1 Nuclear, MissileNuclear, Missile & Space Digest & Space Digest

Volume 11, Number 08 A Fortnightly Newsletter from the Indian Pugwash Society April 30, 2019

Convener (Interim) Contents

& A. A-SAT Editor ó PSLV-C45 successfully launches EMISAT and 28 customer satellites ó Terrible thing, India's ASAT satellite test created 400 pieces of debris': NASA Dr. Rajiv Nayan ó US state department refuses to echo NASA's criticism of ASAT test ó India declines to comment on NASA's assessment that debris from ASAT test could endanger ISS ó Pentagon says India's ASAT debris expected to burn up in atmosphere ó The A-SAT test restores the India- strategic balance ó NASA to resume cooperation with ISRO after 'guidance' from White House ó Mission Shakti: ASAT test done at lower orbit to avoid damages, says DRDO chief ó India's A-SAT mission planned in a way that debris will decay soon: DRDO chief Executive Council ó DRDO Defends 'Shakti' Test as Experts Say Indian ASAT Debris 'Threatens All LEO Sats' Prof Amitav Mallik ó Strategic Experts and Technocrats Deliberate on "Mission Shakti" Prof Rajesh Rajagopalan ó India's DRDO reveals additional details of recent ASAT missile test Shri M V Rappai ó STRATCOM's Hyten Calls For Space Rules After India's ASAT Test: Update ó US space command general defends India's ASAT, senator adds to justification Prof Varun Sahni ó Indian Satellite's Pieces Unlikely to Collide With ISS - Russian Space Agency by Staff In unprecedented support, US defends India's space weapons test saying it understands New Delhi's concerns

B. India ó India to buy 464 Russian tanks in £1.5bn deal ó India's once booming technology industry is falling behind ó Iran oil imports up 5 percent despite U.S. sanctions - sources ó India hopes to avoid US sanctions over Russian missile deal ó Modi says India undermined Pakistan nuclear threat ó India Did Major Damage to a New $3 Billion Submarine By Leaving a Hatch Open

C. China ó Nuclear plant approvals may resume after three-year pause: analyst ó China's new relay satellite to help video calls possible with space station

Indian Pugwash Society No.1, Development Enclave, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Near USI , Delhi-110010 Email: [email protected]

Tel. No (91-11) 2671-7983 Fax No. (91-11)2615-4192 2 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

ó China's Chang'e 4 probe wakes up, mission continues ó China launches new data relay satellite ó China expected to miss target for 2020 nuclear capacity ó Chinese president meets The Elders delegation ó Chinese envoy calls on nuclear weapon states to abandon Cold War mentality ó China's commercial carrier rocket finishes engine test ó China sends new naval destroyer fleet to Somali waters for escort mission ó Goods from Japan's nuclear-leak areas seized in South China ó In snub, U.S. won't send warships or senior officials to Chinese Navy's 70th anniversary celebrations ó Chinese scientists discover infrared stealth material ó Rainbow-4 drone finishes test flight ó China's rocket-carrying ships complete maintenance ó China's lunar rover travels over 170 meters on moon's far side ó Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant debugging approved ó China opens fourth border crossing with North Korea, complete with radiation detectors ó China, EU commit to making progress on investment pact ó Energy demand growth set to decline by 2040 ó China's unmanned submersible bears fruit in Indian Ocean mission ó China-led project expected to enhance space research

D. Pakistan ó Pak expresses 'deep concern' over space debris generated by India's ASAT test ó Pakistan Summons Delhi Envoy in protest against any possible 'misadventure' ó Balakot air strike: Pakistan shows off disputed site on eve of India election ó India Pakistan CONFLICT: Imran Khan issues India nuclear WARNING - 'no one can predict' ó Foolproof nuclear security mechanisms in place: FO ó Pakistan launches guidelines for UNSC 1267 sanctions implementation ó Modi claims India undermined Pakistan 'nuclear threat'

E. US ó 4 Things to Know About the U.S. Nuclear Deterrence Strategy ó US public opinion evenly split on nuclear ó The U.S. Military Wants to Kill Nuclear-Armed ICBMs with Lasers ó Could a U.S.-Russian Deployment Ban Avoid a Nuclear Arms Race in Europe? ó Knowing when to walk: What is the best alternative to a formal US-Saudi nuclear agreement? ó US Senate committee confirms Abizaid as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia ó U.S. test nuclear reactor may run up to 40 percent over cost: document ó U.S. Nuclear-Armed Sub May Cost More Than Navy Says, GAO Warns ó Fresh U.S. Divide on Iran Emerges Over Expiring Nuclear Waivers ó Hypersonic weapons to play no part in U.S. nuclear deterrence, says U.S. Strategic Command chief ó Trump, South Korea leader mull next steps in nuclear talks ó U.S. Senate bill to mandate disclosure of nuclear power approvals involving other nations 3 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

ó Will Congress Let Trump Build More Nuclear Weapons? ó Trump Backs Third Summit With Kim, Says Relations Very Good ó US Democratic Senators Urge Trump to Extend Nuclear Treaty with Russia ó Trump Budget Boosts Nuclear Efforts ó Where will the nuclear waste go after Three Mile Island shuts down? ó U.S.S. Thresher and Scorpion - The U.S.'s Lost Nuclear Submarines ó US Military, Lawmakers Say Communication with Russia Needed to Avert Nuclear War

F. Europe ó Ma'amageddon': secret plans for Queen's nuclear address revealed ó Roadmap needed for nuclear disarmament: German FM ó Switzerland postpones decision on nuclear weapons treaty ó Astute nuclear submarine facility Evacuated after bomb reports ó IAEA Mission Says Germany Is Committed to Strengthening Safety, Sees Areas for Further Enhancement

G. Russia ó Russia installs operation simulator at Beloyarsk plant ó Russia's Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with resupply ship installed at Baikonur ó US nuclear strikes 'most reasonable' response if Russia invades, Polish ex-army chief says ó Chernobyl's disastrous cover-up is a warning for the next nuclear age ó New generation satellites to join GLONASS system early 2020 ó Top scientist proposes using nuclear submarines to transport Russian gas from the Arctic ó The Story of How Russia Built Nuclear Bomb Cannons To Crush NATO ó Russia's Hypersonic Ballistic Missile and Laser System in Final Tests, Putin Says ó Putin Announces Arctic Expansion Plans at International Forum - Highlights ó Russia's Most Powerful Nuclear Missile Is In Final Testing Stage And These Other Weapons Are Also On Their Way ó Defense Ministry improves infrastructure of nuclear triad, Crimean and Arctic forces ó Novovoronezh II-2 cleared for launch ó Explainer: Russia's Stealth Su-57 Fighter Might Become a Nuclear 'Bomber' ó Putin unveils 'Unrivalled' nuclear missile in chilling threat amid Soaring Trump tensions ó UAE astronaut will operate Russian, US equipment on board ISS ó Putin vows all possible support to Russian space sector ó Putin means business: Why UK needs to worry about Russia's belligerence ó Get Ready: Russia Will Soon Try to Kill a Satellite ó Russia's top diplomat says the world is losing faith in the U.S. as a global leader, accusing Washington of resorting to 'pressure and blackmail' to retain dominance ó An F-35 Will Never be Alone: Russia Seems to Warn America's Stealth Fighter ó Russia warning: Kremlin threatens to END American power - 'Time for the US to step aside' 4 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

WEST ASIA H. Iran ó Instead of defying U.S. 'economic terrorism' EU trio seeking to appease Trump, Iran laments ó U.S. considering additional Iran sanctions, perhaps in May: official ó IAEA chief Amano reaffirms Iran's commitment to nuclear deal ó IAEA Reportedly Inspects Iranian Warehouse | P4+1 and Iran Nuclear Deal Alert ó Iran still planning three satellite launches this year, despite ramped up U.S. pressure - minister ó Exhibition on nuclear achievements opens up in Tehran

I. Saudi Arabia ó U.S. senators seek details on nuclear power cooperation with Saudi Arabia ó First Images of Saudi Nuclear Reactor Show Plant Nearing Finish ó Saudi plans to invite bids for nuclear power project in 2020: sources ó Saudi Arabia reopens consulate in Iraq, pledges $1bn in aid ó Saudi has not really demonstrated nuclear transparency: Heinonen

J. Israel ó Beijing Airport Selects Israeli radar technology to protect runway ó The Debate That Gave Birth to Israel's Nuclear Ambiguity Revealed ó Did Israel destroy Syria's nuclear weapons program? ó Can the Iran nuclear deal survive as the IAEA investigates Israeli allegations? ó Netanyahu's Reveal of Iranian Nuclear Archive Damaged Israel, Senior Intelligence Officials Say ó IRGC terror designation: Trump's election gift to Netanyahu ó Israeli Spacecraft Crashes Onto Moon After Technical Failures ó Iranian forces said killed in reported Israel airstrike on Syria missile factory ó Space Is Hard, Israeli Lunar Crash Proves Again

EAST ASIA K Japan ó Tepco and Chubu transfer fossil fuel assets to Jera JV ó Kansai awaits MOX return for Takahama 3 and 4 ó Chinese envoy to Japan to be replaced by vice foreign minister ó 'Old man squad' ends patrols of evacuated town in Fukushima ó Keidanren chief seeking longer lifespans for nuclear plants ó Japan extending sanctions against North Korea for two more years ó Evacuation partly lifted for town co-hosting Fukushima plant ó Boy who made explosives in '18 'refined, sold uranium online' ó Japan confirms MSDF leader and destroyer will participate in Chinese Navy's fleet review ó Albert Einstein was right: Takeaways from first image of massive black hole ó TEPCO to start removing fuel at Fukushima's No. 3 reactor ó Japan won't consider revising F-35A procurement plans while cause of crash still not known ó Japan 'Nuclear Energy Village' website pulled after critics say it plumbed 'new level of insensitive' 5 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

L. North Korea ó Trump can't wait too long for cutting NK deal ó IAEA says Iran in compliance on nuclear, but North Korea a worry ó NK restoring satellite launch site to gain leverage in negotiations: defense agencies ó Kim Jong Un's new Rolls-Royce a clear violation of U.N. sanctions ó Top U.S. diplomat 'confident' of third round of Trump-Kim nuclear talks ó G7 pushes North Korea to continue denuclearization talks with U.S. ó Powerful North Korean decision-making body set to decide 'new orientation' ahead of Trump-Moon summit ó North Korea's Kim doubles down on sanctions threat, vowing to deal 'telling blow' to those imposing them ó UN Security Council extends mandate of Panel of Experts on DPRK sanctions ó NK leader re-elected as chairman of State Affairs Commission ó Kim Jong Un charts course for socialist construction, sets forth policies ó North Korea's Kim Jong Un gives U.S. to year-end to become more flexible ó Kim to hold talks with Putin

M. South Korea ó Moon hopes North Korea responds positively to U.S.-S.Korea efforts ó SKorean ship detained for allegedly providing oil to NKorea ó S. Korea to prepare internally for inter-Korean economic projects: minister

N. Central, South and Southeast Asia ó Siting and Site Evaluation for Nuclear Power Plants in Focus at IAEA Workshop in Uzbekistan

O. World/Misc ó Prospect of a nuclear war 'higher than it has been in generations', warns UN ó First Canadian SMR licence application submitted ó Strengthening the Non-Proliferation Treaty ahead of the Review Conference in 2020 ó UN Security Council reaffirms commitment to non-proliferation goals ó Tracing Radioactive Material with Nuclear Forensics ó Responses to Violations of the Norm Against Chemical Weapons ó 10 years after Obama's nuclear-free vision, the US and Russia head in the opposite direction ó How Nuclear Techniques Help Feed China ó NATO chief says not seeking "new arms race" with Russia ó NATO at 70, What's next? ó New Safeguards Tool Bolsters IAEA's Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel ó Brazilian government committed to nuclear, says energy minister ó Commissioning starts at first Belarus unit ó IAEA Holds Exercise to Test International Capabilities for Assistance in the Event of Nuclear or Radiological Emergencies ó Niger and GoviEx agree Madaouela project framework ó Site approval for Egyptian nuclear power plant ó Targeting Drought with Nuclear Techniques ó National Liaison Officers from African Member States Gather in Arusha to Strengthen the IAEA Technical Cooperation Programme ó Analysing the Past with Nuclear Technology 6 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

ó Concerted action for a shared future ó Brazilian nuclear policy under Bolsonaro: no nuclear weapons, but a nuclear submarine ó Report on Hypersonic Weapons - A Challenge and Opportunity ó for Strategic Arms Control ó Lawrence D. Weiler (1920-2019) ó The NPT and the Conditions for Nuclear Disarmament ó Trump Budget Boosts Nuclear Efforts

P. Op-eds/ Reports

A-SAT ó Will India's Anti-Satellite Weapon Test Spark an Arms Race in Space? ó India's ASAT test is wake-up call for norms of behavior in space ó Anti-Satellite test can steel India's ballistic missile defences: Chinese blog ó Is India's anti-satellite test a game-changer? (Interview) INDIA ó Perceptions of India's Nuclear Capability Buildup: Ghost Hunting and a Reality Check ó India-Pakistan Aren't Heading For Nuclear War, US Should Calm Down ó South Asia's Overlooked Nuclear Crisis ó Is It Hyperbolic To Compare Artificial Intelligence To Nuclear Weapons? PAKISTAN ó India seen pursuing thermonuclear weapons US ó Add two more legs to our nuclear triad, or we'll lose the next war ó Nuclear issues sharpen focus on US-Saudi relations ó Pennsylvania will benefit from preserving its nuclear power plants ó Retiring our nuclear plants would be a costly mistake, former federal energy official says ó Trump's Nuclear Wishlist is Overkill EUROPE ó It's not a bad thing if European economies start embracing industrial policies again ó Viewpoint: Finland seeks to streamline licensing RUSSIA ó Russia's Military Mission Creep Advances to a New Front: Africa WEST ASIA ó Bad time to nuclearize Saudis: US Senators warn Trump ó Iran floods force evacuations as US denies sanctions are harming aid efforts ó Saudi nuclear program accelerates, raising tensions in a volatile region ó KAIST-KU Joint Research Center opens in UAE NORTH KOREA ó An Uncertain Future for North Korean Talks ó Not easy for US-DPRK to make real headway SOUTH KOREA ó Concerns on alliance ó It's urgent, too JAPAN ó INTERVIEW/ Franklin Miller: U.S. won't ask Japan to deploy new missiles ó Interview/Hirofumi Tosaki: Japan, U.S., China Need To Talk About Arms Control In Asia 7 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

A-sat statement regarding space debris resulting from its anti-satellite testing last month, PSLV-C45 successfully launches refusing to join NASA’s shrill criticism of EMISAT and 28 customer satellites the testing as a “terrible, terrible thing”. PIB Delhi, April 01, 2019 On the “issue of space debris, that is an India’s Polar Satellite important concern for the United States, (PSLV-C45) today successfully launched and I would say that we took note of the EMISAT and 28 international customer Indian government’s statements that the satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre test was designed to address space debris (SDSC) SHAR in Sriharikota. This flight issues”, US state department spokesperson marked the first mission of PSLV-QL, a new Robert Palladino told reporters Tuesday in variant of PSLV with four strap-on motors. response to a question referring to NASA administrator’s remarks. PSLV-C45 lifted off at 9:27 Hrs (IST) from the Second Launch Pad and injected India’s https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/ EMISAT into a 748 km sun-synchronous us-says-took-note-of-india-s-assertion-on-a-sat- polar orbit, 17 minutes and 12 seconds after test/story-z54mO3tUiuJyCN3y2FiDRJ.html liftoff. After separation, the two solar arrays of EMISAT were deployed automatically India declines to comment on and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and NASA’s assessment that debris Command Network at Bengaluru assumed from ASAT test could endanger control of the satellite. In the coming days, ISS Live Mint, April 04, 2019 the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration. The government Wednesday declined to comment on US space agency NASA’s http://pib.nic.in/ assessment that India’s anti-satellite PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1569907 weapon test last week led to creation of 400 pieces of space debris that could pose Terrible thing, India’s ASAT satellite a threat to the International Space Station test created 400 pieces of debris’: (ISS). When contacted, the spokesperson NASA Hindustan Times, April 02, 2019 of Ministry of Defence declined to comment. On March 27, India achieved a The head of NASA Tuesday branded India’s historic feat by shooting down its own low- destruction of one of its satellites a “terrible orbit satellite with a ground-to-space thing” that had created 400 pieces of orbital missile, making the country a space power. debris and led to new dangers for astronauts Only three other countries — the US, Russia aboard the International Space Station. Jim and China — have ASAT capabilities. Bridenstine was addressing employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/india- five days after India shot down a low-orbiting declines-to-comment-on-nasa-s-assessment- satellite in a missile test to prove it was that-debris-from-asat-test-could-endanger-iss- among the world’s advanced space powers. 1554321954102.html

https://www.hindustantimes.com/science/terrible- Pentagon says India’s ASAT thing-india-s-asat-satellite-test-created-400- debris expected to burn up in pieces-of-debris-nasa/story- atmosphere Reuters, April 04, 2019 VpxLTINRlGRS2fJYpdVDyJ.htm The Pentagon said on Thursday that it US state department refuses to echo stood by its assessment that debris from NASA’s criticism of ASAT test an Indian anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons Hindustan Times, April 03, 2019 test would eventually burn up in the atmosphere, even after NASA’s The United States on Tuesday reiterated that administrator warned of the danger the it “took note” of Indian government’s debris posed. 8 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

India used an indigenously developed Heliophysics Working Group.” ballistic missile interceptor to destroy one of its own satellites at a height of 300 km (186 https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/ miles), in a test aimed at boosting its defences nasa-to-resume-cooperation-with-isro-after- in space. guidance-from-white-house/story- 1sZ2cZl5n0mm2vdwQVot3N.html https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-india-debris/ pentagon-says-india-debris-expected-to-burn-up- Mission Shakti: ASAT test done at in-atmosphere-idINKCN1RG22J lower orbit to avoid damages, says DRDO chief Elizabeth Roche, Live Mint, The A-SAT test restores the India- April 06, 2019 China strategic balance Kanwal Sibal, Hindustan Times, April 04, 2019 India on Saturday said its anti satellite (ASAT) missile test was done in a low orbit The Narendra Modi government’s decision of less than 300 kilometres and at a to conduct a live anti-satellite (A-SAT) test particular angle to ensure that minimal was bold and timely. Bold because the debris were disbursed above into space to political leadership overcame past avoid damage to other satellites or the hesitations and authorised the Defence International Space Station (ISS). India’s Research and Development Organisation interceptor missile used in the ASAT test (DRDO) to conduct it. While the decision on 27 March has the capability to was not in defiance of an established neutralise satellites up to 1,000 km in discriminatory international regime that space, Defence Research and circumscribed India strategically as was the Development Organisation chief G. decision in 1998 to go nuclear, taking a step Satheesh Reddy said. But the ASAT test that could feed into international concerns was “intentionally done at a lower orbit about militarisation of outer space required of 280 km to ensure that the debris decay careful consideration. very fast,” Reddy said.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-a- With the test done last month, India has sat-test-restores-the-india-china-strategic-balance/ mastered the capability to kill satellites at story-jkn9FsMQE3OqNdD7edCIAO.html 300 km above the earth, Reddy said. “We don’t need any more tests at this orbit NASA to resume cooperation with now,” though he did not rule out the ISRO after ‘guidance’ from White option of conducting more tests in the House Yashwant Raj, Hindustan Times, future. April 05, 2019 https://www.livemint.com/news/india/mission- Under pressure from the White House shakti-asat-test-done-at-lower-orbit-to-avoid- seemingly, NASA, the premier US space damages-says-drdo-chief-1554556483148.html agency, has decided to resume cooperation with its Indian counterpart ISRO reversing India’s A-SAT mission planned in a recent decision to suspend it over orbital a way that debris will decay soon: debris resulting from the March 27 Indian DRDO chief Live Mint, April 12, 2019 anti-satellite testing. Seeking to assuage concerns over NASA administration Jim Bridenstine, who the orbital debris created by India’s A-SAT had called the test a “terrible, terrible thing”, test, DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy wrote to ISRO chairman K Sivan on on Thursday again assured that the Thursday saying, “As part of our mission was planned in a way that the partnership with you, we will continue to resulting fragments will decay in a few work on issues using the NASA-ISRO weeks and there was no threat to the ISS. Human Space Flights Working Group, Speaking at the Vivekananda Planetary Science Working Group, US-India International Foundation, a think-tank, Earth Science Working Group, and the Reddy said the location for the test was 9 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

“well away” from the International Space various departments participated in the Station (ISS). deliberations. DRDO presented the objectives, mission challenges and “The debris will decay in a few weeks. That’s achievements of the Anti-Satellite Test (A- how the whole mission was planned,” he SAT). DRDO had successfully conducted said. Noting that the A-SAT test was an an Anti-Satellite Missile Test (A-SAT) exemplary effort reflecting India’s ‘Mission Shakti’ from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam indigenous defence technology, the Defence Island in Odisha on March 27, 2019 and and Research Development Organisation made India join the select group of three chief said more than 50 industries nations (USA, Russia and China) participated in the mission contributing 200 possessing such capability. components to make the mission a success. http://pib.nic.in/ https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-s-a- PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1570135 sat-mission-planned-in-a-way-that-debris-will- decay-soon-drdo-chief-1555004214903.html India’s DRDO reveals additional details of recent ASAT missile test DRDO Defends ‘Shakti’ Test as Rahul Bedi, IHS Jane’s, April 8, 2019 Experts Say Indian ASAT Debris ‘Threatens All LEO Sats’ The Wire, Satheesh Reddy stated that the 13 m-high, April 06, 2019 three-stage interceptor missile, which was fitted with two solid-propellant rocket Against the backdrop of rising criticism from motor stages and a hit-to-kill capable ‘Kill space scientists, including the NASA Vehicle’ (KV), was employed to target the director, that the Indian anti-satellite (ASAT) satellite under ‘Mission Shakti’ (Strength). test last month had generated debris which is a menace in space, India fielded its top He said the KV’s onboard advanced defence scientist to clear the air and provide terminal guidance system, which featured more information about the mission. a strap-down (non-gimballed) imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and an inertial In a press conference on Saturday, Satheesh navigation system that used ring-laser Reddy, chairman of the Defence Research gyroscopes (RLGs), detected and tracked and Development Organisation (DRDO), the 740 kg Microsat-R Earth observation disclosed further technical details of Mission satellite at an altitude of 283 km in low- Shakti, conducted on March 27, saying that Earth orbit (LEO).The DRDO-designed it had been carefully planned to minimise satellite had been specially launched by the the amount of debris generated. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) two months earlier for the ASAT https://thewire.in/space/drdo-defends-shakti-test- missile test, which had been under as-experts-say-indian-asat-debris-threatens-all-leo- planning since 2016 and had also sats undergone numerous simulation trials.

