Missile Defence pro- towards a nuclear weapons-free gramme, and stresses a stronger world. On behalf of the National non-proliferation regime with We call upon the Indian gov- Coordinating Committee, CNDP selective application, rather than ernment to respond to this his- disarmament. Although toric call by committing itself to April 13, 2009 Obama's call for rapidly bringing the goal of nuclear weapons into force the Comprehensive elimination - regional as well as Test Ban Treaty and stopping global - by updating the 1988

III. Neither Disarmament nor Peace

Editorial, Economic and Political Weekly,April 18, 2009

ARACK Obama's selective tions to conclude a Strategic as positives go. plan for nuclear disarma- Arms Reduction Treaty III with Shortly after the collapse of Bment is meant only to fur- Russia to make further mutual the Soviet Union and the end of ther the US' strategic objectives. cuts in warheads and to reduce the cold war, there was talk in United States President Barack deployments. Some encourage- Europe of the North Atlantic Obama's speech in Prague earlier ment is to be drawn as well from Treaty Organisation (NATO) this month on the road to global Obama's statement that the US either forgoing the nuclear nuclear disarmament, the first "will reduce the role of nuclear umbrella altogether, or at least of such statement since he took weapons in our national security formally abandoning its "First office, will achieve much less than strategy". Any retreat from the Use" doctrine even in the face of what it claims to promise. Of Bush era's blurring of the fire- a conventional attack. Indeed, a course, if one were simply to break between possible use of "No First Use" (NFU) commit- compare Obama's intentions with nuclear and conventional ment by all the existing nuclear the record of the previous Bush weapons in war planning will be weapons states (NWSs) barring administration one could express welcome. Best of all is Obama's India and China, which have a mild sense of relief. declaration that he will work to already declared NFU, is worth A public commitment to the get the US Congress to ratify the striving for. But not only is goal of a nuclear-free world has Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, President Obama not interested been forcefully stated even, if although New Delhi will not be in such declarations he has unsurprisingly, the time-scale for happy to hear this, since a corol- endorsed extended deterrence, i e, achieving this - "perhaps not in lary of these efforts will be to put the continued presence of my lifetime" - has been safely pressure on India also to join the nuclear weapons in non-nuclear extended. There will be negotia- treaty. But that is about all as far NATO countries, as well as justi- 8 fies Ballistic Missile Defence side Islamist control. China and speech then is not towards the (BMD) preparations-emplace- Russia qualify by virtue of being institutionalising of a powerful or ments in Poland and the Czech established nuclear powers, which cumulative momentum for Republic. These preparations are the US does not as yet designate regional or global disarmament directed against Russia and China as obvious "enemies". In the lat- but towards the institutionalising and represent US determination ter group are Iran, North Korea of a stronger but selectively to dominate a nuclearised outer and Islamist terrorist groups that applied non-proliferation regime. space. Pretending that Iran is the might in the future acquire a When President Obama talks focus of such emplacements in bomb. The three, especially the of strengthening the NPT he central and eastern Europe, as last, are assumed to be somehow means suborning it so as to deny Obama said at Prague, is dishon- much more irrational (and there- certain countries like Iran from est and ingenuous since only the fore dangerous) as compared to a developing a complete nuclear most strategically naïve will accept rationally behaving US that has fuel cycle - hence the idea of an this. actually used, and repeatedly international fuel bank controlled For all of Washington's new threatened the use of nuclear by the US as well as some select willingness to talk to Teheran, one weapons, as well as generating others. Similarly, his support for a must distinguish between what with Russia an insane arms race Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty is has changed - a greater flexibility complete with huge overkill a deception since the US is in tactics - from what has not, capacities and stockpiles! opposed to bringing in stockpile namely, the long-term goal of Obama has falsely accused reduction. The reality is that the strategically containing Iran in North Korea of breaking rules US and Russia already have huge central and west Asia. While the when it has not, since it withdrew stockpiles of such fissile materials US is certainly opposed to Iran from the nuclear Non- to which more would be added acquiring nuclear weapons, it is Proliferation Treaty (NPT) before when more warheads are disman- also using this bugbear as a justifi- carrying out a bomb test, and has tled. Thus, merely stopping pro- cation for squeezing and isolating as much right as India or any duction is of no real consequence Iran for geopolitical purposes that other country to carry out missile to the big NWSs. Obama's pur- are independent of the specifical- test flights even as we can deplore pose then in promising to hold a ly nuclear issue. In short, Obama all such tests by all countries. As Global Summit on Nuclear is no different from his predeces- for worries about Iran, all that the Security in 2010 is obvious. It is to sors in seeking to sustain US US has to do is push for an early obtain a wider, more multilateral global dominance and therefore and unconditional establishment form of legitimation for the US in subordinating his nuclear poli- of the Middle East Weapons of to continue with nuclear policies cies to this overriding concern. Mass Destruction Free Zone that - barring some positive steps This then requires a thoroughly (MEWMDFZ) that would - remain fully consonant with the selective and hypocritical include Israel and which Iran and overarching perspective of sus- approach to nuclear discourse all 22 members of the League of taining its global dominance. and practice, i e, a division Arab States have long supported. between the nuclearly "responsi- It is the determination to preserve [Source: .] ous". In the former category fall geopolitical ambition that is the the US and its allies like UK, key obstacle to the establishment France, Israel, India and a of such a nuclear-free zone. The Pakistan state that remains out- fundamental thrust of Obama's 9 IV. Response to President Obama's Prague Speech: “Bridging the Vision and the Corridors of Power” Judge C G Weeramantry*

world free of nuclear the unprecedented power of years, when on the contrary it weapons has been the nuclear weapons to produce has brought us near to total Adream of all humanity ever human suffering on a scale never destruction time and again. The since those dreaded weapons visualized before. Attila and erection of the Berlin wall 1948, first made their appearance on Genghis Khan pale into insignif- the Suez crisis 1956, and the the global scene. However, there icance as perpetrators of cruelty Cuban missile crisis 1962 are but has always been a seemingly when compared to the bomb. a few of a series of occasions unbridgeable gulf between such Yet this weapon which violates when good fortune rather than dreams and aspirations and the every canon of humane conduct good judgment saved humanity thought processes that operate and humanitarian law has con- from catastrophe. As President in the corridors of power. There tinued to be protected by those Obama has so rightly observed, they are dismissed as visionary who have it and to be sought "generations have lived with the and idealistic, for the world of after by those who do not, while knowledge that their world realpolitik operates on power the voice of protest passes could be erased in a single flash and not on ideals. muted and unheard. of light". The speech of President The easier accessibility of These are reasons why Obama in Prague on April 5th the necessary knowledge to put President Obama's speech needs 2009 has built a significant together a crude nuclear weapon to be greeted world wide with bridge between the world of grows by the day, and far from hope, support and admiration. aspiration and the world of humanity being able to remove Affirmative steps are urgently power. Here, from the world's from its horizons this threat to required from the power centres most exalted seat of power, has its very existence, the world per- of this world if the desired come a call for an end to this mits the danger from this source result is to be achieved. The US menace which threatens the to keep growing day by day, call is a great expression of future of humanity, imperils all month by month and year by world leadership in one of the civilization and jettisons the val- year. Now more than ever most important calls to action ues painfully built up over mil- before, there is an imperative we have witnessed in recent lennia of thought and sacrifice. need for humanity to jettison times. The message that leaps forth this danger to its very survival When the 20th century from the heart of humanity for and the survival of all that it dawned there was a universal the abolition of these weapons holds dear. As the President so hope that the mistakes of the has never struck an answering rightly observes, the risk of a previous century of war would chord from the wielders of nuclear attack has increased. be left behind and that a brand nuclear power. The conviction Indeed it has increased to the new century of peace could be with which President Obama point where we need urgent planned. That hope was bungled emphasizes America's commit- action to eliminate it in the next and humanity made a sorry mess ment to a world without nuclear few years rather than the next of the 20th century which weapons sends rays of hope few decades. became the bloodiest century on radiating through the entire Possessors of the nuclear record. world community. weapon have propagated the With the dawn of the 21st For more than sixty years myth that the possession of the century there was likewise a uni- since Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear weapon has kept us free versal yearning for a century of the world has been appalled by from nuclear war for over sixty peace. We have however entered 10 it on a note of war and if we do of nuclear accidents with strict and effective international not correct our course, we will tens of thousands of nuclear control. There can be no weight- have no 22nd century to put our weapons in storage and ier pronouncement on interna- house in order. If the 20th cen- many of them in readiness tional law than a unanimous tury was our century of lost for use decision of the International opportunity the 21st is our cen-
the launch on warning capa- Court of Justice. Any nuclear tury of last opportunity, because bility LOWC of several power that disregards this deci- no other century has com- countries, with hair trigger sion is a violator of internation- menced with humanity having devices set to detect incom- al law. President Obama's call for the power to destroy itself and ing objects and respond to action is an important step all its achievements over the cen- them within minutes, if not towards upholding the integrity turies. seconds of international law. It is in the next few years For all these reasons that we need to put our affairs in
the increase in the number President Obama's statement is order on the nuclear front, of mini-wars raging a landmark event on the interna- because as President Obama has throughout the world which tional scene. It gives hope where observed the risk of nuclear could attract the interven- earlier there was total resignation attack has gone up. Indeed the tion of more powerful par- to the inevitability of a world nuclear danger grows from day ticipants dominated by nuclear weapons. to day. A number of different
the increasing disregard for It shows that the human spirit causes induce this urgency. international law in the can rise triumphant against Among these are; world community seemingly insuperable obstacles.
the increasing number of It shows that we still enjoy the
the growth in the number of flashpoints of international possibility of visionary and nuclear powers tensions humanitarian world leadership. As President Obama has
the growth in the number of
the continuing disregard of observed the United States as states seeking nuclear power international law and inter- the only power to have used the
national obligations by the the increase in the power nuclear weapon "has a moral nuclear powers and spread of terrorist responsibility to act. We cannot groups
continued research on and succeed in this endeavour alone,
the proliferation of the nec- improvement of nuclear but we can lead it, we can start essary knowledge to make a weapons it" nuclear weapon
the difficulty of maintaining Here is a clarion call to
the easy availability of mate- nuclear stockpiles, inven- action which cannot but induce rials necessary to put togeth- torising them, storing them hope and happiness in all who er a nuclear weapons with and policing them have lived so long under the shadow of the mushroom cloud. tens of thousands of tons of
the increasing number of It sends a thrill of optimism into uranium being discharged suicide bombers now avail- the hearts of those who have from hundreds of nuclear able for carrying out desper- despaired at the insensitivity that reactors across the world ate projects prevails in high places on such
the lack of a comprehensive The International Court of cardinal issues on which the record even by the Justice unanimously pronounced world has long waited for global International Atomic in 1996 that there exists an obli- leadership. Energy Agency IAEA, of gation to pursue in good faith In short, the Prague speech such material and the traf- and bring to a conclusion nego- was an outstanding statement by ficking in such material tiations leading to nuclear disar- an outstanding leader on an
the ever present possibility mament in all its aspects under issue of seminal importance to 11 the human future. The least that human habitat, human civiliza- Winner of the UNESCO Peace can be done is for all people of tion, human values and humani- Education Prize goodwill across the world to give ty itself. their whole hearted support to April 20 2009. [Source: .] live once more without the International Court of Justice nuclear weapon hanging like the President International Association of sword of Damocles over the Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms

V. “We Welcome the Initiatives for a Nuclear Weapon-free World and Call for an International Agreement on a Total Ban of Nuclear Weapons”

Statement by Japan Council against A & H Bombs (GENSUIKYO) on the Occasion of the 3rd PrepCom. of the 2010 NPT Review Conference

E pay tribute to the work vivors, that the humans and and are placing themselves under of all governments and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist, the non-proliferation obligations. WNGO representatives to has been reaching the hearts of If the USA and Russia, the the 3rd Preparatory Committee ever more people around the two major powers that hold some Meeting of the 2010 NPT Review world. 95% of the world's nuclear arse- Conference, and wish for a suc- True, the situation on nuclear nals, join in this global trend, and cessful outcome of the discus- weapons does not allow easy opti- seek together to achieve a nuclear sion. mism, when more than 20,000 weapon-free world, the day will With the 2010 NPT Review nuclear warheads are still stock- not be too far to see the world Conference just one year ahead, piled or deployed and when the finally liberated from the night- there is a real opportunity before danger of nuclear proliferation is mare of nuclear annihilation. We us to make the world set free of real. However, while nuclear must further take into account nuclear weapons. weapons have proliferated both other encouraging signs, such as, US President Obama vertically and horizontally, the that the UK government is taking declared on April 5, 2009 that the overwhelming majority of the common steps in pursuit of a USA would seek the goal of a peoples and their governments nuclear weapon-free world, that world without nuclear weapons. have refused to join in the nuclear the Chinese governments votes On April 20, Russian President arms race and chosen a road to every year in support of a UN Medvedev responded to it by say- the elimination of nuclear resolution calling for a start of ing that the work on a new weapons. This is demonstrated negotiations leading to the elimi- START could facilitate the by the large number of the gov- nation of nuclear weapons, and process of moving towards a ernments that support nuclear that Indian leaders have world without nuclear weapons. disarmament resolutions at each expressed their support of a pur- He further added that the Big annual session of the UN suit for the elimination of nuclear Five, and Russia and the USA in General Assembly, by the spread- weapons. particular, had a "special responsi- ing nuclear weapon-free zones Making the best of all these bility" to achieve it. that cover the globe, and by the positive conditions, we call on all For nearly 64 years since fact that of 190 NPT signatories, governments, both inside and Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered 185 countries as "Non-nuclear outside NPT, to make intensive the nuclear tragedies, the call of weapons states" have chosen to effort for one year to the next the Hibakusha, the A-bomb sur- renounce the "nuclear option", NPT Review Conference to 12 broaden and consolidate an nuclear "haves" and "have-nots" always been promoted on the agreement to move the interna- embedded in NPT have created a ground that they are the means tional politics forward towards a deep rift and distrust between for "security" or for "deterrence". total ban and the elimination of them. If the full compliance of But what nuclear weapons have nuclear weapons. Following three non-proliferation obligation by actually posed was the grave dan- points are our proposal, which we the side of non-nuclear weapons ger that would lead even to the consider are basic to promoting states is needed, the international extermination of the human race, this enterprise. community must also urge the and far from ensuring the "securi- nuclear weapons states to act by ty". The reasoning, such as, for 1. Pursuing a political the same rule, and thus overcome "security" and "deterrence", has agreement on a total ban the division, in pursuing a "world also provided a strong incentive of nuclear weapons without nuclear weapons". to opponents to develop and pos- We suggest that every arms sess their own nuclear weapons. First, we urge that a ban and control and disarmament agree- All cases of nuclear proliferation the elimination of nuclear ment henceforth, bilateral and started from here. weapons be made a consensus multilateral alike, including a new To break with this vicious political agreement to be pursued treaty replacing the current cycle, those who have nuclear by the international community. START 1, will declare that it is a arsenals or those who rely on We welcome all proposals put part of the effort for the total nuclear weapons of any other forward by many governments elimination of nuclear weapons. country should abandon the and NGOs that call for such Further, a world with no nuclear notion of "nuclear deterrence", immediate measures as; a further weapons will become possible including "extended nuclear drastic cut in strategic nuclear when only all sovereign states deterrence", the so-called arms in a new Russo-US treaty come to agree on it. To this end, "nuclear umbrella". We call for replacing the current START-1, we call on all UN member gov- initiatives for a ban on the use of ratification and earliest possible ernments to make all that they nuclear weapons, and above all enforcement of CTBT, and a can to build a consensus resolu- for a ban on the first use of them. start of negotiations of a FMCT tion in support of a total ban and Instead, the means for the securi- with verification. As these are all the elimination of nuclear ty should thoroughly be sought to have been agreed upon by pre- weapons, as well as the actual start and found in diplomacy, such as vious NPT Review Conferences, of negotiations, in the forthcom- dialogues, talks, negotiations and they should be implemented ing session of the UN General other peaceful means provided by without further delay, along with Assembly. This will certainly lay the UN Charter. other agreed goals, including a basis for the success in the next nuclear weapon-free zone in the NPT Review Conference. 3.Telling real stories of Middle East. Hiroshima and Nagasaki to A simple accumulation of 2. Overcoming Nuclear Succeeding Generations partial measures, nevertheless, Deterrence and "Nuclear does not automatically lead to the Umbrella" Doctrines Third, we call on all govern- total elimination of nuclear ments and NGOs to endeavor to weapons, as all past disarmament Second, a "nuclear weapon-free make known to citizens, and negotiations have amply proved world" requires a bold shift away young people in particular, the it. To eliminate nuclear weapons, from the security relying on real stories and messages of the a purposeful effort is needed to Hibakusha, the A-bomb sur- nuclear weapons. make it an agreed goal, start and vivors of Hiroshima and complete negotiations on it, and Since the nuclear bombs were Nagasaki, so that the humans will agree on a binding treaty to ban used over Hiroshima and consolidate their strong will to and eliminate them. The division Nagasaki till now, the develop- not allow nuclear weapons once and discrimination between ment of nuclear weapons have and for all. 13 As humans created nuclear from generations to generations. opportunities for the stories of bombs, humans can abolish It is essential in this effort to the Hibakusha to be told and the them. Yet, a nuclear weapon-free ensure that people will know the photos and mementos to be world, thus emerged, will not be "atomic hells" that the Hibakusha shown to their citizens towards the same world as it was before witnessed and the struggle they the next NPT Review the bombs were used on waged for their survival. The Conference. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and humans have already knowledge Nagasaki are being aged, and not May 2009 and means to build them. A much time is left. We express our nuclear weapon-free world will appreciation to many govern- Japan Council against A & H Bombs only be sustained on the strong ments, local communities and (GENSUIKYO) is the oldest and lead- collective will of the human race NGOs who have already invited ing peace organization in Japan, found- that they will not co-exist with the Hibakusha to speak or have ed on September 19 1955. nuclear weapons". This is what organized A-bomb photo exhibi- we must build by telling the inhu- tions, and further call on all gov- man nature of nuclear weapons ernments to make many more

B.Towards Nuclear Disarmament I. Regional and Global Nuclear Disarmament: Going Beyond the NPT Achin Vanaik*