Strategic Experts and Technocrats https://www.janes.com/article/87788/india-s- Deliberate on “Mission Shakti” PIB drdo-reveals-additional-details-of-recent-asat- missile-test Delhi, April 06, 2019 A special interaction session was organized STRATCOM’s Hyten Calls For by Defence Research and Development Space Rules After India’s ASAT Organisation (DRDO), here today to present Test: Update Colin Clark andTheresa first-hand account of the mission details, Hitchens, Breaking Defence, April 09, 2019 development milestones including technological aspects of Mission Shakti. For the first time, the United States is Many eminent serving/retired strategic sharing its space war plans, known as experts, technocrats, diplomats, top brass of Olympic Defender, with a small number of Armed forces, Scientific fraternity across allies, says the head of Strategic Command. 10 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Gen. John Hyten told us in a Monday In unprecedented support, US evening interview that a new version of the defends India’s space weapons plan was published “last December,” he said. test saying it understands New “Everything that is in that plan can be Delhi’s concerns Chidanand Rajghatta, looked at by our allies.” (There are other space plans not included in Olympic The Times of India, April 13, 2019 Defender that aren’t being shared). US expressed unprecedented support for New Delhi’s security concern while https://breakingdefense.com/2019/04/stratcoms- defending its recent space weapons test hyten-calls-for-space-rules-after-indias-asat-test/ Administrations spanning both Democrats and Republicans have been leery of any US space command general defends significant advance by New Delhi in the India’s ASAT, senator adds to military technology realm. justification Yashwant Raj, Hindustan A hearing of the powerful US Senate Times, April 12, 2019 Armed Services Committee on the US defense department on Thursday told proposal to establish a United States Space lawmakers that India conducted an anti- Force was the forum for lawmakers and satellite test because “they are concerned defence officials to voice understanding of about threats to their nation from space”, India’s compulsions in going in for an anti- adding to growing support and acceptance satellite test while seeking to establish of a development that raised concerns in global space norms and protocol that some quarters about the spatial debris it left would include New Delhi. behind.”The first lesson form the Indian https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/in- ASAT is a simple question — why they do unprecedented-support-us-defends-indias-space- they do that,” General John Hyten, head of weapons-test-saying-it-understands-new-delhis- the US strategic command, said in response concerns/articleshow/68852883.cms to a question at a congressional hearing about Space Force, a newly created wing of US B. India military favored by President Donald Trump. India to buy 464 Russian tanks in https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us- £1.5bn deal The Times, April 09, 2019 space-command-general-defends-india-s-asat- senator-adds-to-justification/story- India is to buy more than 450 tanks from yFgIbGAaaDI3PCh7JStoXK.html Russia in a £1.5 billion deal that underlines its status as ’s biggest arms Indian Satellite’s Pieces Unlikely to customer. The purchase of the tanks, which are expected to equip ten armoured Collide With ISS - Russian Space regiments, was approved by India’s cabinet Agency by Staff Writers Moscow, Space committee on security, Jane’s reported, Daily, April 12, 2019 citing officials. The committee is headed by Narendra Modi, the prime minister. The likelihood of a collision between pieces of a destroyed Indian satellite and the A contract is expected to be signed for International Space Station (ISS) is not high delivery of the T-90MS main battle tanks but some of these parts are small and hard within the next few months. to track, Sergey Krikalev, director of manned spaceflight at Russian State Space https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/india-to-buy- Corporation Roscosmos said in an interview 464-russian-tanks-in-1-5bn-deal-j78qd02mr with Sputnik on Thursday. “Not all these pieces are possible to track. The reflectivity India’s once booming technology of the small ones is low, so, probably, it is industry is falling behind Robin impossible [to track them]. Pagnamenta, The Telegraph, April 11, 2019

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ From the remote, jungle-fringed Andaman Indian_Satellites_Pieces_Unlikely_to_Collide_With_ISS___Russian_Space_Agency_999.html and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal 11 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

to the giant interior states of Bihar and Uttar 400 missile defence system for $5.2 billion, Pradesh, hundreds of millions of Indians will the minister said in an interview this week. today begin casting their votes in the biggest democratic election in history. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the deal with Russian President As he blazes across the country on the in October, defying US campaign trail, the man at the centre of it warnings of sanctions on countries buying all – Narendra Modi, who is seeking Russian military equipment. The sanctions reelection after five years in his plush prime were part of measures to punish Moscow ministerial residence on Delhi’s Racecourse for its actions in Ukraine in 2014. Road – likes to position India as an emerging hi-tech powerhouse. http://www.spacewar.com/afp/ 190413031927.mweod1ay.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/04/ 11/indias-booming-technology-industry-falling- Modi says India undermined behind/ Pakistan nuclear threat Space War, April 14, 2019 Iran oil imports up 5 percent despite U.S. sanctions - sources Reuters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said April 12, 2019 Sunday that India had called Pakistan’s nuclear bluff in recent cross-border air India imported about 5 percent more oil strikes that almost triggered a new war from Iran in the last fiscal year through between the nuclear-armed rivals. Modi March as companies raised purchases ahead and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata of U.S. sanctions against Tehran from Party (BJP) have made national security November, preliminary tanker arrival data the focus of their campaign for a national obtained from shipping and industry sources election now being held.The prime showed. minister told an election rally that an air strike inside Pakistan in February had Despite Washington restricting India’s shown that warnings hostilities could purchases from Tehran, refiners shipped in escalate into nuclear conflict were false. about 479,500 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in 2018/19 compared with about http://www.spacewar.com/afp/ 458,000 bpd a year before, according to the 190414130153.t9ivw1zi.html data. The United States introduced sanctions in November but gave a six-month waiver India Did Major Damage to a New to eight nations, including India, which $3 Billion Submarine By Leaving a allowed them to import some Iranian oil. Hatch Open The National Interest Blog, India was allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil until early May. April 13, 2019 The modern submarine is not a simple https://in.reuters.com/article/india-iran-oil/indias- machine. A loss of propulsion, unexpected 2018-19-iran-oil-imports-up-5-percent-despite- us-sanctions-sources-idINKCN1RO1FS flooding, or trouble with reactors or weapons can doom a sub crew to a watery India hopes to avoid US sanctions grave. Also, it’s a good idea to, like, close the hatches before you dive. Call it a lesson over Russian missile deal Space War, learned for the Indian navy, which April 13, 2019 managed to put the country’s first nuclear- India is hopeful it will avoid US sanctions missile submarine, the $2.9 billion INS over its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile Arihant, out of commission in the most system, Defence Minister Nirmala boneheaded way possible. Sitharaman said. New Delhi has been https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/india-did- “heard and understood” by the US major-damage-new-3-billion-submarine- administration over its accord to buy the S- leaving-hatch-open-52292 12 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

C. China a control station moved from the ground to space, experts explained. Nuclear plant approvals may resume after three-year pause: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/01/ analyst Global Times, April 01, 2019 WS5ca204eea3104842260b3c0f.html Construction work will start on more China’s Chang’e 4 probe wakes up, nuclear energy projects this year as China mission continues China Daily, pursues the development of nuclear energy April 01, 2019 technology on the premise of ensuring safety, officials said at a forum in Beijing on The rover and the lander of the Chang’e 4 Monday.The comments indicate that the probe have been awakened after the third government could grant approval to new “sleep” on the far side of the Moon, said nuclear reactors in 2019 after a three-year China National Space Administration on hiatus, putting the development of China’s Saturday. The lander awoke at 6:14 pm third-generation nuclear technology on a on Saturday, and the platform was in fast track, analysts said. normal condition. Earlier, the rover 2 woke up at 8:28 pm on Friday. The China has the world’s largest number of lander and the rover will carry out nuclear reactors. The country has 45 nuclear planned work during the fourth lunar reactors in operation with an installed daytime, continuing scientific exploration. capacity of 45.895 million kilowatts and 11 more under construction, said Liu Hua, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/01/ director of the National Nuclear Safety WS5ca17758a3104842260b3a80.html Administration and vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. China launches new data relay satellite China Daily, April 01, 2019 http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/ 1144278.shtml China sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch China’s new relay satellite to help Center in southwest China’s Sichuan video calls possible with space Province late Sunday night. The Tianlian station China Daily, April 01, 2019 II-01 satellite was launched at 11:51 p.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-3B carrier A new relay satellite launched late Sunday rocket. As the first satellite to constitute night will allow video calls to be made China’s second-generation data relay between China’s future space station and satellite network, the Tianlian II-01 will the ground and provide data transmission provide data relay, measurement and and control services for various spacecraft. control, transmission services for manned The Tianlian II-01 satellite was sent into orbit spacecraft, satellites, carrier rockets and at an altitude of 36,000 km by a Long other non-spacecraft users. March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/01/ China’s Sichuan province on Sunday. WS5ca0f3c4a3104842260b3858.html

The satellite, developed by the China China expected to miss target for Academy of Space Technology (CAST) 2020 nuclear capacity South China under the China Aerospace Science and Morning Post, April 02, 2019 Technology Corporation, will provide data transmission services for satellites operating It is forecast to reach 53 gigawatts next on medium- and low-Earth orbit and year – below targeted 58GW. No new monitoring and control support for the approvals for reactors have been granted launch of spacecraft. A relay satellite, in past three years amid spiralling costs, regarded as the “satellite of satellites,” is like project delays and safety concerns. China 13 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

will fall short of its nuclear power generation parties in accordance with universally capacity target for 2020, according to a recognized rules, serving the common forecast from the China Electricity Council interests of majority countries. on Tuesday.Total nuclear capacity is expected to reach 53 gigawatts next year, http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/0402/c90000- below a target of 58GW, council vice- 9562822.html chairman Wei Shaofeng told the China Nuclear Energy Sustainable Development Chinese envoy calls on nuclear Forum in Beijing. weapon states to abandon Cold War mentality Yurou, Xinhua, China is the world’s third-biggest nuclear April 03, 2019 power producer by capacity, with 45.9GW installed by the end of 2018 and 11 units A Chinese UN envoy said on Tuesday that still under construction, but its reactor- nuclear weapon states should abandon the building programme has stalled since the Cold War mentality and zero-sum concept 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. with regard to nuclear disarmament. China’s Permanent Representative to the https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/ United Nations Ma Zhaoxu made the article/3004316/china-expected-miss-target-2020- remarks at a Security Council meeting on nuclear-capacity supporting the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) ahead of the 2020 Review Chinese president meets The Elders Conference. delegation People’s Daily Online April 02, 2019 Ma said nuclear weapon states should discard the nuclear deterrence policy President Xi Jinping on Monday met with based on the preemptive use of nuclear The Elders delegation, led by its chair, former weapons and diminish the role played by president of Ireland Mary Robinson, in the nuclear weapons in their national security Great Hall of the People. During their policies. In particular, he said China calls meeting, Xi said the world today was facing on Russia and the United States to unprecedented changes, while the prospect continue to resolve their differences of international cooperation, as well as through negotiations and consultations, solutions to global challenges and the future return to the compliance with the of human society were being thought on by obligations of the Intermediate-Range more and more insightful people. Nuclear Forces Treaty as soon as possible, and explore the extension of the current At present, many countries have felt U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty. pressure and worries from the impact of unilateralism, but the voice of the They expressed their readiness to work international community in support of together and join efforts to achieve a multilateralism has remained the dominant successful outcome at the 2020 review force.It is important to ensure that existing conference. multilateral processes do not stall and what has been achieved is not reversed, Xi said, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/03/ reiterating China’s commitment in c_137945052.htm maintaining international nuclear non- proliferation regime and strengthening China’s commercial carrier rocket international cooperation on climate change finishes engine test China Daily, and other multilateral agendas.”China April 03, 2019 always holds an open attitude towards the reform of multilateral institutions,” Xi said, China’s first carrier rocket for commercial stressing that the reform should be discussed use, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has by all the relevant countries and finished its engine test, paving way for its accommodate the legitimate concerns of all maiden flight in the first half of 2019, 14 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

according to the China Academy of Launch Goods from Japan’s nuclear-leak Vehicle Technology. The rocket is the first areas seized in South China Global member of the Dragon series commercial Times, April 04, 2019 carrier rockets family to be produced by CALT. It has a total length of 19.5 meters, a After an eight-year ban, radiation diameter of 1.2 meters and a takeoff weight contamination concerns about imports of 23.1 tonnes. It is capable of sending over from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear 150 kg payloads to the sun-synchronous disaster region still haven’t been eased in orbit at an altitude of 700 km. China. Local customs authorities in Maoming, South China’s Guangdong It took only six months to produce the rocket Province have seized imported goods from and 24 hours to prepare it for launch. It can Japanese nuclear disaster areas, including be used for launching both single satellite 1,682 units of snacks and 30 oral health and multiple satellites at the time. Besides products, domestic site chinanews.com the solid-propellant Smart Dragon rocket reported Tuesday. The goods, which were series, the CALT will also develop liquid- imported through cross-border e- propellant commercial rockets with larger commerce platforms, have been sent back payloads. to Japan by the Maoming customs, according to the report. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/03/ WS5ca45abda3104842260b433a.html China has banned imports of many Japanese food products since March 2011 China sends new naval destroyer due to radiation contamination concerns fleet to Somali waters for escort after a nuclear leak disaster in Japan’s mission Global Times, April 04, 2019 Fukushima prefecture, according to a statement by China’s General China’s 32nd convoy fleet to the Gulf of Administration of Quality Supervision, Aden and Somali waters set sail from a Inspection and Quarantine. Products military port in Zhoushan, East China’s originating in Japan’s nuclear-affected Zhejiang Province on Thursday, the People’s areas haven’t been totally eliminated from Liberation Army (PLA) Navy official China’s market by the ban, especially via WeChat account announced that same day. the thriving channels like e-commerce The naval fleet includes the guided missile platforms. destroyer Xi’an, the missile frigate Anyang and the Gaoyanghu, a comprehensive http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/ supply ship. This will be the first time that 1144605.shtml the Xi’an and Anyang have participated in an escort mission. In snub, U.S. won’t send warships or senior officials to Chinese One of the country’s new generation of self- developed Type-052C guided missile Navy’s 70th anniversary destroyers, the Xi’an, which entered into celebrations Jesse Johnson, Japan Times, service in February 2015, possesses over-the- April 05, 2019 horizon strike capability at sea. The Anyang, The United States has decided not to send a domestically developed frigate, entered warships or senior military officers to into service in April 2018 and is capable of celebrations marking the 70th anniversary attacking surface ships and submarines of the founding of China’s People’s alone or in conjunction with other naval Liberation Army Navy later this month, a forces. It also has strong long-range alert and snub by Washington even as U.S. allies air defense capabilities. It is part of China’s Japan and South Korea are expected to new generation of main combat ships. send their own vessels and officials. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/ China’s Defense Ministry announced last 1144634.shtml week that more than 60 countries will send naval delegations to participate in a 15 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

multinational event on April 23. This will Rainbow-4 drone finishes test include a fleet review inspection featuring flight China Daily, April 08, 2019 naval vessels from a number of countries such as South Korea, the Philippines and A drone called Rainbow-4 finished its Japan. geographical exploration test flight in Northwest China recently, according to China The PLA Navy, which has faced growing Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics. The international scrutiny over its moves in the test flight result shows that the drone has high South and East China seas in recent years, speed and efficiency covering a large is using this year’s anniversary to reach out probing area in short time. It can also cope to its counterparts across the globe to present with limits of the terrain and weather, as a friendlier image. But the U.S. snub, well as provide information for geological apparently made out of concerns that China structures analysis and prospecting.The test could have used the presence of American flight was considered as a solid foundation warships to bolster its international for the Rainbow-4 drone conducting standing, is expected to put a damper on probing missions in future. any propaganda victory by Beijing. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/08/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/05/ WS5caae2eaa3104842260b4ead.html asia-pacific/snub-u-s-wont-sent-warships-top- officials-chinese-navys-70th-anniversary-celebra- China’s rocket-carrying ships tions/#.XLQYyugvO7h complete maintenance China Daily, April 09, 2019 Chinese scientists discover infrared China’s two rocket-carrying ships have stealth material China Daily, recently completed their first medium April 08, 2019 maintenance after trail voyages, preparing Chinese scientists have found a material that for future missions. Docked at a port in East can hide a hot object from heat-sensing China’s Jiangsu Province, Yuanwang-21 infrared cameras, according to Suzhou and Yuanwang-22 are the country’s first Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics cargo ships designed to pick up and (SINANO). Hiding an object from thermal transport Long March rockets. According cameras could be useful for military and to Cao Zhiyi, head of the fleet, the ship technology applications as well as for maintenance has greatly improved the research. The team led by Zhang Xuetong power system and safety performance and in SINANO with Chinese Academy of strengthened the reliability and operability Sciences found a flexible, foldable and robust of onboard equipment. film that can achieve infrared stealth. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/09/ The researchers fabricated an aerogel film WS5cac6440a3104842260b53b7.html with good thermal insulation performance China’s lunar rover travels over and enhanced it by coating its fibers with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a protective 170 meters on moon’s far side China waterproof layer. PEG stores heat when it Daily, April 10, 2019 melts and releases heat when it solidifies. In China’s lunar rover has driven 170.92 simulated sunlight, the composite film meters on the far side of the moon to covering an object soaked up heat from the conduct scientific exploration on the virgin sun while only slowly increasing in territory. The rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit- temperature, just like the surroundings, 2, took a “noon break” from April 2 to making the object invisible to a thermal April 8, as the temperatures on the moon camera. were extremely high, and continued its exploration, according to the Lunar http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/08/ Exploration and Space Program Center of WS5cab0974a3104842260b4fcc.html the China National Space Administration. 16 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