HE importance of the acces- ment may be worth pursuing. one major qualification made sion of US President Barack It is structured as follows: (1) more specifically by the Bharatiya TObama for the prospects of Explaining India's decision to go Janata Party (BJP) and the nuclear disarmament should not openly nuclear in 1998 and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh be exaggerated. He is still pre- meaning of the Indo-US nuclear (RSS). It was the BJP-led tending that the placement of deal; (2) evaluating the Nuclear National Democratic Alliance missile interceptors in Poland and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); that formed the coalition govern- the Czech Republic is about Iran (3) revisiting the much debated ment in 1998 but all the other and on this fraudulent basis is try- issue of the efficacy of nuclear political parties in the ruling coali- ing to negotiate with the deterrence; and (4) post-cold war tion were kept completely in the Russians. But even though he has dangers and what now? dark about the decision while the said nothing so far about the unelected RSS was privy to the wider Ballistic Missile Defence or Indian acquisition and the decision to go nuclear.1 This com- BMD project, and of course Deal bine claimed both continuity with remains hypocritically silent the past and a distinctive break - about Israel's nuclear weapons, he Much of the commentary on the decision was necessary and is nonetheless seeking to negoti- Indian acquisition of the bomb desirable and largely prepared by ate with Russia about possible has seen a basic line of continuity past actions but only the Sangh arms reductions. This seems an between India's Pokhran-I test in had the "courage" to finally cross opportune time then to revisit the 1974 and those of 1998 when it the nuclear Rubicon. issue of regional and global declared its open nuclear status. Elsewhere the pro-bomb nuclear disarmament and this This is certainly the basic argu- lobby has insisted that continuity article is about where we stand ment put forward by the pro- not rupture is what ultimately today and what future directions bomb Indian lobby that mostly explains Pokhran-II. in the cause of nuclear disarma- emerged after Pokhran-II with In claiming as much, the 14 structure of argument has to lean sumably finally drives some ment. It was called a peaceful much more strongly towards NNWSs to go nuclear. nuclear explosion (PNE) and emphasising the "logic" of There are changes in elite Indira Gandhi herself gave the "nuclear preparations" and the self-perceptions (much more best explanation for it. "The PNE politics surrounding this, rather open to internal pressures) that was done when we were ready. than towards the more complicat- prove decisive. Contrary to the We did it to show ourselves we ed, wider and uncertain "politics expectations of many an anti- could do it."2 In 1977, Prime of nuclearisation" as such. Such nuclearist, hypocrisy alone does Minister Morarji Desai of the an approach largely elides the dif- not produce any kind of comeup- post-Emergency government ference between the two political pance for pre-existing NWSs, nor publicly announced his displeas- courses. Among those who hold does it drive potential NWSs to ure at Pokhran-I and renounced this view are fierce critics of the become new entrants. The rea- further such experiments. Indira NPT as essentially a charade. sons have to be far stronger, Gandhi as the prime minister of a Adherence by many non- nuclear although the charge of hypocrisy Congress government in 1980 weapons states (NNWSs) with is always a useful form of justifi- announced that resumption of obvious nuclear capabilities to the cation. The US, France and UK tests was conceivable but not NPT is then to be explained by did not go nuclear for fear of the becoming an NWS. the fact that they are "threshold nuclear power of another country Consideration of testing between states" which lose nothing, indeed but because of post-war elite per- then and 1998 by subsequent whose status gets legitimised, by ceptions. The US was declaring its administrations had to do with joining the NPT. More conven- global dominance and sending a concerns about technologically tional and more normal usage message of its anti-communist upgrading the option than with restricts this label to countries determination. UK and France as any determination to go openly that practised nuclear ambiguity declining colonial powers wanted nuclear. 3 and wished to maintain the to remain at the high table of Nuclear ambiguity or keeping option such as India, Pakistan global powers and for France it the option open yet not foreclos- and, once upon a time, Brazil and was also a way of declaring its rel- ing or exercising it was the con- Argentina whose eventual renun- ative independence. The USSR sensual posture accepted by all ciation of the option is signifi- and China were more obviously parties from the left to the right cant. Threshold status should also motivated by external threat per- with the BJP seeing it as the low- be distinguished from a posture ceptions, and for China, from est common denominator, of nuclear opacity of Israel and both the US and USSR. India's although it and its forerunner (the apartheid South Africa (the decision was status-driven and Jan Sangh) had demanded the African National Congress always not threat- driven - akin to the bomb from the 1950s before opposed such possession when in cases of UK, France and US China, let alone Pakistan, had opposition), where post- while Pakistan's was reactive and developed it. That is to say, the apartheid renunciation was akin the cases of USSR and BJP's consistent advocacy had indeed a meaningful step. China. The evidence against everything to do with its Broadly speaking there have assuming any line of continuity Hindutva ideology of "uniting been three general lines of argu- from 1964 or from 1974 to 1998 Hindus and militarising ment for explaining why coun- is very strong. While the Chinese Hinduism". In short, the story of tries, including India, have gone test was a key factor in India ulti- why India went nuclear in 1998 or go nuclear. Even when such mately deciding not to join the has to be situated in the deeper, arguments are combined, one line NPT (although it played a role in more encompassing story of is predominant. There are preparing earlier drafts) 10 years India's overall and steady drift to changes in threat perceptions. separate it from Pokhran-I. This the right from the 1980s onwards There is the hypocrisy of nuclear took place in a context of consid- in foreign, economic and other weapons states (NWSs) (of which erable internal pressures on the domestic policies. A realist, and the NPT is emblematic) that pre- Indira Gandhi Congress govern- especially Waltzian approach, 15 with its "levels of analysis" theori- dominant view in India's strategic is the strategic pay-off represent- sation for separating the domestic establishment about the Sino- ed by the deal that is most impor- and international is a particularly Indian relationship is that its ful- tant to Washington and it is will- inadequate lens for explaining crum has lain between the two ing to accept an India that will for why India went nuclear in 1998. ends of strategic friendship and a long time to come remain a In my book India in a Changing strategic hostility, closer to but small nuclear power (SNP). In the World written in 1994 and pub- not congruent even with the pos- US-China-India triangle the lished a year later, I made two pre- ture of strategic rivalry; hence the future trajectory of the Sino- dictions (Vanaik 1995). I had said deep uncertainty about how to Indian relationship will be essen- that of the three NPT holdouts - deal with China.5 Immediately tially determined by the US-China India, Pakistan, Israel - if any one after the 1998 tests, Prime relationship, which itself will be was to go openly nuclear, the first Minister Vajpayee publicly justi- decisively determined by US would be India. Israel's and fied these by referring to the behaviour with China as the reac- Pakistan's retention of capability threats posed by Pakistan and tive power. or "bombs in the basement" was China, although, after the collapse India, post-1998 continued to always much more strongly linked of the USSR followed by China- oppose the BMD but abandoned to externally perceived threats and Russia rapprochement, Sino- objections after the US abrogated thus the two countries could Indian relations had significantly the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) more easily spell out the condi- improved with the signing of two treaty only asking now to be con- tions under which they would be treaties easing border-related ten- tractually and politically involved willing to give up nuclear sions. In fact such was the diplo- in the process of preparing and weapons. The Pakistan govern- matic faux pas vis-à-vis an angry deploying the BMD-TMDs ment since the mid-1980s has China, that within a month the (Theatre Missile Defence) shield. repeatedly made proposals for Vajpayee government publicly New Delhi has endorsed, though denuclearising South Asia even declared that India's bomb was not yet joined the US- led and ille- after its Chagai tests. Israel has "not country specific" and within gal Proliferation Security Initiative supported a Weapons of Mass a year it was stated that it was "not (PSI). It is also now a willing jun- Destruction Free Zone threat specific" either. What ior partner of the US in the (WMDFZ) in west Asia but only about the Indo-US nuclear deal? Indian Ocean and has a level of in the context of an overall peace Is it an example of wishful think- military cooperation (exercises, settlement - a shameful and unac- ing and incompetence on the part training and officer- exchange ceptable form of international fil- of the US and thus a spectacular programmes) with the US that ibustering. But even if in part or example of India outmanoeu- goes well beyond what it ever had whole this is diplomatic one- vring the US? On the contrary, in with the USSR. The US sees upmanship by the two countries it spite of the US' overall global India, Japan and Australia as the allows them a diplomatic coher- political decline, the world key nodes in the construction of ence that India has never had remains a "hub-and-spoke" an "Asian NATO" (North (ibid: 83-84). My second predic- arrangement with the US at the Atlantic Treaty Organisation) tion was that on the accession of hub. The initiative for the deal with other south-east Asian coun- the BJP to power "Finally, India came from the Bush administra- tries being invited to provide sup- would go openly nuclear. The BJP tion and took India by surprise. plementary support.7 As recently is the only major party to official- Washington wanted to accelerate as 23 October, 2008 India and ly say so and there is no good rea- the process of strategic partner- Japan inked a declaration for a son to doubt its determination in ship initiated by the Clinton "Strategic and Global this regard."4 While the India- administration once it had recon- Partnership". India is only the Pakistan relationship has always ciled to a nuclear India itself also third country - after the US and oscillated (periods of lesser or desirous of forging a strategic Australia - with which Japan has greater tension) around the ful- alliance with the US and a much signed such a document. crum of strategic hostility, the closer relationship with Israel.6 It As for Iran, even the pro-US 16 lobby in India would have pre- nature of the NPT, the perfidious natories had) the NPT has been ferred to pursue parallel paths of behaviour of the NWS signato- a "stand alone" agreement. sustaining and strengthening rela- ries in failing to live up to their Management of nuclear arms tions with both since New Delhi end of the bargain embodied in racing allowing qualitative has had a longstanding and Articles I, IV and VI as well on improvements in arsenals, along- important friendship with Tehran the inherent contradiction of the side occasional quantitative reaching back to the time of both treaty in simultaneously promis- reductions and restraint measures the Shah and Ayatollah ing to help NNWSs to develop such as NWFZs have all taken Khomeini. But the US forced the where- withal for a bomb place independent of the NPT. India to choose and it buckled through promotion of a civilian So why has such an iniquitous under the pressure as the Indian dual-use programme as an treaty survived and why have so vote at the governing body of the inducement to formally abjure a many countries adhered to it International Atomic Energy military nuclear programme. including those with bad relations Agency (IAEA) showed, enabling Thereafter differences in with the US? Could this be a transfer of the Iran dossier to evaluation emerge. Some judge because of the NPT's dual-use the UN security council (UNSC) the NPT to be a limited success character as well as its escape on the flimsiest and most unjusti- for two reasons. It has lasted clause (Article X) that allows a fied grounds so that the possibili- with no breakouts barring North member-country to withdraw if ty of punishment via sanctions Korea (which may well prove the "supreme national interest" could now be exercised. The role temporary) and has prevented demands this? But this is a stan- of El Baradei, who has been horizontal proliferation. But it is dard clause in virtually all inter- unjustly eulogised in far too many only by insisting that the NPT state/international treaties. On circles, needs to be properly must not be seen as a "stand the other side, why has the US in understood. The fact that El alone" measure that one can give the post-cold war era sought to Baradei has to maintain some it a "credit by association" as it undermine the NPT and more credibility for the watchdog role were. There have been limited generally the non-proliferation of the IAEA means he has to dis- successes in the field of nuclear regime so suitable for it, for tinguish himself from arms restraint (the ABM Treaty), example, by rewarding India? The Washington. But at crucial points reduction (the Intermediate puzzle is more apparent than real. - allowing the Iran dossier to go Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 The US aims to extend its global to the UNSC, endorsing the which did eliminate for the first (including nuclear) dominance Indo-US Deal, helping the US time a whole class of arms), for- which leads it to both use the (which bullied "recalcitrants") to malised abstinence (nuclear NPT as cover and to defy it swing over the Nuclear Suppliers weapon free zones - NFWZs). whenever circumstances demand Group (NSG) - he has fallen in So future advances, like getting this. Coming into force in 1970 by line. The US' maximalist desire is the CTBT into force or eventual its first five-year review confer- for India to give it significant sup- success in negotiating a Fissile ence in 1975, the NPT had 91 port in its efforts to isolate and Materials Cut-off Treaty state parties. By 1980 this rose to weaken Iran. Its minimalist aim is (FMCT), would, presumably, 110, to 128 by 1985, to 138 by that India should not in any seri- lend new credence to the NPT. 1990, to 178 by 1995, to 190 by ous way obstruct these efforts, in It would be wiser to subscribe to 2003. But was this post-cold war effect its political neutralisation a much more negative evalua- expansion predominantly a vis-à-vis Iran. India is operating at tion. Except for the commit- manipulated one even for the a position slightly above the min- ment to drawing up a CTBT that stronger potentially NWSs? Was imalist US aim. was the price to be paid by it created by prodding and bribery NWSs to get a permanent exten- of all sorts by the P-2? But can Evaluating the NPT sion of the NPT in 1995 (a one seriously claim that Brazil, It is easy enough for all to measure that further reduced Cuba and some others like agree on the discriminatory what little leverage NNWS sig- Argentina and South Africa 17 (remember that the ANC always either a bulwark against horizon- control. Security, of course, is a opposed nuclear weapons) fell tal proliferation or as some kind nebulous term which even when prey to this kind of manipulation? of trap to which potential NWSs it is understood conventionally There is a more plausible gen- have been lured or bullied into. and narrowly involves an eral form of explanation for such The NPT should not be assigned inescapable psychological ele- membership by potential NWSs any virtue nor should its iniquity ment. The proportion of one- that took place at specific times in be exaggerated. It is best treated time believers, including top ech- specific historico-political con- as irrelevant. It cannot be elon officials of texts. For some like Egypt, reformed and there is no point in civilian and military personnel Switzerland and Turkey there was demanding its abandonment. in NWSs, who have defected a significant time gap between Serious efforts at disarmament from belief in the efficacy of signing and ratification. For oth- will need to ignore and bypass it. nuclear weapons to the ranks of ers the decision to sign and ratify Harsher judgment of the NPT critics and sceptics is several times came later. Why with the excep- sometimes segues into seeing it as greater than defectors in the tion of North Korea has there an unwarranted obstacle to even a opposite direction. Illustrative been no withdrawal and why have selective spread of nuclear though this is, it cannot of course so few members (Iraq and Libya) weapons to countries outside the be a serious intellectual riposte to sought to secretly build an arse- existing nuclear club, for example deterrence defenders. It is nal? As for Iran, given its dis- to Iran or North Korea, which Kenneth Waltz who can claim to avowals and the willingness of could then be countervailing have provided the strongest such Iran to cooperate with the IAEA forces to the US's imperial proj- foundation through his cautious there is more reason to believe ect. This would be a good thing conditional "The Spread of that the dominant elite view has but for the NPT. We return there- Nuclear Weapons: More May be been of keeping the option open fore to the long debated counter- Better". with a current willingness to even factual - the efficacy or otherwise Waltz's argument for prolifer- foreclose it if given appropriate of nuclear deterrence. ation cannot be separated from inducements. The general point his overarching and foundational to be made is not that the NPT Nuclear Deterrence and the international relations (IR) theory itself has been such a barrier to World Order of Neorealism or Structural proliferation (vertical and hori- Realism. Severe weaknesses in his zontal) and there- fore it has Can nuclear weapons deter? broader theory should alert us to endured but that potential NWSs The answer is yes. But deterrence being more critical in assessing his for one reason or the other decid- is not the mere registration of this specifically nuclear arguments. ed at different points of time to property. It is a rationalisation, a Photorealism for all its parsimo- finally renounce nuclear weapons theorisation that constitutes a nious elegance and internal con- programmes and only then much bolder and considerably sistency, logically speaking, signed/ ratified the NPT, and bar- less plausible claim that this prop- remains a deeply flawed theory of ring a very few, have found no erty is so strong and so lasting limited explanatory power, of reason to re- evaluate that deci- that a country can rely on it for its even more limited scope and sion. In some case this can be enduring security. To believe in given its positivism quite lacking seen as confirmation of the nuclear deterrence is to believe any critical self-reflexivity. Some assessment by fiercely independ- that terrible fear will always have taken note of his "Realist ent and often beleaguered coun- ensure that fallible human beings abstraction of the differing social tries of the "strategic uselessness" (state leaders and managers) will character of states" but the prob- rather than the presumed "strate- behave as you want them to lem goes deeper. His whole gic usefulness" of nuclear though they and you operate in approach is ahistorical and asocial weapons.8 The NPT has been the circumstances and conditions and as an IR theory has long expression of a prior resolve to (sometimes of great stress) that passed its peak of influence. renounce. It should not be seen as neither they or you can ever fully From the 1980s onwards it has 18 been assaulted from certain east and the west. Nuclear illustrations) as to why a new strands of feminist IR theory, weapons were necessary but not entrant will be given such time from certain political economy sufficient to pre- venting such and freedom from a pre-emptive approaches to IR, from Critical wars. Nuclear weapons prevented or preventive strike aimed at its Theory, and most powerfully intra- European wars as well. The fledgling nuclear weapons system. from the Neo-Marxism in IR of opposing stance towards all three Waltz would have us believe that a Justin Rosenberg and Benno claims is that nuclear weapons preventive strike would only hard- Teschke (Rosenberg 1994; were irrelevant to the issue of en the resolve of the targeted Teschke 2003). long peace. country to make successive future While the "problematic of But even a conventional war efforts to make the bomb until it the International" like the "prob- between the US and USSR would was ultimately successful. Once a lematic of the economic" is have been third world war and few bombs are developed deter- always transhistorical, its proper world wars are by their nature rence of a pre-emptive strike will understanding must involve his- multi- casual and a single-factor succeed be- cause even the toricised and socialised concepts explanation for their presence absence of the capability of, say, a and theories like those of Marx. (though the trigger can be singu- west Asian country to make inter- Instead of Waltz's face-saving lar) or absence is untenable. The continental missiles that can reach artifice of different "levels of problem with even the second the opponent will not be a prob- analysis" he should have realised claim is that it is still a single-fac- lem. Just the fear that a few rudi- that interrogating the concept of tor form of explanation of the mentary bombs can quite belated- capitalism, which bridges the absence of a world war, even if ly be secretly moved by plane, domestic and international, has there can now be a number of ship or land to a distant enemy is always been the best way of such necessary single-factors enough of a deterrent. So a very understand- ing modern geopoli- whose absence can also do the small nuclear arsenal can serve as tics. It is not in the least surprising trick. Of course after the cold war a credible second strike capability that his theory is inspired by bor- ended intra-European wars erupt- and this can be developed in a rowings from the utterly abstract, ed despite the existence of a very short time (Sagan and Waltz and socially and historically nuclear overhang. Is it not more 1995: 19). speaking, barren conceptual field plausible to explain the long peace This argument is important of neo- classical economics. by the existence of a cold war to note given Israel's history from Similarly, his thinking on the glacis - itself a multi-causal phe- its bombing of the Osirak reactor specifically nuclear front is nomenon - wherein nuclear in Iraq in 1981 to its 2007 bomb- abstract, a-historical and asocial. weapons were an expression and ing of IAEA safeguarded facili- Before examining Waltz's particu- promoter of cold war tensions ties in Syria. There is higher plau- lar failings in this regard, let us but not a decisive cause of this sibility in the belief that if push remind ourselves that all strategic glacis? If one is to respect the comes to shove neither Israel nor nuclear thinking is inescapably logic of Waltz's argumentative the US will tolerate even a rudi- speculative and must therefore be structure, then deterrence works mentary Iranian nuclear weapons disciplined by reference to (a) and is stable only if confronting system and it is now very much empirical controls, and (b) the each of the NWSs has a credible harder for a highly monitored balance of plausibility in argu- second strike capacity. A new state to achieve this secretly. As ment. Take the "long peace in entrant would have to be allowed for the notion that a second strike Europe" issue attributed to the time to develop such a capacity equilibrium can be reached quick- cold war militarised face-off. against opponents, whether near ly and then remain stable, all his- There are three distinct claims or distant. Since Waltz operates torical evidence indicates that this that are made here. Nuclear through asocial and ahistorical is always an upwardly moving weapons were necessary and suf- categories he must provide an "equilibrium" related to the ficient to prevent nuclear and essentially "abstract rationalist" nuclear ambitions/preparations conventional war between the answer (backed by weak empirical of perceived opponents. 19 This brings us to the issue of different nuclear arms provides peace- time since the end of arms races, conventional and tactical flexibility for trying to Second World War. Both sides nuclear. control this "ladder of escala- once again made nuclear prepara- Yet another Waltz claim inval- tion". tions. idated by reality is that new and Waltz's own view is that Subsequently in 2005, lieu- small nuclear powers are more should nuclear war break out, it tenant general Khalid Kidwai, the likely to reduce conventional will very quickly come to a halt - a head of the Strategic Planning arms spending and not engage in comforting reflection designed to Division of Pakistan's National arms racing once they acquire shore up his view of "more may Command Authority and one of nuclear weapons. This has not be safe enough" but hardly an the two "fingers" (the other is been the case anywhere among impressive line of argument. In current military paired rivals including India and fact, Waltz in no way seriously chief, lieutenant general Pakistan precisely because nuclear interrogates what can be called Ashfaq Kayani) spelt out the weapons cannot do what conven- the "escalation dynamic" and can country's nuclear red-lines, the tional arms can do (ibid: 29). therefore be more complacent crossing of which by India would But the greater embarrass- about nuclear weapons not being result in the use of nuclear ment for Waltz is that no sensible used. While deliberate use of weapons - severe military defeat notion of deterrence can explain nuclear weapons is not that credi- by India, serious territorial the ridiculous overkill capacities ble, one can credibly create a situ- advances towards any of and the extraordinary range and ation - the Cuban crisis - where Pakistan's major cities, economic levels of tactical weaponry devel- tensions can escalate into a strangulation through a blockade, oped by the US and Russia. Waltz nuclear exchange. Any number of political destabilisation. can only bemoan that rather than nuclear strategists from Henry After the November 2008 pursuing "deterrence by punish- Kissinger to Thomas Schelling terrorist attack on Mumbai, the ment" the two great powers pur- (but not Waltz) have developed then RSS supremo, K S sued (and in due course perhaps different models of "calculated Sudarshan in an interview by a other NWSs might pursue) risk taking" recognising that dif- freelance journalist, declared "deterrence by denial". The point ferent levels of nuclear that a war with Pakistan would here is that Waltz's overarching brinkmanship is very much a part turn into a nuclear one, but that Neorealist theory focused as it is of the larger nuclear "game" that it was necessary to defeat the on the primary goal of "survival" in reality is played once one demons and there was no other and the value of nuclear deter- moves away from the simplifying way. And let me say with confi- rence in relation to this, has no assumptions of Waltz. Between dence that after this destruction, room for the reality that whether Pokhran-I and Pokhran-II there a new world will emerge which before or after acquiring nuclear was no war between India and will be very good, free from evil weapons, states aim to use them Pakistan. In 1999 believing it had and terrorism.9 Of course, for purposes beyond mere exis- a "nuclear shield", Pakistan Kidwai and Sudarshan are in tential survival and for general launched the Kargil war and both large part displaying a mixture of foreign policy support. This sides readied their nuclear arse- bravado and bluster. But both drives them to build a "ladder of nals for use. Shortly after the ter- the first is a vital decision- maker escalation" that, in turn, pro- rorist attack on the Indian and the latter also whenever the motes a momentum of continu- Parliament in December 2001, BJP is in power. Such attitudes ous arms racing. The "what if" India and then Pakistan mobilised and beliefs are disturbing. The question has to be addressed. over a million troops in all on lesson that needs to be drawn is What if, since there is never a both sides of the border for some that in a context of enduring guarantee against it, that nuclear 10 months till tensions were hostility, an escalation dynamic weapons are somewhere, some- defused with the help of the US. can throw things out of control. time used between nuclear rivals? This was the largest and longest Minor incidents can trigger a Then the existence of a range of such mobilisation anywhere in chain of events leading to an 20 outcome - nuclear exchange - base. This has been the shared (and has been) politically defeat- that neither side to begin with mass sentiment, the psychological ed. Over the last century and a would have ever wanted since it glue that kept it growing. But no half there has emerged (especially would be completely dispropor- movement based on constant fear after WWII) a growing disjunc- tionate to the purposes initially can sustain itself beyond a limited tion between military power and sought by both sides. And this is time horizon. Such a foundation political power/ success that has a key point of weak- ness in is too negative a sentiment and thrown up strategic and intellec- deterrence thinking.10 There is will also be eroded by the passage tual problems that, Waltz and oth- good reason to worry about of time itself. As for the poorer ers in the realist/neorealist India's and Pakistan's nuclearisa- parts of the world, other more school, cannot adequately handle tion and about further horizon- basic and daily "felt needs" of because their understanding of tal proliferation. poverty, unemployment, inequali- power is so under- and poorly- ties of all kinds, have always had theorised.11 The political defeat of Contemporary Dangers: the greater priority. This includes US ambitions in west Asia sends Way Forward? today's India and Pakistan where the message that the most in any case the dominant attitude extreme form of military power - How then do we move among the middle class is sup- nuclear weapons - is not a source towards global and regional disar- portive of the acquisition of of decisive or even significant mament? The two routes are nuclear weapons. So what now? political strength. Successes in obviously connected but not in a In the post-cold war era, the dan- building an anti-war/anti-imperi- manner whereby movement ger of a global holocaust has alist struggle then facilitate the along the latter is made condition- greatly receded even as a "limited" spread of a sentiment of anti- al on forward movement along and regional assault or exchange nuclearism. If it is accepted that the former where the US has has grown. Two parts of Asia this must be the key strategic line always been the biggest obstacle, cause concern. Why then should to adopt, then it follows that it is the pace- setter in creating and ordinary Europeans or the deficiencies pertaining to the deepening the global nuclear Americans feel so worried? Why building of such a mass anti- mess. It has always been the case should one feel surprised about imperialist movement today that that civil society pressure from the absence of older- type mass are most important to correct, within the US against movements in these parts of the not so much the deficiencies in Washington's global role, even as world? Fears about future con- building an anti-nuclear mass it is connected to civilian and gov- frontation with Russia and China movement. And in this regard the ernmental pressures from out- through the US effort to build the role and impact of the NPT are side, is the single most important BMD and related TMD systems of even less, if not nil, conse- terrain of confrontation. Neither could help to regenerate a mass quence. Of other possible scenar- the rise nor decline of the great opposition within the US and in ios, it is right to make light of the independent (not controlled by Europe to the US' plans of "full bogey of non-state nuclear ter- communist governments) anti- spectrum dominance" of which rorism, not just on the grounds of nuclear peace movements in the this project is a part. But aside immense technical difficulties but west (and Japan) of the late from such hopes the larger ques- also because it assumes that non- 1950s/ early 1960s and then in tion is what should be the strate- state actors are somehow more the mid-1970s/early 1980s are to gic line of march particularly in irrational when compared to state be explained by reference to the the US of the anti-nuclear peace actors. In fact the scale of inter- NPT. Both the inspiration for, movement? national suffering imposed by acts and decline of such movements This must lie in its participa- of state terrorism is immeasur- have different roots. The rise of tion in a wider, more encompass- ably greater not because states such movements was founded on ing anti- war/anti-imperialist have always had the greater the growing "felt danger" among movement. For all its unassailable means but because their terrorist a disproportionately middle class military strength the US can be acts are harnessed to much more 21 grandiose ends - national security, the BMD-TMDs and PSI proj- sponsibility which do irritate the defeating global radicalism, ects. There is some scope for two governments especially when spreading democracy, protecting future optimism here given the coming from existing NWSs. Of civilisation, etc. Indeed, such state unease of some significant course acceptance by the two acts of terrorism are not only NNWSs besides China and governments would constitute a more easily justified but all too Russia. "thin end of the wedge", a way of often they are not even seen as Second, promote the effort to legitimising partial regional de- terrorism. Two of the six ideolog- establish an early and uncondi- nuclearisation which is all the ical banners that the US is using tional more reason to pursue this call. after the demise of the Soviet WMDFZ in west Asia (no (b) The Maoists and other parties Union as part of its software for Israeli filibustering) as the best in Nepal should be approached at its current imperial project (the way to deal with nuclear dangers both the governmental and civil hardware requires various region- in this region. Iran and all 22 society levels to declare in its al alliances) are the "global war on members of the League of Arab forthcoming Constitution that it, terror" and "WMDs [weapons of States have for decades demand- like Mongolia, will be a single- mass destruction] in the wrong ed this and it is still for all its dif- state NWFZ thereby embarrass- hands".12 The danger is not the ficulties of realisation, the best ing its two nuclear neighbours. (c) likelihood of non-state nuclear political route to take to outflank Bangladesh is the one neighbour use but of the US using this as a Israel and the US and put them that has publicly called for the justification for a possible small diplomatically - politically on the establishment of a south Asian pre-emptive nuclear strike to con- defensive. The alternative route of NWFZ.13 As a transitional meas- vey the message that non-state Iranian nuclearisation should not ure, Bangladesh should explore actors should not even think of be promoted or endorsed. the idea of a stretching of the making such a strike on US soil, Third, while India will cer- Bangkok Treaty to include itself, indeed of even considering a tainly not accept a South Asian thereby sending a message that "dirty bomb" attack or a conven- NWFZ there are ways of putting will be uncomfortable to India tional assault on a nuclear reactor pressure to this end by pursuit of and Pakistan. to which the US response could three measures: (a) demand that Fourth, work for the signing very likely be nuclear. As it is, after the whole of Kashmir on both and ratification of the zero-yield 1991 there has been a great blur- sides of the existing ceasefire line CTBT. ring of the firebreak between be made an NWFZ. Interestingly, It is an important restraint conventional and nuclear though this idea was first floated measure on qualitative advances weapons in US war preparations by peace activists in the two coun- on the US which is why Russia and war doctrines. With North tries after 1998, it was taken up in and China are willing to accept it Korea wisely deciding to use its August 2007 by the ruling All and why the Bush dministration nuclear weapons as a bargaining Jammu and Kashmir Muslim refused to ratify it. Yes, it locks the chip to obtain security commit- Conference on the Pakistan side qualitative lead the US already has ments from the US rather than of the current border. Since nei- over other countries. relying on them to provide an ther India nor Pakistan has sta- But does anyone believe it is "existential deterrent strategy", tioned or intends to station better that the US has the free- the two other danger areas are nuclear weapons in Kashmir, dom to make further qualitative west and south Asia. acceptance of this demand does advances in such weaponry? Given the absence of mass not entail any practical sacrifice. It Does anyone seriously believe civilian pressure, all that can be is also a way of their deflecting that the gap would then reduce? suggested by way of positive the criticism often voiced in the And is it a bad thing for India and approaches no matter how uncer- west and elsewhere of Kashmir Pakistan to be denied the oppor- tain their achievement, would be being a "nuclear flashpoint". tunity through further tests to pursuing the following objectives. This would be one way of reliably produce more advanced First, build pressure against deflecting all imputations of irre- types ofnuclear weapons? The 22 new Obama administration may far as I am aware no one out- their frustration over their well move towards ratification side the Sangh parivar before political-diplomatic ineffec- and Israel has already endorsed then, had publicly predicted tiveness when dealing with the CTBT. India and Pakistan are this. enemy states. Vietnam can the main holdouts and although 5 See Bidwai and Vanaik (2000: certainly develop a pro- not signatories must also sign and 52-53, 69-74). gramme to build nuclear ratify for the treaty to come into 6 In the last few years it seems weapons if it wants to but force. They are quite likely to do Israel has overtaken Russia as despite a 1,000 year history of so if the new administration in the largest supplier of mili- enmity with China, it has Washington applies serious pres- tary hardware to India just as decided to renounce this sure. One should also work for India is now Israel's number option by joining the the resuscitation of the negotia- one arms buyer. In the longer Bangkok Treaty, i e, the tions towards a Fissile Materials run Israel (and the US) may south- east Asian NWFZ. Treaty but the final outcome must well enduringly replace There is as much if not more incorporate the dismantling of all Russia as India's number one plausibility in the argument stockpiles held by the existing supplier. that not having nuclear NWSs. 7 See The Indo-US Military weapons affords greater These are all worthwhile Relationship: Expectations nuclear security vis-à-vis an objectives. But the challenge, of and Perceptions by the US NWS than having them. course, is to make them more Department of Defence, 9 http://communalism. than just a wish list. 2002. This a report based on blogspot.com/2008/12/ interviews with 23 American text-of-recent-interview-rss- * Achin Vanaik is a founder member military officers, 15 govern- boss-it.html. of the CNDP. Author of several ment officials and several 10 An excellent analysis of this books. Professor in the Delhi members of the Indian whole issue is given by Jean University. A co-recipient, with Praful National Security Council Dreze in "Militarism, Bidwai, of the International Peace and outside experts advising Development and Bureau's Sean McBride International the Indian government. Also Democracy" in Ramana and Peace Prize for 2000. see Tellis (2005) and Blank Reddy (2003: 307-12). (2005). 11 The most serious intellectual 8 Nuclear weapons possess a contributions to understand- Notes: "threat power" so extreme ing "power" have never come 1 See Chapter 4 in Bidwai and that its fungibility or from conventional IR theory Vanaik (2000). "exchange power" is negligi- which places such central 2 See Goldblatt (1985:114). ble. No wonder then that it is premium on the notion but 3 In 1995 during the intense so difficult to point to serious from the disciplines of polit- CTBT debate on whether successes through nuclear ical science and historical India should join up or not, black- mail attempts at which sociology. the Congress government of the US is most guilty. No 12 The other four are "humani- Narasimha Rao did consider wonder also that even in the tarian intervention", regime having a test and then signing most extreme conditions of change in the name of up to the CTBT but eventu- actual war between NWSs democracy, "failed states", ally decided against it before and NNWSs they have been "war on drugs". Their manip- the US discovered the prepa- of no use, e.g., the US in ulation is made more plausi- rations and put pressure on Vietnam, the USSR in ble precisely because they are the government. See Bidwai Afghanistan and that not simply concoctions but and Vanaik (2000: 69-73). American presidents (Reagan do refer to genuine problems. 4 See Vanaik (1995:12-13). As and Nixon) have expressed For an in depth analysis of 23 the six ideological banners Studies Institute of the US Army Agenda for the United States, that have replaced the old War College. Carnegie cold war banner of "saving Goldblatt, Joseph, ed. (1985): - Endowment for International the Free world from the Non Proliferation: The Why and Peace. Communist threat" see Wherefore (London and Teschke, Benno (2003): - Vanaik (2007). Philadelphia: Sipri Publications / The Myth of 1648: Class, Geo- 13 Statement by Mr Masud Bin Taylor & Francis). politics and the Making of Modern Momen, Director General Ramana, M V and C International Relations (London: (UN), Ministry of Foreign Rammanohar Reddy, ed. (2003): Verso). Vanaik, Achin (1995): - Affairs, Bangladesh at the - Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream India in a Changing World: First Committee of the 62nd (New Delhi: Orient Longman). Problems, Limits and Successes UNGA, 17 October 2007. Rosenberg Justin (1994): of Its Foreign Policy (New Delhi: - The Empire of Civil Society: A Orient Longman). References Critique of the Realist Theory of * ed. (2007): - Selling US Wars Bidwai, Praful and Achin Vanaik International Relations (London: (Northampton,Massachusetts, (2000): - New Nukes: Verso). US: Olive Branch Press, Interlink India, Pakistan and Global Sagan, Scott and Kenneth Waltz Publishers). Nuclear Disarmament (New York: (1995): - The Spread of Nuclear Interlink Books). Weapons: Blank, Stephen (2005): - Natural A Debate (New York and [Source: Economic & Political Allies? Regional Security in Asia London:WW Norton & Company). Weekly, April 18 2009.] and Prospects for Indo-American Tellis, Ashley (2005): - India as a Strategic Cooperation, Strategic New Global Power: An Action

II. Imagine There's No Bomb

Malcolm Fraser, Gustav Nossal, Barry Jones, Peter Gration, John Sanderson and Tilman Ruff*

HERE has never been a bet- Obama has outlined a substan- survival, sustainability and health ter time to achieve total tive program to deliver on this, for our planet and future gener- Tnuclear disarmament; this is and shown early evidence that ations. Both in the scale of the necessary, urgent and feasible. he is serious. He needs all the indiscriminate devastation they We are at the crossroads of a support and encouragement in cause, and in their uniquely per- nuclear crisis. On the one hand, the world. We do not know how sistent, spreading, genetically we are at an alarming tipping long this opportunity will last. damaging radioactive fallout, point on proliferation of nuclear Unlike the last one, at the end of nuclear weapons are unlike any weapons, with a growing risk of the Cold War, it must not be other weapons. They cannot be nuclear terrorism and use of still squandered. An increasingly used for any legitimate military massively bloated arsenals of the resource- and climate-stressed purpose. Any use, or threat of worst weapons of terror. On the world is an ever more dangerous use, violates international other, we have perhaps the best place for nuclear weapons. We humanitarian law. The notion opportunity to abolish nuclear must not fail. that nuclear weapons can ensure weapons. Like preventing rampant cli- anyone's security is fundamen- For the first time, a US pres- mate change, abolishing nuclear tally flawed. Nuclear weapons ident has been elected with a weapons is a paramount chal- most threaten those nations that commitment to nuclear weapons lenge for people and leaders the possess them, or like Australia, abolition, and President Barack world over - a pre-condition for those that claim protection from 24 them, because they become the mayhem that would inevitably but unfulfilled over the many preferred targets for others' follow. Such a war could occur years that disarmament has been nuclear weapons. Accepting that with the arsenals of India and stalled. The 13 practical steps nuclear weapons can have a Pakistan, or Israel. Preventing agreed at the nuclear Non- legitimate place, even if solely any use of nuclear weapons and Proliferation Treaty Review con- for "deterrence", means being urgently getting to zero are ference in 2000 should be upheld willing to accept the incineration imperative for the security of and implemented. They include of tens of millions of fellow every inhabitant of our planet. all nuclear weapons states com- humans and radioactive devasta- The most effective, expedi- mitting to the total elimination of tion of large areas, and is basi- tious and practical way to their nuclear arsenals; entry into cally immoral. achieve and sustain the abolition force of the Comprehensive Test As noted by the Weapons of of nuclear weapons is to negoti- Ban Treaty; negotiations on a Mass Destruction Commission ate a comprehensive, irre- treaty to end production of fissile headed by Dr Hans Blix: "So versible, binding, verifiable material; taking weapons off long as any state has nuclear treaty - a Nuclear Weapons extremely hazardous high alert weapons, others will want them. Convention (NWC) - bringing "launch on warning" status; and So long as any such weapons together all the necessary aspects negotiating deep weapons reduc- remain, there is a risk that they of nuclear disarmament and tions. But at the same time a will one day be used, by design non-proliferation. Such a treaty comprehensive road map is need- or accident. And any such use approach has been the basis for ed - a vision of what the final jig- would be catastrophic." The all successes to date in eliminat- saw puzzle looks like, and a path only sustainable approach is one ing whole classes of weapons, to get there. Not only to fit the standard - zero nuclear weapons from dum-dum bullets to chem- pieces together and fill the gaps, - for all. ical and biological weapons, but to make unequivocal that Recent scientific evidence landmines and, most recently, abolition is the goal. Without the from state-of-the-art climate cluster munitions. intellectual, moral and political models puts the case for urgent Negotiations should begin weight of abolition as the credi- nuclear weapons abolition without delay, and progress in ble and clear goal of the nuclear beyond dispute. Even a limited good faith and without interrup- weapon states, and real move- regional nuclear war involving tion until a successful conclusion ment on disarmament, the NPT 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs - is reached. It will be a long and is at risk of unravelling after next just 0.03 per cent of the explo- complex process, and the sooner year's five-yearly review confer- sive power of the world's cur- it can begin the better. We agree ence of the treaty, and a cascade rent nuclear arsenal - would not with UN Secretary-General Ban of actual and incipient nuclear only kill tens of millions from Ki-moon that the model NWC weapons proliferation can be blast, fires and radiation, but developed by an international expected to follow. would cause severe climatic con- collaboration of lawyers, physi- Achieving a world free of sequences persisting for a cians and scientists is "a good nuclear weapons will require not decade or more. Cooling and point of departure" for achiev- only existing arsenals to be pro- darkening, with killing frosts and ing total nuclear disarmament. gressively taken off alert, dis- shortened growing seasons, rain- Incremental steps can sup- mantled and destroyed, but will fall decline, monsoon failure, port a comprehensive treaty require production of the fissile and substantial increases in approach. They can achieve materials from which nuclear ultraviolet radiation, would com- important ends, demonstrate weapons can be built - separated bine to slash global food pro- good faith and generate political plutonium and highly enriched duction. Globally, 1 billion peo- momentum. Important disarma- uranium - to cease, and existing ple could starve. More would ment next steps have been stocks to be eliminated or placed succumb from the disease epi- repeatedly identified and are under secure international con- demics and social and economic widely agreed. They remain valid trol. 25 The International that the international safeguards led by Australia and become Commission on Nuclear Non- on which we depend to ensure known as the Canberra (or proliferation and Disarmament that our uranium does not now Sydney or Melbourne or announced by Prime Minister or in the future contribute to Brisbane) Convention? Kevin Rudd in Kyoto last June proliferation, need substantial and led with Japan is a welcome strengthening and universal * Malcolm Fraser (former prime initiative with real potential. It application. Our reliance on the minister), Sir Gustav Nossal could most usefully direct its "extended nuclear deterrence" (research scientist), Dr Barry Jones efforts to building political provided by the US should be (former Labor government minister), momentum and coalitions to get reviewed so that Australian facil- General Peter Gration (former disarmament moving, and pro- ities and personnel could not Defence Force chief), Lieutenant- mote a comprehensive frame- contribute to possible use of General John Sanderson (former chief work for nuclear weapons aboli- nuclear weapons, and we antici- of the army and former governor of tion. pate and promote by our actions Western Australia) and Associate Australia should prepare for a world freed from nuclear Professor Tilman Ruff (national a world free of nuclear weapons weapons. Canada championed president of the Medical Association by "walking the talk". We should the treaty banning landmines, or for Prevention of War Australia). reduce the role of nuclear Ottawa Treaty; Norway led the weapons in our own security way on the cluster munitions [Source: .] that we are part of the solution Convention the world needs and and not the problem also means deserves not be championed and C. Reports from NPT PrepCom May 2009 I. Letter from UN Building, New York

John Hallam*

Dear Sukla, and positive. ment instrument at arguably What on earth am I doing again, has much to do with the I am writing this article in a here, and why do I have a blue survival of the human race. dark echoing corridor in the first bit of plastic round my neck NPT PrepComs and review sub - basement of the United with a 'D' this time (which enti- conferences are one of a num- Nations building in New York. tles me to use the computers ber of exalted UN gatherings in It is full of people, both reserved for delegates, from which representatives of gov- nongovernmental organisations whence I type) instead of the ernments and nongovernmental and diplomats from all over the usual lowly 'N', for NGO? organisatons from every nation world. As I write various African I am attending the Nuclear on earth (except India, Pakistan diplomats are talking loudly and Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Israel in this case though it's hard to hear oneself think. Preparatory Committee meet- India and Pakistan have been The place has that strange, ing, or 'PrepCom', leading up to invited to send observers), get subterranean, bunker-like, echo- the 2010 review conference of together to discuss matters that ing quality that one might expect the nuclear non-proliferation affect the survival of the human from STRATCOM or treaty, arguably the worlds most race, and the media of the world Kosvinsky Mountain, though I important treaty, and an interna- treats it as if it had never hap- always find the UN stimulating tional arms-control/disarma- pened. Nonetheless, these meet- 26 ings, and their success or failure, PrepCom, and the opening 'going to zero' in nuclear are of utterly vital importance speeches were full of urgency - weapons. for the whole planet. From the and optimism. Surely, now there And it contained good lan- grimy passageway in which the is a US president that takes guage on operational status of delegates computers sit you nuclear disarmament seriously nuclear weapon systems. wouldn't know it, but you might there will be the possibility of The second iteration still guess from the excited buzz of completely eliminating nuclear contains the good language on many languages and the self - weapons and of taking the apoc- op status but just about every- important striding of delegates alypse - self inflicted, not the thing else has been diluted or has from across the world, in dark doing of any vengeful and disappeared or been on one way pinstriped suits or national lunatic deity - off the global or another somehow blunted. dresses. agenda forever. One can see the pressure, For a number of years I've And sure enough, the most applied behind the scenes, by a been pursuing the issue of the vital thing - the adoption of an nuclear weapons establishment operational status of nuclear agenda for the 2010 review con- that does not intend to go quiet- weapons systems, and have man- ference - was literally gavelled ly. aged to take the issue to the through by the chairman in As I sit, various groups are, I United Nations, so the bowels of record quick time without a understand, caucusing. the decrepit old UN building in murmur. My own delegation has New York has become rather So far so good. asked Tilman and I for an evalu- familiar, with the smoke-filled The next step was the adop- ation and we've given it. It is dis- 'Vienna Cafe' outside conference tion of a series of recommenda- appointing, and could develop, room 4 the familiar rendezvous tions from the PrepCom to the alas! into an opportunity lost. with everyone from India's chief review conference. We can't afford to lose too of delegation to the diplomats This is proving much more many of these opportunities. of Chile, New Zealand, Nigeria, difficult. The UN may be all about talk Sweden and Switzerland since As I write, I have in my and week - long negotiations on they decided to put up a resolu- briefcase, the first set of recom- the position of a semicolon. But tion on operational readiness of mendations put out by the chair, the position of that semicolon nuclear weapons systems in followed by a second set put out may be life or death for the october 2007. in response to the reactions by world. I have attended just two various governments including Let's not blow it, please. NPT 'PrepComs' and hope to the US and Russia, the NAM John Hallam attend the 2010 review confer- bloc, Australia, France, the EU ence. as a whole, Egypt, and a bunch P.S: And this time I have had the of others in response. A funny thing happened on luck or misfortune or whatever, The first set was in my view the way to the HAP reception... to be going as an official mem- and that of the NGO communi- or when the wrong party is the ber of the Australian delegation, ty generally, already incomplete right party. along with Prof. Tilman Ruff, and weak though it did for the A funny thing took place the chair of ICAN. first time include language com- other day. This NPT PrepCom was mitting to a possible nuclear I was invited to the recep- supposed to be different. As the weapons convention. tion of the Hague Appeal for optimism engendered by the It also included language Peace to be held I was informed, Obama administration and the committing for the first time on the 10th floor of the Church Prague speech was taken on by since the year 2000 review con- Centre, opposite the UN. governments worldwide, it fil- ferences commitment to the As I had been struggling for tered into the rarefied atmos- 'total and unequivocal elimina- the first few days of the phere even of this NPT tion' of nuclear weapons, to PrepCom with the agonies of 27 gout and my left toe felt like it tained by exquisite nibbles and ating status and nuke weapons had been dipped into either liq- wine) until the Kuwaiti ambassa- and he listened with intent inter- uid nitrogen or molten lava, I dor rescued me with a pro- est. wasn't sure I would be able to longed conversation about the Finally he had to tell me that make it. global economic crisis. Kuwait he was Ban Ki-moon's senior But at the due time, I made it was doing fine and buying every- political adviser. across the road to the Church one else at bargain-basement Exactly what he next said is Centre, and as I entered, so did a prices. kind of classified but was very couple of diplomats. I then had a number of con- very positive. I asked them if they were versations in which the subject The party had more or less 'going to the HAP reception' of operating status of nuclear ended and people had mostly and they said yes they were. weapons came up with various left. They pressed 12th floor in people. Having a resolution in I made to leave also and as I the lift. I said 'surely the HAP the general Assembly seemed left I encountered Francoise. reception is 10th' but they said, quite normal and even trivial I said to him something like no, its 12th and I went along there. I felt I should be stuck to 'Only at this place can one have with them. someone's boot. a chance conversation that As we exited the lift I recog- Then, a funny thing hap- makes complete global incinera- nised the room as being the pened. The lights kind of tion significantly less likely.' boardroom of the International dimmed and someone familiar Francoise beamed widely Peace Academy, which is the could be seen shaking hands and asked me for details which I kind of outfit that has various along a line of people which I supplied. He beamed even more. current and former heads of found myself in the middle of. I left. state on its board and would, It was Ban Ki-moon. As I left the lift stopped at naturally, have Ban Ki-moon as I shook his hand and had a the 120th floor. Some people its patron. I'd debated former 30 second introduction and he got on looking like thay had ambassador Chris Ford on oper- moved on. been at a function. ating status in that room the pre- I think that at the time I did I asked if the HAP function vious October. not quite register what had just had been on the 10th floor. Yes, I was met at the door by happened. they said, it had just finished. Francoise, the man who'd organ- The party went on and he Sometimes the wrong party ised the debate. As we entered, made a funny speech that left no turns out to be the right party. TV cameras recorded us and we doubt that it had been him. smiled for them. Francoise I think I had a drink or three * John Hallam is a leading peace beamed. and found myself talking to a activist from Australia. He has The room filled up with large and friendly bear of a man attended the NPT Prepcom as an indescribably exalted bigwigs, who did not let on exactly who NGO adviser (member) of the none of whom I knew in the he was. Australian Government delegation. slightest, and I languished (sus- I talked as usual about oper- 28 II. NPT PrepCom concludes with agenda but no recommendations: A qualified success*