The rover was sent to the Von Karman China, EU commit to making Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the progress on investment pact Cao far side of the moon on Jan 3 for the Chang’e- Desheng iand Chen Weihua, China Daily 4 mission. It has worked longer than its April 11, 2019 three-month design life. As a result of the tidal locking effect, the moon’s revolution China and the European Union have cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, and committed to achieving major progress the same side always faces the Earth. this year in negotiations for a high-level bilateral investment agreement, with a Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant view to concluding the ambitious accord debugging approved By Zheng Xin, next year, according to a joint statement. China Daily, April 10, 2019 The two sides pledged to widen market access, eliminate discriminatory The National Nuclear Safety Administration requirements for foreign investors and approved Monday the debugging of two units establish a balanced investment protection in Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant in Fuzhou, framework, according to a joint statement Fujian province. The two units, units five and issued after the China-EU leaders’ meeting six, use Hualong One technology, a domestically held in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday. developed, third-generation reactor design, jointly designed by two domestic nuclear The Chinese and EU leaders also worked power giants, China General Nuclear Power on coordinating their positions on regional Group and China National Nuclear and international hot spot issues such as Corporation. This move comes after the the Iran nuclear issue, the Korean Ministry of Ecology and Environment on April Peninsula nuclear issue and the Venezuela 4 released the operating license for units one situation. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu and two of Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. Kang said on Wednesday that the joint statement demonstrates that dialogue and Taishan Nuclear Power Plant is the largest consultations can help resolve differences cooperation project between China and between China and the EU. It displays the France in the energy sector, with two 1750- high level of the China-EU comprehensive megawatt EPR units in its first phase of strategic partnership, the unity and construction. The first reactor completed a cooperation between the two sides as well 168-hour trial run last year, putting it on as the spirit of win-win and mutual benefit, course to become the world’s first Lu said at a regular news conference. commercial nuclear reactor using third- generation EPR technology. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/global/2019-04/ 11/content_37457132.htm http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/10/ WS5cadaa36a3104842260b56c4.html Energy demand growth set to China opens fourth border crossing decline by 2040 Zheng Xin, China with North Korea, complete with Daily, April 11, 2019 radiation detectors Japan Times,April China’s energy demand growth is 10, 2019 expected to slow to 1.1 percent per annum A Chinese city has opened a new border by 2040, less than one fifth of its pace in crossing with North Korea—fitted with the last 22 years of 5.9 percent per annum, radiation detectors—even as talks between according to the BP Energy Outlook 2019. Washington and Pyongyang have This is against the backdrop that much of languished over disagreements for nuclear the increase of energy demand will be sanctions relief. concentrated in developing Asia including India and China, where rising prosperity https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/10/ and improving living standards will asia-pacific/china-opens-fourth-border-crossing-north- support increased energy consumption korea-complete-radiation-detectors/#.XLQuBegvO7g per head. Analysts believe the slowdown 17 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

reflects the fact that the Chinese economy is time caused by violent cosmic events, such shifting from the energy intensive industry as colliding black holes, supernovas and to service industries with lower energy even the birth of the universe. intensity. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/12/ According to Joseph Jacobelli, an WS5cafc70fa3104842260b5bb8.html independent energy analyst and Asia-Pacific CEO of clean energy producer Joule Power, D. Pakistan the annual energy demand forecast of 1.1 percent on average through 2040 by BP Pak expresses ‘deep concern’ over economists is sensible and realistic. space debris generated by India’s ASAT test Livemint, April 3, 2019 http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/11/ WS5cae7ec9a3104842260b5802.html Pakistan on Tuesday expressed “deep concern” over the assessment of China’s unmanned submersible international experts on the threats bears fruit in Indian Ocean mission resulting from space debris generated by the recently conducted Anti-Satellite China Daily, April 12, 2019 missile (ASAT) test by India. On March China’s unmanned submersible “Hailong 27, India achieved a historic feat by III” has collected various biological and shooting down its own low-orbit satellite geological samples in the southwest Indian with a ground-to-space missile, making Ocean. The First Institute of Oceanography the country a space power. Only three said Thursday that Hailong III, carried by other countries — the US, Russia and its mothership Dayang Yihao (Ocean No.1), China — have ASAT capabilities. is executing its 52nd voyage in the southwest India Ocean.The submersible recently https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/pak- expresses-deep-concern-over-space-debris-gener- completed three dive operations in a ated-by-india-s-asat-test-1554231426101.html hydrothermal area of the mid-ocean ridge in four days, with the longest near-bottom observation lasting six hours. Pakistan Summons Delhi Envoy in protest against any possible http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/12/ ‘misadventure’ Reuters, April 7, 2019 WS5cb036d5a3104842260b5e65.html Pakistan, warning of a possible new attack China-led project expected to by giant neighbor India, said on Sunday it had summoned the Indian deputy high enhance space research Zhou Wenting, commissioner to protest against any China Daily, April 12, 2019 “misadventure”. “Indian deputy high The ongoing China-led international commissioner was summoned for collaboration project Tianqin, a space-based demarche in line with Foreign Minister’s gravitational wave detection system briefing of today and warned against any scheduled to be completed by 2035, is misadventure,” Pakistani Foreign Office expected to significantly improve spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a understanding of major cosmic phenomena, Tweet. Pakistan had “reliable intelligence” including black holes, scientists said. Tianqin that India would attack again this month, uses the Chinese words tian, meaning sky Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi or heavens, and qin, meaning stringed said earlier, as tension over a February musical instrument. standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbors had appeared to ease. It will consist of three satellites forming an equilateral triangle around Earth at an orbit https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir- of 100,000 kilometers. Tianqin will work to pakistan-diplomat/pakistan-summons-delhi- detect gravitational waves, which scientists envoy-in-protest-against-any-possible-misad- venture-idINKCN1RJ0GM theorize are ripples in the fabric of space- 18 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Balakot air strike: Pakistan shows made its state institutions capable of off disputed site on eve of India organising international training programs election BBC, April 10, 2019 for the national security. To evaluate and build on the protocols and mechanisms in The authorities in Pakistan have allowed place, the Pakistan Center of Excellence in foreign media and defence attachés to visit Nuclear Security (PCENS) organised a the site of a disputed Indian air strike in workshop in collaboration with the February. They were given access to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Islamic school in Balakot, where Indian media say militants were killed in retaliation https://tribune.com.pk/story/1949427/1- for an attack in Kashmir. The large building foolproof-nuclear-security-mechanisms-place-fo/ appeared to be fully intact and the Pakistani army denied it had been used as a terror Pakistan launches guidelines for camp. Pakistan and India have been UNSC 1267 sanctions engaged in an information war over the implementation Mariana Baabar, The Balakot site, where Pakistan says the bombs News International, April 13, 2019 on 26 February landed in an empty area and hurt no-one. Keeping in view that Pakistan has to be mindful of fulfilling its international legal https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47882354 obligations, including the implementation of the United Nations Security Council India Pakistan CONFLICT: Imran sanctions which have been adopted under Khan issues India nuclear Chapter VII of the UN Charter, it launched WARNING – ‘no one can predict’ “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Alessandra Scotto Di Santolo, The Express, UNSC 1267 Sanctions” on Friday. As April 10, 2019 Pakistan comes to grips with terrorism, the government says it is important to further Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan consolidate these gains through full issued a dire warning to his neighbouring implementation of the National Action country as he branded India’s attack on his Plan (NAP). “nuclear-armed” country as “irresponsible” and warned Pakistan “would have no https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/457294- choice” but to strike back in the future. Imran pakistan-launches-guidelines-for-unsc-1267- Khan called on his Indian counterpart to come sanctions-implementation to a peaceful dialogue over the “oppression of Kashmir” and claimed the number one Modi claims India undermined priority for the two nations should be Pakistan ‘nuclear threat’ The News tackling poverty. He said: “Surely the International, April 15, 2019 number one task of the two governments should be: how are we going to reduce Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said poverty? And the way we reduce poverty is Sunday that India had called Pakistan´s by settling our differences through dialogue. nuclear threat in recent cross-border air strikes that almost triggered a new war https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1112264/ between the nuclear-armed rivals. Modi India-Pakistan-news-Kashmir-Imran-Khan- and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata nuclear-weapons-india-election Party (BJP) have made national security the focus of their campaign for a national Foolproof nuclear security election now being held. The prime mechanisms in place: FO Khalid minister told an election rally that an air Mehmood, The Express Tribune, April 12,2019 strike inside Pakistan in February had shown that warnings hostilities could The Foreign office has said that as a escalate into nuclear conflict were false. responsible nuclear power, Pakistan has established the most effective nuclear https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/457982-modi- security system in the world and has also claims-india-undermined-pakistan-nuclear-threat 19 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

E. US The U.S. Military Wants to Kill Nuclear-Armed ICBMs with 4 Things to Know About the U.S. Lasers Kris Osborn, National Interest Nuclear Deterrence Strategy C Todd Blog, April 2, 2019 Lopez, US Department of Defence, April 1, 2019 The Missile Defense Agency is engineering air-launched, high-powered, long-range U.S. military leaders went before lawmakers laser weapons to destroy attacking to emphasize a handful of critical, but nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic immensely important points about Missiles during launch and even as they America’s nuclear weapons capabilities. travel through space — bringing new Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. levels of offensive and defensive layered Shanahan and Marine Corps Gen. Joe firepower to existing missile defense Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs technologies. The Pentagon is, as an initial of Staff, testified at a House Armed Services phase, looking at “laser scaling” to Committee hearing. David Trachtenberg, integrate enough laser energy and power deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, to “burn a hole through the metal” of an spoke before the HASC strategic forces ICBM, US military officials say. subcommittee. The fiscal year 2020 budget request from President Donald J. Trump https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-military- was the impetus for both hearings, but wants-kill-nuclear-armed-icbms-lasers-50377 America’s nuclear defense strategy was clearly important to lawmakers on both Could a U.S.-Russian Deployment days. Ban Avoid a Nuclear Arms Race in Europe? National Interest, April 2, 2019 https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/ 1801797/4-things-to-know-about-the-us-nuclear- The Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) deterrence-strategy/ Treaty expires in August when the American decision to withdraw takes US public opinion evenly split on effect. This will give Washington and nuclear World Nuclear News, April 1, 2019 Moscow free reign to develop and deploy land-based, intermediate-range missile The US public is evenly divided on nuclear (IRM) systems for the first time in more with 49% in favour of using it as a power than three decades. Nuclear doves hope source and 49% opposing its use, a poll by for a last-minute reprieve to preserve the analytics company Gallup has found. Over gains of disarmament, while nuclear the long term, public views on the use of hawks welcome the chance to close a gap nuclear energy in the US seem to fluctuate that the treaty has imposed on U.S. nuclear in reaction to domestic energy prices. capabilities. Yet almost everyone agrees Questions on nuclear were posed as part of that, for better or worse, the demise of the Gallup’s annual environment poll, INF Treaty could herald the start of a new conducted on 1-10 March, which was based nuclear arms race in Europe and beyond. on a random sample of 1039 adults from all 50 US states plus the District of Columbia. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/could-us- A total of 17% were found to strongly favour russian-deployment-ban-avoid-nuclear-arms- nuclear as a US power source, with 32% race-europe-50457 somewhat in favour, while 28% were somewhat opposed and 21% were strongly Knowing when to walk: What is opposed. the best alternative to a formal US-Saudi nuclear agreement? Eric http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/US- Brewer, Bulletin of Atomic Sciences, April public-opinion-evenly-split-on-nuclear 13, 2019 For years, Washington has been working to finalize a deal with Riyadh in regard to 20 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Saudi Arabia’s planned nuclear energy U.S. test nuclear reactor may run program. Although negotiations for this up to 40 percent over cost: deal—known as a “123 agreement,” which document Timothy Gardner, Reuters, is legally required if the United States wants April 5, 2019 to transfer key nuclear technologies to any country—are continuing, there doesn’t The flagship of the Trump administration’s appear to be a light at the end of this tunnel. advanced nuclear power research Indeed, it may be getting darker. program could cost up to 40 percent more than a government official estimated Thus far, the Kingdom has resisted US earlier this year, a U.S. Department of requests for added transparency measures Energy document shows. Energy and constraints on Saudi Arabia’s ability to Secretary Rick Perry has tried to breathe enrich and reprocess nuclear material life into the country’s nuclear power (known as “ENR” capabilities), which can industry, which is suffering in the face of be used in creating fuel for nuclear power competition from plants burning cheap plants, but are also critical for creating the natural gas as well as falling costs for wind highly enriched uranium or plutonium used and solar power. The VTR would let U.S. in nuclear weapons. Moreover, increasing companies conduct advanced technology congressional scrutiny of Saudi Arabia— and fuels tests without having to go to including the administration’s nuclear competitors in Russia and China, Perry dealings with the Kingdom—means that said. Meant to be built by late 2025, it there is a real risk that an agreement that would be the first new nuclear test reactor meets the minimum legal threshold would built by the Energy Department, or DOE, not survive Congress. in many decades.

https://thebulletin.org/2019/04/knowing-when-to- https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump- walk-what-is-the-best-alternative-to-a-formal-us- nuclearpower/u-s-test-nuclear-reactor-may-run- saudi-nuclear-agreement/ 40-percent-over-cost-government-document- idINKCN1RG315 US Senate committee confirms Abizaid as Ambassador to Saudi U.S. Nuclear-Armed Sub May Cost Arabia Joyce Karam, The National, April 4, More Than Navy Says, GAO 2019 Warns Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg, The US Senate foreign relations committee April 8, 2019 on Wednesday confirmed that retired The U.S. Navy may have to ask Congress general John Abizaid will be the first to boost funding in fiscal 2021 to buy the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia in first in its new 12-ship fleet of nuclear- more than two years. armed submarines because of unreliable cost estimates, according to congressional Washington and Riyadh have finalised a auditors. The service’s current THAAD ballistic missile defence deal. The procurement cost estimate and design goal US energy department is also discussing are suspect and require updates before nuclear power co-operation with Saudi those dollars are approved, the Arabia, and is seeking Riyadh’s help in Government Accountability Office said in launching the Middle East Strategic Alliance, a report issued Monday. The submarine also called the Arab Nato. also continues to have problems first https://www.thenational.ae/world/the-americas/ identified in 2017 with the vessel’s power us-senate-committee-confirms-abizaid-as-ambassa- system. dor-to-saudi-arabia-1.844822 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019- 04-08/u-s-nuclear-armed-sub-may-cost-more- than-navy-says-gao-warns 21 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Fresh U.S. Divide on Iran Emerges importance of nuclear talks with North Over Expiring Nuclear Waivers Nick Korea, but the two leaders aren’t Wadhams, Bloomberg, April 11, 2019 completely aligned on whether sanctions will pressure Kim Jong Un to give up his A fresh divide is emerging between some nuclear weapons or drive him away from Trump administration officials and hard-line the negotiating table. Trump, in his first opponents of Iran in the Senate over how meeting with Moon since the unsuccessful far to go in the White House’s “maximum U.S. summitwith Kim in Hanoi, said the pressure” campaign against the Islamic U.S. wants to keep economic sanctions in Republic. In a letter to President Donald place to pressure Kim to denuclearize. But Trump this week, a group of Republican Trump said he retains good relations with senators demanded that Secretary of State Kim and didn’t rule out a third summit or Michael Pompeo stop letting Iran continue taking steps to ease food or other shortages its limited civilian nuclear research program. in the repressive nation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/trump- 04-11/fresh-u-s-divide-on-iran-emerges-over- south-korea-leader-mull-next-steps-in-nuclear- expiring-nuclear-waivers talks

Hypersonic weapons to play no part U.S. Senate bill to mandate in U.S. nuclear deterrence, says U.S. disclosure of nuclear power Strategic Command chief Military and approvals involving other nations Aerospace, April 11, 2019 Timothy Gardner, Reuters, April 11, 2019 Last week, Army Space and Missile A bipartisan group of U.S. senators will Command chief Lieutenant General James introduce legislation on Wednesday Dickinson said in congressional testimony mandating that the executive branch that the U.S. armed forces were planning disclose details about authorizations it five test programs on hypersonic weapons gives companies on sharing sensitive systems in the Marshall Islands in the central nuclear energy information with countries Pacific Ocean. Space War reports. Continue looking to build reactors. Lawmakers have reading original article criticized the Trump administration for issuing seven so-called Part 810 The United States is moving quickly to authorizations to companies on sharing develop hypersonic weapons just as Russia nuclear power information with Saudi and China are doing, U.S. Strategic Arabia and withholding information Command Commander Gen. John Hyten about them. They want to ensure the told reporters on the sidelines of a space kingdom eventually agrees to strong forum in Colorado on Tuesday. “Russia and nuclear power safeguards on uranium China are going really fast in hypersonics enrichment and reprocessing to avoid the right now, we’re going to move fast to make risk of an arms race in the Middle East. sure we can do that,” Hyten said. The official also noted that the U.S. had no https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-saudi- intention to use hypersonic weapons in nuclearpower/us-senate-bill-to-mandate- its nuclear deterrence force. disclosure-of-nuclear-power-approvals-involv- ing-other-nations-idUSL1N21S1EF https://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/pt/2019/ 04/hypersonic-weapons-nuclear-deterrence.html Will Congress Let Trump Build More Nuclear Weapons? Lara Trump, South Korea leader mull Seligman, Foreign Policy, April 11, 2019 next steps in nuclear talks PBS, April President Donald Trump’s plan to expand 11, 2019 America’s nuclear arsenal is encountering President Donald Trump and South Korea’s sharp opposition in the Democratic House Moon Jae-in agreed Thursday on the of Representatives, with critics saying the 22 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

administration is creating unnecessary risks Trump Budget Boosts Nuclear to world peace—particularly by adding new Efforts Kingston Reif, Arms Control tactical nuclear weapons that can be used Association, April 2019 in a conventional war. The debate is potentially set to come to a head in June, The budget submission illustrates the rising when the House will begin marking up the cost of the nuclear mission and the annual defense policy bill. challenge those expenses may pose to the administration’s other national security https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/11/will-congress- priorities. A Congressional Budget Office let-trump-expand-americas-nuclear-arsenal/ report in February estimates that the United States will spend $494 billion on Trump Backs Third Summit With nuclear weapons from fiscal years 2019 Kim, Says Relations Very Good Sohee through 2028. That is an increase of $94 Kim, Jihye Lee and Nick Wadhams , billion, or 23 percent, from the CBO’s Bloomberg Quint, April 13 2019 previous 10-year estimate of $400 billion, which was published in January 2017. resident Donald Trump said relations with (See ACT, March 2019.) Kim Jong Un remain “very good” and he opened the door Saturday for a third https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-04/news/ summit, hours after the North Korean leader trump-budget-boosts-nuclear-efforts said he’s willing to meet as long as the U.S. offers acceptable terms for a deal by year Where will the nuclear waste go end. “I agree with Kim Jong Un of North after Three Mile Island shuts Korea that our personal relationship remains down? Andrew Maykuth, The Enquirer very good, perhaps the term excellent would Philly News, April 14, 2019 be even more accurate “ Trump said Saturday in a tweet. “A third Summit would After the infamous Three Mile Island be good in that we fully understand where nuclear accident 40 years ago, most of the we each stand.” reactor’s partially melted uranium fuel was hauled away to the Idaho National https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/kim- Lab, where the radioactive waste now jong-un-gives-u-s-until-end-of-year-to-strike- slowly decays in steel and concrete nuclear-deal containers, awaiting long-term disposal.