Michael Spies and Ray Acheson

Y the abysmal standards that further apart rather than closer. Egypt, and Iran. On Thursday, 14 have typified the preparato- With this note of caution, on May, the Chair advised states let Bry process-instituted in Monday, 11 May, the Chair circu- the recommendations go, as to 1995-leading up to each five year lated a clever and concise first not to ruin the spirit of coopera- review of the NPT, the third and draft of recommendations, tion. Despite the Chair's judg- final Preparatory Committee intended to capture specific pro- ment that the differences in posi- (PrepCom) meeting before the posals that identify concrete tion were too vast, a large num- 2010 Review Conference practical actions on implement- ber of delegations urged the (RevCon) must certainly be con- ing the Treaty, stand a reasonable Chair to continue the process of sidered a success. The PrepCom chance of gaining consensus, and seeking consensus. was able to agree to an agenda for build upon earlier decision. Its The breakdown of the rec- the RevCon, on its third day, no strongest provisions dealt with ommendations process less, amid a chorus of accolades moving the disarmament agenda Despite the positive atmos- for what many described as a forward and even included con- phere, disarmament rhetoric of new, positive atmosphere in mul- sideration of a nuclear weapons the US and UK administrations, tilateral disarmament, stemming convention. and the quick adoption of the entirely from US President It must be noted that the vast agenda, the PrepCom delegates Obama's 5 April speech in majority of states could have did not find enough common Prague. accepted the first draft, including ground - or at least, enough com- However, it did not surprise many members of NATO, with mon rhetoric - to agree to a set of many delegates-most of whom little or no modifications. non-binding recommendations are veterans of the so-called Following consultations, and in for next year. Breaking with the decade of deadlock that had particular input from the nuclear recent past, the Chair decided not accompanied the Bush adminis- weapon states, on Wednesday, 13 to forward the recommendations tration's allergy to multilateral- May, the Chair put forward a to the RevCon as a working ism-that the PrepCom would revised set of recommendations paper. become snagged once it attempt- that significantly weakened the The Chair had introduced a ed to work through matters of sections on disarmament, civil newly revised draft recommenda- substance. society participation, and educa- tions on Friday, 15 May. The PrepCom's failure to tion, but bolstered those on Delegations consulted with their adopt substantive recommenda- implementing the 1995 Middle regional groups before resuming tions for the RevCon, a feat no East resolution and on non-pro- an informal meeting of the previous PrepCom had ever liferation. PrepCom. During this last accomplished, may have tem- For some, the second draft attempt to reach consensus on porarily tainted the atmosphere, proved to be a bridge too far. As the draft recommendations, the but was not unforeseen. During the conference moved into its Chair determined that the his opening remarks to the final hours, it devolved into a Committee did not have a suffi- PrepCom, its Chair, Ambassador tense blame game that pitted cient amount of time to reach Chidyausiku of Zimbabwe, cau- western delegations against the agreement. Later, at a press brief- tioned that despite recent signs of Non-Aligned Movement and ing, he said the "differences were progress, in many areas the posi- some of its more outspoken very minor; with time, we could tions of states had actually grown members, most notably Cuba, have done it." 29 The differences, as laid out Despite the lack of time to this result came as a relief to by delegations during Thursday's make additional major changes many delegations. While the vast plenary discussion on the draft to the text (delegations would majority of states parties seemed recommendations, did not seem have needed to consult with ready to accept either the first or very minor, though the revisions their capitals had the second second drafts, no one was entirely in the third draft were quite min- draft text been heavily amend- content with either. Rather than imal. The additional changes ed), western and non-aligned becoming stuck with an imperfect brought on board an additional delegations traded blame for the text, delegations will have the caveat to the already thoroughly impasse. Since the first draft was freedom in 2010 to negotiate and conditioned preambular para- not agreeable to a few western reach agreement with a clean slate graph, further emphasized its states and the second was not on the many fraught issues facing non-binding character and mar- agreeable to a few NAM states, the NPT regime. ginally indicative character-a it would be cynical and insincere change insisted upon by the UK. to place "blame" on any particu- * Lead editorial from the final edi- Other amendments made minor lar group or delegation. Instead, tion of Reaching Critical Will's NPT changes to the sections on uni- the experience only serves to News in Review, versality, disarmament, non-pro- further illuminate the wide gulfs liferation, regional initiatives, between states' positions. and education. Paradoxically on the surface,

D. Nuclear Power I. National Convention on The Politics of Nuclear Energy and Resistance On June 4, 5, 6 (Thu, Fri, Sat) 2009 At Kanyakumari,Tamil Nadu, India

CONCEPT NOTE

LTHOUGH the tentative Resolution of March 1, 1958. Just country generated about 90,000 'Indian Atomic Energy three months after the DAE was MW and almost all of this was ACommission' was set up in established, Prime Minister thermal and hydropower and the August 1948 in the new and Jawaharlal Nehru unequivocally share of nuclear power was an fledgling Department of declared in a conference on insignificant 1,840 MW -- a Scientific Research, it was only on 'Development of Nuclear Power ridiculously low 2 per cent of the August 3, 1954 the fully-fledged for Peaceful Purposes': "We want total energy production. Now it is Department of Atomic Energy to utilise atomic energy for gener- hardly 3 per cent. The DAE failed (DAE) was created under the ating electricity because electricity to achieve their target of produc- direct control of the Prime is most essential for the develop- ing 10,000 MW power by the year Minister through a Presidential ment of the nation." 2000. Order. The Atomic Energy It is pertinent to reflect on The fact of the matter is most Commission (AEC) itself was what the Indian nuclear establish- of the 14 units (two at Tarapur in established in the Department of ment has accomplished in the western Maharashtra state, four at Atomic Energy by a Government past fifty years. In 1998-99 the Rawatbhatta in western Rajasthan 30 state, two at Kalpakkam in Tamil deal with India to build four addi- other assorted endeavours. What Nadu, two at Narora in northern tional nuclear reactors (besides all this means is that while private Uttar Pradesh, two at Kakrapar in the two reactors that are being companies make money with no western Gujarat and two at Kaiga built) at Koodankulam in Tamil responsibilities, the Indian taxpay- in southern Karnataka) are beset Nadu. The United States is sure ers and the "ordinary citizens" with technical problems. Dr. B. to get a big chunk of India's will bear the cost of dealing with K. Subbarao, a retired naval cap- nuclear trade worth several billion the nuclear waste, decommission- tain who is familiar with the dollars over the next two decades. ing the plants, environmental Indian nuclear department, Areva of France has signed a damages, public health issues and asserts that "the country's six pact with India and is engaged in other dangerous consequences. nuclear power plants with 14 discussions to set up two to six A highly populated country units are operating at low capaci- 1,650 MW European Pressurized like India does have an increasing ties." A simple comparison of Reactor (EPR) units at Jaitapur in need for energy. But then that nuclear power projects with hydro Maharashtra and to supply life- energy has to be economical, sus- and thermal power projects time fuel for these reactors tainable and environment-friend- would show that nuclear energy is through its uranium mines locat- ly for the very same reason of way too expensive and ineffective. ed in Australia, Kazakhstan and over- and dense- population. The If we consider the amount of Niger. The cost of one EPR is country needs to spend less on money, time, energy, human and estimated at between $5.2 and 7.8 energy because there are other other resources that have gone billion, but the final costs are sub- pressing needs such as food secu- into the nuclear institutions and ject to negotiation. The India- rity, water security, housing, their activities since 1948, we get a Kazakhstan agreement involves health, education, transportation classic picture of inefficiency and export of uranium from and so forth. India cannot afford incompetence. Kazakhstan for India's civil the "use and discord" strategy as nuclear program. Britain is also in nuclear power projects for Present Situation vying for nuclear business with obvious reasons of limited land The DAE envisages a India. availability, future generation's grandiose three-stage nuclear Nuclear business is a lucrative needs and so forth. Its energy energy program that could con- affair all over the world. Even projects have to be environmen- tribute to achieving the country's more so in India! So much money tally-friendly because even a small energy security (or some people has already been wasted on incident can harm, hurt or kill a put it, energy independence). The nuclear power projects and the huge number of people. first stage has seen the construc- current cash crunch is mainly due tion of a series of Pressurised to nuclear power being very Nuclear Weapons Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). expensive, inefficient and capital India's ambitious nuclear pro- As breeder reactors (PFBR) mark intensive. So the top officials of gram consists of not just nuclear the beginning of the second the Indian nuclear establishment power generation but also nuclear stage, thorium-fuelled reactors have expressed interest in inviting weapons project. Anil Kakodkar, and Advanced Heavy Water private investments (which has AEC chairman, has proclaimed Reactors (AHWR) will come up been set aside for the time-being). recently: "The international civil under the third stage. Ever since To reach their target of generat- nuclear programme will be pur- the finalization of the India-US ing 20,000 MW power by the year sued without any compromise on nuclear deal and the subsequent 2020, the nuclear authorities say domestic autonomy and on the nuclear suppliers group (NSG) they need a whopping amount of pursuit of usage of nuclear ener- clearance, India has embarked Rs. 800 billion. So they are con- gy for whatever purpose" upon nuclear agreements and templating about amending the (emphasis added, The Hindu, business deals with Russia, United Indian nuclear laws in order to February 6, 2009). India's nuclear States, France and Kazakhstan. facilitate private participation in weapons program was started at Russia has signed a commercial nuclear power generation and the Bhabha Atomic Research 31 Center (BARC) in Trombay. In nuclear weapons, India is being power plants emit a lot of harm- the mid-1950s India acquired duped into a nuclear rivalry with ful radiation and radiation-pro- dual-use technologies under the Pakistan and China with possible ducing wastes and sites that cause "Atoms for Peace" non-prolifera- arms races, militarism, poverty, much damage to humans, natural tion program. It aimed to encour- misery, insecurity and underdevel- resources, and the overall envi- age the civil use of nuclear tech- opment. The nuclear power and ronment. It is not at all prudent to nologies in exchange for assur- bomb programs are going to opt for radiation-pollution and ances that they would not be used increase the nuclear expenditure DNA-change to answer the for military purposes. There was exponentially thereby diverting threats of GHG-pollution and hardly any evidence in the 1950s the scarce resources from the climate-change. that India had any interest in a much-needed basic services for nuclear weapons program. Under the poor.'Climate Change' Claims New (Clear) Kid on the "Atoms for Peace" program, Although nuclear program is the Block India acquired a Cirus 40 MWt bandied about as the best answer heavy-water-moderated research for climate change, there is very The nuclear establishment reactor from Canada and pur- little truth to that claim. As that has been lying low with chased the heavy water required Professor Amory Lovins, one of insignificant power generation for its operation from the United the world's most influential ener- and secretive weapons produc- States. In 1964, India commis- gy thinkers, puts it: "If climate tion has become a major politi- sioned a reprocessing facility at change is the problem, nuclear cal player ever since the BJP-led Trombay and used it to separate power isn't the solution. It's an government's nuclear testing out the plutonium produced by expensive, one-size-fits-all tech- and weaponization in May 1998. the Cirus research reactor. This nology that diverts money and With the actual and potential plutonium was used in India's time from cheaper, safer, more nuclear threats that India, first nuclear test on May 18, 1974 resilient alternatives." Pakistan and the whole of South which was described by the It is indeed grossly misleading Asia have faced over the years, Indian government as a "peaceful to claim that nuclear power does the importance of the nuclear nuclear explosion." not produce greenhouse gases estate in India has gone even Now India is believed to pos- (GHG). In fact, mining and pro- further up. This new kid in the sess 45 to 100 nuclear weapons cessing of uranium, building 'political power' block with a while Pakistan is said to have nuclear power plants with an clear self-serving agenda is slow- some 60 of them. According to a enormous amount of cement and ly gaining more and more politi- report in Jane's Intelligence steel and long construction cal, military, economic and com- Review, India's objective is to processes, decommissioning the mercial strength and many more have a nuclear arsenal that is power plants, handling the patrons and friends. "strategically active but opera- radioactive waste, caring for all The Indian state along with tionally dormant", which would the cancer patients, dealing with its nuclear hawks, almost all the allow India to maintain its retalia- all other public health situations political party leaders, the nuclear tory capability "within a matter of and all these procedures cause estate comprising scientists, tech- hours to weeks, while simultane- considerable climate-changing nicians and bureaucrats, and the ously exhibiting restraint." pollution. nuclear industry that consists of However, the report also main- As indicated earlier, nuclear Indian corporations, MNCs, and tains that, in the future, India may power does not produce much of other business houses form a face increasing institutional pres- India's energy mix. Even if we kind of a profiteering nuclear sure to shift its nuclear arsenal to accept the DAE's dreamy figures conglomerate. Together they a fully deployed status. Having of electricity generation, we must define national security, India's thrown all the high moral princi- understand that electricity is a science policy, the new energy ples such as non-proliferation, small portion of our total energy paradigm, and the very future disarmament and abolition of use. Most importantly, nuclear vision of the country. Without 32 any transparency, accountability, the right to information vide power-plant workers, waste mis- parliamentary oversight or popu- Article 19(1)(A), these are, management, and numbers lar scrutiny and with unlimited according to the court, subject to regarding explosive yields. When funding, 'sacred cow' status, reasonable restrictions in the a former Captain B.K. Subba Rao innocuous 'advanced science and interest of national security. questioned the DAE's nuclear sub technology' label, and the 'nation- Rejecting a petition by the (Advanced Technology Vessel) al security' jingoism, the DAE is People's Union of Civil Liberties project, a spectacular Rs. 2,000 an undemocratic and anti-people (PUCL) and the Bombay crore failure, he was charged in department. Sarvodaya Mandal for making 1988 with spying with the ludi- What makes it possible for public a government report on crous evidence of his IIT- the DAE to keep several 'inci- safety of nuclear installations, Bombay Ph.D. thesis for "espi- dents' and 'accidents' under wraps submitted by the Atomic Energy onage" and jailed for 20 months-- and to persist with the authoritar- Regulatory Board (AERB) to the until fully exonerated by three dif- ian tendencies and practices is the Delhi government in November ferent courts. Atomic Energy Act 1962 that 1995, the Court ruled that the There is an added danger clearly undermines India's demo- petitioners were "not entitled" to now that the DAE is looking cratic heritage too. The Atomic get the document declared as into ways of making amend- Energy Act 1962 has indeed "secret" by the Union ments in the Atomic Energy Act become a potent weapon for the Government under Section 18 of 1962 in order to have private par- DAE officials to threaten and the Atomic Energy Act 1962. ticipation in the future nuclear silence the opponents and critics It is important to note that power programs. The latest word and shun any public dissension to the petitioners did not ask for any is that amendment to the act is their plans and projects. Section 3 information about India's nuclear under consideration at various of the Atomic Energy Act 1962 arsenal or its storage site or any- levels. Once the amendment is enables the Central Government thing like that but expressed a passed in the Parliament, rich "to declare as 'restricted informa- genuine concern that there was power barons could invest in the tion' any information not so far not enough safety precautions in nuclear power program and reap published or otherwise made nuclear power stations in the high dividends while the Indian public" and "to declare as 'prohib- country and any accident could state would subsidize nuclear ited area' any area or premises" have a disastrous affect on human research, enrichment of fuels, where "production, treatment, beings, animals, environment and disposal of nuclear wastes, use, application or disposal of ecology. The petitioners had decommissioning of plants etc. atomic energy or of any pre- moved the Supreme Court after with public funds. Thus the scribed substance" is carried out. the Bombay High Court had Atomic Energy Act 1962 would Leaping much further, section 18 rejected their petition in January facilitate the fusion of secretive (restriction on disclosure of 1997. The petitioners had also state, careerist DAE scientists information) restrains nuclear raised doubt about the safety and greedy capitalists for private information sharing even more aspect with regard to disposal of profit and the fission of Indian stringently. nuclear waste. citizens' safety, health and futures To make matters worse, the The Atomic Energy Act 1962 for several generations to come. Supreme Court ruled in January allows arbitrary suppression of all 2004 that the Central information --patently unconsti- Inherent Dangers and Pitfalls Government had every right to tutional, according to V.R. According to Anil Kakodkar, maintain secrecy about nuclear Krishna Iyer, a widely respected AEC chairman, India should set installations and deny public legal luminary in India. The DAE up 40,000 MW reactors by 2020 information about these in the is easily one of our most secretive to meet its energy requirements interest of national security, departments and has much to and become energy-independent which was paramount. Although hide: uranium mining hazards in by 2050 (The Hindu, February 6, our Constitution guarantees us Jadugoda, excessive irradiation of 2009). But this grandiose plan 33 does not say how much money threat to peace and security in citizens not as "energetic mas- will be needed, who will foot the the region. ters" of a democracy but as bill, and if a cost-benefit analysis Uranium mining, thorium "energy slaves" of a brave new will prove nuclear power worth- extraction and other such opera- nuclear world. while and indeed profitable for a tions along with their socioeco- Dr. Manmohan Singh, the "developing country" like India. nomic, environmental and health Indian Prime Minister who sin- In the name of nuclear power impact on marginalized commu- gle-mindedly spearheaded the generation, the country is being nities such as the tribals, dalits and India-US nuclear deal, had put it re-colonized with Russians, fisherfolk in places like Jadugoda, succinctly in his convocation French and Americans operating Meghalaya, Hyderabad, and the address in the Indian School of nuclear power plants all over the coastal villages of Orissa, Andhra Mines on June 12, 2000 (pub- country and poking their profit- Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala lished in University News 38 seeking noses into other areas of is another grave concern. The (24), p.11): "Nuclear power pro- our national life. These nuclear nuclearisation of India also gramme which was initiated in "East India Companies" cunning- exhibits a blatant disregard to the country more than 40 years ly incorporate local capitalists to human rights of millions of peo- back has not progressed as safeguard their position. For ple and the overall environment. envisaged…the target of 20,000 instance, the Areva chief has said The land rights, water rights, right MW fixed in 1970 has badly that talks are on with several to life and livelihood are all seri- slipped… In many countries Indian companies to manufacture ously impeded by the nuclear nuclear power has been down parts for nuclear reactors for the estate and its institutions and graded due to safety local market and overseas agents. hazards…There is an urgent (Business Line, February 5, 2009). need to re-evaluate the role of These nuclear business deals are Call for a National nuclear power taking into also intricately linked to nuclear Convention account both relative costs as weapons program, conventional Seeing the nuclear program well as safety hazards. It goes weapons procurements, military just as a matter of science and without saying that we need deals and other devious things. technology, or economics, or strong and autonomous regula- Although power is the pub- national security or development tory authorities to check the lic face of the Indian nukedom, is an ill-informed approach. safety measures in all our atomic bomb is its real face. This strong When all is said and done, the power plants. The atomic safety linkage between power and nuclear program has environ- regulatory authority needs to be bomb has to be acknowledged. mental, health, safety, demo- strengthened and made fully The Indian nuclear weapons graphic, cultural and political autonomous." Ironically, this is program that often legitimizes sides to it. After all, nuclearism is the position we take now as Dr. itself by pointing out the a political ideology. It is slowly Singh himself is trying hard to Chinese weapons and military but surely seeping into the dem- sell the money-guzzling, waste- threat has given rise to knee-jerk ocratic fabric of the country. As producing, disease-causing and reaction in Pakistan. These two a money-guzzling, secretive weapons-proliferating nuclear countries have embarked upon a department with strategic calcu- power to the Indian public. large scale nuclear power gener- lations and environmental dan- In the light of the above sit- ation in Pakistan. Thus massive gers, the nuclear estate abhors uation and the overall dangerous production of nuclear energy transparency, accountability and threats the Indian nuclear estate for weaponization poses a major popular participation. As a total- and its power and bomb pro- challenge in South Asia today. itarian scheme with no room for grams pose, it is high time we, all This is bound to further create dissent or debate, the nuclear the anti-nuclear activists, organi- tension and conflicts leading to estate shuns popular debate or zations and movements across the acceleration of the arms race democratic decision-making India, came together and dis- and militirization posing a severe processes and sees the Indian cussed the socioeconomic-politi- 34 cal, environmental and other Auditor General of India (CAG) open new mines on "hurdles" consequences of nuclearism and has rapped the Department of such as law and order issues and charted out a national course of Atomic Energy for being unable environmental clearances. The action to oppose the nuclearisa- to exploit the country's uranium unimpressed CAG has said that tion of India's national futures. resources and running the nuclear the DAE's "best efforts" were Delineating the nature of nuclear power plants at half their capacity "belated" and did not yield the politics in India and its implica- or less. The DAE has responded desired results. See Sandeep tions to our national life, we need that the CAG's observations Dikshit, "DAE pulled up for to develop a coherent strategy of amounted to a "theoretical exer- nuclear fuel shortage," The resistance against the nuclear cise that can lead to misleading Hindu, February 22, 2009. establishment and its projects. conclusions" and pointed out that plants were being operated at Notes: lower levels to conserve fuel. The 1. The Comptroller and DAE has blamed its inability to

II. Nuclear isn't necessary: The notion that we need nuclear power to address climate change does not reflect the realities of the marketplace or rapid new developments in energy technology

Arjun Makhijani*

T is now generally understood Politically, support for new is James Lovelock, who conceived that carbon dioxide emissions investment in nuclear power is the Gaia hypothesis, in which he Ifrom fossil fuel burning are at gaining traction. In the US, proposed that the biological and the centre of the climate crisis. In Republican presidential candidate physical components of the the electricity sector, that primari- John McCain has pledged to build Earth form a complex, interacting ly means the burning of coal. 45 plants in 20 years if elected, system. China and the United States are while Democratic Candidate According to Lovelock, the leading users, and Russia, Barack Obama admits that renewable energy sources can Germany and India also use coal nuclear power is probably neces- contribute only a "small" amount as a mainstay of power genera- sary to meet climate goals, condi- to the world's future energy mix, tion. Long-term assured carbon tioning his support on a prior res- and there is "no chance" that they sequestration is not yet a proven olution of concerns about terror- will supply enough energy to technology, and it is unclear when ism, proliferation and waste. replace conventional sources on it might become available on the Across the Atlantic, the UK gov- the timescales needed to stem cli- required scale. In environmental ernment has stated its intention mate change2. Hence, the world terms, the world cannot afford of including nuclear power in should "emulate the French", new coal-fired power plants; electricity plans, motivated mainly who get almost 80 per cent of indeed, even existing coal-fired by climate concerns. Asia, home their electricity from nuclear reac- power to almost all of the 35 new power tors, because it is "the only effec- plants may have to be phased plants under construction global- tive medicine we have now"3. out before 2050. The nuclear- ly in 2007, also clearly supports power industry, proclaiming a the expansion of nuclear energy1. Reliable renewables 'nuclear renaissance', has suggest- Considerable backing for The common perception is ed itself as a saviour with a simple nuclear power has also emerged that renewables can provide only formula: if you don't like coal, in some unusual quarters. Perhaps a small portion of the energy sup- build nuclear plants. the best-known scientist advocate ply - unlike nuclear plants, which 35 can supply baseload power, cold stored in the ice. In a smart ly be phased out. churning out electricity day in, day grid configuration, such devices out for extended periods. would mainly be remotely con- Consider the costs Actually, though, renewable trolled by the grid operator, allow- Another of the supposed energy resources are plentiful, but ing demand for air-conditioning benefits of nuclear energy is its not fully exploited. For instance, electricity to be tailored to its reputed low cost, but this is true the wind-energy potential of the availability. only of existing depreciated United States is about three times Furthermore, reserve capaci- plants, for which fuel and operat- greater than its current total elec- ty from natural gas could be ing costs are the main cost ele- tricity generation4,5. And the added as the share of renewables ments. For new plants, capital potential for solar energy is even on the grid reached relatively high costs dominate, and for those in greater. Land area in the US levels. Specifically, in the United the planning stage today, nuclear- southwest equivalent to one- States, natural-gas-fired power industry and Wall Street capital eighth the area of the state of plants, built on the incorrect cost estimates are in the range of Nevada could supply all present- assumption of perennially cheap US $5,000 to US $8,000 per kilo- day US electricity generation6. fuel, are now idle more than 80 watt. This implies total electricity About three per cent of the area per cent of the time8. In 2006 the costs of 10 to 17 cents per kilo- of Saudi Arabia could supply the US natural-gas-fired capacity was watt-hour, assuming a privately present South Asian population about 340,000 megawatts exclud- owned power plant with no subsi- with solar electricity at the ing cogeneration plants, enough dies other than insurance. European average consumption to supply about half of its peak A case in point is the reactor level of about 6,000 kilowatt- demand. This capacity could be being built in Finland by the hours per year. Less than one per put to excellent use to back up French company AREVA, the cent of the area of the Sahara renewables and would be suffi- first such plant to be built in could do the same for Europe cient to support a well-coordinat- Europe in 15 years. Its cost has and Africa. In many places, solar ed wind and solar system provid- risen from euro-dollar 3 billion to scarcely needs new land area, ing up to 40 to 50 per cent of euro-dollar 4.5 billion - or about because photovoltaics can be total US generation. US $4,200 per kilowatt - plus sub- built in modules on commercial And unlike nuclear power stantial penalties for delays. It has rooftops, parking lots and other plants, wind energy and solar run two years over schedule and is available urban surfaces7, right photovoltaics do not require now due to come online in 2011. where most of the electricity is cooling water, which could be a In comparison, wind energy, needed. crucial consideration for a reli- at 8 to 12 cents per kilowatt- Though intermittency of able power supply in the future. hour, is already more economical. supply has often been cited as an Also worth considering is that And though solar-photovoltaic important disadvantage of wind the technology has now been electricity is more expensive than and solar power, it can be over- commercialized for storing heat nuclear today, on average, the come by coordinating these ener- in molten salts at concentrating energy industry is still in the early gy sources in a distributed smart solar-thermal power plants. Plants stages of a shake-out between the grid that tailors the shape of with sufficient storage to generate various technologies. For demand closer to the availability electricity for 6 to 16 hours after instance, new large-scale solar- of supply. For instance, a new sundown are on the drawing photovoltaic plants ordered by device, now commercially avail- board. Widespread deployment the California utility Pacific Gas able, integrates an ice-making of this technology would reduce and Electric are expected to yield function into air-conditioners. Ice the need for natural-gas standby electricity costs that are about the is made at times when electricity support for solar and wind ener- same as wind-generated electricity supply is plentiful; air condition- gy. After about 15 or 20 years, or concentrating solar power ing is accomplished when the even the use of natural gas for plants9. weather is hot, mainly using the electricity generation can gradual- Unlike that of nuclear power 36 plants, the cost of solar-thermal be needed for the high-level each year. Today, just one such power is actually declining and is reprocessing waste that is piling plant - being built in Iran, where expected to fall below 10 cents up at La Hague in the form of the government claims it is for per kilowatt-hour within the next radioactive glass logs. peaceful purposes - is at the cen- decade10. Moreover, concentrating Roughly 400 million litres of tre of a major global diplomatic solar-thermal power plants cur- low-level liquid radioactive waste crisis. rently can compete with nuclear pour into the English Channel The notion that nuclear on cost. For instance, Arizona each year from the La Hague power is necessary to address Public Service has signed a con- reprocessing plant, and similar climate change does not reflect a tract with a Spanish company, discharges from any newly built close examination of the reali- Abengoa Solar, for a 280- facilities would be a concern. ties of the marketplace or rapid megawatt plant at about 14 cents Expansion of nuclear energy new developments in solar ener- per kilowatt-hour. The plant will would doubtless leave large areas gy, wind energy and energy stor- have six hours of heat storage of land covered with uranium- age technologies. Indeed, cur- and will be available to supply mill tailings threatening future rent cost trends indicate that electricity about 90 per cent of water supplies with contamina- new nuclear power plants are the time on hot summer days and tion by radium-226 and thorium- likely to be economically obso- evenings - the time of peak 230, which have half-lives of lete even before the first new demand5. 1,600 years and 75,000 years, ones come online in the United But the economic costs of respectively. States. Relying mainly on large expanding nuclear energy pale in Even a program designed to power plants in a centralized comparison to the potential envi- maintain the 16-per-cent share grid today is the electrical equiv- ronmental costs. Even those who of global electricity that nuclear alent of depending on punch support a new generation of has at present would need an cards and mainframe computers nuclear power plants are uncer- estimated one thousand reac- - clunky, costly, risky, inefficient tain how to deal with the waste tors and create considerable and unnecessary. The age of lap- that the industry has created in risks12. Multiplying the reactors tops and the Internet offers the the past. France, which supposed- and spent-fuel storage facilities opportunity of solving the cli- ly 'recycles' its nuclear waste, actu- could also raise the number of mate crisis by moving to a world ally uses only one per cent of it as targets for terrorist attacks, cre- of smart, secure, distributed, fuel, the plutonium part, separat- ating security risks. efficient and fully renewable ed in a reprocessing plant at La Then there are the prolifera- grids. For the sake of environ- Hague on the Normandy penin- tion problems of plutonium. mental health, global security and sula. Of the 95 per cent that is More than 80 tonnes of surplus the economy, we should seize the contaminated uranium, it has sent separated commercial plutoni- moment and get it done. some to Russia. Most of the rest um - about 10,000 bombs' worth is piling up in France and may - is stored at La Hague, second October 2 2008 have to be declared as waste in the only to the British stock of over absence of even more costly 100 tonnes at Sellafield. To emu- * Arjun Makhijani is president of breeder reactors and reprocessing late France and get three-fourths the Maryland-based Institute for plants to convert the uranium- of global electricity from nuclear Energy and Environment Research and 238 to plutonium. power, the world would have to author of the 2008 book Carbon-Free Even if we ignore the perils build more than two reactors of and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US of nuclear proliferation, global one gigawatt each per week over Energy Policy. efforts to commercialize the plu- the next 42 years. tonium economy have failed after Supplying them with fuel [Source: more than half a century and US would require about four new .] 37 Notes: Assessment of Potential Impact of 10. Energy Information Administration. 1. Schiermeier, Q., Tollefson, J., Concentrating Solar Power for Electricity Power Annual 2006. Scully, T., Witze, A. & Morton, O. Electricity Generation. Report no. DOE/EIA-0348, 34 Nature 454, 816-823 (2008). Report no. DOE/GO-12007-2400, (US Department of Energy, 2. Lovelock, J. The Independent 24 7 (US Department of Energy, Washington DC, 22 May 2004; Washington DC, February 2007); October 2007); http://www.independent.co.uk/ http://www.nrel.gov/csp/trough- http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/elec- opinion/commentators/james-love- net/pdfs/41233.pdf tricity/epa/epat3p2.html lock-nuclear-power-is-the-only- 7. US National Renewable Energy 11. Makhijani, A. Plutonium End green-solution-564446.html Laboratory. PV FAQs. Report no. Game: Managing Global Stocks of 3. Lovelock, J. The Sunday Times DOE/GO-102004-1835 (US Separated Weapons-Usable 18 February 2007; Department of Energy, Commercial and Surplus Nuclear http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol Washington DC, February 2004); Weapons Plutonium (Institute /news/uk/article1400073.ece http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar for Energy and Environmental 4. American Wind Energy /pdfs/35097.pdf Research, Takoma Park, Association. Wind Web Tutorial; 8. Energy Information Administration. Maryland, January 2001); http://www.awea.org/faq/ Electricity Power Annual 2006. http://www.ieer.org/reports/pu/inde wwt_potential.html Report no. DOE/EIA-0348, 16, 21 x.html 5. Musial, W. in Wind Powering (US Department of Energy, 12. Smith, B. Insurmountable Risks: America Annual State Summit Washington DC, 22 October The Dangers of Using Nuclear (Evergreen, 2007);http://www.eia.doe.gov/cnea Power to Combat Global Climate Colorado, 19 May 2005); f/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html; Change (IEER Press and RDR http://www.eere.energy.gov/ http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/ Books, 2006). windandhydro/windpoweringamer- electricity/epa/epaxlfile2_1.xls ica/pdfs/workshops/2005_sum- 9. Wald, M. The New York Times 14 mit/musial.pdf August 2008; 6. Solar Energy Technologies http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/ Program. Report to Congress on 15/business/15solar.html

III. Is Nuclear Power - Economically, Environmentally or Socially - A Viable Solution for our Energy Security?

Ullash Kumar R.K.*

T this time, when the sible conventional Uranium - the nuclear power plants is Atomic Energy 235, the only naturally occurring reported to be about 4,000 MW, ACommission, our national nuclear fission fuel resources on less than 3% of total reported leaders, experts etc are advocat- the planet (currently and future), installed capacity of 1,60,000 ing Nuclear (Fission) Power are estimated to last for only MW of electricity and much (NP) for energy security of the next 50 years, at the current level lower than the installed capacity country and to sustain an eco- of nuclear power production, of wind mills. Even assuming nomic growth rate of about 10 now revised to 100 years(IAEA that India, with signing of the % plus per annum, it is impor- release, June 3, 2008), how does "123 Agreement" with the USA, tant that the facts are made it provide global energy security? will achieve the projected target known without distortions and How can it be classified as of 60,000 MW Nuclear Power that legitimate arguments for renewable sources of energy or capacity by 2031-32, at huge and against nuclear power are replenishable? economic, environmental and heard and given due considera- If India has to depend on social costs, it will hardly be tion, before plunging for nuclear imported nuclear fuel (uranium) 7.5% of total projected capaci- power in a big way. and imported reactors depend- ty requirement of 8,00,000 MW ent on imported enriched urani- by then. Does Nuclear Power provide um, how is the country's energy Energy Security? security guaranteed? In India, Is Nuclear Power Cheap? If the entire economically acces- the present installed capacity of During the initial years of devel- 38 opment of nuclear energy, other toxic materials are also uranium ore is of very low grade almost half a century ago, the released into the biosphere at (concentration of around scientists held out a hope that different stages of the nuclear 0.067% or even lower), only power from nuclear energy fuel cycle. (For more informa- thing that will be left after 30 would be so cheap that we tion, please visit years of operation of mining would not be required to 'meter' http://www.ratical.org/radia- and processing a huge amount electricity. However, over the tion/ World Uranium Hearing / of radioactive wastes, spread all years it has become clear that GordonEdwards.html.) over the surrounding areas, con- there are heavy costs involved in From a personal point, I taminating air, soil, underground producing power from nuclear myself have seen what the and surface waters. energy. The capital costs in set- nuclear power plant at Who is accountable for all ting up a nuclear power plant are Kalpakkam has done to the these radioactive wastes, which very high, not to talk of the environment around that area will, in all probality, be left unat- costs of the waste disposal, and to the people. tended after the closure of the making nuclear power signifi- Many of the people in vil- mines and processing plants, and cantly more expensive lages nearby Kalpakkam like will continue to affect future Nuclear energy is not only a Meyurkkuppam are affected by generations for hundreds of high-risk technology in terms of different types of cancer. The thousands of years, which defy safety, but also with respect to fish and aqua life in the sea along human imagination? But politi- financial investment. It does not the Kalpakkam coast are also cal expediency makes even hon- stand a chance in a market econ- affected by radioactivity. Also est people with integrity over- omy without state subsidies. The scientists have found after the look the stark and naked truths. costs for decommissioning a 26/12 Tsunami that radiations The electricity is but the fleeting nuclear power plant are very from Kalpakkam have reached byproduct of nuclear energy. high and the costs of isolating far south. The actual product is forever radioactive byproducts/wastes Now if we have plants com- deadly radioactive wastes. from the biosphere and safe- ing in Koodankulam, the wester- guarding them for hundreds of ly winds will affect whole of Does Nuclear Energy thousands of years cannot even Kerala. The entire Kerala coast Combat Climate Change? be estimated. will be radioactive, with natural Since different stages of nuclear radioactivity from black sand fuel cycle produce large amounts Is Nuclear Power Clean and together with human made of radioactive and other toxic Safe? radioactivity coming from the wastes, it is certainly not envi- Throughout the entire plants. It will be the death knell ronmentally clean and safe nuclear fuel cycle from mining of the Kerala tourism industry. source of energy, as is being of uranium ore to spent fuel dis- People living from Kanyakumari claimed by some agencies. The posal, one has to worry about to Calicut will all be affected by nuclear energy can replace only the hazards due to radiation. radioactivity. It is not at all safe to some extent the electricity The miners, people living close to have nuclear power plants. producing technologies respon- to the mines, personnel and sci- sible for carbon emissions. entists handling radioactive Who is Accountable for However, carbon emissions material, workers in nuclear Hazardous Radioactive from mining, milling, trans- power plants and people living Wastes? portation and constructions close to these plants are all The more important issues like associated with nuclear power, exposed to serious levels of radi- the problems of radiation from would still continue to take ation, having serious and long the wastes generated by mining place. The idea that nuclear lasting adverse health hazards and processing of uranium ore, energy will help combat global like tumours, cancer, congenital to storage of nuclear wastes are warming is illusory, because for deformities etc. In addition being overlooked. As the Indian that to happen, a new nuclear 39 power plant must come up every ures such as, making use of nat- such thing as the so-called week. ural light and ventilation in peaceful use of nuclear energy. Extensive studies have buildings during day time, use of We owe it to ourselves and to shown that each dollar invested CFLs, LEDs for lighting, switch- those who will come after us to in using energy more efficiently ing over to "Star Rated" prod- put an end to the use of nuclear by the consumers, reduces near- ucts and energy efficient tech- technologies forever. May The ly six times more CO2, than a nologies, which in combination World Uranium Hearing in dollar invested in nuclear power. of renewable sources of energy, Salzburg contribute to that The nuclear power is neither the could be much cheaper and def- end"--Claus Biegert, Fed.Rep. of answer to modern energy prob- initely much cleaner and safer Germany, Journalist . lems nor a panacea for climate than building new nuclear power The above are a few change challenges and it doesn't plants. thoughts and opinions compiled add up economically, environ- It would be more prudent to from various sources and are mentally or socially. invest, just as much money and open for debate and correction, imagination in solar energy, as with a view to find solution for Must Energy Consumption has hitherto been put into the sustainable Energy Security Rise in Lockstep with nuclear power. Therefore reori- of our country. The Human Economic Growth? enting the planning and budget beings are at the centre of con- The experiences of other coun- priorities, for vibrant R&D to cerns for sustainable develop- tries show that it is not necessar- explore and develop the poten- ment and the human beings are ily so. It is nothing but suicidal tials of solar, wind and other entitled to a healthy and produc- trying to target for higher per renewable and non-conventional tive life. capita consumption of energy, energy sources. It makes more Acknowledgement: World instead of trying to improve sense than opting for FBR and Information Service on Energy efficiency and cutting down the Thorium based cycle. Publication, Nuclear Monitor, energy intensity, through attitu- Integrated Energy Policy dinal and policy changes and Conclusion Report of the Expert technological innovations. "We were promised unlimited Committee, Planning energy. The promise was a delu- Commission , GOI , etc. What are the Viable sion. What was given to us is a Alternatives for Sustainable restriction of our freedom as Energy Security? inhabitants of this planet: We * Ullash Kumar.R.K. is a freelance There is a huge potential of can no longer drink just any journalist, wildlifer and naturalist. energy savings, which is estimat- water and we may no longer step ed to be about 25 % of the ener- out onto any ground. For many gy consumption in India, people it has become dangerous through energy efficiency meas- to breathe deeply. There is no