US Democratic Senators Urge But the formal decommissioning of the Trump to Extend Nuclear Treaty damaged Unit 2 reactor near Harrisburg, with Russia Sputnik, April 13, 2019 site of America’s worst commercial nuclear disaster, has not yet really begun. The New START pact that limits the US and Its owner, FirstEnergy Corp., has said that Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,550 warheads the plant would remain dormant until the each is set to expire in 2021. Twenty-four surviving reactor, owned by a different Democratic US Senators wrote a letter to US company, shuts down. President Donald Trump on Friday, urging him to extend the nuclear arms treaty with https://www.philly.com/business/what-hap- Russia, which will expire in two years, The pened-to-three-mile-island-nuclear-waste-after- Hill reports. “We write to urge your the-accident-20190414.html administration to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with U.S.S. Thresher and Scorpion - The Russia for another five years in order to U.S.’s Lost Nuclear Submarines ensure that the United States can continue Marcia Wendorf, Interesting Engineers, to enjoy the treaty’s clear national security April, 14 2019 benefits over this period,” On April 10, 1963, the nuclear powered https://sputniknews.com/us/201904131074091892- attack submarine, USS Thresher, was new-start-renewal-lawmakers-letter/ undergoing deep-diving tests 220 miles 23 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

(350 km) east of the city of Boston, advice on how to create refuge shelters Massachusetts. At that time, Thresher was under stairs and tables, and knock up the fastest and quietest submarine in the temporary toilets from a chair and bucket. world, and had the most advanced weapons “We want people to think, ‘how would I system. Thresher was built to find and have coped if the worst had happened?’,” destroy Soviet submarines, and she was said Mark Dunton, the curator of the outfitted with a new sonar system that could Protect and Survive exhibition, part of the detect other vessels at a much greater National Archive’s Britain’s Cold War distance. She was also equipped with the Revealed season. U.S. Navy’s newest anti-submarine missile, the SUBROC. The UUM-44 SUBROC Documents, posters, photographs and (SUBmarine ROCket) was a type of newsreels on display reveal how, in the submarine-launched rocket deployed as an corridors of power and in hidden anti-submarine weapon. It carried a 5 government bunkers, contingency plans kiloton nuclear warhead. were hatched during an era of great political turbulence between 1945 and the https://interestingengineering.com/uss-thresher- collapse of the in 1991. The and-scorpion-the-uss-lost-nuclear-submarines iron curtain came down, the Berlin Wall went up, then fell, the Cuban missile crisis US Military, Lawmakers Say rocked the world, and the advent of the Communication with Russia atomic bomb raised the stakes to the Needed to Avert Nuclear War highest level possible. Documents from Sputnik, April 15, 2019 Wintex-Cimex, the Nato codename for the exercises designed to test the west’s According to a number of military officials, responses in the event of a nuclear strike, politicians and experts, a lack of show civil servants preparing for fictional communication between Moscow and scenarios. Washington could potentially devolve into a nuclear conflict. A number of US military https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/ officials have called for better apr/02/national-archives-cold-war-exhibition- communication with Russia over fears that secret-plans-queen-nuclear-address a lack thereof could result in a military conflict that can lead to a nuclear exchange. Roadmap needed for nuclear According to Scaparrotti, much more disarmament: German FM Mu intensive communication with Russia is Xuequan, Xinhua, April 3, 2019 needed. He personally met with the Russian chief of general staff, General Valery A roadmap is needed to get the world Gerasimov, only twice but had a number of back on track with nuclear disarmament, phone conversations during his service. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said here on Tuesday. Addressing the UN https://sputniknews.com/military/ Security Council session on Supporting the 201904151074131650-usa-russia-military- Non-Proliferation Treaty ahead of the communication-needed/ 2020 Review Conference, Maas said: “For all the successes we have achieved in F. Europe recent decades, we mustn’t fool ourselves. Ma’amageddon’: secret plans for The dismantling of the nuclear arsenals has Queen’s nuclear address revealed come to a standstill.” “Worse still, the impending loss of the INF Treaty The Gaurdian, April 2, 2019 (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces National Archives’ cold war exhibition Treaty) raises the prospects of a reversal - shows planned scenarios such as arrest of actual nuclear rearmament,” he said. The Michael Foot. In the apocalyptic event of a German minister said that “we need a nuclear strike on Britain, the government roadmap that will get us back on track offered householders make-do-and-mend with nuclear disarmament.” 24 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

“We need to take tangible steps towards emergency procedures, we made the strategic risk reduction,” he said, adding decision to release personnel from the DDC that more transparency on nuclear arsenals, earlier today. crisis-proof channels of communication and revived dialogue among the five permanent https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1112459/ members of the Security Council are needed nuclear-submarine-bomb-video-bae-systems- to achieve the goal.Maas said that the world barrow-shipyard-trident-dreadnought must strengthen and develop the architecture of nuclear arms IAEA Mission Says Germany Is control.”Whether in Europe, in Asia or Committed to Strengthening anywhere else, we cannot afford any more Safety, Sees Areas for Further shocks to our security and stability,” he said. Enhancement IAEA, April 12, 2019 http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/03/ An International Atomic Energy Agency c_137944528.htm (IAEA) team of experts said Germany is committed to strengthening its regulatory Switzerland postpones decision on framework for nuclear and radiation nuclear weapons treaty Mu Xuequan, safety. The team also noted areas for Xinhua, April 4, 2019 further enhancement. The Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) team on The Swiss government said Wednesday it 12 April concluded a two-week mission had postponed a decision on ratifying the to review the regulatory safety framework United Nations treaty banning nuclear in Germany. The mission was conducted weapons until 2020, rejecting calls from at the request of the Government of Parliament to sign the accord as it would Germany and hosted by the Federal like more time to reflect on it. The Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Council said in a statement that it is seeking Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). more time to reflect on Switzerland’s The team of senior nuclear and radiation accession to the Treaty on the Prohibition of safety experts also met with representatives Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and take stock of the Federal Office for the Safety of of the latest international developments and Nuclear Waste Management, Federal the security situation. “The Federal Council Office for Radiation Protection and is committed to disarmament, particularly authorities from seven state governments. in the area of nuclear weapons,” said the statement. Germany, which currently operates seven nuclear power reactors, aims to end http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/04/ commercial nuclear power operations by c_137947646.htm the end of 2022. The country has another 29 power reactors in permanent Astute nuclear submarine facility shutdown that will require dismantling Evacuated after bomb reports Freddie and decommissioning and has begun a Jordan, The Express UK, April 11, 2019 process to select a site for disposal of high level radioactive waste. Germany also Bae Systems, which runs the site in operates seven research reactors for Devonshire Dock, Cumbria, confirmed the research and medical isotope production. site had been closed on Wednesday. A BAR “Germany has demonstrated a strong systems spokeswoman said: “Following an commitment to nuclear and radiation extensive sweep of the Devonshire Dock safety during a period of significant Complex (DDC), including the four Astute transition,” said team leader Dan class submarines in build, nothing suspicious Dorman, Deputy Executive Director of the was found. We expect to be able to close the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the incident shortly. Our first priority is always United States. “This team has identified a the safety of employees, the site and local number of opportunities to clarify residents so, in accordance with our guidance within the regulatory framework 25 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

to promote efficiency and consistency while the program of the first launch day,” maintaining a high level of safety.” The final Energia said in a statement. mission report will be provided to the Government in about three months. The http://tass.com/science/1051473 Government plans to make the report public. US nuclear strikes ‘most https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/iaea- reasonable’ response if Russia mission-says-germany-is-committed-to-strength- invades, Polish ex-army chief says ening-safety-sees-areas-for-further-enhancement Russian Times, April 4, 2019 G. Russia War and soldiering were never far from the retired Polish army commander’s mind Russia installs operation simulator as he talked US nuclear strikes in response at Beloyarsk plant World Nuclear News, to Russia’s imaginary invasion and April 1, 2019 complained that NATO’s eastern The 789 MWe unit is fuelled by a mix of European buildup was not enough. uranium and plutonium oxides arranged to Waldemar Skrzypczak, who led Poland’s produce new fuel material as it burns. Its Land Forces until 2009, seems to have capacity exceeds that of the world’s second joined the chorus of the West’s most most powerful fast reactor - the 560 MWe belligerent military leaders who have BN-600 Beloyarsk 3. The simulator, which seized on the “Russian threat” to make “accurately replicates” the control panel of their case. Speaking to Wirtualna Polska, the BN-800, was installed in the training he claimed Poland has become a bulwark centre of the Beloyarsk plant, which is against the “aggression from the East.” located in Zaredskaya, in the Sverdlovsk It is likely to become a scene of potential region. It was developed by the Russian clashes between NATO and Russia, and Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plant this is why the alliance must realize that Operation (VNIIAES), its equipment was Poland “is an extremely important state manufactured by the Urals from a strategic point of view,” the high- Elektromechanical Plant, and the software ranked retiree insisted. by ENIKO TSO. https://www.rt.com/news/455555-poland- http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ nuclear-strike-russia/ Russia-installs-training-simulator-at-Beloyarsk-pl Chernobyl’s disastrous cover-up is Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket a warning for the next nuclear age with resupply ship installed at Kate Brown The Guardian, April 4, 2019 Baikonur spaceport TASS, April 01, 2019 In 1986, the Soviet minister of A source in the domestic space industry said hydrometeorology, Yuri Izrael, had a that the preparations for the rocket’s launch regrettable decision to make. It was his job would take one day more than usual at the to track radioactivity blowing from the cosmodrome. A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket smoking Chernobyl reactor in the hours with a Progress MS-11 resupply ship has after the 26 April explosion and deal with been installed at the launch pad of the it. Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation Forty-eight hours after the accident, an announced on Monday.”The Soyuz-2.1a assistant handed him a roughly drawn carrier rocket with the Progress MS-11 space map. On it, an arrow shot north-east from freighter has been taken from the assembly the nuclear power plant, and broadened and testing facility and installed at the to become a river of air 10 miles wide that launch pad of site No. 31 of the Baikonur was surging across Belarus toward Russia. Cosmodrome. Work has been started under If the slow-moving mass of radioactive 26 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

clouds reached Moscow, where a spring these pieces was the massive 406mm storm front was piling up, millions could be Soviet 2A3 “Kondensator.” But in the end, harmed. Izrael’s decision was easy. Make it this piece was a failure. It was rain. mechanically complex and obsolete by the time it was adopted. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ 2019/apr/04/chernobyl-nuclear-power-climate- https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/story- change-health-radioactivity how-russia-built-nuclear-bomb-cannons-crush- nato-51857 New generation satellites to join GLONASS system early 2020 TASS, Russia’s Hypersonic Ballistic April 09, 2019 Missile and Laser System in Final Tests, Putin Says The Moscow Times, New generation satellites will join the April 11, 2019 navigation system GLONASS at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020, the deputy Russia is entering the final testing phase CEO, deputy general designer for of its nuclear-armed intercontinental development and innovations of the JSC ballistic missile dubbed Satan-2, President M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Systems Yuri Vilkov has said. Russia announced plans in 2013 to http://tass.com/science/1052778 develop the ICBM to replace a Cold War standby known in the West as “Satan,” Top scientist proposes using nuclear or the RS-20B Voyevoda in Russia. Putin submarines to transport Russian gas unveiled Satan-2 with an array of other from the Arctic Russian Times, April 10, nuclear-capable weapons at his annual 2019 speech to both chambers of parliament in March 2018. Nuclear submarines could be loaded with liquefied natural gas from underwater https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/11/ deposits in the Arctic and used to transport russias-hypersonic-ballistic-missile-laser-system- it to energy hubs without even resurfacing, final-tests-putin-says-a65204 the head of Kurchatov Institute research center said. Such vehicles could pick up gas Putin Announces Arctic Expansion directly at the underwater deposits and Plans at International Forum – work in “shuttle mode” to deliver it to Highlights The Moscow Times, April 11, consumers, the doctor of sciences in physics 2019 and mathematics said. With Russia’s economy faltering under an https://www.rt.com/russia/456154-nuclear- onslaught of Western sanctions, Russian submarines-transport-gas-arctic/ President Vladimir Putin attended the 5th International Arctic Forum in St. The Story of How Russia Built Petersburg this week to promote the Nuclear Bomb Cannons To Crush resource-rich region’s development. NATO The National Interest Blog, April 10, Delegates discussed topics including the 2019 Northern Sea Route, Arctic shelf development, OPEC, the production and As a result, both the United States and the use of liquified natural gas (LNG), the brain Soviet Union developed a multitude of drain from Russia’s Arctic regions, the battlefield nukes, from the tiny Davy development of infrastructure in Arctic Crockett nuclear recoilless rifle to the M65 towns and ecotourism. Atomic Cannon. The Soviet Union responded in kind, beginning the https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/11/ development of their own massive atomic putin-announces-arctic-expansion-plans- howitzers and even mortars. The largest of international-forum-highlights-a65195 27 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Russia’s Most Powerful Nuclear process of physical launch yesterday after Missile Is In Final Testing Stage having received regulatory approval to do And These Other Weapons Are Also so, Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of state nuclear corporation On Their Way Tom Connor, The News Rosatom, has announced. The VVER-1200 Week, April 11, 2019 reactor was brought to the minimum Russia’s most powerful nuclear-capable controlled power level on 22 March. intercontinental ballistic missile has been Director of the plant, Vladimir Povarov, undergoing its final stage of testing, with said that obtaining a permit from other advanced weapons on the way and Rostechnadzor meant that preparation for some already in service. the physical start-up phase had been fully completed. At a promotion and award ceremony for senior officers on Thursday, Russian http://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ President Vladimir Putin hailed recent Novovoronezh-II-2-cleared-for-launch achievements of his military, especially in forwarding ambitious plans to develop Explainer: Russia’s Stealth Su-57 weapons said to be capable of overcoming Fighter Might Become a Nuclear existing and even prospective defense ‘Bomber’ Dave Majumdar, The National systems. He then revealed some of the latest Interest Blog, April 12, 2019 progress for these “modern powerful precision weapons that are determining and Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 PAK-FA fifth- will determine in the future the image of generation stealth fighter is listed in the Russia’s armed forces.” Trump Administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) as a developmental https://www.newsweek.com/russia-nuclear- dual conventional and nuclear capable missile-final-stage-1393795 strike aircraft. If the NPR is correct, the Su-57 could potentially supplant the Su- Defense Ministry improves 34 Fullback bomber—which is Russia’s infrastructure of nuclear triad, current nuclear-capable strike aircraft— Crimean and Arctic forces TASS News for intermediate range missions against heavily defended airspace. Agency, April 12, 2019 Creation of facilities for the strategic nuclear https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/explainer- force, as well as troops stationed in Crimea russias-stealth-su-57-fighter-might-become- and the Arctic are priorities in the nuclear-bomber-52392 development military infrastructures, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Putin unveils ‘Unrivalled’ nuclear on Friday. “The main efforts are focused on missile in chilling threat amid developing the command system of the Soaring Trump tensions The Express armed forces and the creation of facilities UK, April 12, 2019 for deploying weapons and special equipment - in the first place, strategic The Russian President hailed the nuclear forces, as well as troops in Crimea achievements made by the military in a and Russia’s Arctic,” Shoigu said. promotion and award ceremony for senior officers. He claimed the current batch of http://tass.com/defense/1053420 weapons being developed by the country will determine “the future image of Novovoronezh II-2 cleared for Russia’s armed forces” going forward. launch World Nuclear News, April 12, Boasting of the country’s incredible new weaponry, Putin claimed these missiles 2019 being developed could penetrate any Unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II nuclear defence system but would also be power plant in southwest Russia started the unmatched by any country in the world 28 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

in a veiled threat to Donald Trump. Putin of Putin’s expansionist ambitions. said: “New surface ships and nuclear Additionally, the Royal Navy has had to submarines will be armed with advanced respond to Russian vessels on the edge of types of weapons, including the Tsirkon British waters in recent months, with the hypersonic missile, which has no parallels situation deteriorating markedly since the in the world in terms of range and speed.” nerve gas attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Emily https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1113184/ Ferris, a Research Fellow specialising in world-war-3-news-Putin-Trump-news-Russia- Russia and Eurasia at the Royal United nuclear-missile-US-Washington-INF Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), told Express.co.uk: “Russia UAE astronaut will operate Russian, is a powerful country and Putin is testing US equipment on board ISS TASS, UK defences.” April 12, 2019 https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1113653/ An astronaut from the United Arab russia-vladimir-putin-world-war-three-barents- Emirates (UAE) who will be sent to the baltic-hypersonic-britain International Space Station (ISS) in September will carry out experiments using Get Ready: Russia Will Soon Try Russian and US equipment, Roscosmos to Kill a Satellite Nathan Levine, The Executive Director of Manned Programs National Interest Blog, April 13, 2019 “Now it’s too late for the UAE to manufacture its own specialized equipment On March 27 India conducted its first live for new experiments, by they can take part anti-satellite missile test, successfully in the ongoing experiments. They’ll be using destroying one of its own satellites in low both Russian and US equipment,” he Earth orbit with a modified ballistic missile. explained. The test shocked international observers and demonstrated the growing importance http://tass.com/science/1053434 of major military powers place on anti- satellite capabilities. It also made India Putin vows all possible support to only the third country to conduct such a Russian space sector TASS, April 13, sensational demonstration of anti-satellite 2019 (ASAT) weaponry, after China and the United States. This leaves one capable The Russian government will continue to military power conspicuously outside the render all possible support to the space club: Russia. But the world should not sector, Russian President Vladimir Putin expect this absence to continue for long. said during a concert to mark the India’s move in fact dramatically raises the Cosmonautics Day on Friday night. “I likelihood that Russia will soon test its would like to stress once again: let’s render own weapon in a similarly audacious all the required assistance and support to manner. the Russian cosmonautics,” Putin said. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/get-ready- http://tass.com/science/1053525 russia-will-soon-try-kill-satellite-52232

Putin means business: Why UK Russia’s top diplomat says the needs to worry about Russia’s world is losing faith in the U.S. as belligerence Ciaran Mcgrath, The a global leader, accusing Express UK, April 13, 2019 Washington of resorting to Russia last week staged several military drills ‘pressure and blackmail’ to retain in the Barents Sea region, and also released dominance Daily mail, April 14, 2019 a drone-shot video showcasing its Northern Russian leaders are slamming the U.S., Clover base in the Arctic circle in a clear sign saying the world has lost faith in the 29 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

country as a global leader. Russian Foreign by a “multipolarity” of power centres Minister Sergey Lavrov announced a shift rather than the US. Relations between in international power on Friday during an Russia and the US have broken down annual address at Moscow’s diplomatic following Donald Trump’s election, with academy. the two powers at odds over Ukraine, Syria and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Taking hits at Washington, Lavrov declared Forces (INF) treaty. that the U.S. is no longer a leading national power and alleged the country has resorted In an address to Moscow’s diplomatic to pressuring and blackmailing other powers academy, Mr Lavrov said: “The United to assert its dominance. He said today’s States can no longer—singlehandedly or world is marked by ‘multipolarity’ and that with its closest allies—resolve all issues in ‘the emergence of new centers of power to the global economy and world affairs. maintain stability in the world requires the https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1114296/ search for a balance of interests and world-war-3-news-US-Russia-Trump-news- compromises’. latest-Vladimir-Putin-kremlin-Washington https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 6921583/Russias-diplomat-says-world-losing- WEST ASIA faith-U-S-global-leader.html H. Iran An F-35 Will Never be Alone: Instead of defying U.S. ‘economic Russia Seems to Warn America’s terrorism’ EU trio seeking to Stealth Fighter The Natioanl Interest appease Trump, Iran laments Blog, April 14, 2019 Tehran Times, April 4, 2019 This is perhaps the most aggressive “A year after US’ unlawful abrogation of illustration of a new Russian rhetorical JCPOA, Europe can’t muster political will approach. In a move that would raise to defy US’ #EconomicTERRORISM. Not eyebrows even by Cold War standards of even by setting up a single banking political saber-rattling, the Russian Embassy channel for humanitarian aid,” Zarif in Washington seemed to threaten tweeted. In a letter to UN Secretary General America’s F-35 fighter with Vietnam-era Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, the propaganda footage. As observed by Foxtrot European trio claimed that Iran’s launch Alpha, the tweet is a direct reference to a of a space vehicle and the unveiling of two recent Brookings Institution lecture given by new missiles in February were Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Goldfein. “inconsistent” with the Resolution 2231 During his talk, General Goldfein gave this endorsing the JCPOA. assessment of the F-35’s capabilities: According to the Press TV, the three https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-will- countries, which are signatories to the never-be-alone-russia-seems-warn-americas- JCPOA along with the U.S., Russia and stealth-fighter-52472 China, asked Guterres to “report fully and thoroughly on Iranian ballistic missile Russia warning: Kremlin threatens activity” in his next report, which is to END American power - ‘Time for expected in June. In his tweet, Zarif added, the US to step aside’ Bill Mcloughlin, “E3 are instead busy appeasing The Express, April 15, 2019 @realDonaldTrump by pressuring UN over our defensive capabilities.” Iran says neither Top Russian diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, its space program nor its missile launches insisted the US used “blackmail and are banned under Resolution 2231. pressure” techniques in order to maintain its power base. The Foreign Minister also https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/434312/ predicted the world order will soon be led Instead-of-defying-U-S-economic-terrorism- EU-trio-seeking 30 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