IV. Support International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): Time to Ban the Bomb and the Reactor

Alice Slater* ITH the world's hopes ing pledges by Presidents Obama Agency (IRENA) could actually newly raised by inspiring and Medvedev, to work for "a enable us to realistically fulfill the Wstatements from promi- nuclear free world", the recent Non-Proliferation Treaty's mis- nent leaders urging the elimina- establishment of the sion for nuclear disarmament. In tion of nuclear weapons, includ- International Renewable Energy January, Germany, together with 40 Denmark and Spain, launched every community where nuclear only the living, but unborn gener- IRENA in Bonn with 75 nations reactors spew their lethal poisons ations to come-our very genetic who signed its founding statute1. into the air, water and soil2. Since heritage. The United States, in Since IRENA is the Greek word we last spoke to you, new 2009,6 cancelled 30 year-old plans for peace, this auspicious initiative German studies show a 60% to bury nuclear waste at Yucca is particularly well-named as the increase in solid cancers and a Mountain Nevada because it can- Agency is designed to spread the 117% increase in leukemia among not safely contain the long-lived fruits of clean, safe sustainable young children living near poisons that the nuclear industry energy, enabling the planet to German nuclear facilities between lobbied to bury there for eons. avoid nuclear proliferation and 1980 and 2003.3 After more than 60 years of igno- catastrophic climate change and Indigenous leaders from rantly and mindlessly amassing assist developing countries to around the planet have stood here huge quantities of toxic radioac- access the abundant free energy and told you about the awful hor- tive poisons, heedless of the con- resources provided by our rors wreaked on their communi- sequences to earth's biosphere, Mother Earth. ties from uranium mining. We yet another Commission is to be IRENA precludes reliance on reminded you of the creation appointed to yet again "study the fossil, nuclear and inefficient tra- story of the Rainbow Serpent, issue". We don't have a clue! ditional biomass energy. With an asleep in the earth, guarding over Rational behavior would demand International Atomic Energy those elemental powers which lie we should stop making any more Agency, promoting dangerous outside of humankind's control nuclear waste until, and if ever, and toxic nuclear power technolo- and how any attempt to seize we can figure it out!! gy, and an International Energy those underworld elements will In France, held up as the Agency, founded during the disturb the sleep of the serpent, exemplar of a country enjoying 1970s oil crisis to manage the fos- provoking its vengeance: a terri- the "benefits" of nuclear power, sil fuel supply, IRENA's launch ble deluge of destruction and its nationally owned Areva, the could not have been timelier as death. 4 At the World Uranium largest nuclear corporation in the the world wrestles with the twin Hearing, the world was warned world, is plunged into debt. Its crises of nuclear proliferation and that: reprocessing center at La Hague global warming. We urge every The Rainbow Serpent has been has produced massive discharges nation to join IRENA by signing wakened. Men turned into shadows, of radiation into the English its founding statute and to forego cancer, women giving birth to jellyfish Channel and has over nine thou- or phase out deadly nuclear tech- babies, leukemia - since the bombing of sand containers of radioactive nology, whether for war or for Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August wastes with no safe place to go. peace. 1945, since the Bravo test in the Bikini In Japan, the costs from the Throughout the years of this Islands, and since the Chernobyl catas- earthquake last year that crippled NPT process, we NGOs have trophe in April of 1986, we know that seven reactors at Kashwazaki are warned states parties that the the Rainbow Serpent doesn't differenti- still rising.7 In the UK, the spread of nuclear energy spells ate between uranium's military and Sellafield nuclear recycling plant is disaster for efforts to control the peaceful uses. Death is everywhere it mired in debt and costly break- proliferation of nuclear weapons touches. But what we perhaps don't real- downs. 8 or to mitigate the impacts of cli- ize is that the destructive properties of We have explained to you mate change, threatening the very uranium are unleashed the moment it's how the nuclear industry pro- future of humanity's existence. mined from the ground. 5 motes false information about Distinguished physicians at these We have told you there is no nuclear power's ability to mitigate meetings have described for you known solution to the storage of the effects of catastrophic climate the awful physical effects of car- nuclear waste which lasts for hun- disasters. Millions of dollars are cinogenic pollution from nuclear dreds of thousands of years, spent in marketing campaigns to power with increased cancer, spewing its silent poisons into our convince the public that nuclear leukemia, and birth defects in air, earth and soil, injuring not power will prevent global warm- 41 ing.9 But the evidence is incontro- were now middle aged and rebuffed and are well advised to vertible that nuclear power is the unwilling to let go of their posi- put their energy investments into slowest and costliest way to tions of power. much more reliable renewable reduce CO2 emissions. The nuclear renaissance was sources Financing nuclear power diverts to be a passing on of the inheri- Nevertheless, proposals to try scarce resources from invest- tance to the next generation but to control civilian nuclear fuel ments in renewable energy and real world constraints are making production have sparked new energy efficiency. Enormous this generation of new reactors interest in acquiring nuclear tech- sums spent for nuclear power even more problematic than the nology by countries that never would worsen the effects of glob- last and the nuclear baton is not wanted such technology before. al warming by buying less carbon- likely to pass out of the existing A top-down, hierarchical, central- free energy per dollar, compared "club". The enormous cost and ly controlled nuclear apartheid to investing those sums in sun, safety problems are still here. In fuel cycle is being planned, creat- wind or efficiency.10 Nor is the industrialized nations, the ing a whole new class of nuclear nuclear power carbon free.11 It nuclear industry has great difficul- "have nots" who can't be trusted uses fossil fuels for the mining, ty in recruiting nuclear engi- not to turn their "peaceful" milling and processing of urani- neers.14 Due to global shortages in nuclear reactors into bomb facto- um, as well as for reactor decom- nuclear reactor components it's ries. It's just so 20th century! These missioning and waste disposition not possible for the world nuclear discriminatory proposals are and depends on a grid usually industry to build more that 10 doomed to fail. With the growing powered by coal. It is unreliable in reactors a year at most for the chorus of promising new calls for extreme weather conditions and next decade.15 Because all of the a nuclear free world, there is no needs back up power to prevent operating reactors will have to be need for any nation to have a vir- meltdown. In the summer of retired in that time, 1070 reactors tual bomb in the basement. Far 2004, France had to shut down a would have to be built in 42 years, better to leap frog over this anti- number of reactors during an or about 25 reactors per year, in quated, poisonous 20th century extreme heat wave.12 order for nuclear technology to technology and expend your We have spoken to you of the lower carbon emissions of even financial and intellectual treasure folly of lusting for mastery of one billion tons per year. on clean, safe renewable energy, nuclear technology as a matter of In a "wedge" model which averting the twin catastrophes of "national pride". This is holdover assumes that nuclear power could nuclear proliferation and radical thinking from the 1960s when replace a portion of the energy climate change, while adding your nuclear power developed in used by coal fired plants, the nation's voice to the growing industrialized nations. Many sci- effort expended would be insuffi- numbers of world leaders entists in developing countries cient to have even the smallest demanding that negotiations for were trained in nuclear technolo- impact on climate change.16 And nuclear weapons abolition move gy as part of the Atoms for Peace because the limited supply of forward. programs in the US, Russia and production capacity to produce Critical energy investment Europe during the late 1950s and new reactors creates a seller's choices must be made now if we in the 1960s.13 Nuclear power market, the industry is much are to prevent the looming cli- growth stalled in the industrial- more likely to sell to countries mate calamity. Every thirty min- ized countries by the late 1980s, with nuclear experience. This is utes, enough of the sun's energy especially after the tragedies of due to the risks associated with reaches the earth's surface to Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, inordinately long lead times for meet global energy demand for and as its economic burdens new construction, security and an entire year. Wind has the became clear. But by then the for- liability issues, and already exist- potential to satisfy the world's mer young scientists were ing infrastructure. Thus develop- electricity needs 40 times over entrenched in running the indus- ing countries or countries with no and could meet all global energy try and like their nuclear reactors nuclear industry will probably be demand five times over. The 42 geothermal energy stored in the all men are "endowed by their (Based on the speech delivered at top six miles of the earth's crust Creator with certain unalienable NPT PrepCom as part of NGO pre- contains an estimated 50,000 rights …to life, liberty, and the sentations to the delegates United times the energy of the world's pursuit of happiness." Where Nations, NY, May 5, 2009.) known oil and gas resources. does "peaceful nuclear technolo- Global wave power, tidal and gy" fit in this picture?!? Just as the * Alice Slater is the New York river power are vast untapped signing of the Comprehensive Director of the Nuclear Age Peace stores of clean energy.17 IRENA Test Ban abrogated the right to Foundation and a founder of is dedicated to supporting nations peaceful nuclear explosions in Abolition 2000. to develop and share the research Article V of the NPT, we urge and technology that will enable us you to adopt a protocol to the Notes: to harness that abundant, free NPT mandating participation in 1. www.irena.org 2. See generally, "Reasonable energy to secure the future of our the newly launched International Doubt, New Scientist, apr. 26, planet. Renewable Energy Agency 2008, p.18 While the NPT guarantees to (IRENA) which would supersede 3. Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants, States which agree to abide by its the Article IV right to "peaceful" International Journal of Cancer, terms an inalienable right to so- nuclear technology. vol.122, p.721; European Journal called peaceful nuclear technolo- Civil Society's Model Nuclear of Cancer, vol.44.p.275 4. http://archive.greenpeace.org/ gy, it is highly questionable Weapons Convention, now an comms/no.nukes/minfabmi.html whether such a right can ever be official UN document, includes 5. http://www.ratical.org/radiation/ appropriately conferred on a an Optional Protocol Concerning WorldUraniumHearing/ State. Inalienable rights are distin- Energy Assistance which would 6. France's nuke power poster child has a money melt-down, Harvey guished from legal rights estab- phase out nuclear power and pro- Wasserman, Free Press, March lished by a State as moral or natu- vide funding and assist nations to 19, 2009, ral rights, inherent in the very shift to non-nuclear sustainable http://www.freepress.org/columns/ 19 display/7/2009/1732 essence of an individual. The energy sources. Universal enroll- 7. ibid concept first appeared in Islamic ment in IRENA, coupled with a 8. A One Billion Pound Nuclear White law and jurisprudence which moratorium on new reactors and Elephant, Michael Savage, denied a ruler "the right to take fuel production, while phasing http://www.independent.co.uk/ environment/green-living/a- away from his subjects certain out nuclear power by relying on 1631bn-nuclear-white-elephant- rights which inhere in his or her safe, renewable energy, must 1664427.ht person as a human being" and become an integral part of the 9. Moore Spin: Or, How Reporters Learned to Stop Worrying and "become rights by reason of the good faith negotiations required Love Nuclear Front Groups fact that they are given to a sub- to eliminate nuclear weapons. We http://www.prwatch.org/node/5833 ject by a law and from a source urge all nations to enroll and par- 10. Nuclear Power: Climate Fix or Folly?, Amory Lovins, Imran which no ruler can question or ticipate with IRENA. Since Sheikh, Alex Markovich, alter". John Locke, the enlight- IRENA was launched in January http://www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/E enment philosopher who coined with 75 countries, three new nergy/E0901_NuclPwrClimFixFoll the phrase "inalienable rights", countries, Belarus, India and y1i09.pdf 11. Nuclear Power: The Energy 20 was thought to be influenced in Guinea have signed its Statute. Balance, John Willem Storm van his thinking by his exposure to NGOs will campaign for 100% Leuwen, 2008 http://www.storm- Arabic law.18 universal participation in IRENA smith.nl/ 12. European Heat Wave Shows During the Age of by the 2010 Review Conference. Limits of Nuclear Energy, Julio Enlightenment natural law theory If your country has not yet Godoy, challenged the divine right of joined, please urge your leaders to http://www.commondreams.org/ headlines06/0728-06.htm kings. The United States' do so. It's time to give peace a 13. For 50 Years, 'Atoms for Peace' Declaration of Independence chance! has Spawned Nuclear Fears , spoke of "self-evident truth" that James Sterngold 43

14. http://www.commondreams. mony1.pdf view_doc.asp?symbol=A%2F org/headlines03/1209-08.htm 17. See generally, A Sustainable 62%2F650&Submit=Search& http://www.ne.doe.gov/neac/neac Energy Future is Possible Now, Lang=E , p. 72 PDFs/finalblue.pdf http://www.abolition2000.org/a200 20. http://www.irena.org/downloads 15. http://www.carnegieendowment. 0-files/sustainable-now.pdf , 2006 /Founconf/Signatory_States_ org/publications/index.cfm?fa= 18. Judge Weeramantry, Christopher 20090126.pdf view&id=22748&prog=zgp&proj= G (1997) Justice Without Frontiers, znpp , chap.3, p. 85 Brill Publishers, pp.8, 132, 134, 16. http://www.carnegieendowment. 139-40. org/files/3-12-08_squassoni_testi- 19. http://www.un.org/ga/search/

V. Stories of Grassroots Struggle from Andhra: Campaign against Uranium Projects in Nalgonda

Saraswati Kavula*

T has been nearly six years the Movement Against Uranium Jadugoda, on a conducted tour to since the Uranium Corporation Projects(MAUP), a conglomerate see the development - like roads, Iof India Limited (UCIL) pro- of more than 20 organizations, school, the hospital, big offices posed uranium mining and pro- NGOs and individuals. Till date, etc without allowing them any cessing projects in Nalgonda dis- it has remained a platform open interaction with the affected vil- trict. In July 2003, an advertise- to everyone who wished to asso- lagers. UCIL also distributed ment in The Hindu brought this ciate with the issue. pamphlets (anonymously) saying issue to the attention of Dr. K. The first step was to create that we were all foreign funded Satyalakshmi, who had just a awareness and within a week, agents who did not wish India to while before seen the film, many printed handouts were pre- "develop". Naturally people got "Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda", pared to educate the public about suspicious. about the impacts of uranium the impending dangers of the However, after much cam- mining in Jadugoda, Jharkhand. project which was to come within paigning like going to various vil- The advertisement was about the one kilometre distance of the lages, colleges and schools, in Environmental Public Hearing Nagarjunasagar Reservoir. While Nalgonda and Hyderabad, there about proposed uranium mining we had made many handouts, the was a large turn out at the public and processing projects in film "Buddha Weeps in hearings. It was the only instance Nalgonda, to be held on August Jadugoda" played a major role. that on the same day, for the same 19, 2003, seeking public opinion Within the next one week, the cause, two public hearings had to regarding the proposed projects. film was dubbed into Telugu and be held. UCIL had decided to A quick meeting held in we then took it to the villages hold the public hearing in Thinksoft office, convened by which fell within the vicinity of Peddagattu. But the village was Capt.J.Rama Rao brought togeth- the proposed project sites. very much inaccessible and also er many of us, who were until Needless to say, there was scepti- the villagers were hostile towards then strangers to each other, but cism, but also a lot of outcry those who were opposing the later on became co-activists con- from the public, especially project, since their sarpanch and tinuing until date. During that women. The task of winning other leaders who controlled the meeting after much explanation public opinion was not easy. In people's opinion were bribed. about the impacts of uranium some villages where the local However, Rajitha, a lawyer from mining by Dr. K Babu Rao fol- leaders were bribed, people's Nalgonda and member of lowed by brainstorming for opinion was influenced against us. MAUP, filed a petition in the strategies, we decided to cam- Especially since UCIL had taken High Court saying that this partic- paign on this issue and formed some of the local leaders to ular site was inaccessible and 44 since the project was to affect the opposition from the public. plea in February 2009. Again entire district, the public hearing Since the processing plant at MAUP filed a writ petition in had to be held at the Mandal Dugyal and Mallapur was close to Delhi High Court, challenging the Headquarters, Pedda Adiserla the Akkkampally Balancing order of NEAA and the outcome Pally. The UCIL said since they Reservoir which supplied water is awaited. As of now, there is no had already made arrangements at from Nagarjunasagar to the twin activity with regards to this proj- Peddagattu they would not be cities and many hundred villages ect. UCIL is trying to continue its able to shift the venue, to which along the route, the Hyderabad exploration activities, but the vil- the Court gave a directive that if Metropolitan Water Supply Board lagers of Peddagattu and they prefer to hold the Public also raised its objections to the Lambapur especially women, are hearing at Peddagattu, it is up to project. Thus, in 2005, the gov- sending them packing. One very them, but they must hold also a ernment proposed to shift the positive outcome of this cam- public hearing at PA Pally. It was processing plant to Seripally paign was that the local villagers thus, that on the 19th August, Village in Devarakonda Mandal like the ones in Peddagattu who 2003, at 10.30 am there was a of Nalgonda District, saying that were opposed to us in the begin- public hearing at Peddagattu vil- the processing plant near ning, realized that we do have lage and later in the afternoon Akkampally Balancing Reservoir their welfare in mind, and today, one more public hearing was held (AKBR) will affect the water keep a regular contact with us, at PA Pally. At Peddagattu public reservoir. But they allowed the updating us about UCIL's activi- hearing by the time we reached mining at Peddagattu and ties. around 10.30 am, a fight broke Lambapur, where the mine sites And local people like out and the villagers of were just 1-2 kms away from Venepally Panduranga Rao who is Lambapur who were opposed to Nagarjunasagar Reservoir saying an ex-sarpanch of Allagadapa vil- the project, (which is another that since mining is site specific lage helped in keeping the pres- mine site) were beaten up by the they cannot shift the venue! sure on UCIL, by organizing a people of Peddagattu, and the This time the villagers of five day padayatra in January Collector and the administration Seripally, told UCIL that they will 2006. Many people came from all behaved like inactive onlookers. not even allow them to hold the over India and some student As expected, none of us, who Public Hearing. Thus, UCIL had activists from abroad too partici- were opposed to the project, were to hold its public hearing in an pated in this padayatra. The allowed to speak by the Collector. open land outside the village. Padayatra which started with a It was the UCIL's show all the Once again, there was an over- few dozens of us, continued over way. Even senior scientists like whelming opposition at the pub- 110 kms, culminating in large Surendra Gadekar were not lic hearing. Women from the public meetings all along the allowed to speak. But at the Lambada community walked all route and forced all political par- Public hearing in PA Pally, the sit- the way to the Public Hearing car- ties including the local Congress uation was totally reversed. A rying placards saying, "We don't leaders to join in and oppose the large group of people, many of want Uranium Projects". Out of projects. Though Dr. YS them students and villagers the 60 people who spoke at the Rajasekhar Reddy, who had turned up from all over Nalgonda public hearing 57 opposed the opposed the projects while he district. In addition to the vil- projects. was in opposition, did a U-turn lagers of Lambapur, a lot of After the public hearing, and now claimed that uranium media from the city, environmen- however, the government gave mining was harmless and good tal activists from across the coun- permission to the projects and for the development of the state, try, senior journalists like Praful MAUP had filed a petition with resulting in the projects getting a Bidwai also attended to voice the National Environmental cakewalk approval in Kadapa their opinions. Thus, the UCIL Appellate Authority (NEAA). District, where people were not could not play its games in PA The NEAA after sitting on the allowed to voice their opinion. Pally and there was a thundering issue for two years rejected our The projects in Kadapa started in 45 November 2007, since the local are dependent on the water from lage in March 2009, organized by people could not muster enough Nagarjunasagar. The MAUP with the MMP (Mines, Minerals and courage to stand up against an help from the Confederation of Peoples), helped in the local vil- autocratic leader like Dr. Y.S. Voluntary Associations (COVA) lagers understanding the work- Reddy. hosted the annual CNDP meet- ings of the Mining companies However, so far, the people ing at Osmania University, across the globe. As of now, the of Nalgonda have been able to Hyderabad in 2006. Activists of UCIL is held at bay due to the prevent UCIL from setting foot the Jharkhandi Organisation people's pressure. And the people in the district. The media, espe- Against Radiation (JOAR) and of Nalgonda district also have the cially the vernacular print media Magsaysay Award winner distinction of having fought off a took up the issue with great zeal Sandeep Pandey visited the vil- Nuclear Power Plant in 1988. and made the issue one of the lages in 2007 and pledged their most talked about issues in the support for the cause. Another * Saraswati Kavula is a filmmaker, state. And activists of the MAUP yatra focusing on the environ- environmentalist and an activist of the like Sajaya, Chenna Basavaiah, mental issues of Telengana was Movement Against Uranium Projects Ambika, P. Kishan Rao kept the conducted by V. Pandu Ranga (MAUP), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. issue alive conducting regular Rao, in July2008, which once (MAUP is a constituent organisation public awareness activities in again brought the issue into focus. of the CNDP.) other districts like Khammam, A visit by mining affected women Krishna, Guntur districts, which from across Asia to Seripally vil-

VI. Proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Haripur: Chronology of Resistance

Santanu Chacraverti*

Background veyed Mankaraiput-Haripur ear- leading to eviction of some For some time there had been lier that year under cover of 10,000 local fishers, farmers and talk of setting up nuclear reac- undertaking routine geological artisans etc. and exposing an tors in West Bengal. testing and had selected innumerable number of resi- It was clear by July 2006 that Mankaraiput as the site for set- dents to the hazards of low level the West Bengal government ting up nuclear reactors. radiation and possible nuclear was supporting the Nuclear As per media reports in accident. Power Corporation of India November 2006, six nuclear The decision was widely per- Limited (NPCIL) in its plans to installations of about 1500 MW ceived as a disaster, and not only set up a cluster of nuclear power each had been planned - involv- by the people facing the threat installations in West Bengal. It ing a projected expenditure of of eviction. The Haripur-Junput became clear by September 2006 Rs. 60,000 crores. It was said area is economically important that the proposed site was that the project would start off on two counts. It is an exceed- Mankaraiput, a coastal village in with 2 reactors and four others ingly important fishing site, the Haripur Mauza, Contai sub- would come up in phases. It was where thousands of fishers division, in Purba Medinipur clear that this nuclear endeavour engage in coastal fishing. Also, District and was not more than 5 would involve capturing of a the soil is astonishingly fertile Kms from Junput, the oldest considerable amount of very and produces a large array of and most renowned marine fish thickly populated coastal land, in vegetables. Moreover, the Contai landing site of West Bengal. It the villages Mankaraiput, subdivision is densely populated emerged that an NPCIL expert Haripur, Baguran Jalpai and and any nuclear accident was team had already visited and sur- other villages in the vicinity, bound to severely endanger the 46 life and health of hundreds of numbers. The NPCIL high from Tamluk, Mr. Lakshman thousands of people. power team was compelled Seth, arrive at the Recreation to retire and the Club grounds to hold a The Calendar of resistance Government beat a retreat meeting in favour of the
From 7-12 November 2006 for the moment. The Chief Nuclear Power Plant. The the National Fishworkers' Minister however declared meeting was attended by less Forum had organised agita- his resolve to carry on the than a thousand people but it tions all throughout the project, and in this he was faced tremendous agitation Indian coast on National and seconded by the NPCIL from eight to ten thousand local issues. In Haripur and chairman. local residents, led by the the adjoining fish landing
On 21 November, 2006, local MLA. sites starting from Vishwa Matsyajibi Dibas
28 December - Mahasweta Dadanpatrabar and including (World Fishworkers Day), Debi visited Haripur and the fish landing sites / vil- about ten thousand fish- delivered an address against lages at Saula, Baguran Jalpai, workers marched through the proposed nuclear power Majilapur, Aladarput, Junput Contai to the city Town Hall plant. etc. - the agitation concen- to attend the Peoples'
1 January, 2007 - Mashal trated on the issue of pro- Convention against the pro- Michil (Torch Procession) of posed Nuclear power plant. posed nuclear power plant. ten thousand people in the
As a part of the above-men-
On 28 November there was evening, led by the local tioned agitation, thousands a mammoth rally of about MLA of fishworkers marched fifteen thousand people at
5 January, 2007 - People's through Contai and blockad- the Junput Bus Stand. The Convention at Municipality ed all major crossings result- rally and meeting were Grounds Dr. Meher Engineer ing in stoppage of all traffic attended by a number of (Ex-Director, Bose Institute), for two hours. local organisations and anti- Sujato Bhadra (APDR),
When a high power team of nuclear activists from Pradip Datta (Anti-Nuclear experts from NPCIL arrived Kolkata and elsewhere. It Activist), Jaya Mitra (literat- on 17th November 2006, was in this meeting that teur) and other intellectuals accompanied by battalions Haripur Paramanu Vidyut and activists attended and of armed police, the local Prakalpa Pratirodh Andolan spoke against Nuclear Power. residents blockaded the road (Movement against Nuclear
28 December 2006 to 5 and prevented them from Power Project at Haripur) January 2007 - Book Stall entering the area. was formed. with Poster Exhibition by
On18 November 2006 - i.e.
8 December - Padayatra Haripur Paramanu Vidyut the next day - the team (Procession) of some twenty Prakalpa Pratirodh Andolan attempted to enter Haripur thousand people from (HPVPPA) at Contai Book again. Thousands of men, Junput to Contai. Fair. women and children from
17 December - Another
Paush Mela in January (at villages around the proposed People's Convention at Town Junput) - Book Stall, Digital site blockaded all entry Hall where a large team of Film shows etc. points and the Central team, citizens from Kolkata, con-
14 February 2007 - scientists along with the police, once sisting of intellectuals and and anti-nuclear activists again beat a retreat. It needs activists, as well as the local from different parts of India to be mentioned that not MLA, participated. visit Kolkata to attend a day- only fishworkers but local
19 December - the transport long deliberation against peasants and artisans also minister Subhas Chakraborty nuclear power. The delibera- joined the resistance in large and the local CPI(M) leader tion ends with a resounding 47 declaration against the pro- procession in Baguran Jalpai another hub of resistance. posed nuclear plant at led by Enamul Hossain, fish-
Given the situation the peo- Haripur. workers' leader from Junput, ple of Haripur and adjoining
The next day, on 15 and Birndranath Shyamal villages gradually came to February 2006, a large team and Rashid Ali, fishworkers' feel that the nuclear plant of anti-nuclear activists leaders from Baguran Jalpai. was no longer a near possi- from different states go on a
Throughout 2007, the bility. Therefore for the last visit to Haripur. They reach HPVPPA continued its one year or so the HPVPPA Contai and hold a meeting preparations and vigil. The has seen little activity. there, which was attended by locality bubbled with events
However, the basic idea of Sisir Adhikary, the chairman and activities. Discussions, resistance is still in place and of the Contai municipality. debates, talks and video it appears that the movement Thereafter they go on to shows were held all over the would once again gather Haripur, where they address locality, and the molecular momentum if the authorities a massive gathering on the processes of resistance con- once again decide to go for- Haripur beach. The meeting tinued to gather momentum. ward with their nuclear plans. continued late into the
However 2007 was also the evening and a large crowd year of the Nandigram * Santanu Chacraverti is a leading remained till the end. resistance and by 2008, par- activist of Society for Direct
17 November - Haripur to ticularly after the resounding Initiative for Social and Health Junput Torch Procession led left defeat in the Panchayat Action (DISHA), Kolkata. by the fishworkers' leaders elections of Purba Ratna Majhi and Lakshmi Medinipur, it appeared that Paunda. the government no longer
18 November - Candlelight had the gumption to take on