U.S. considering additional Iran Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin sanctions, perhaps in May: official Netanyahu urged the agency to visit in Jeff Mason, Reuters, April 4, 2019 September, three diplomats told Reuters in an April 4 piece. Netanyahu called on The U.S. government is considering the IAEA to “immediately” inspect a additional sanctions against Iran that would warehouse in Tehran that he described as target areas of its economy that have not been “storing massive amounts of equipment hit before, a senior Trump administration and material from Iran’s secret nuclear official told reporters on Monday. The official weapons program,” including an said the administration aimed to follow unspecified radioactive material, in his through with new sanctions around the first September speech to the UN General anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from a Assembly. 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers, which President Donald One diplomat told Reuters that inspectors Trump announced last May. visited the warehouse more than once last month. Two diplomats confirmed that https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran- inspections took place and reportedly said sanctions/us-considering-additional-iran-sanc- results from the inspectors’ environmental tions-perhaps-in-may-official-idUSKCN1RD37S samples would not be in until June. The IAEA chief Amano reaffirms Iran’s IAEA has not publicly commented on whether or not an inspection took place, commitment to nuclear deal Tehran but IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano Times, April 4, 2019 said in an April 3 interview with CBS that “In my regular reports to the board I have “I don’t see activities that are contrary to stated that Iran is implementing those the Iran nuclear agreement.” Iran has commitments,” Amano insisted, Press TV denied the existence of nuclear material reported.”Since January 2016, the agency at the site and has stated that the [IAEA] has been verifying and monitoring warehouse is a carpet-cleaning facility. An Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related Iranian official quoted in the Reuters piece commitments under the JCPOA,” the IAEA said Iran “has nothing to hide” and that chief added. inspections have “been in the framework of laws and regulations.” Amano further noted that IAEA inspectors have full access to all locations required to https://www.armscontrol.org/blog/2019-04-05/ verify the deal’s implementation.Under the iaea-reportedly-inspects-iranian-warehouse-p41- agreement, reached between Iran and the iran-nuclear-deal-alert-april-5-2019 5+1 group, Tehran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the Iran still planning three satellite removal of nuclear-related sanctions.Amano’s launches this year, despite ramped remarks came as the U.S. special up U.S. pressure - minister Reuters, representative for Iran says Washington is not April 9, 2019 looking to grant any further waivers to countries importing Iranian oil. Iran said on Tuesday it would press ahead with the launch of three satellites into orbit https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/434314/Amano- this year despite a U.S. move to curb reaffirms-Iran-s-commitment-to-nuclear-deal Tehran’s ballistic missile programme IAEA Reportedly Inspects Iranian which Washington says has been advanced by the satellite activity. U.S. Warehouse | P4+1 and Iran Nuclear President Donald Trump said on Monday Deal Alert Kelsey Davenport and Alicia he would name Iran’s elite Islamic Sanders-Zakre, Arms Control Association, Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist April 5, 2019 organization, a move partly intended to curb the Islamic Republic’s development The International Atomic Energy Agency of ballistic missiles. (IAEA) recently inspected a warehouse that 31 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

The United States fears long-range ballistic The senators said Congress was beginning technology used to put satellites into orbit to reevaluate the U.S.-Saudi relationship, could also be used to launch nuclear and they believe Washington should not warheads. Iranian Telecoms Minister be providing nuclear technology or Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi told information to Saudi Arabia now. Reuters in Geneva on Tuesday that Tehran would stick to its plans to launch three https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-saudi- satellites and denied the U.S. accusation that nuclearpower-senate/u-s-senators-seek-details- such activity is a cover for ballistic missile on-nuclear-power-cooperation-with-saudi- arabia-idINKCN1RE234 development.

https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-iran-satellites/ First Images of Saudi Nuclear iran-still-planning-three-satellite-launches-this- Reactor Show Plant Nearing Finish year-despite-ramped-up-u-s-pressure-minister- Jonathan Tirone, Bloomberg, April 3, 2019 idINKCN1RL2AS Saudi Arabia is nearing completion of its Exhibition on nuclear achievements first nuclear reactor, satellite images of the opens up in Tehran Tehran Times, April facility show, triggering warnings about the risks of the kingdom using the 10, 2019 technology without signing up to the An exhibition on 114 achievements of Iran’s international rules governing the industry. nuclear industry opened up in Tehran on The research facility is located in the Tuesday, according to the Mehr news southwest corner of the King Abdulaziz agency. It came after the achievements were City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, unveiled in a ceremony on National Nuclear according to images published by Google Technology Day attended by President Earth. They’re the first in the public Hassan Rouhani, Atomic Energy domain to confirm that the program is Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi and vice advancing, showing construction nearing president for scientific affairs Sorena Sattari its finish around a columnar vessel that and other officials. will contain atomic fuel.

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/434565/ The advancement is alarming to arms- Exhibition-on-nuclear-achievements-opens-up-in- control experts because Saudi Arabia has Tehran yet to sign up to the international framework of rules other nuclear powers I. Saudi Arabia follow to ensure that civilian atomic programs aren’t used to build weapons. U.S. senators seek details on nuclear Nuclear fuel providers won’t move to power cooperation with Saudi Arabia supply the unit until new surveillance Timothy Gardner, Reuters, April 2, 2019 arrangements have been sealed with the International Atomic Energy Agency in U.S. senators from both parties on Tuesday Vienna.”There’s a very high probability asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry for these images show the country’s first details about recent approvals for companies nuclear facility,” said Robert Kelley, a to share nuclear energy information with former IAEA director who also led the U.S. Saudi Arabia, with the lawmakers Department of Energy’s remote sensing expressing concern about possible laboratory. “It means that Saudi Arabia development of atomic weapons.Saudi has to get its safeguards in order.” Arabia has engaged in “many deeply troubling actions and statements that have https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019- provoked alarm in Congress,” Senators Bob 04-03/first-images-of-saudi-nuclear-reactor- Menendez, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, show-plant-nearing-finish a Republican, told Perry in a letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. 32 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Saudi plans to invite bids for Saudi has not really demonstrated nuclear power project in 2020: nuclear transparency: Heinonen sources Iran Daily, April 04, 2019 Tehran Times, April 07, 2019 Saudi Arabia plans to issue a multi-billion- Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director dollar tender in 2020 to construct its first two general for safeguards at the International nuclear power reactors and is discussing the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), tells the project with U.S. and other potential Tehran Times that Saudi Arabia has not suppliers, three sources familiar with the plans really demonstrated nuclear transparency, said. The world’s top oil exporter wants to by concluding and ratifying, for example, diversify its energy mix, adding nuclear the IAEA Additional Protocol. Heinonen, power so it can free up more crude for export. now a senior advisor on science and non- But the plans are facing Washington’s proliferation at Foundation for Defense of scrutiny because of potential military uses Democracies, also believes that “We have for the technology, Reuters.com reported. also not seen clear nuclear energy plans other than stating numbers of nuclear Saudi Arabia, which aims to mine for reactors to be build.” “They have also not uranium, says its plans are peaceful. But been open on their plans to construct Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said research reactors. The statements of the in 2018 the kingdom would develop nuclear Saudi authorities are also worrisome with arms if Iran did. US, Russian, South Korean, regard to the technologies, which they may Chinese and French firms are in talks with acquire,” director general for safeguards Riyadh to supply reactors, a promising deal at the IAEA tells to the Tehran Times. for an industry recovering from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Saudi officials https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/434397/ previously said they aimed to select a vendor Saudi-has-not-really-demonstrated-nuclear- in late 2018, which then slipped to 2019. The transparency-Heinonen sources said the tender would now be issued in 2020. J. Israel http://www.iran-daily.com/News/240924.html Beijing Airport Selects Israeli radar technology to protect runway Saudi Arabia reopens consulate in Eytan Halon, Jerusalem Post, April 4, 2019 Iraq, pledges $1bn in aid Aljazeera, April 5, 2019 Beijing Capital International Airport, the second busiest airport in the world, has Moves come as Saudi Arabia competes with selected Rosh Ha’ayin-based Xsight rival Iran for influence over Iraq. Saudi Systems’ foreign object debris (FOD) Arabia has reopened a consulate in Baghdad detection solution to improve runway for the first time in nearly 30 years and safety. RunWize, which will be installed announced a one billion dollars aid package at the airport’s eastern runway, for Iraq. The diplomatic mission in Iraqi continuously monitors and detects any capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone was forms of debris or other hazards that could inaugurated on Thursday at a ceremony, interfere with runway operations, during which Iraq’s Foreign Minister increasing safety and boosting runway Mohamed Alhakim raised a green Saudi capacity by facilitating rapid detection and flag over the building.Iraq is caught in a tug- removal of debris. of-war over influence pitting Iran against the United States and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business- is seeking closer ties to Iraq to counter Iran’s and-Innovation/Beijing-airport-selects-Israeli- growing influence in the region, while radar-technology-to-protect-runway-585765 Baghdad seeks to attract Saudi investments to spur economic growth.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/saudi- arabia-reopen-consulate-iraq-pledges-1bn-aid- 190404180418791.html 33 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

The Debate That Gave Birth to Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity Revealed country had seized secret Iranian nuclear Ofer Aderet, Haaretz, April 5, 2019 files, including hundreds of documents, CDs and other media, from an undisclosed At the beginning of a secret meeting held warehouse in early 2018, Israeli and US on July 9, 1963 in Jerusalem, the main officials have pushed for the International speaker apologized to his guests. “I must first Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take of all apologize and ask to be forgiven for action. News emerged in early April that the delay,” said Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. it had done so. He then immediately turned to the subject for which he had gathered the forum. Officials in Israel and to some extent the United States maintain that holding such Those present in the room were senior an archive violates the Iranian nuclear deal journalists, members of the “editors of 2015 that offered sanctions relief to Iran committee,” an informal forum that met in return for the country dismantling some from time to time with the prime minister, of its nuclear capabilities. To date the ministers and senior government officials to agency hasn’t publicly commented on the receive classified – and not for publication – material, but it is known that Israel has information. Eshkol quoted David Ben- shared some or all of it with officials there. Gurion, whom he had replaced only two Scholars at Harvard University’s Belfer weeks earlier: “It is possible to speak about Center and researchers at the Institute for things with the newspaper editors and if you Science and International Security also ask for the things not to be reported, they have had limited access to the trove, but can be trusted.” it’s not clear how much. Some nuclear proliferation experts believe that the https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium- archive contains nothing new about Iran’s the-debate-that-gave-birth-to-israel-s-nuclear- past proliferation activities. ambiguity-revealed-1.7088166 https://thebulletin.org/2019/04/can-the-iran- Did Israel destroy Syria’s nuclear nuclear-deal-survive-as-the-iaea-investigates- weapons program? Alamdar News, israeli-allegations/ April 7, 2019 Netanyahu’s Reveal of Iranian Israel put an end to Syria’s alleged nuclear Nuclear Archive Damaged Israel, ambitions in 2006 when they bombed the country’s secret site near the Iraqi border. Senior Intelligence Officials Say Dubbed “Operation Orchard” or Chaim Levinson, Haaretz, April 8, 2019 “Operation Outside the Box”, Israeli F-15 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s and F-16 warplanes bombed an alleged revelation that Israel broke into an Iranian nuclear site some 30 kilometers outside of archive of nuclear-related documents a Deir Ezzor city in Syria’s eastern region. year ago has damaged the state, senior While Israel kept this attack quiet for over a intelligence officials said. Netanyahu’s decade, they finally broke their silence in office, however, calls this argument March 2017 when they claimed “ridiculous,” saying that subsequent responsibility for the bombing. actions by U.S. President Donald Trump helped prove the move correct. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/did-israel- destroy-syrias-nuclear-weapons-program/ In a speech delivered against a background of shelves packed with Can the Iran nuclear deal survive as binders, dozens of compact discs and a the IAEA investigates Israeli safe, the prime minister said that in 2017 allegations? Emma Scott, Ian J. Stewart, Iran moved the documents to a secret site Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 8, 2019 that looked like “a dilapidated warehouse” on the outskirts of Tehran. Since last spring when Israeli Prime Minister 34 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

The goal was to hide evidence of a military Beresheet, whose name is Hebrew for the nuclear program. biblical phrase ‘In the beginning’, had travelled through space for seven weeks https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/ in a series of expanding orbits around .premium-netanyahu-s-reveal-of-iranian-nuclear- Earth before crossing into the moon’s archive-damaged-israel-senior-intelligence- gravity last week. officials-say-1.7089581 https://thewire.in/space/israel-beresheet-space- IRGC terror designation: Trump’s craft-landing-moon election gift to Netanyahu Meir Javedanfar, Al Monitor April 12, 2019 Iranian forces said killed in reported Israel airstrike on Syria President Donald Trump’s decision to missile factory Times of Israel, April designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist 13, 2019 organization was not just an election gift to A number of Iranian forces were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly killed in an airstrike on a Syrian it was a boon for all Israelis. military position near the city of Masyaf in western Hama province overnight The IRGC is and has been, without doubt, Friday-Saturday. Syrian state media said Israel’s sworn enemy. It has been indirectly Israeli jets carried out the raid in the responsible for numerous terror attacks middle of the night, firing missiles while against Israeli citizens in Argentina and flying in Lebanese airspace. Syria’s official Bulgaria through Hezbollah. Two of the state news agency SANA said Israel institutions that were in charge of arranging targeted a military site in the area, but that Iran’s 2016 Holocaust cartoon competition Syrian air defenses intercepted the attack, were directly related to the IRGC. As if that’s downing some of the missiles fired. The not bad enough, the IRGC has been planning regime mouthpiece said the interception to create a base in Syria from which to resulted in the destruction of several terrorize Israel’s citizens. Now, with the buildings and the wounding of three designation by the Trump administration, “fighters.” The area is known to house the IRGC will have to be more careful about Iranian forces and their Lebanese proxy, how it threatens Israeli citizens around the Hezbollah. world and from Syria, as its designation as a terrorist organization will make Israeli https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-forces- retaliation more justifiable. said-killed-in-reported-israeli-airstrikes-on-syria- military-site/ https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/ 04/trump-netanyahu-israel-election-gift-irgc- iran.html Space Is Hard, Beresheet Israeli Lunar Crash Proves Again Meghan Israeli Spacecraft Crashes Onto Bartels, Space.com, April 14 Moon After Technical Failures Ari An unassuming spacecraft called Rabinovitch, The Wire, April 12, 2019 Beresheet shot for the moon on April 11. It couldn’t quite stick the landing, but it Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed onto the has plenty of company in its disappointing moon on Thursday after a series of technical fate. Beresheet, an Israeli mission launched failures during its final descent, shattering by a partnership between nonprofit hopes of a historic controlled landing on the SpaceIL and government-owned lunar surface. The unmanned robotic lander aerospace company Israel Aerospace suffered periodic engine and Industries, sent back its last photograph communications failures during the landing during its descent to the lunar surface. But sequence, which lasted around 21 minutes, just a few minutes later, mission control the support team said. lost contact with the spacecraft, eventually 35 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

concluding that the probe had crashed MOX fuel contains plutonium recovered instead of slowing rapidly enough to execute from used fuel by reprocessing. Used fuel the planned soft landing. from Japan, and other countries, has been routinely reprocessed in Europe, with https://www.space.com/israeli-moon-lander-crash- MOX fuel and high-level waste being space-is-hard.html returned. Japan is working towards opening its own MOX fabrication facility EAST ASIA at Rokkasho, and has not sent used fuel to K. Japan Europe for reprocessing since 1998. Tepco and Chubu transfer fossil http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ Kepco-expects-MOX-return-for-Takahama-3- fuel assets to Jera JV World Nuclear and-4 News, April 2, 2019 The fossil fuel assets of Japanese utilities Chinese envoy to Japan to be Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and replaced by vice foreign minister Chubu Electric Company have been passed The Asahi Shimbun, April 4, 2019 to their Jera joint venture, as a requirement of power market liberalisation, leaving them Reflecting Beijing’s efforts to further with transmission, distribution and retail stabilize improving bilateral ties, China businesses, and their nuclear plants. will replace its ambassador to Japan of Deregulation in Japan requires that by April nearly a decade with a vice foreign 2020 transmission and distribution are minister with long diplomatic experience legally separated from generation. Tepco in Japan. Kong Xuanyou, who has served has achieved this by creating subsidiaries for on the Chinese diplomatic mission in each business function under Tepco Japan for about 15 years, will replace Holdings, which keeps ownership of nuclear Cheng Yonghua, who is expected to leave assets including the Fukushima Daiichi site. Japan in early May, a diplomatic source said April 3 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ Tepco-and-Chubu-transfer-fossil-fuel-assets-to-Jer .Kong also served as China’s ambassador to Vietnam and director-general of the Kansai awaits MOX return for Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of Asian Affairs before being promoted to vice Takahama 3 and 4 World Nuclear News, foreign minister in 2017.When Chinese April 2, 2019 Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan in May Kansai Electric Power Company (Kansai) last year, Kong accompanied him. He also will receive a shipment of MOX fuel served as special representative of the assemblies in 2020, according to a report in Chinese government for six-party talks on Asahi Shimbun. They would be used at North Korea’s nuclear program. Takahama 3 and 4, which are among the http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ nine reactors operating in Japan. Mixed AJ201904040066.html oxide fuel, or MOX, is nuclear fuel made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium. ‘Old man squad’ ends patrols of The recycled nuclear fuel met around 5% of global demand, but given the extended evacuated town in Fukushima Daiki shutdown of most Japanese reactors since Ishizuka, The Asahi Shimbun, April 6, 2019 the Fukushima accident, in March 2011, A team of older residents that stayed orders and shipments of MOX have been behind to patrol this town after its reduced. However, the Japanese residents evacuated following the March government’s policy is now to reduce the 2011 nuclear crisis has completed its amounts of plutonium stocks and MOX held mission. The “old man squad,” as its six overseas. members called themselves, ended its six- 36 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

year activities on March 31 before an toward abandoning its nuclear and missile evacuation order is lifted for the Ogawara development programs, the government and Chuyashiki districts on April 10. said. “We will do our best to resolve the nuclear and missile issues and, above all, Okuma co-hosts the crippled Fukushima the abduction issue while working in close No. 1 nuclear power plant. The six members cooperation with the international started making rounds and removing weeds community,” Chief Cabinet Secretary in 2013 in lieu of town government officials. Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference held after the decision was reached at a The new Okuma town government office will Cabinet meeting on April 9. open on April 14 in Ogawara, where 100 officials are expected to start work on May 7. The Japanese sanctions include prohibiting North Korea-registered vessels http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ from entering Japanese ports and banning AJ201904060001.html both exports and imports with the country. The sanctions are effective until Keidanren chief seeking longer April 13. In addition to sanctions based lifespans for nuclear plants The Asahi on United Nations Security Council Shimbun, April 9, 2019 resolutions, Japan started imposing its own sanctions against North Korea after The head of the nation’s largest business Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile in group is calling on the government to extend 2006. Tokyo gradually strengthened its the maximum service lifespan for nuclear sanctions after North Korea conducted reactors beyond the current 60 years, saying nuclear tests. Japan faces an electricity crisis. The policy and action proposal was made by Keidanren http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ (Japan Business Federation), led by Hiroaki AJ201904100033.html Nakanishi, chairman of Hitachi Ltd. Evacuation partly lifted for town In its April 8 proposal titled “Reconstructing co-hosting Fukushima plant The the electricity system that supports Japan,” Asahi Shimbun, April 10, 2019 Keidanren said periods when nuclear reactors are shut down for maintenance or The government lifted its evacuation order other reasons should be excluded from their for parts of Okuma in Fukushima operational terms. Currently, nuclear power Prefecture on April 10, a first for a town plants are allowed to have an operating life co-hosting the crippled Fukushima No. 1 of 40 years, but a one-time extension of 20 nuclear plant since the 2011 triple years may be granted in exceptional cases meltdown. Residents are now free to under a law enacted after the 2011 return to the Ogawara and Chuyashiki Fukushima nuclear disaster. It is the first districts in the town’s western area as time for Keidanren to issue a policy radiation levels have dropped recommendation pertaining to nuclear significantly.Even though life there will not energy since fall 2017. be like what it was before, the announcement of the lifting of the http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ evacuation order at midnight was a AJ201904090062.html landmark moment.