VII. Jadugoda Tribals Live under the Shadow of Nuclear Terror

Tarun Kanti Bose*

N the basis of available of the household in the villages dence suggests that the information today, around have at least one person in regu- mineworkers are suffering an O7000 people work at the lar employment with the UCIL. epidemic of lung cancer, skin Jadugoda mining complex. In addition Sadans, dalits and disease and other chronic ail- Hundred percent of the con- other backward castes work in ments. Nobody knows how tract workers are tribal1. Ninety the UCIL mills and mines. many of have died. five percent of them are under- Most of them work dressed Guria born crippled "No ground miners. In the top man- in cotton uniforms and leather standards have been met in the agement or first grade posts of gloves are directly exposed to tailing ponds construction and UCIL no tribal people are high levels of radon gas, dust no measures instituted to con- employed. A study conducted by and highest radiation. Once a trol the radon emissions from it. Anumukti, (Liberation from the week, these workers carry their As a result, they continually pose Atom) a journal started in 1987) uniforms home to be hand a constant threat to Dungridih, is the leading anti-nuclear jour- washed by their wives and chil- Chatijkocha, Telaitand, nal in India, in its January 2004 dren, exposing the entire family. Mecchua, Matigora and other issue (Volume 13, Number 1), In the absence of any inde- surrounding villages within 10- points out that as high as 55.3% pendent study, anecdotal evi- 15 Kms. Even Jamshedpur, just 48 20 kms is not free from it. It is the last 15 years. They took my Bhatin, Rohimbeda, on the dried up tailing ponds blood, stool, urine and even Chatijkocha, Surda, Narua, that Dr. Arjun Soren, who is the semen samples but the result Dumridih, Dungridih, first doctor from Jaduguda's was never shown to me. They Sosoghutu, Sitadanga and Santhal adivasi community, once kept telling me I have TB, "said Bhusabani. People in these and played football as a child Mangal Majhi of Matigora vil- other villages suffer from physi- unaware of the dangers. Today, lage Further, he said, "No one cal deformities and a variety of he is fighting cancer undergoing told us that we became sick by illnesses such as lung cancer, treatment in Mumbai for 'acute drinking uranium - contaminat- skin disease and other chronic myeloid leukaemia' His family ed water. We have witnessed of ailments. However, UCIL claims cannot afford a possible life sav- it on plants and animal here. that it has not seen any effects of ing bone-marrow transplant. There used to be 'kendu' fruits radiation on its workforce; During his medical studies he grown in the vicinity of UCIL notwithstanding the record of continued to visit Bhatin and the tailing ponds, have death toll- 17 workers died in throughout his medical studies, turned seedless. The fish in the 1994, 14 in 1995, 19 in 1996 and assuring us and other Santhals stream have developed all kinds 21 in 1997. Mangal Majhi from that he would return to work of diseases and started dying. village Matigora, just half kilo- with us," said Ghanshyam Biruli, Cows and goats have also died. metre from Jadugoda mines President, Jharkhandis' The buffaloes have shortened remembers how all this began- Organisation Against Radiation tail. Still, I am a sick person and "Officials from Delhi used to (JOAR) "While working in ura- one-fourth of my body is use- come to Santhali villages to give nium mines I handled the ore less, even after taking medicines training and employment. We during drilling operation. Mostly for 15 years." Radiation affected adivasis were not interested. I was in survey work. The geolo- Father and Son This is in contra- Persistent in their effort, the gist, whom I accompanied, used vention of the Guidelines of the Englishmen continued to come to tell us at what depth the ura- International Committee of to our houses to take us to work nium would be available after Radiological Protection (ICRP). drop us back home in the inspection. All this affected my M M Bhagat, former Working evening. Some of us went to health and I developed gastric President, UCIL Kamgar Union, Rajasthan and other parts of the trouble, as we could never take said, "Gloves and masks are not country with the same company. our meals in time. The doctors provided to staff that pack the The non-tribals working with us kept on telling me that I had yellow cakes in drums. Nothing became big shots in the compa- Tuberculosis (TB). Then I con- special is being done for urani- ny but our adivasis status sulted a private doctor in um miners who are exposed to remained the same. After work- Jamshedpur who told me that I grave dangers. In addition, their ing in different parts of the did not have TB. But by then the families are exposed to slow poi- country I was sent back to UCIL doctors had already soning on account of UCIL's Jadugoda where I worked for administered 90 injections and unsafe waste management prac- UCIL. In the beginning we did gave some medicine, as a conse- tices." not know what was being mined quence of which my eyes and Jadugoda uranium mining and our Santhal community was ears have been damaged. I got has adversely affected more than never informed about it. When my eyes treated by Dr. Mustafa 30,000 people in 15 villages we joined the company, we had of Bistupur, I now feel as if within the 5km radius of the to take an oath of secrecy". The some insect is moving in my ear. mining complex. These villages Majhi continued, "These mines I still feel sick because of drink- are in the radiation zone. the government built forcibly ing uranium-contaminated Prominent among them are over our 'Jaher' (holy places). We water; I am taking medicines for Telaitand, Matigora, Mechhua, did not like this. We did not want 49 them to defile our sacred places. four kms and Narwapahar the radiological hazard, uranium We people were not considered twelve kms west of Jadugoda. ores commonly contain varying human being. There was no one These trucks are sometimes concentrations of zinc, lead, to protect us." partly covered by tarpaulins and manganese, cadmium and "At that point in time", the occasionally carry workers arsenic. None of these other ele- Majhi said, "Jadugoda was a perched on top of the ore load. ments are removed during pro- grove of the castor oil tree. That These dusty roads run through cessing; all remain in the tailings what the term means. It was villages littered with loose rock along with residues of the dense forest situated on the fallen from these overloaded process chemicals used to indigenous Santhal and Ho trib- trucks. Seeing children and live- extract the uranium. al lands in the Singhbhum East stock picking through piles of What is left are eighty five district of Jharkhand. Now it is uranium ore2 is enough to give percent other radioactive prod- man-made hell." All of the ura- the casual visitor a glimpse of ucts. These are made into slurry nium for India's ten Pressurised safety standards being observed. and pumped into 'tailing' ponds. Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) This ore is crushed to a fine The waste, known as tailings, is comes from single uranium min- powder in the Jadugoda mill and treated with lime to neutralise ing and processing plant at is then chemically treated (an the acidity, and then separated Jaduguda, started by Uranium acid leach process) to extract the into coarse and fine particles. Corporation of India Limited uranium. Jadugoda produces The coarse tailings, making up (UCIL) in 1967. around 200 tonnes of uranium about 50% of the volume of the Tailing Pond It is fed on the in the form of yellow cake (ura- waste, are backfilled into the one hand by three underground nium concentrate) a year. It has a mine cavities. The remaining uranium mines at Jadugoda, processing capacity of around fine tailings are mixed with water Narwapahar and Bhatin all with- 1000 tonnes of ore per day. By and pumped through a pipeline in a 5 km radius, and on the rough calculation, this means over the rooftops of Jadugoda other hand by the by-product that UCIL is mining, crushing village into the tailings dam, from three nearby copper mines and then dumping around their final resting place. There uranium recovery plants at 330,000 - 360,000 tonnes of are now three large tailing ponds Rakha, Surda and Musabani. rock every year. The 'yellow at Jadugoda, impounding tens of This enterprise brings to the sur- cake' manufactured at plant is millions of tonnes of radioac- face, from a depth of 1600-2000 transported to the Nuclear Fuel tive waste and covering more feet, a low-grade ore (0.06%), Complex (NFC) in Hyderabad, than 100 acres. They are unlined not worth recovering in other where they used to fabricate fuel and uncovered; liquids, gases countries. rods. and fine dust particles are rapid- Outside Jharkhand UCIL Uranium is not the only ly cycled into the environment. controls Domiasiat mill and radioactive element found in the During the dry season, ponds mine project (West Khasi Hills ore. There are a dozen or so oth- run dry, the wind picks up the district, Meghalaya); Lambapur- ers known as uranium decay loose tailings and blows them Peddagattu project (Nalgonda products; among them, thorium- around; in the monsoon rains, district, Andhra Pradesh). It 230, radium-226, and radon-222. the dams overflow into the river. plans to start new open cast Each of these presents a unique People have also used the mining at Turamdih and hazard to people and other liv- ponds to graze livestock and Bhanduhurung, just 20 kms ing creatures coming into con- play soccer. They regularly cross from Jaduguda. Uranium ore is tact with them. These wastes are them on their way from one brought to the Jaduguda mill in radioactive for around 250,000 place to another. The ponds are open trucks along narrow roads years; in human terms this might constructed on traditional routes linking the mines from Bhatin as well be forever. In addition to to the forest and beyond, con- 50 necting people with their rela- the mining site, " said Shamit "At that time we knew noth- tives. Tailings have been used for Carr, now a researcher and ing about radiation. We knew landfill and construction materi- member, Bharatiya Shramik there was radiation but we didn't als. The complex has gradually Sabha. Earlier he worked with take it as a serious issue" recol- encroached peoples agricultural IFTU. lected Xavier. Over a period of land and their living space. They At this point in time time Ghanshyam Biruli, now the continue to live within 30 metres Singhbhumi Ekta (Singhbhum's President of JOAR, points out of the tailings structures, and Unity), a Trade Union engaged that 'people slowly started to without any source for liveli- in AJSU activities, developed a notice rashes, deformities on fel- hood. Jadugoda is also 'India's special relation with IFTU. low beings, cows were being radioactive dump yard'. Xavier Xavier Dias who at this point in born without tails, fish with Dias pointed out "Wastes from time member of AJSU- unknown skin diseases were the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Singhbhumi Ekta front got being discovered, small animals, Hyderabad and the BARC Rare involved with this labour strug- including mice, monkeys and Materials Plant in Mumbai, gles in Jadugoda. According to rabbits were disappearance from Mysore, Gopalpur on sea, as Xavier Dias "The 1979 strike, the area, Kendu fruits had well as medical radio wastes was unsuccessful but it brought become seedless… "In 1991 from an unknown number of the issue of radiation to the fore. when the preparations for the sources are being returned to It inspired and partially politi- World Uranium Hearings had Jadugoda. This came to light cised several educated tribal started, we read literature on the when local people began to find youth, who were until then consequences of uranium min- syringes, bags and IV pipes from unconcerned with radiation and ing- we were shocked", recollect- hospital wastes buried in the tail- its adverse impact on the adiva- ed Xavier Dias. We decided to ings3. It is now widely under- sis living in Jaduguda". set up an organization to take stood that the company still In 1980s All Jharkhand this struggle forward. Xavier set imports this waste, and is feed- Students Union (AJSU) led an up the Jharkhandis Organisation ing it through the mill, crushing upsurge on the identity question. Against Radiation (JOAR) in it before discharging it into the Militant bandhs for two-three 1991/92 to pressurise UCIL ponds. It is likely that some of days were staged by urban youth. management to reform its oper- these materials are gamma radia- AJSU called for elections boy- ations. This organisation worked tion emitters, adding to the radi- cott. However, its associate, together with the All- Jharkhand ation hazard suffered by every- Jharkhand Peoples' Party jumped Students Union that had started one in the area". into electoral politics. The result an organisation of displaced and The first intervention was in was unrecoverable disaster. unemployed tribal people. 1979 when Indian Federation of Disenchanted, most of the front At the World Uranium Trade Union (IFTU), a labour ranking AJSU functionaries from Hearing4, 400 delegates and wing of Communist Party of the Ghatshila and Potka blocks observers from across the world India (Marxist Leninist) called in East Singhbhum district broke participated. Xavier Dias repre- for a strike in Rakha Copper away from the organization in sented JOAR at the hearing. Mines. In this strike, IFTU 1989 and launched an independ- Along with him there were other demanded only 'radiation ent struggle against displacement three delegates and an observer allowances' for the workers and unemployment in Jadugoda. from India. The deliberations exposed to radioactive rays. No They formed Jharkhand Adivasi and interactive sessions in the political party or a trade union Berojgar Visthapit Sangh Hearing helped Xavier to under- raised the these issue con- (JABVS) or the Jharkhand Tribal stand the politics behind the ura- fronting the mining community Unemployed Displaced nium production. "In the World and those living in the vicinity of Committee. Uranium Hearing, I was 51 astounded by the fact that eighty amongst the Jharkhandi activists BIRSA, who was co-ordinating percent of uranium in the world and in the ten years of its histo- the BIRSA/JOAR study. was being dug out from indige- ry is has achieved this to a good These damages from low- nous lands. The indigenous peo- extent.] Dr. Imrana Qadir of level radiation slowly degrade ple are worst victims on the altar Centre for Social Medicines, the DNA material destroying of world's nuclear weapons Jawaharlal Nehru University the inheritance upon which the development programme. Not (JNU), New Delhi trained mid- whole human race depends. only in India, even in Canada, wives, who were also village level Once the genes have been dam- USA, Latin America, Australia health workers, for field investi- aged there is no hope of repair. and in Africa. In India Jadugoda gation. The survey was designed It is impossible to gauge and Domisiat in Meghalaya, to find out instances of still- how much radioactive material is were tribal area, where rich borns, deformed children and circulating within the environ- deposit of uranium was found", other new aliments and explain ment and how it is being taken said Xavier Dias Participation in to the people the harmful effects into the food chain. The little the World Uranium Hearing of radiation. It took two years to that is known is frightening. made it clear, pointed out complete the survey. For nine years after UCIL Xavier, that the State by design "The report revealed that served notice in 1985 to the vil- was smothering tribal identity. 47% of women suffered disrup- lagers of Chatijkocha that their This was genocide an integral tions in their menstrual cycle, land would be acquired for con- part of India's nuclear develop- 18% said they had suffered mis- struction of the third tailings ment programme. The deploy- carriages or given birth to still- pond, nothing happened. Then ment of CRPF, CISF and other born babies in the last 5 years. suddenly in 1994 the villagers paramilitary forces at Jadugoda 30% suffered fertility problem. were directed to appear at the ensured secrecy keeping tribals Nearly all women complained of UCIL offices to collect their from knowing what happens in fatigue, weakness and depres- compensation for their land that the process of mining uranium sion. Further, the survey found a had been acquired. Crude con- and transporting it to other high incidence of chronic skin crete markers about the size and places Truck with uranium with- disease, cancers, TB, bone, brain shape of gravestones appeared out any cover In the absence of kidney damage, nervous system in the area where the new waste any official initiative to find out disorders, congenital deformi- dump was about to appear. the health of the people living ties, nausea, blood disorders and Most families were deeply around the mine, in 1993, other chronic diseases. Children offended by the pitiful compen- Bindrai Institute for Research were the most affected-born sation offered by UCIL and Study and Action (BIRSA) in with skeletal distortions, partially refused to accept. Instead they collaboration with JAVBS (now formed skulls, blood disorders made a set of demands, which JOAR) conducted a survey in and a broad variety of physical were ignored. On January 27, seven villages within 1km of the deformities. Most common is 1996 UCIL, backed by district mining site (specifically tailings missing eyes or toes, fused fin- police and paramilitary units, dams, described later). [BIRSA gers or limbs incapable of sup- entered the village and began the was started in 1989 It was porting them. Brain damage process of bulldozing their planned as a research, training often compounds these physical houses. Thirty houses were and documentation centre by a disabilities." In addition, the destroyed, fields were flattened, group of intellectuals and researchers found that 30,000 sacred 'sarnas' (groves of wor- activists connected with the var- people within 5 km of the min- ship) and graveyards were lev- ious People's movements of ing area were being exposed to elled out. Jharkhand BIRSA set its goal to abnormally high levels of radia- The demands were as fol- nurture its own leadership from tion." said Ajitha George of lows: 52 1. Bringing radioactive wastes villagers demanded that they pensation from the powerful into their area and dumping be realistically compensated and secretive nuclear operation. them in their villages should for their lands and rehabili- The movement swelled since stop forthwith. tated to a habitable area. 1997 and became known around 2. International norms and the country. standards for storing People approached the 'The most mobile element in radioactive waste that has Ranchi Bench of the Bihar High the tailings is Radon-222, a already been dumped should Court in mid-1996 seeking to heavy radioactive gas with a half- be meticulously observed stop UCIL from destroying their life of 3.8 days. (With a steady 3. All the villages around the villages. The court suggested the 10km per hour wind, the gas already existing tailings villagers' dialogue with the min- could travel nearly 1000 km ponds should be resettled at ing management. The negotia- before half has decayed.) This a safe distance and complete tions was fruitless, the tribal gas presents a major threat to rehabilitation should be people ended up walking out. mine workers and nearby resi- undertaken. Work to construct tailings dents alike; it emits alpha radia- 4. All the families whose active dam was quietly recommenced tion as it decays into radioactive working members have in February 1997. On 25th bismuth, polonium and lead. either died or been incapaci- February, tribal people blocked Inhaling or ingesting radon (it is tated and the families which the construction work. In water soluble) poses a unique have children with serious response, UCIL deployed police health hazard as the body physical and/or mental dis- and the arrests began. becomes exposed to the chemi- abilities should be adequate- Repressive measures were cal properties of the various ly compensated and the adopted to silence the tribal peo- decay products as well as their company should take the ple. "In 1997, my brother Jairam radioactivity, according to the responsibility for their treat- also raised his voice along with paper titled ' Radiological pollu- ment. other Santhals. He was brutally tion from uranium mines at 5. The company should set up beaten by the police with rifle Jaduguda' submitted by Xavier a public dispensary manned butts on the buttocks. There was Dias at a 'Conference on Health by medical personnel quali- bleeding and since then he has Environment' organised by fied to treat radiation related been suffering," said Dumka Centre for Science Environment diseases, and its functioning Murmu, General Secretary, in New Delhi 6th-9th July 1998. should be under the direc- JOAR Broader support from As part of protests against tion of the traditional tribal surrounding villages and other the construction of the third leadership of the Jharkhandis struggling group tailings dam, JOAR demanded Majhi/Pargana. In response, started pouring in. On March 9, that the State of Bihar conduct within three days Santhal a Parganas5 of all the Santhal its own survey on the health people mobilised a large Tribal people arrived in support impacts of the mine. The envi- number of people from and UCIL were again forced ronment committee of the Bihar nearby villages in support of into negotiations. UCIL made Vidhan Parishad (Legislative the people of Chatijkocha. lot of promises, including Council) spent two years on the Women lay down in front of improved radiation monitoring, study, and filed its last report in bulldozers; the local press realistic cash payments, employ- December 1998. A medical team broadcast the action to ment for the displaced males sampled water around the tail- national and international and improved healthcare for ings dams and examined 54 peo- human rights groups. As a radiation-affected people. ple suspected of suffering from result the demolition was JOAR's movement forced radiation-related illness. temporarily suspended. The negotiations and achieved com- The report confirmed what 53 the people already knew; that becomes 'no radiation beyond a closely guarded secret. UCIL was dumping nuclear permitted international limits''. JOAR continued to be busy waste from other sites into the Mine management also denies with court proceedings; building tailings dams, that uranium was dumping nuclear waste at up the campaign, labour unrest leaching into the river, and that Jadugoda, other than "a small and the movement became people were living too close to amount of raffinate cake" from stronger than ever. However, the mine. The team expressed Hyderabad. It denies any health Xavier Dias in an interview to concern at the fact that the tails effects from elevated levels of Scott Ludlam in November dams were unfenced, that waste radiation and insists it holds that 1999, said, "From here I think, water was returning to the treat- its workforce is healthy. UCIL is either going to sabotage ment plant in open drains, and The environment committee or break the movement by buy- that there were no warning signs however made a recommenda- ing up the leadership, or have around the plant. But overall the tion that echoed one of the key some clandestine operation like findings were ambivalent. KK demands of JOAR: that people what normal governments do. Beri, then UCIL Technical be evacuated to a distance of 5 These are the only two options Director, had written to the km from the mines and tailing available." deputy commissioner's office ponds. UCIL and the govern- In 2002, JOAR membership informing him that the 54 peo- ment alike ignored this recom- had touched 3000 but after that ple identified by the medical mendation, like much of the it took a downward trend. It had team were not suffering from bulk of the report. formed village committees diseases caused by uranium This is the standard practice under the leadership Manjis radioactivity, and they are dis- for the nuclear industry world- (headman). JOAR had also missed in the final report: "As wide. The Indian nuclear indus- roped in Haripada Pargana as regards the cause-effect relation- try is able to hide behind an one of its front ranking mem- ship of these diseases with oppressive 'Official Secrets Act' bers. Since its inception JOAR radioactivity, we can neither and is not directly accountable had collaborated with other establish nor exclude the same at to the people for its actions. All organisations such as BIRSA, this stage." The committee rec- nuclear research including health Anumukti etc. to undertake ommended a complete health physics and health test of affect- health surveys, legal action, survey to be undertaken. A med- ed populations are hidden by awareness building programmes, ical team dominated by doctors this Act. political lobbying and direct from BARC and the UCIL chief All this workers gradually action in defence of the tribals. medical officer duly carried this got to know. This led them to "JOAR's struggle had defi- out. It found, perhaps not sur- protest. On account of unrest nitely inspired the movement at prisingly, that the diseases found and discontent among the work- Banduhurung6 against UCIL's in Jadugoda were not related to force UCIL looked towards pri- open cast mining. The UCIL radiation, blaming instead poor vate labour companies to hire plans to start a uranium process- nutrition, malaria, alcoholism contract labourers, who were ing and power plant at and genetic abnormalities. dismissed as soon as they Turamdih, close to Contrary to these findings showed any signs of illness. Banduhurung. JOAR and media, "There is no radiation or any Regular employees started to especially national newspapers related health problems in wear radiation-measuring and magazines played an exem- Jadugoda and its surrounding devices inside the plant and plary role in making people areas", says J.L Bhasin, former