Japan extending sanctions against http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ AJ201904100058.html North Korea for two more years Tamiyuki Kihara, The Asahi Shimbun, April Boy who made explosives in ’18 10, 2019 ‘refined, sold uranium online’ The Japan will extend its sanctions against North Asahi Shimbun, April 10, 2019 Korea for an additional two years because A high school boy accused of making and Pyongyang has taken no concrete action possessing materials for high-power 37 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

explosives last year is also suspected of shadowy edge of a supermassive black buying and selling uranium through a Web hole. auction site without permission. As the 16- year-old student is suspected of refining the Each major astrophysics discovery of the substance at home, the Metropolitan Police last few decades tends to confirm Albert Department in Tokyo is investigating him Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the on suspicion of violating the Nuclear comprehensive explanation of gravity that Reactor Regulation Law, they added. The the former patent clerk thought of in 1915. government’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency On Wednesday, Einstein’s predictions discovered in November 2017 that a about the shape and glow of a big black substance described as “uranium 99.9 hole proved right, and astronomer after percent” was being sold on an Internet astronomer paid homage to the master. auction site, according to department “Today general relativity passed another investigators. crucial test,” said University of Waterloo astronomer Avery Broderick, a co- Police are also investigating several other discoverer. “The Einstein equations are people who bought the yellow cake from the beautiful. So often in my experience, boy.They believe that he refined and sold nature wants to be beautiful.” uranium out of an interest in science, not for ideological reasons. The Metropolitan It sounds strange to keep saying Einstein Police Department referred the initial case is right, but every time his general relativity on April 8 to prosecutors on charges of theory is confirmed, “we kill a cloud of manufacturing erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), alternative theories” and gain better which is used in high-power explosives, at understanding how to create an even his house in August 2018 in violation of the more comprehensive theory of physics, explosives control law. said Ethan Vishniac of Johns Hopkins University, who wasn’t part of the http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ discovery team. A German astronomer, AJ201904100064.html Karl Schwarzschild, in 1916 predicted the theoretical possibility of black holes, based Japan confirms MSDF leader and on Einstein’s general relativity, though he destroyer will participate in did not believe they could actually exist. Chinese Navy’s fleet review Japan https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/11/ Times Kyodo, April 11, 2019 world/science-health-world/albert-einstein-right- Japan will send the head of the Maritime takeaways-first-image-massive-black-hole/ #.XLBtE1Qza01 Self-Defense Force and a destroyer to the Chinese Navy’s fleet review in late April to strengthen defense exchanges, the Japanese TEPCO to start removing fuel at government confirmed Thursday. Fukushima’s No. 3 reactor The Asahi Shimbun, April 12, 2019 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/11/ national/politics-diplomacy/japan-send-msdf- The operator of the crippled Fukushima head-destroyer-chinese-navys-fleet-review/ No. 1 nuclear power plant will start #.XLBtMFQza01 removing nuclear fuel from the No. 3 reactor as early as next week through Albert Einstein was right: equipment controlled remotely due to high Takeaways from first image of radiation levels inside the building.This will mark Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s first massive black hole Japan Times Kyodo, attempt to remove spent fuel from one of April 11, 2019 the three reactors that experienced a Black holes are cosmic prisons, where meltdown during the 2011 nuclear nothing escapes, not even light. But lots did accident.All spent fuel has already been come out of Wednesday’s first image of the removed from the No. 4 reactor. TEPCO 38 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

workers will use remote control to remove The website, published Monday by JAIF, nuclear fuel assemblies kept in the pool on which is a nuclear energy lobby group, was the upper floors of the No. 3 reactor building. called “Atsumare! Genshiryoku Mura,” which roughly translates to “Come gather! http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ Nuclear Energy Village” and its homepage AJ201904120036.html was adorned with warlords, ghosts and clowns along with a slew of colorful Japan won’t consider revising F-35A characters and other comical touches. The procurement plans while cause of site came down on Friday, to be replaced crash still not known Reiji Yoshida, by an apology message from JAIF saying Japan Times, April 12, 2019 the site had been pulled due to “inappropriate language.” The lobby The Defense Ministry is not considering a group added, “We apologize for any revision to its plan to procure a total of 105 inconvenience or unpleasantness you may F-35A stealth fighters despite the crash have experienced.” Wednesday of one of the jets into the sea off Aomori Prefecture, Defense Minister Takeshi https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/12/ Iwaya said Friday. “We don’t know the national/japan-lobby-groups-nuclear-energy- cause (of the crash) yet, so we are not village-website-plumbs-new-level-insensitive- thinking of revising the procurement plan say-critics/#.XLBs7VQza00 now,” Iwaya told a news conference Friday morning. Given the depth of the water in L. North Korea the area, it is “probably possible” to recover Trump can’t wait too long for the jet, which is believed to have sunk to the bottom of the sea, if it is ever found, Iwaya cutting NK deal Zhang Yun, Global added. Times, April 1, 2019

“But first we need to confirm the situation.” North Korea’s system of government is The F-35A, one of the first 13 jets of this completely different from that of the US’ model deployed in Japan, is believed to have that has led to different expectations from crashed into the sea Tuesday night. The the summit. If Washington and Pyongyang pilot, Maj. Akinori Hosomi, who has 3,200 reach an agreement too quickly, US allies hours of flight experience, including 60 may feel left out and almost betrayed. But hours in the F-35A, was still missing as of the third Kim-Trump summit will not Friday afternoon. come too late. Major US diplomatic breakthroughs always happen in the years https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/12/ before elections. If the incumbent president national/japan-wont-consider-revising-f-35a- wants diplomatic headway, he needs to procurement-plans-cause-crash-still-not-known/ accomplish it before election year to leave #.XLBpWVQza00 time for hectic campaigning. Besides, diplomatic accomplishments can be used Japan ‘Nuclear Energy Village’ as a bargaining chip for the campaigns. website pulled after critics say it http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/ plumbed ‘new level of insensitive’ 1144243.shtml Japan Times Kyodo, April 12, 2019 A website created by the Japan Atomic IAEA says Iran in compliance on Industrial Forum to educate the next nuclear, but North Korea a worry generation on nuclear energy was taken North Korea Times, April 3, 2019 down Friday after drawing criticism on The threat of a nuclear weapon being used social media, with some Twitter users calling is “higher than it has been in generations” the effort “inappropriate” given that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear disaster happened Use of nuclear weapons, “intentionally, by “just a few years ago.” accident, or through miscalculation,” is 39 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

one of the greatest threats to international Kim Jong Un’s new Rolls-Royce a peace. The upcoming Non-Proliferation clear violation of U.N. sanctions Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in 2020 Ryuichi Kanari, The Asahi Shimbun, April will be a “defining moment” In a world 4, 2019 defined by “competition over cooperation, and the acquisition of arms, prioritized over North Korean leader Kim Jong Un clearly the pursuit of diplomacy”, the threat of a likes to be driven around in style, even if it nuclear weapon being used is “higher than means brazenly thumbing his nose at U.N. it has been in generations,” the Security sanctions. A U.N. panel monitoring Council heard on Tuesday. The warning whether sanctions against North Korea came from Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High are working concluded that Kim is in clear Representative for Disarmament Affairs, in violation of the measures by having a a meeting convened in support of the Non- luxury Rolls-Royce at his disposal. The Proliferation Treaty (NPT), ahead of the next U.N. Security Council slapped a ban on conference to review the historic accord, exports of luxury goods to North Korea to scheduled for 2020 put pressure on Pyongyang to curtail its missile and nuclear programs. The Treaty, she said, is widely acknowledged as “the cornerstone of the international non- According to the expert panel’s latest proliferation regime and the essential report, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike foundation of nuclear disarmament. Its role Pompeo visited Pyongyang last October as a pillar of our collective security is likewise for talks with Kim, the chairman of the an accepted fact.” The disarmament chief ruling Workers’ Party of Korea arrived at described the two pillars of the NPT – the venue in a chauffeur-driven Rolls- disarmament and non-proliferation -– as Royce. The vehicle was a Phantom, the “two sides of the same coin”, adding that brand’s flagship and a model used by “backward movement on one will result in Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for her official backward movement on the other.” duties. It carries a starting price of about 350,000 pounds ($462,500). When the https://www.northkoreatimes.com/news/ panel queried the manufacturer, it was 260249100/iaea-says-iran-in-compliance-on- learned that the vehicle was made at a nuclear-but-north-korea-a-worry factory in Goodwood, England, between August 2012 and February 2017. NK restoring satellite launch site to gain leverage in negotiations: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ AJ201904040009.html defense agencies Kim So-hyun, Korea Herald, April 4, 2019 Top U.S. diplomat ‘confident’ of North Korea’s move to restore a satellite third round of Trump-Kim nuclear launching site appears to be aimed at using talks Jesse Johnson, Japan Times, April 6, it as leverage in nuclear negotiations, 2019 defense authorities said. Seoul’s Defense Intelligence Agency and the South Korea- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has US Combined Forces Command said that said he is “confident” there will be a third North Korea was working on rebuilding the summit between President Donald Trump Tongchang-ri site even before the second and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, summit between Washington and noting that talks with Pyongyang are Pyongyang on Feb. 28, according to Rep. Lee continuing after a February nuclear Hye-hoon of the Bareunmirae Party, who summit in Hanoi failed to yield a deal. leads the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/06/ asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/top- http://www.koreaherald.com/ u-s-diplomat-confident-third-round-trump- view.php?ud=20190404000563&ACE_SEARCH=1 kim-nuclear-talks/#.XLQuRugvO7g 40 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

G7 pushes North Korea to continue UN Security Council extends denuclearization talks with U.S. Ko mandate of Panel of Experts on Hirano, Japan Times, Kyodo, April 7, 2019 DPRK sanctions China Daily, April 11, 2019 Foreign ministers of Group of Seven nations on Saturday pushed North Korea to The Security Council on Wednesday continue denuclearization negotiations with adopted a resolution to extend the the United States while vowing to maintain mandate of the Panel of Experts, which pressure on Pyongyang to encourage it to assists a Security Council sanctions give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic committee against the Democratic missile programs. People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The resolution requests the Panel of Experts to https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/07/ submit to the Security Council a midterm world/politics-diplomacy-world/g7-pushes-north- report on its work by Sept 6, 2019, and korea-continue-denuclearization-talks-u-s/ submit a final report, with its findings and #.XLQuLOgvO7g recommendations, by March 6, 2020.

Powerful North Korean decision- The resolution urges all states, relevant UN making body set to decide ‘new bodies and other interested parties to orientation’ ahead of Trump-Moon cooperate fully with the DPRK sanctions summit Jesse Johnson, Japan Times, April committee and the Panel of Experts, in 10, 2019 particular, by supplying any information at their disposal on the implementation of North Korea has announced that the the sanctions imposed by a string of Central Committee of its ruling Workers’ Security Council resolutions since 2006. Party of Korea (WPK) was set to hold a The Security Council expresses its intent meeting Wednesday to discuss and decide to review the mandate of the Panel of what it called a “new orientation” just days Experts and take appropriate action ahead of South Korean leader Moon Jae-in’s regarding further extension no later than visit to the White House. March 27, 2020.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/10/ http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/11/ asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/ WS5caea627a3104842260b59a2.html powerful-north-korean-decision-making-body-set- decide-new-orientation-ahead-trump-moon- NK leader re-elected as chairman summit/#.XLQuFOgvO7g of State Affairs Commission Korea North Korea’s Kim doubles down on Herald, April 12, 2019 sanctions threat, vowing to deal North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ‘telling blow’ to those imposing them been re-elected as chairman of the State Jesse Johnson, Japan Times, April 11, 2019 Affairs Commission, the communist state’s highest seat of power, in a key North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has parliamentary meeting, state media doubled down on his regime persevering reported Friday. The North’s Premier Pak through tough sanctions that have choked Pong-ju has also been replaced with Kim his economy, urging his country to deal a Jae-ryong, a senior member of the ruling “telling blow” to those imposing the Workers’ Party of Korea, during the first sanctions and pitching self-reliance as an session of the 14th Supreme People’s “eternal lifeline,” state-run media reported Assembly on Thursday, the Korean Thursday. Central News Agency said.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/11/ “The election of the Supreme Leader as asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/north- chairman of the State Affairs Commission koreas-kim-doubles-sanctions-threat-vows-deal- of the DPRK is the great political event of serious-blow-imposing/#.XLVy6egvO7h 41 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

crucial historical significance,” the KCNA Donald Trump again if the United States said. comes with the right attitude. Kim said he will wait “till the end of this year” for the http://www.koreaherald.com/ United States to decide to be more flexible, view.php?ud=20190412000138&ACE_SEARCH=1 according to KCNA. “It is essential for the U.S. to quit its current calculation method Kim Jong Un charts course for and approach us with a new one,” Kim socialist construction, sets forth said in a speech to the Supreme People’s policies Pyongyang Times, April 13, 2019 Assembly on Friday, KCNA said.

Leader Kim Jong Un delivered a policy https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea- speech On Socialist Construction and the usa/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-says-u-s-must- Internal and External Policies of the change-stance-gives-deadline-idUSKCN1RO2PI Government of the Republic at the Present Stage at the First Session of the 14th Supreme Kim to hold talks with Putin North People’s Assembly of the DPRK on April 12. Korea Times, April 15, 2019 “Economic self-sufficiency is a material guarantee and prerequisite for building an North Korea leader Kim Jong-un is independent State. Recently, the United expected to hold his first-ever summit with States has grown fearful of the threats posed Russia President Vladimir Putin next by our rapidly-developing nuclear armed week, reports Yonhap news agency. force to the security of its mainland. At the Russian President Vladimir Putin is negotiating table, it has made much ado expected to make a trip to the Far East about improved relations and peace. region around April 24. Chances are fairly high that a summit between Russia and We have the capabilities and foundations for North Korea could take place around that independent development to revitalize the time,” the news agency quoted a national economy and raise it to the government official who did not wish to advanced international level in the shortest be identified, as saying. possible period. The foundations of our self- supporting economy that have been laid for The Russian President is visiting China to several decades, able scientific and technical take part in One Belt One Road forum, personnel, and the creative strength of the which is scheduled to take place on April heroic people who have made self-reliance 26-27. He is expected to meet Kim on the part of their mental qualities and are sideline of the forum. Reportedly, the brimming with patriotic enthusiasm–these senior officials of Pyongyang and Moscow constitute our valuable strategic resources. are travelling to each other’s country for By making the most of these enormous and the preparation of the Summit. Earlier this unlimited potentialities, we must create month, Russia’s interior minister Vladimir another legendary tale of world-startling, Kolokoltsev had visited Pyongyang. miraculous successes and go ahead of others https://www.northkoreatimes.com/news/ by making a greater leap forward.”. 260474988/kim-to-hold-talks-with-putin http://www.pyongyangtimes.com.kp/?bbs=29741 M. South Korea North Korea’s Kim Jong Un gives Moon hopes North Korea responds U.S. to year-end to become more positively to U.S.-S.Korea efforts flexible Josh Smith, Joyce Lee, Reuters, Josh Smith, Reuters, April 1, 2019 April 13, 2019 South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the on Monday he hopes North Korea breakdown in talks with the United States responds positively when he meets U.S. has raised the risks of reviving tensions, and President Donald Trump this month as he is only interested in meeting President part of efforts to restart denuclearization 42 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

talks with the North.Speaking to his cabinet, to carry out economic projects with North Moon said he would use the April 11 Korea when the conditions are right. Hong summit in Washington to discuss restarting Nam-ki, the minister of economy and U.S.-North Korea talks, advancing a peace finance, was in the U.S. capital to attend process and creating a “virtuous cycle” of a meeting of the Group of 20 finance improving relations with Pyongyang. “I ministers and central bank governors. hope North Korea will respond positively to the efforts of Seoul and Washington,” he Speaking to reporters on the margins, said. Hong said he believes Thursday’s summit in Washington between South Korean The summit in Vietnam’s capital was cut President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President short after Trump and Kim failed to reach a Donald Trump created momentum to deal on the extent of economic sanctions restart nuclear disarmament talks with relief for North Korea in exchange for its North Korea. Moon’s push to expand steps to give up its nuclear program. economic cooperation with the North has been largely obstructed by the deadlock in https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- denuclearization negotiations between southkorea-summit/moon-hopes-north-korea- Washington and Pyongyang. responds-positively-to-u-s-south-korea-efforts- idUSKCN1RD1PL http://www.koreaherald.com/ view.php?ud=20190413000025&ACE_SEARCH=1 SKorean ship detained for allegedly providing oil to NKorea Kim Tong- N. Central, South and hyung, AP News, April 3, 2019 Southeast Asia A South Korean ship is being held at a Siting and Site Evaluation for domestic port over suspicions that it illegally Nuclear Power Plants in Focus at provided oil to heavily sanctioned North IAEA Workshop in Uzbekistan Korea, officials said Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency, revelation comes amid growing concerns April 8, 2019 over wide-ranging efforts by North Korea to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions Uzbekistan, the latest country to launch a over its nuclear weapons and missiles nuclear power programme, has initiated program. A South Korean coast guard the process to select a site for a nuclear official said the 5,160-ton P-PIONEER has power plant and aims to grant a site licence been prevented from leaving Busan port in September 2020, local officials have since October over allegations that it was confirmed. Uzbekistan is among about 30 used to supply diesel to North Korea countries that are considering, planning through two ship-to-ship transfers in or actively working to include nuclear September 2017 in international waters in power into their energy mix. At the request the East China Sea. He did not confirm how of Uzbekistan’s Government, the IAEA much was supplied. and the newly established Nuclear Energy Development Agency Uzatom held a https://www.apnews.com/ workshop in February in on 9556c1456e6c4e10aae331b6c95a61a3 safety and non-safety aspects to be considered in siting and site evaluation for S. Korea to prepare internally for nuclear power plants. inter-Korean economic projects: minister Yonhap, Korea Herald, April 13, https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/siting- and-site-evaluation-for-nuclear-power-plants- 2019 in-focus-at-iaea-workshop-in-uzbekistan South Korea’s finance minister said Friday that Seoul will make internal preparations 43 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

O. World/Misc arrangements, project risk management, and contractual terms. Prospect of a nuclear war ‘higher than it has been in generations’, https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ warns UN UN News, april 2, 2019 First-Canadian-SMR-licence-application- submitted The warning came from Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, in a meeting convened in support of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Strengthening the Non- (NPT), ahead of the next conference to Proliferation Treaty ahead of the review the historic accord, scheduled for Review Conference in 2020 IAEA, 2020.Ms. Nakamitsu said that the use of April 2, 2019 nuclear weapons, “either intentionally, by accident, or through miscalculation”, is one The IAEA now implements safeguards in of the greatest threats to international peace 182 countries, 179 of which are NPT States and security, and that “the potential Parties. Non-nuclear-weapon States are consequences of a nuclear war would be required under the NPT to conclude a global and affect all Member States.” The comprehensive safeguards agreement with Treaty, she said, is widely acknowledged as the IAEA. They must declare all nuclear “the cornerstone of the international non- material in peaceful nuclear activities. The proliferation regime and the essential safeguards conclusions drawn by the foundation of nuclear disarmament. Its role Agency, which are based on our as a pillar of our collective security is likewise independent verification and findings, an accepted fact.” provide credible assurance to the international community that States are https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/04/1035941 abiding by their safeguards obligations.