underground, but they are never aware about uranium mines and chairperson and Managing told what doses are recorded, its radioactive effect. Rana S Director of UCIL. The 'no radi- and if they fell sick they were Gautam, of the Times of India's ation' argument, when pushed, treated at the plant hospital. wrote series of stories on Their medical records were kept 54 Jadugoda. It had been successful Chief Functionary, Adivasi Rs. 75,000 for getting him a job. in making people aware about Moolvasi Bhumi Suraksha But till date he has not got a job radiation though at a quite slow- Samiti (AMBSS) Surai Hansda and Rs. 23,000 was returned er pace," said Shamit Carr. decided to launch AMBSS when back to him. Manki Gunduwara Two years later the UCIL they saw JOAR work in support of Barahata village also paid succeeded in dividing the move- of open cast mining in Rs.75, 000 and Dusrath Jojo ment. JOAR split on 24th Banduhurung. AMBSS upholds gave Ghanshyam Biruli Rs. February 2004, when UCIL tribal exclusive rights to their 50.000 for job in UCIL." organised a 'Jan Sunwayi' (Public traditional lands and their As UCIL is going on a faster Hearing) at Banduhurung to resources. It emphasizes that pace for operationalising open garner support of the people in where the lands and resources of cast mining in Banduhurung so favour of open cast mining in the tribals have been taken away 17- organisation co-ordination Banduhurung "JOAR supported by UCIL without their free and committee is intensifying its UCIL and BIRSA opposed informed consent, it should pro- struggle. They are less depend- UCIL" said Shamit Carr. Prior vide jobs. It objects to and ent on external facilitator. They to this public hearing a leader of protests against UCIL not keep- encourage participation and JOAR went around the villages ing its promise8. AMBSS has transparency and make an effort telling the villagers that they 700 members. Most of them are to generate their own resources. men; they plan to induct women should support UCIL, which Growing intensity and broader in their struggle. Surai thinks, would get them the jobs. base of the struggle in "Women had been at the fore- Paradoxically, JOAR is a major Banduhurung, will force UCIL front of the tribal struggles. partner in the MUAP to soften its stand. UCIL has Without their participation, it's (Movement Against Uranium been assiduously trying to brand quite difficult to organise the the struggle as anti-national and Project) raising voice against movement." The organisation anti- development by roping in UCIL projects in Nalgonda generates its own resources. JOAR but the people affected by (Andhra Pradesh) and Whenever there are pro- the project see it as a genuine Domiasiat (Meghalaya). grammes, people donate gener- "Seventeen tribal organisa- ously. During their mobilisation struggle and therefore take it tions have formed a co-ordina- drive against globalisation, they seriously. Some of the senior tion committee to oppose urani- saw that youths wanted to dis- functionaries of JOAR are silent um open cast mining in pose off the land but elders and slowly distancing from its Banduhurung. The co-ordina- oppose. They are not interested activities. Of all the mining in tion committee had distanced in any reunion with JOAR. Their Jharkhand nuclear mining at itself from JOAR, as it had sup- potential allies in the struggle are Jadugoda is the most lethal. ported Uranium Corporation of the affected community, vil- It is difficult to say how this India Limited (UCIL) to begin lagers and BIRSA. BIRSA has conflict will unfold and what will its operations in Banduhurung." supported and assisted the be its consequences for the peo- Alleged, "Rich dividends were movement through legal advice, ple. The problem is difficult- paid by UCIL to Ghanshyam arranging for documents, dis- should one accept the Nuclear Biruli, President, JOAR for total semination of information and programme and then struggle 'sell out'. UCIL gave him money financial support. UCIL tried to over implementation of appro- to get his house refurbished in divide this organisation, but in priate employment policy and Jadugoda. UCIL also paid him vain. Sukumar Murmu, safety measures or should the money to get a pond dug nearby Chairperson, Talsa village struggle focus on questioning his house. The president is a full Assembly said, "Ghanshyam nuclearisation as such? time activist. But where does he Biruli is acting like a broker of On the one hand, India is get money for leading a lavish UCIL. Suresh Purti of village the first Asian country to devel- lifestyle" said Surai Hansda7, Barahata paid Ghanshyam Biruli 55 op a nuclear programme. The use 'heavy' water as the modera- Members and a Secretary. process of becoming nuclear tor. The plutonium thus generat- The Department of Atomic began before the devastation of ed would provide fuel for a sec- Energy (DAE) was and has full Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and ond generation of fast-breeder executive powers to implement inspite of the chill of the Cold reactors, which would provide the policies of the AEC. It sup- War. As early as 1944, Dr Homi yet more plutonium to mix with ports and regulates the activities J Bhabha played a decisive role the abundant thorium resource of two main research centres in Indian nuclear affairs. He and theoretically supply free and the other research institu- wrote to the government asking energy forever. tions; the Nuclear Power for money to set up an institute In August 1954, six years Corporation; the heavy water for studying the subject, so that later the Department of Atomic projects; and fuel-chain under- "when nuclear energy has been Energy (DAE) was set up. The takings. successfully applied for power prime minister operates though The AERB, which is respon- production in, say a couple of this Commission and the sible to the AEC, formulates decades from now, India will not Department. The AEC has safety standards and regulations. have to look abroad for its overall control of all activities It approves the commissioning experts, but will find them ready relating to commercial use of of nuclear stations on the basis at hand". India's first pacifist nuclear energy. It formulates of its own safety assessments Prime Minister, Jawaharlal policies for the DAE, prepares and on information provided by Nehru wrote to his defence min- its budget, and ensures the poli- the Safety Review Committee of ister shortly after independence cies are implemented. It also has the DAE. The AERB, which in that not only did the "future the ultimate responsibility for an ideal world would perhaps be belong to those who produce safety. For insuring this it works an independent body reporting atomic energy", but "Defence through the AERB. [The directly to parliament, has no (was) intimately connected with President of India constituted power to truly regulate the this." the Atomic Energy Regulatory industry and reports to the AEC In 1948, a year after inde- Board (AERB) on November behind closed doors. The DAE pendence the Indian Atomic 15, 1983 by exercising the pow- maintains a monopoly on Energy Commission (AEC) was ers conferred by Section 27 of research, suppressing heretical set up. It would work under the the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 views as efficiently as any direct control of the prime min- (33 of 1962) to carry out certain medieval inquisition. ister. This was the beginning of regulatory and safety functions Uranium mines in Jadugoda the Nuclear Industry. It began under the Act. The regulatory are the foundation of the Indian with meagre resources. An early authority of AERB is derived nuclear fuel chain. It is wholly geological survey of India had from the rules and notifications State monopoly. The DAE owns revealed a vast thorium resource promulgated under the Atomic UCIL and its operations are cov- but few uranium deposits. The Energy Act, 1962 and the ered under Atomic Energy Act, earliest resource estimate Environmental (Protection) Act, which makes accurate informa- amounted to only 15,000 tonnes. 1986.] tion about the mine somewhat For an independent nuclear pro- The mission of the Board is tortuous to obtain. There is no gram to be 'sustainable' with this to ensure that the use of ionising requirement for public participa- meagre resource, an ambitious it radiation and nuclear energy in tion at any stage of the process was decided that the first gener- India does not cause undue risk of sighting, designing or build- ation of reactors would be to health and the environment. ing nuclear facilities. In an article Canadian-designed CANDU Currently, the Board consists of for the Bulletin of the Atomic reactors, which run on natural a full-time Chairman, an ex-offi- Scientists (1999), T.S. Gopi (i.e. non-enriched) uranium and cio Member, three part-time Rethinaraj writes: "The depart- 56 ment [of atomic energy] has the initial period these revolts organisation or project-driven happily exploited the ignorance were of religious and retrograde NGOs. It was a serious political of India's judiciary and political form, which is a special feature issue. Uranium, which had been establishment on nuclear issues. of peasant revolts. But progres- used for manufacturing had In the past, it has even used the sively the development of these killed thousands in Nagasaki and Atomic Energy Act to prevent struggles took place in the form Hiroshima. In Jaduguda it is nuclear plant workers from of looking for a new system daily killing people those living accessing their own health against the colonial fetters, near the mines. records. While nuclear establish- zamindari and usury. The In 1989, when JOAR was ments everywhere have been Munda resistance from 1789 to taking its roots, the organisa- notorious for suppressing infor- 1820, the Kol revolt of 1830-31, tions which came to forward to mation, nowhere is there an the Bhumij revolt of 1834, the take up the issue, followed prin- equivalent of India's Atomic Santhal revolt of 1855-56, the ciples of democratic centralism. Energy Act in operation. Over Sepoy Mutiny of 1856-57, the The democratic centralism has the years, in the comfort of upsurge under the leadership of two parts - ideological central- secrecy, India's nuclear establish- Birsa Munda during 1895-1901 ism and organisational central- ment has grown into a mono- etc., kept the entire region agitat- ism. The ideological centralism lithic and autocratic entity that ed with a series of revolts span- grows out of the struggle to sets the nuclear agenda of the ning over more than a century. If develop one process of think- country and yet remains virtual- the people faced the repression ing, uniformity of thinking, one- ly unaccountable for its actions." together, they also enjoyed the ness in approach and singleness On the other hand the strug- fruits of victory together. The of purpose. Organisational cen- gles in the Jharkhand have laws that were made under com- tralism is built up on the basis of protested against expropriation pulsion were the achievements the ideological centralism, which of Natural Resources9 for over of these struggles. The gives the real structural shape to three hundred years. The mod- Chotanagpur-Santhal Parganas the principle of democratic cen- ern composition of Jharkhand Tenants Act (1872, 1886, 1903, tralism In the movement against was developed in reaction 1908) that put a check on land radiation in the post-1989 era, against British colonialism sales in Chotanagpur and there was convergence of politi- despite the fact that conducive Santhal Parganas etc., were cal movements such as AJSU, integrated economic structure enacted under the pressure of trade union struggles like based on geographic features, these struggles. The sponta- Singhbhumi Ekta, traditional backward agriculture and neous struggles in Jharkhand Manji Pargana System, NGOs, forests, and integral cultural her- have laid the foundation for a professionals like journalists, itage, unique inter-tribal rela- tradition of resistance. academicians, legal practitioners, tions etc., were present for this. In Conclusion IFTU, which scientists, film-makers etc. The Tensions were sparked off in the called for a strike in Rakha convergence took place at the society due to new polarisations Copper mines in 1979, demand- time when there was a paradigm caused by the growing pressures ed only 'radiation allowances' for shift in the movement, as it start- on land by the state at the time the workers exposed to it. But ed drifting away from the princi- of colonial subjugation and the neither any political party nor ples of democratic centralism. consequent transfer of the land mass organisations raised the However, in the struggle constantly into the hands of issue of 'uranium radiation' there were networking among usurers as well as due to other affecting the mining community different players, who cut out external pressures. As a result, or those living in the vicinity of their role. To take ahead the revolts in this region took the the tailing ponds. However, radi- movement, the activities were form of tradition and culture ation is a serious issue which research, lobbying, mobilisation, developed under resistance. In cannot be a part of any social discussion, strategy planning, 57 awareness building, information husbandry. In a study conducted theirs that this practice be dissemination, finance etc. The by Anumukti, a journal devoted stopped, which UCIL even- support groups had convergence to non-nuclear, it is stated that, tually agreed to. of interests but had no unifor- as high as 55.3% of the house- mity in approach. Majority of hold in the villages have at least 4. The World Uranium those forming the support having regular employment with Hearing (WUH) took place group came from middle class the UCIL either as casual mill from 13-19 September 1992 background whose desire was to workers. · The Mixed category in Salzburg, Austria. strengthen the movement but [Comprises a broader category, Founded by Claus Biegert in had not declassed them. An mostly Sadans, dalits and other December and it is regis- amateurish videographer turned castes work in the UCIL mills tered as a non-profit organi- filmmaker whose documentary and mines as workers and wage sation in Munich, Germany. had been successful in bringing labourers]. The Santhals, a dom- It was an unprecedented the 'radiation issue 'at the fore in inant tribe in Jaduguda and near- gathering of indigenous national and international arena. by villages have a century old, people affected by the Though he was politically aware traditional system of local self- nuclear industry, with focus but had no ideological ground- governance known as Manjhi- on uranium mining. In the ing. Quite overenthusiastic, he Pargana System (MPS) at the vil- Hearing, about 80 indige- lage and intermediate level started interfering in the day-to- nous and 30 non-Indigenous responsible for the overall devel- day activities of JOAR. JOAR people, representing 25 opment of the Santhal commu- leadership had pinned their indigenous nations and 27 nities. hopes on support group, for countries, made testimonies. resources and skills too. But it All continents were repre- 2. Uranium is not the only was not quite competent enough radioactive element found in the sented. It was a massive to tackle those who mobilised ore. There are a dozen or so oth- indictment against the resources and used their skills ers known as uranium decay nuclear industry for contam- for building the struggle. products; among them are, inating water and land and Thorium-230, Radium-226, and for disregard of human Notes: Radon-222. Each of these pres- rights. 1. Socially, Jadugoda and ents a unique hazard to people nearby villages, which is inside and other living creatures com- The World Uranium was the radiation zone may be divid- ing into contact with them. Based on testimonies and expe- ed into two broad swaths as the These wastes are radioactive for riences from around the world, dominant being the Santhals, the around 250,000 years; in human Based on the evidence of dam- largest tribe in Jharkhand: · The terms this might as well be for- age to indigenous people, cul- Austro-Asiatic tribes, especially ever. In addition to the radiolog- ture, economy, land, water, and Santhal and Ho live in Jadugoda ical hazard, uranium ores com- air, Based on indigenous peo- and nearby villages. Most of monly contain varying concen- ple's respect for spiritual values, these tribals are peasants but trations of zinc, lead, man- beliefs, and practices, and their some of them work as miners in ganese, cadmium and arsenic. opposition to the destruction of UCIL mills and plants. 95% of None of these other elements their existence. The 'Council of underground miners are tribals. are removed during processing; Jurists' consisted of scholars In the top management or first all remain in the tailings along with commitment and expertise grade posts of UCIL no tribals with residues of the process in human rights and environ- are employed, while 100% of chemicals used to extract the mental law at the international the contract workers are tribals. uranium. and national levels, as well as The major occupation of the vil- lawyers who have worked to lagers is agriculture and animal 3. It was an early demand of promote sustainable develop- 58 ment to protect the interest of nuclear process - civilian or mil- Tribal self-rule' launched in Indigenous peoples, and to pro- itary - has a deadly impact on all 1996 resulted in the enact- tect the public from nuclear forms of life. It was realised ment of Provisions of risks. A six-page leaflet suitable that the inhabitants of this Panchayat (extended to the for mailings was available in planet, responsible for the gen- Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 German. Also helping to pro- erations to come, have to live (PESA-96) by the mote the WUH was a video, with consequences of our Parliament. Manjhi Pargana "The Death that Creeps from radioactive heritage from now System, which had become the Earth" (in English, German on. Together, the delegates redundant in Jaduguda, he and Russian), and the first stood and said: No more said, "When we were dis- European Group Show of he exploitation of lands and peo- possessed from our land by Atomic Photographers Guild. ples by uranium mining, nuclear UCIL, the Pargana did not This photo exhibition remained power generation, nuclear test- even stand against it and in Europe until the end of ing, and radioactive waste unite his tribal brethren 1993. In the Hearing there were dumping; Clean up and restore against it. He miserably testimonies from around the all homelands; End the secrecy failed in performing his world by the peoples of the and fully disclose all informa- duty. In Santhal history, you mountains, the forests, the tion about the nuclear industry would see that Parganas deserts and the oceans, who and its dangers; Provide full and have stood along with his suffer daily from uranium min- fair compensation for damage tribal brethren like an unfal- ing, nuclear weapons testing, to: peoples, families and com- tering rock whenever the nuclear power generation and munities, cultures and radioactive waste. These testi- economies, homelands, water, 'intruders' attempted to dis- monies showed the peoples' air, and all living things; Provide possess of their land. intimate relationship with the independent and objective Jaduguda, Bhatin and Earth and the destruction of monitoring of human health Narwapahar were built on the natural environment they and the well being of all living Santhali land. Bihar depended upon, culturally, spir- things affected by the nuclear Government leased this itually and materially. It became chain. In view of the unity of land to UCIL. But, accord- clear that each phase of the humanity and the world, they ing to SNT, Chotanagpur nuclear process - civilian or mil- made an appeal on behalf of Tenancy Act, Fifth Schedule itary - has a deadly impact on all future generations to use sus- Area Act and Traditional forms of life Delegates heard tainable, renewable, and life- Self-rule system, the land testimonies from around the enhancing energy alternatives. belongs to Santhal commu- world by the peoples of the nity. Bihar Government vio- mountains, the forests, the 5. Historically, the Manjhi lated all the acts and flouted deserts and the oceans, who Pargana system started los- all the norms in the air. In suffer daily from uranium min- ing its authority with the the name of 'national devel- ing, nuclear weapons testing, advent of the British colo- opment' adivasis dispos- nuclear power generation and nial power. Even in sessed of their land did not radioactive waste.. These testi- Jadugoda and its villages, receive any compensation. monies showed the peoples' the Manjhi Pargana System As a Pargana, Haripada intimate relationship with the became redundant. This failed to perform, as he was Earth and the destruction of process continued after the not aware of the acts and the natural environment they independence. Various leg- his role. First, the land was depend upon, culturally, spiritu- islations made the system acquired by Atomic Energy ally and materially. It became ineffective and dysfunction- Commission (AEC), direct- clear that each phase of the al. The 'Movement for ly under Prime Minister, 59 and later on transferred it to 6. Banduhurung is 25 kms from lay in the tribal territories. UCIL. Traditional self-rul- Jaduguda and 10 Kms from Yet the tribals have been ing system was non-opera- Jamshedpur. driven out, marginalised and tional due to direct inter- robbed of dignity by the vention of the 7. He mobilised people in sup- very process of 'national Government." port of JOAR's direct development'. action at Chatijkocha, in The fundamental and the 1996 and 1997, when third Jharkhand is estimated to basic tenet of the Act empow- tailing pond was construct- have more than a third of ered the traditional village ed, said, " India's total mineral wealth. It councils under Manjhi Pargana has more than a third of the System to govern themselves 8. In 1984, when mining start- coal deposits in the country and on their own in accordance with ed in Turamdih, the houses the only region for the mining their traditions and customs in of 375 families were demol- of coking coal. The state has all matters pertaining to their ished and land acquired by half of the country's reserves own socio-political, economic UCIL but they have not got of mica, 23 percent of iron ore and cultural development. The any job. UCIL's compensa- and 34 percent of copper Jharkhand Government ratified tion followed the 1970 reserves. Fireclay, manganese this Act in 2001. The PESA-96 package. According to 1970 ore, uranium, bauxite, kyanite, provides adivasis for self-gover- package, if an acre is china clay etc. are also abun- nance and now they have legal acquired the UCIL pays a dantly found in Jharkhand. and Constitutional power to compensation of Rs. Large-scale mining of major organise themselves, plan, 12,000, Rs.15,000 and minerals started in Jharkhand as implement, review and monitor Rs.18,000 based on the fer- early as 1890. Coal mining in their own programmes of tility of the land. Jharia began its operations in development. In Jaduguda and 1886, iron ore mining started at nearby villages, as Dumka 9 Of 45 major minerals such Gurumahisini in 1911, Murmu, General Secretary, as coal, iron ore, magnetite, Badampahar and Sulaipet in Jharkhandis Organisation manganese, bauxite, 1923, Noamundi in 1926, baux- Against Radiation (JOAR) said, graphite, limestone, ite mining in Palamau and "Being a part of the 'Movement dolomite, uranium etc are Lohardaga in 1940, mica mines for tribal self-rule', it was our found in tribal areas con- in Hazaribagh and Koderma in historical obligation to revive tributing some 56% of the 1930. Presently there are about the Manjhi Pargana System in national total mineral earn- 398 working mines in the state. our areas of operation. Manjhi ings in terms of value. Of were headman of the village the 4,175 working mines * Tarun Kanti Bose is a veteran and Pargana had control over reported by the Indian development journalist who has them. A Pargana has a control Bureau of Mines in 1991- done seminal works on various over 60 villages. Identity cards 92, approximately 3500 social issues including radiation haz- were issued by JOAR to the could be assumed to be in ards related to uranium mining. Manjhis and Parganas. It was by the tribal areas. Income to strengthening of Manjhi the government from [Source: Pargana System, that the advan- forests rose from Rs.5.6 http://jadugoda.jharkhand.org.in/2009 tage regarding mass conscious- million in 1969-70 to more /05/adivasi-live-under-nuclear-terror- ness on radiation issues sur- than Rs.13 billions in the in.html] faced and spread." 1970s. The bulk of the nation's productive wealth 60

CNDP Membership Form Annual Membership Fee: The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Students Rs. 20, Individuals Rs. 100, Organisations Rs. 500 (CNDP) is India’s national network of over 200 organisations, including grassroots groups, mass movements and advocacy organisations, as well Name: as individuals. Formed in November 2000, CNDP demands that India and Pakistan roll back their Organisation: nuclear weapons programmes. Our emphasis:

Address:  No to further nuclear testing  No to induction and deployment of nuclear weapons  Yes to global and regional nuclear disarma- Phone: ment e-mail: CNDP works to raise mass awareness through schools and colleges programmes, publications, audio and visual materials, and campaigning and lobbying at various levels. Please mail your Draft/Cheque, drawn in favour of “peace-cndp”, payable at New CNDP membership is open is both individuals and Delhi, to organisations. So if you believe nuclear weapons CNDP A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi are evil and peace is important, fill in the 110 016 Membership Form!

For Private Circulation Only Published from CNDP, A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi - 110 016, Telefax: 26517814 E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.cndpindia.org Editors: Ilina Sen, Anil Chaudhary, Sukla Sen Copy Editor: P K Sundaram