First Canadian SMR licence The nuclear programmes of Iran and the application submitted World Nuclear DPRK remain among the top items on the News, April 2, 2019 Agency’s agenda. The IAEA has focused on Iran’s nuclear activities since 2002. In The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission December 2015, I presented a Final (CNSC) has received the first licence Assessment on past and present application for a small modular reactor. The outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear application from Global First Power (GFP), programme to the IAEA Board. I hope that with support from Ontario Power the 2020 NPT Review Conference will be Generation and Ultra Safe Nuclear a success and will make an important Corporation (USNC), supports a proposal contribution to strengthening to deploy a Micro Modular Reactor plant at international peace and security. Chalk River in Ontario. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/statements/ The companies today announced their strengthening-the-non-proliferation-treaty- submission of the application, which is in ahead-of-the-review-conference-in-2020 response to an invitation issued in April 2018 by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to UN Security Council reaffirms SMR project proponents for the construction commitment to non-proliferation and operation of an SMR demonstration unit goals Xinhua, April 3, 2019 at a CNL-managed site. GFP’s proposal in February became the first to advance to the The UN Security Council on Tuesday third stage of CNL’s four-step review reaffirmed its commitment to advance the process, meaning the partners have been goals of the Non-Proliferation Treaty invited by CNL to take part in preliminary, (NPT), the only treaty that contains non-exclusive discussions regarding land legally-binding commitments to nuclear 44 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

disarmament. The council members made law in the future, investigations into the reaffirmation after meeting on responsibility for chemical weapons use supporting the Non-proliferation Treaty must restart as soon as possible. ahead of the 2020 Review Conference. https://www.armscontrol.org/issue-briefs/2019- In a press statement after the meeting, they 04/responses-violations-norm-against-chemical- reaffirmed “their commitment to advance weapons the goals of the NPT as the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime and the 10 years after Obama’s nuclear- foundation for the pursuit of nuclear free vision, the US and Russia disarmament and the peaceful uses of head in the opposite direction nuclear energy.” They underscored the Steven Pifer, Brookings, April 4, 2019 viability and the mutually reinforcing character of all the commitments taken April 5 marks the 10th anniversary of the under the treaty, the need for its full speech in which Barack Obama laid out implementation and the importance of his vision for a world without nuclear achieving universal adherence to the treaty. weapons. It did not gain traction. Instead, the United States and Russia are http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/03/ developing new nuclear capabilities, while c_137944482.htm the nuclear arms control regime is on course to expire in 2021. The result will be Tracing Radioactive Material with a world that is less stable, less secure, and Nuclear Forensics IAEA, April 3, 2019 less predictable

When any suspected radioactive material is https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from- found, for example at a border crossing or chaos/2019/04/04/10-years-after-obamas- in a police raid, it is time to call in the nuclear nuclear-free-vision-the-us-and-russia-head-in- forensic experts. the-opposite-direction/

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/ How Nuclear Techniques Help videos/tracing-radioactive-material-with-nuclear- forensics Feed China Miklos Gaspar, IAEA, April 4, 2019 Responses to Violations of the With 19% of the world’s population but Norm Against Chemical Weapons only 7% of its arable land, China is in a Arms Control Association, April 3, 2019 bind: how to feed its growing and increasingly affluent population while The use of chemical weapons throughout protecting its natural resources. The the eight-year conflict in Syria has country’s agricultural scientists have made challenged the international norm against growing use of nuclear and isotopic the well-established chemical weapons ban techniques in crop production over the last and horrified the international community. decades. In cooperation with the IAEA Despite multiple UN reports confirming and the Food and Agriculture Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Organization of the United Nations responsibility for sarin nerve agent and (FAO), they are now helping experts from chlorine gas attacks, Assad has continued Asia and beyond in the development of to use these terrifying weapons against his new crop varieties, using irradiation. own people. While in many countries, nuclear research The international community has in agriculture is carried out by nuclear constructed a number of investigative bodies agencies that work independently from the to uncover the facts of these atrocious country’s agriculture research crimes, but attribution and accountability establishment, in China the use of nuclear gaps remain. In order to hold Assad techniques in agriculture is integrated into accountable for his violation of international the work of the Chinese Academy of 45 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and safeguarding security. Transforming itself provincial academies of agricultural from a legacy of the Cold War to a modern sciences. This ensures that the findings are multilateral pro-development body might put to use immediately. be a good idea.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/how- http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/04/ nuclear-techniques-help-feed-china \ c_137948523.htm

NATO chief says not seeking “new New Safeguards Tool Bolsters arms race” with Russia Yurou, Xinhua, IAEA’s Verification of Spent April 4, 2019 Nuclear Fuel Matt Fisher, IAEA, April 5, 2019 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Front) addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. For all States with a Comprehensive Congress in Washington D.C., the United Safeguards Agreement in force, the IAEA States, on April 3, 2019. Jens Stoltenberg seeks to verify that all nuclear material said on Wednesday that the military alliance remains in peaceful activities. It achieves does not want a “new arms race” with this through the application of technical Russia while urging Moscow to keep measures known as safeguards. The new compliance with a landmark arms control Passive Gamma Emission Tomography treaty. (PGET) tool, which utilizes a technique known as passive gamma emission http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/04/ tomography, will enable the IAEA to c_137947805_2.htm verify the number of fuel rods – or pins – in spent nuclear fuel assemblies. NATO at 70, What’s next? Liu, Xinhua, April 4, 2019 Unlike other tools used for verifying the content of spent nuclear fuel, such as the The North Atlantic Treaty Organization Digital Cherenkov Viewing Device and (NATO) turns 70 on Thursday. As one of the Spent Fuel Attribute Tester, the PGET the longest-lived military alliances in modern tool can also confirm the absence of missing history, perhaps it’s a good time for NATO pins from a spent fuel assembly in a closed to pause and ponder on its path. An container. This is very useful for applying alarming tendency is that NATO now seems safeguards at nuclear power plants, to have shifted its focus back to its original underwater storage facilities and to confront Russia. Its realignment to the east encapsulation plants at geological has intensified since 2014 Crimea incident repositories. According to Tim White, an amid rising rhetoric about the return of the IAEA technology expert, the use of passive great power politics. But many see NATO’s gamma emission tomography to verify moves as arguably self-fulfilling, as its nuclear material will be a “very valuable presence among Moscow’s immediate addition to the IAEA safeguards toolkit”. neighbors would be regarded as provocative and therefore invites dangerous counter- https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/new- actions. safeguards-tool-bolsters-iaeas-verification-of- spent-nuclear-fuel A Brookings report examined 63 major military alliances over the last 500 years, Brazilian government committed finding that 47 has disintegrated. to nuclear, says energy minister Celebrating its longevity, NATO also needs World Nuclear News, April 5, 2019 to reassess its purpose and clarify its path forward. If NATO seeks to help build peace Brazil’s national energy plan to 2050 will and stability, regionally or worldwide at consider new nuclear power plants large, it should not make itself a source of including generation IV technology and problems or provoke others in the name of small modular reactors to meet growing 46 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

national electricity demand, Minister for of equipment of the first and second Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque said. circuits of the reactor facility, which will The Brazilian government is “strongly include hydraulic tests and circulation committed” to resuming the Angra 3 flushing. The programme for project, which will play an “important role” commissioning water-cooled power in the country’s future electricity system, the reactors consists of four stages, ASE said. minister said at a high-level meeting These are: pre-commissioning; physical alongside the World Nuclear Spotlight Brazil start-up; energy start-up; and conference in Rio de Janeiro. The project will experimental-industrial operation. An assure baseload security of supply for an intergovernmental agreement between interconnected grid of continental Russia and Belarus specifically on dimensions, he added. cooperation in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus was signed Brazil’s National Energy Plan 2050 (PNE in March 2011. 2050), to be made public by the end of the year, will consider new nuclear power https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ plants for baseload generation. Brazil has a Commissioning-starts-at-first-Belarus-unit large installed hydro power capacity - in 2016, this accounted for 66% of its gross IAEA Holds Exercise to Test electricity production, according to World International Capabilities for Nuclear Association - but this will not be Assistance in the Event of Nuclear enough to assure baseload generation and or Radiological Emergencies Sinead security of supply in the face of growing Harvey, IAEA, April 9, 2019 electricity demand and a growing renewable energy capacity, he said. In the The IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre period 2020-2030, Brazil would consider tested international emergency “existing technologies”, but advanced preparedness and response capabilities technologies such as Generation IV and with 39 Member States and 3 international SMRs must be considered in the period from organizations over three days in March 2040 to 2050, he said. 2019. The exercise is held once a year as part of an annual schedule of exercises https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/ and tests Member States’ and international Brazilian-government-committed-to-nuclear- organizations’ procedures to request or minister offer international assistance in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency. Commissioning starts at first The organizers sent the authorities at Belarus unit World Nuclear News, April Member States participating in the exercise 8, 2019 a set of scenarios of nuclear or radiological emergencies. Unit 1 of the first nuclear power plant to be built in Belarus has started the “The exercise started on Tuesday 26 commissioning phase, AtomStroyExport March with the first exercise trigger (ASE), the engineering subsidiary of Russian message,” said Kilian Smith, IAEA state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has Response and Assistance Network announced. The plant, near Ostrovets in the (RANET) Officer. “From this point, Grodno region of Belarus, is being built using participants practiced their emergency the Russian VVER-1200 reactors to give 2340 response procedures, first notifying the MWe net capacity online. The first unit is IAEA of a simulated emergency situation. scheduled for commissioning this year, with Then participants from some Member the second unit to be brought online in 2020. States simulated requests for international assistance, while exercise participants ASE, general contractor for the project, said from other Member States simulated offers on 5 April the first stage of commissioning to address the requested assistance. The had started and that this comprised testing exercise engages responders through 47 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

emergency scenarios and identifies permit is a condition for obtaining the next opportunities to improve their national licensing document: a construction permit emergency response procedures.” authorising the implementation of any nuclear related works at the El Dabaa site. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/iaea-holds- exercise-to-test-international-capabilities-for- Four Russian-designed VVER-1200 assistance-in-the-event-of-nuclear-or-radiological- pressurised water reactors are planned for emergencies El Dabaa, which is on the Mediterranean coast, 170 kilometres west of Alexandria Niger and GoviEx agree Madaouela and Zafraana on the Gulf of Suez. Russian project framework World Nuclear News, State Atomic Energy Corporation April 9, 2019 Rosatom is to develop the plant, which will be owned and operated by the NPPA. The government of Niger and GoviEx have With a nameplate capacity of 4.8GWe, the agreed on a framework to jointly develop plant is expected to account for up to 50% GoviEx’s Madaouela uranium project that of Egypt’s power generation capacity to will see the government purchase another meet the country’s increasing demand for 10% share. GoviEx’s existing Madaouela 1 electricity, according to Rosatom. mining permit will also be expanded to include previous mineral resources http://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Site- discovered by GoviEx in the Agaliouk approval-for-Egyptian-nuclear-power-plant permit, adding a further 5.96 million pounds U3O8 (2292 tU) in measured and indicated Targeting Drought with Nuclear resources. The company will also be granted Techniques Katy Laffan, Martin renewed nine-year terms for its exploration Klingenboeck, IAEA, April 10, 2019 permits for Madaouela 2, 3 and 4, which had reached the end of their exploration A global project to read the fingerprints periods under the 2006 Niger mining code. of raindrops is harnessing the power of big data to monitor water supplies for our Govind Friedland, executive chair of thirsty planet. Using isotope hydrology, Vancouver, Canada-based GoviEx, said the scientists in Austria, Costa Rica, and agreement was the culmination of more around the world are analysing rain and than 12 years of “relentless work and river water to see which raindrops end up millions of man hours” by the company’s in which rivers. This helps avoid drought, management and its Nigerien community. especially in the light of climate change. http://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Frame- Nuclear scientists, at the IAEA labs and work-agreement-plans-for-Madaouela-project-de around the world, are using insights gained from studying life at the atomic Site approval for Egyptian nuclear level, to develop these innovative tools that will drive progress towards the UN’s power plant World Nuclear News, April Sustainable Development Goals. 10, 2019 https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/ Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority videos/targeting-drought-with-nuclear-tech- (NPPA) has received a site approval permit niques for the El Dabaa site from the Egyptian Nuclear Regulation and Radiological National Liaison Officers from Authority (ENRRA). The permit acknowledges that the site and its specific African Member States Gather in conditions comply with national and Arusha to Strengthen the IAEA international requirements. The site Technical Cooperation Programme approval permit is issued for four nuclear Solomon Haile, IAEA, April 10, 2019 units. All other permits within the nuclear licensing process are issued for each unit From 11 to 15 March, the IAEA’s separately, the NPPA said. The site approval Technical Cooperation Division for Africa 48 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

held its annual meeting of National Liaison Concerted Action, Common Officers (NLOs) in Arusha, United Republic Development” recently concluded with a of Tanzania to explore and finalize strong call for multilateralism, better strategies to further enhance the delivery of cooperation, shared prosperity and a the Agency’s TC programme in the region. common future. National Liaison Officers and Assistants (NLAs) from 40 African Member States While acknowledging the strength of Asia attended the event, which was officially as a region having the power and launched by William Tate Ole Nasha, resilience to maintain world peace, and Deputy Minister of Education, Science and stability and give a boost to the global Technology of Tanzania. economy, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also said in his speech at the opening of the “Tanzania is particularly delighted to be forum that improving people’s lives and associated with the level of achievement that livelihoods and economic growth are the African Member States have attained, and common goals for all Asian countries. He with the continued support by the IAEA,” envisioned a future where Asian states said Minister Nasha. “To meet the growing work together to collectively resist risks need, an increasing number of fellowships, and challenges. scientific visits and training courses have been offered by the IAEA. The Government The US has threatened to disarm the of the United Republic of Tanzania Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of appreciates these ongoing IAEA efforts, its nuclear assets by force if necessary, through its TC programme, to emphasize the whereas China has consistently advocated development of human resources for the negotiations, even brokered them. The US peaceful uses and applications of nuclear withdrew unilaterally from the Joint science and technology.” Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and announced sanctions against it, https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/national- whereas China stands by the international liaison-officers-from-african-member-states-gather- agreement. China widely acknowledges in-arusha-to-strengthen-the-iaea-technical- the role of Pakistan in fighting against cooperation-programme terrorism. As Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated after the Analysing the Past with Nuclear first Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers Technology Alejandra Silva, Martin Strategic Dialogue in March, 2019, the Klingenböck, IAEA, April 11, 2019 world should put an end to the double standard it displays toward Pakistan. Scientists around the world use radiation to understand and preserve history. In the http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/global/2019-04/ Albanian National Museum of History, 11/content_37457137.htm researchers are working with non- destructive methods such as x-rays to study Brazilian nuclear policy under old portraits and metal objects. Bolsonaro: no nuclear weapons, https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/ but a nuclear submarine The Bulletin videos/analysing-the-past-with-nuclear-technology of Atomic Scientists, April 12, 2019 Last October, with 55 percent of the vote, Concerted action for a shared future Brazilians elected former army captain Jair Muhammad Asif Noor, China Daily, April Bolsonaro to a four-year term as president. 11, 2019 He not only represents an ideological shift after 13 years of center-left administrations At this year’s Boao Forum for Asia, Premier but also brings back members of the armed Li Keqiang called for Asian countries to forces to a position of power more than work together for a prosperous, peaceful 30 years after the end of Brazil’s military and stable region The 2019 Boao Forum for dictatorship. Asia with the theme “Shared Future, 49 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Media coverage has focused on Bolsonaro’s Despite the clear benefits of cooperative populism, his disregard for environmental arms limitation endeavours, some policies, and his controversial influential actors have seemingly turned statements about women, homosexuality, away from this concept as the surest way and race—which have earned him the to achieve security. nickname “Trump of the tropics.” Once in office, Bolsonaro pushed this reputation http://unidir.org/files/publications/pdfs/hyper- even further through his extensive use of sonic-weapons-a-challenge-and-opportunity-for- social media and the privileged role given strategic-arms-control-en-744.pdf to his sons in his administration. But what does his election mean for Brazilian nuclear Lawrence D. Weiler (1920–2019) policy? Brazil’s nuclear capabilities. Brazil Daryl G. Kimball, Arms Control houses a well-developed nuclear program Association, April 2019 and is one of the few countries in the world Lawrence D. Weiler, an architect of the to control the full uranium cycle. It possesses first major nuclear arms control, risk large reservoirs of uranium, graphene, and reduction, and nonproliferation niobium—materials with possible use in the agreements, died February 24. Throughout nuclear industry—and it has two his 98 years, Weiler was often in the right operational atomic power place at the right time, including during https://thebulletin.org/2019/04/brazilian-nuclear- his service to six presidents, from Dwight policy-under-bolsonaro/ Eisenhower to Jimmy Carter. In the 1960s, Weiler helped establish the Report on Hypersonic Weapons - A Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Challenge and Opportunity for and he was a key member of the U.S. Strategic Arms Control UN, April 2019 negotiating team that concluded the 1963 Hotline Agreement, the first legally A Study Prepared on the Recommendation binding nuclear risk reduction agreement of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board of its kind. Weiler participated in on Disarmament Matters, In launching his negotiating the nuclear Nonproliferation new agenda for disarmament, Securing. Treaty (NPT) from 1966 to 1968. Fifty Our Common Future, Secretary-General years later, he shared his thoughts on the António Guterres made the case for the NPT’s legacy with Arms Control Today. cooperative pursuit of collective security, noting that global insecurity is the https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-04/features/ paradoxical but inevitable result of each lawrence-d-weiler-1920%E2%80%932019 country pursuing security individually. The NPT and the Conditions for This paradox is evident in the race, between Nuclear Disarmament Daryl G. a small number of States, to attain new long- range delivery systems, namely hypersonic Kimball, Arms Control Today, April 2019 boost-glide systems (commonly known as Fifty years ago, shortly after the conclusion hypersonic weapons), we are witnessing of the 1968 nuclear Nonproliferation today. This blinkered pursuit of a novel Treaty (NPT), the United States and the technology with as yet unproven military Soviet Union launched the Strategic Arms utility could have potentially far-reaching Limitation Talks (SALT). Negotiated in the and damaging ramifications. Those midst of severe tensions, the SALT ramifications remain largely unexamined agreement and the Anti-Ballistic Missile and almost wholly undiscussed within the (ABM) Treaty were the first restrictions on multilateral disarmament machinery. This the superpowers’ massive strategic study urges the international community to offensive weapons, as well as on their take steps to remedy this inattention as a emerging strategic defensive systems. The priority. Strategic arms control is in crisis. SALT agreement and the ABM Treaty 50 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

slowed the arms race and opened a period P. Op-eds/ Reports of U.S.-Soviet detente that lessened the threat of nuclear war. A-SAT

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-04/ Will India’s Anti-Satellite features/creating-environment-nuclear-disarma- Weapon Test Spark an Arms Race ment-striding-forward-stepping-back in Space? Malcolm Davis, National Interest, April 3, 2019 Trump Budget Boosts Nuclear the Trump administration’s decision to Efforts Kingston Reif, Arms Control Today, fast-track US strategy for a return to the April 2019 moon, aiming for American astronauts to Consistent with the recommendations of the land at the lunar south pole by 2024 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the (instead of the earlier plan of 2028) caught Trump administration’s fiscal year 2020 everyone by surprise—including NASA. budget request would continue plans to The announcement generated intense expand U.S. nuclear weapon capabilities.The debate about whether the new timeline is budget submission illustrates the rising cost of practicable, what it means for NASA’s the nuclear mission and the challenge those behind-schedule and over-budget Space expenses may pose to the administration’s Launch System rocket, and whether other national security priorities. Congress will fully fund such a move. It’s clearly designed to achieve a lunar landing A Congressional Budget Office report in in time for the end of what would be February estimates that the United States Donald Trump’s supposed second term in will spend $494 billion on nuclear weapons office and, as explained by Vice President from fiscal years 2019 through 2028. That is Mike Pence, it’s set in the context of a new an increase of $94 billion, or 23 percent, from space race against China. the CBO’s previous 10-year estimate of $400 billion, which was published in January For space watchers, that was exciting 2017. (See ACT, March 2019.) The Trump enough. But the more dramatic news, administration’s budget proposal contains which broke late Wednesday evening, was increases for several Defense and Energy India’s test of an anti-satellite weapon department nuclear weapons systems. The (ASAT) in low-earth orbit (LEO). request does not change the planned Promoted as a great achievement for India, development timelines for these programs. ‘Mission Shakti’ involved the destruction of a 740-kilogram microsatellite by a The largest increase sought is for the nuclear missile carrying an ASAT. weapons account of the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/will- Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). india%E2%80%99s-anti-satellite-weapon-test- The budget request calls for $12.4 billion, an spark-arms-race-space-50547 increase of $1.3 billion above the fiscal year 2019 appropriation and $530 million above India’s ASAT test is wake-up call the projection in the fiscal year 2019 budget for norms of behavior in space request. The request includes funds for the Brian Weeden and Victoria Samson, Space continued development of two missile News, April 8, 2019 systems with ranges prohibited by the INF Treaty, but despite numerous queries by On March 27, Indian Prime Minister Arms Control Today and other outlets, the Narendra Modi announced that his Pentagon has yet to divulge the amount. country had successfully conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) test from a launch site https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-04/news/ on Abdul Kalam Island in the Bay of trump-budget-boosts-nuclear-efforts Bengal. Hailed by Modi as a moment of “utmost pride” and with “a historic impact on generations to come,” Mission 51 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Shakti was seen domestically as proof India offensive defence capability, using a was a space power on par with the United missile to destroy a satellite in Low Earth States, Russia and China. Yet Orbit. In a discussion moderated by V. internationally, the test is further evidence Sudarshan, D. Raghunandan and of the more complex space domain, the lack Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan look at India’s of progress on developing norms of behavior options and its role in the global for space, and the challenges of ensuring its governance of outer space. Excerpts long-term sustainability. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is- https://spacenews.com/op-ed-indias-asat-test-is- indias-anti-satellite-test-a-game-changer/ wake-up-call-for-norms-of-behavior-in-space/ article26810081.ece

Anti-Satellite test can steel India’s INDIA ballistic missile defences: Chinese Perceptions of India’s Nuclear blog Atul Aneja, The Hindu, April 11, 2019 Capability Buildup: Ghost India’s test of an anti-satellite weapon last Hunting and a Reality Check month has made some experts in China Manpreet Sethi, The Diplomat, April 2, 2019 conclude that the trial will feed into New Delhi’s bid to firm up its ballistic missile The basic philosophy of nuclear deterrence defences. in India has not changed, despite recent arguments. The article, penned by Shi Yang, described as a foreign relations and military observer, https://thediplomat.com/2019/04/perceptions-of- says that so far India has shown the indias-nuclear-capability-buildup-ghost- hunting-and-a-reality-check/ capacity to intercept short-range ballistic missiles at heights ranging from 30 km to 150 km. Its capability to target mid-range India-Pakistan Aren’t Heading For missiles has been limited. Nuclear War, US Should Calm Down Shriya Misra, The Quint, April 3, The article says that there is an overlap in 2019 the ASAT and anti-ballistic missile technology - destroying medium-range It is only natural to be a bit alarmed by the missiles is much harder. It is easier to strike tensions between the nations in light of the a satellite, as its movement along its orbit is airstrikes and counter airstrikes that predictable and can be monitored over time. followed the 14 February Pulwama attack. But the tasks involved in downing incoming However, there are some rather emphatic ballistic missiles are far more complex. echoes that this will lead to nuclear detonation. These echoes believe that an https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/ escalation towards nuclear war is ominously anti-satellite-test-can-steel-indias-ballistic- looming in the horizon. A lot of this missiledefences-chinese-blog/article26803333.ece narrative has petered down from a body of literature by those who believe that nuclear Is India’s anti-satellite test a game- proliferation by developing countries, changer?(Interview) D. Raghunandan, especially South Asia, is far more dangerous and Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, The Hindu, than nuclear proliferation per se. April 12, 2019 https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/india- On April 1, the Indian Space Research pakistan-tension-airstrikes-potential-nuclear- Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched war-united-states a PSLV C45 rocket with a payload of 29 satellites. Days before this, on March 27, in South Asia’s Overlooked Nuclear an operation called ‘Mission Shakti’, the Crisis Dilip Hiro, The Nation, April 4,2019 Defence Research & Development Organisation demonstrated India’s ability in While few were watching, India and 52 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Pakistan may have just narrowly avoided a weapons and nuclear energy, and so far nuclear confrontation.The casus belli would so good.” undoubtedly be the more than seven- decades-old clash between India and https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/is-it- Pakistan over the contested territory of hyperbolic-to-compare-artificial-intelligence-to- Kashmir. Like a volcano, this unresolved nuclear-weapons/ dispute rumbles periodically—as it did only weeks ago—threatening to spew its white- PAKISTAN hot lava to devastating effect not just in the India seen pursuing region but potentially globally as well. thermonuclear weapons Hasan The trigger for renewed rumbling is always Ehtisham, Daily Times, April 9, 2019 a sensational terrorist attack by a Pakistani India continues to adhere to an unrealistic militant group on an Indian target. That strategy of massive retaliation as the propels India’s leadership to a moral high corner-stone of its so-called No First Use ground. From there, bitter condemnations doctrine. Experts in New Delhi are of Pakistan are coupled with the promise of suggesting that a fully fledged airstrikes on the training camps of the culprit thermonuclear weapons programme is a terrorist organizations operating from the crucial part of making deterrence more Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. As a flexible. India claimed on May 11, 1998, result, the already simmering relations to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb between the two nuclear-armed neighbors as a part of its Operation Shakti-1. are quickly raised to a boiling point. This, in However, several international experts turn, prompts the United States to intervene suspect that the test was a failure at that and pressure Pakistan to shut down those the fusion stage. Some Indian scientists too violent jihadist groups. To placate believe that the fusion device failed to Washington, the Pakistani government goes produce the anticipated results. through the ritual of issuing banning orders on those groups, but in practice, any change https://dailytimes.com.pk/374589/india-seen- is minimal. pursuing-thermonuclear-weapons/

https://www.thenation.com/article/south-asia- overlooked-nuclear-crisis-india-pakistan-kashmir/ US Add two more legs to our nuclear Is It Hyperbolic To Compare triad, or we’ll lose the next war Artificial Intelligence To Nuclear Peter Pry, The Hill, April 4, 2019 Weapons? Akshaya Asokan, Analytics The strategic Nuclear Triad of bombers, India, April 9, 2019 land-based intercontinental ballistic As development in the field of artificial missiles (ICBMs) and ballistic missile intelligence witnesses revolutionary submarines for decades has deterred changes, several noted names and World War III, and remains indispensable. visionaries have warned the world about the But today, Triad survivability is doubtful. grave consequences of AI. In fact, the The Triad should become a strategic reliance of AI is being likened to something “pentagon,” including active and passive as lethal as nuclear weapons. Reiterating his defenses to ensure Triad and societal position on the dangers of AI, founder and survivability, about which more later. Each former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, in a Triad leg has unique characteristics recent interaction at Stanford University contributing to deterrence. For example: compared AI to nuclear weapons. Stating Bombers, unlike launched missiles, can be that technology to be both promising and recalled and their nuclear mission dangerous Gates said, “The world hasn’t canceled. had that many technologies that are both promising and dangerous. We had nuclear ICBMs, the most responsive leg of the 53 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

Triad, can be re-targeted most quickly, supply nearly 40% of the state’s electricity launched most quickly and arrive on target generation. Importantly, they supply fastest. Submarines are the most survivable about 90% of the zero-carbon generation. leg of the Triad, ensuring a U.S. retaliatory However, structural problems in the capability, even if bombers and ICBMs are market for electricity are forcing the destroyed. Collectively, the three legs make imminent closure of two of the plants. The a deterrent even greater than the sum of Three Mile Island plant is scheduled to their parts, because of the complexity of close this September. The owner of the coordinating a successful attack on all three Beaver Valley plant is currently in simultaneously, and enabling U.S. responses bankruptcy and has announced a 2021 to a broad range of scenarios. closure; others are projected to follow.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/ https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/04/ 438161-add-two-more-legs-to-our-nuclear-triad- pennsylvania-will-benefit-from-preserving-its- or-well-lose-the-next-war nuclear-power-plants.html

Nuclear issues sharpen focus on US- Retiring our nuclear plants would Saudi relations Simon Henderson, The be a costly mistake, former federal Hill, April 4, 2019 energy official says Susan Tierney, New Jersey, April 9, 2019 A nuclear war is in prospect between Congress and the Trump administration. New Jersey has seen the effects of the Tension is high. Skirmishes have begun. But changing climate, and the state is stepping the political battle is not being fought with up to address it in a big way. The state’s nukes. Rather, it is about nukes — Saudi new clean energy law positions renewable nukes.The word “Saudi” is cropping up in energy and energy efficiency as priority many headlines these days. Perhaps too climate solutions. These technologies are many. The Saudis likely are players in the central to reducing carbon emissions and “deal of the century” — the yet-to-be- limiting the worst effects of climate announced Middle East plan, where their change. financial weight, regional prestige and religious significance could be crucial to U.S. The prospect of a world powered by diplomacy. renewables is exciting, especially as costs keep falling. Since 2000, U.S. wind and But this role runs in parallel with the solar capacity has grown 45-fold and 80- challenge of coping with the notoriety fold, respectively. But even so, gained by imprisoning and allegedly abusing transitioning to 100 percent renewables is women political activists, and the cause easier said than done. Solar and wind celebre of the murder and dismemberment together account for just 8 percent of the of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal nation’s power supply, and scaling them Khashoggi. up will take time and money. By contrast, America’s nuclear plants provide one-fifth https://thehill.com/opinion/international/436799- of total electricity and nearly two-thirds nuclear-issues-sharpen-focus-on-us-saudi- of carbon-free power. Nuclear plants relations operate around the clock, and provide needed electricity supply as entrepreneurs Pennsylvania will benefit from and investors come up with new ways to preserving its nuclear power plants meet consumers’ needs when the wind John Parsons and Jacopo Buongiorno, Penn isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, and Live, April 5, 2019 as other carbon-free technologies emerge.

Pennsylvania confronts a vital decision https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/04/retiring- about the place nuclear power will have in our-nuclear-plants-would-be-a-costly-mistake- the state’s future. Today, five nuclear plants former-federal-energy-official-says.html 54 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Trump’s Nuclear Wishlist is government provided loan interest rate Overkill Global Zero, April 10, 2019 subsidies to select companies and established state-owned enterprises to The Trump Administration released its encourage technological development Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget, requesting since the 1960s. Thanks to this policy, $750 billion for national security, a 4.7 France successfully developed new percent increase over last year.The technologies, including high-speed rail, administration’s request keeps the U.S. on civil nuclear power plants, aerospace and track to spend an estimated $1.7 trillion aviation in the 1970s, quickly becoming a modernizing the nuclear arsenal and global leader in many industrial sectors, adheres to the guidance of the 2018 Nuclear just two or three decades after the World Posture Review (NPR) to expand the U.S. War II. nuclear arsenal. The request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/ agency overseeing U.S. nuclear warheads 1144285.shtml (the explosive packages), alone includes $12.4 billion for nuclear weapons research Viewpoint: Finland seeks to and production, a dramatic 11.8 percent streamline licensing World Nuclear increase from the previous year’s budget. News, April 8, 2019 In 2018, Global Zero released its Alternative Finnish power companies are looking for Nuclear Posture Review (Alt-NPR), ways to streamline licensing and outlining a realistic U.S. nuclear arsenal qualification processes through a new based on a deterrence-only role, meaning the project started last year called KELPO. The sole purpose of the nuclear force would be first part of the project has been completed to deter a nuclear attack against the United and it is moving ahead to the pilot phase, States and its allies, and that the United writes Tuomo Huttunen, senior advisor on States would commit to never using nuclear nuclear power at Finnish Energy, which weapons first. With a deterrence-only represents about 260 companies that strategy, the United States can meet any produce, acquire, transmit and sell reasonable definition of deterrence with electricity, gas, district heat and district approximately one-third of the current force, cooling and offer related services.he pending the elimination of all nuclear Finnish nuclear fleet is well-known for its weapons. This would not only reduce the high safety standards and continuous risk of nuclear use, but it would free up improvements in plant safety and billions of dollars in unnecessary spending. reliability during the past decades of plant https://www.globalzero.org/updates/trump- operation. As nuclear fleets are facing nuclear-wishlist/ lifetime extensions and modernisation, it’s evermore necessary to be able to exploit EUROPE standard components, such as valves and It’s not a bad thing if European motors, used in other safety and reliability- critical industries. economies start embracing industrial policies again Ding Yifan, The Finnish nuclear industry, along with Global Times, April 1, 2019 its European counterparts, wants to secure an efficient and working supply chain for Many Western media have recently reported the modernisation and replacement of that the EU is embracing industrial policy safety related structures, systems and again, saying that the EU is inclined to components in its nuclear power plants. accept the French proposal to carry out Furthermore, the heavy and long licensing European industrial policies to reinvigorate process, even for components in lower its industry and strengthen the foundation safety classes, needs further development of Europe’s economic recovery. in order to be more efficient.

Under the guidance of the state intervention http://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/VIEW- theory of “Gaullism,” the French POINT-Finland-seeks-to-streamline-licensing 55 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

RUSSIA Rubio and Menendez warned in their letter that it was not a good idea to provide Russia’s Military Mission Creep Saudis with nuclear technology or know- Advances to a New Front: Africa Eric how amid Congress’ attempts to Schmitt, NY Times, April 1, 2019 reevaluate ties with the kingdom in the wake of its “many deeply troubling Russia has been steadily expanding its actions.” “The Kingdom has engaged in military influence across Africa, alarming many deeply troubling actions and Western officials with increasing arms sales, statements that have provoked alarm in security agreements and training programs Congress and led lawmakers to begin the for unstable countries or autocratic leaders. process of reevaluating the US-Saudi In the Central African Republic, where a relationship and our long-term stability Russian has been installed as the president’s and interests in the region,” read the letter. national security adviser, the government is selling mining rights for gold and diamonds http://www.iran-daily.com/News/240885.html at a fraction of their worth to hire trainers and buy arms from Moscow. Russia is Iran floods force evacuations as seeking to ensconce itself on NATO’s US denies sanctions are harming southern flank by helping a former general aid efforts The National, April 3, 2019 in Libya fight for control over his government and vast oil market. Iranian authorities ordered scores of villages to be evacuated on Tuesday as the https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/world/ effects of severe flooding spread further africa/russia-military-africa.html across the country.Meanwhile, Washington denied claims by Tehran that WEST ASIA US sanctions were slowing aid work. At Bad time to nuclearize Saudis: US least 47 people were killed in the past two weeks by flash floods after the worst rain Senators warn Trump Iran Daily, April in Iran for at least a decade. The armed 3, 2019 forces had intensified their relief work, In a letter drafted to US Energy Secretary with military and Red Crescent helicopters Rick Perry on Tuesday, Senators Robert taking part in rescue operations. Menendez, the senior Democrat on the Senate “Blocked equipment includes relief Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican choppers. This isn’t just economic warfare, committee member Marco Rubio questioned it’s economic terrorism,” Mr Zarif said on the recent approvals for American companies Twitter. In a response that Mr Zarif to share nuclear energy information with described as fake news, US Secretary of Saudi Arabia, Press TV reported. The senators State Mike Pompeo said Washington was specifically pointed to Riyadh’s insistence on ready to help through the Red Cross and forgoing Washington’s so-called 123 Red Crescent. Mr Pompeo accused Iran’s agreement, a set of nonproliferation standards clerical establishment of “mismanagement required by Section 123 of the US Atomic in urban planning and emergency Energy Act of 1954. In its never ending quest preparedness”. “The regime blames for more money, the Trump administration outside entities when, in fact, it is their resumed the talks and is reportedly mismanagement that has led to this considering a deal that would allow Riyadh disaster,” he said. Germany and Britain, to enrich and reprocess uranium and pave also signatories to the nuclear deal, offered the way for American companies to build humanitarian aid including 40 boats, Irna nuclear reactors in the kingdom. Financially, reported. the deal is assumed to be lucrative enough to match the money-driven politics of https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/iran- Trump, a businessman-turned-politician floods-force-evacuations-as-us-denies-sanctions- who is not afraid of overstepping boundaries are-harming-aid-efforts-1.844405 for more dollars. 56 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

Saudi nuclear program accelerates, actively pursue joint research projects in raising tensions in a volatile region sectors such as smart health care and Tim Lister and Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, April smart transportation platforms to better 7, 2019 prepare for the challenges of the era of artificial intelligence. On the outskirts of Riyadh, a building site is quickly being transformed into the http://www.koreaherald.com/ birthplace of Saudi Arabia’s quest for nuclear view.php?ud=20190409000738&ACE_SEARCH=1 power, a bid that has sparked concern in the US Congress and fury in Tehran. New NORTH KOREA satellite imagery shows that construction on An Uncertain Future for North an experimental reactor is making “expeditious” progress — just three months Korean Talks Kelsey Davenport, Arms after the Kingdom announced plans to build Control Today, April 2019 it, according to former director for nuclear North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may inspections at the International Atomic be losing interest in diplomacy with the Energy Agency (IAEA), Robert Kelley. United States, according to officials in Pyongyang, creating uncertainty around Kelley estimated that the reactor could be the future of U.S.-North Korean completed in “nine months to a year.” negotiations. If the two sides do resume The Kingdom has been open about its talks, diplomats will need to overcome nuclear program with the IAEA, which sent persistent differences that contributed to a team to Saudi Arabia last July to check on the abrupt end of the second summit building plans. It has repeatedly pledged that between Kim and U.S. President Donald the program is peaceful. But Crown Prince Trump in Hanoi. Trump and Kim initially Mohammed bin Salman said last year that expressed interest in continuing diplomacy “without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear after the Hanoi meeting, but Choe Son Hei, bomb, we will follow suit as soon as North Korea’s vice minister for foreign possible.” Also raising concern among affairs, said on March 15 that Pyongyang industry experts and some in Congress is the might halt negotiations because Kim may Saudi insistence that it should be allowed to have “lost the will” to continue talks. She produce its own nuclear fuel, rather than also raised the prospect of North Korea import it under strict conditions. In an resuming intercontinental ballistic missile interview last year, Saudi Energy Minister (ICBM) tests, which are prohibited by UN Khalid al Falih said: “It’s not natural for us Security Council resolutions, if to bring enriched uranium from a foreign Washington does not reward the North’s country to fuel our reactors,” citing the current testing freeze with a reciprocal country’s uranium reserves. step that addresses North Korean concerns. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/middleeast/ saudi-arabia-nuclear-reactor-iran-tensions-intl/ North Korea announced in April 2018 a index.html voluntary moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests. Trump has KAIST-KU Joint Research Center highlighted the testing suspension as an indicator of successful talks and opens in UAE Ock Hyun-ju, April 9, 2019 announced on Feb. 28 that Kim had Korea Advanced Institute of Science and agreed to continue abiding by the Technology and United Arab Emirates’ moratorium. Choe’s remarks implied that Khalifa University of Science and North Korea would undo additional steps Technology opened the KAIST-KU Joint it took as part of the process, including the Research Center in Abu Dhabi, as part of partial dismantlement of its satellite launch their efforts to enhance cooperation in the facility and nuclear test site, if the United wake of “Industry 4.0,” KAIST said States refuses to take any actions. Satellite Tuesday. The two universities plan to imagery from early March reportedly 57 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

appears to show that North Korea has SOUTH KOREA already reconstructed elements of the Sohae Satellite Launch facility that were dismantled Concerns on alliance Korea Herald, last year. Imagery also suggested that North April 3, 2019 Korea may be preparing for a launch at the The Korea-US military alliance is showing site, but South Korean Defense Minister signs of abnormality. The US Marine Corps Jeong Kyeong-doo said on March 18 that the deployed 14 aircraft from Hawaii to the activity at the site “should not be judged as Korean Peninsula for training last month. activity preparing for a missile launch.” This came to light through a statement “The nuclear and ballistic missile programs released by Lt. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta, of [North Korea] remain intact and the commander of the US Marine Forces country continues to defy Security Council Pacific, for a security seminar in Seoul on resolutions,” the report says. Tuesday. Military authorities in Seoul did not disclose the training. The exercise was https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-04/news/ exceptional. The US Marine Corps usually uncertain-future-north-korean-talks dispatches aircraft to the Korean Peninsula from US bases on the Japanese island of Not easy for US-DPRK to make real Okinawa or its own territory of Guam. headway China Daily, April 14, 2019 Military experts here regard the training as an effectively independent US Marine Democratic People’s Republic of Korea exercise. leader Kim Jong-un has said he is only interested in meeting US President Donald US President Donald Trump once said he Trump again if the United States comes to would cancel military exercises between talks with the right attitude.Pyongyang the US and South Korea because they were demands is Washington forsaking its “tremendously expensive,” but now the “maximum pressure” and demonstrating US conducts effectively independent sufficient goodwill by relieving, or military training and activity at its own completely rolling back, sanctions, putting expense. Washington may be considering an end to the state of war, or, even better, multiple objectives, but whatever its offering economic incentives. intentions are, such a move is undesirable for South Korea, as it could loosen its After making a couple of reconciliatory alliance with the US. A military alliance gestures, such as freezing nuclear and between two states is a pledge to fight missile tests and demolishing some test sites, together if either side is attacked. To win Pyongyang wants something in return. a fight, they should train together and Which is not unreasonable, but so far has maintain combat readiness. not been forthcoming. Washington should http://www.koreaherald.com/ not anticipate Pyongyang denuclearizing in view.php?ud=20190403000444&ACE_SEARCH=1 a wholesale, one-off manner. After all, its nuclear missile programs are the sole It’s urgent, too Korea Herald, April 7, bargaining chip it has in its hands. Rather 2019 than surrender its nuclear arsenal in a wholesale manner, it is in Pyongyang’s best South Korea should not ignore N. Korean interests to turn its engagement with refugees, human rights issues. The North Washington into an arms control regime Korean nuclear threat should be tackled between two nuclear states. It may be that as soon as possible. However, the security a third Trump-Kim summit happens. But issue should not distract South Korea and meaningful headway in denuclearization the international community from entails more than what the two sides appear addressing refugee and human rights ready to offer at the moment. problems in the North.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/14/ Incidents involving defectors have raised WS5cb339eca3104842260b61b5.html concerns that the South Korean 58 Volume 11, Number 08 April 30, 2019

government is not paying enough attention A: It is China that is posing a challenge to to the plight of North Koreans trying to the existing international/regional order escape tyranny and poverty in their country. by strengthening its military capabilities, A worrisome case occurred in Vietnam early so the United States and Japan need to this month. Three North Korean defectors implement countermeasures. On the other who attempted to enter the Southeast Asian hand, if the United States and Japan country on their way to South Korea were bolster their defense capabilities, there is caught on the border with China. the possibility that China could take additional measures. http://www.koreaherald.com/ view.php?ud=20190407000113&ACE_SEARCH=1 But for the near future, it is difficult to foresee the creation in Asia of an arms JAPAN control framework that would place numerical limits or reductions on missiles. INTERVIEW/ Franklin Miller: U.S. It would be inconceivable for China to won’t ask Japan to deploy new abandon its superiority to the United missiles Kenji Minemura, The Asahi States in terms of intermediate-range Shimbun, April 9, 2019 missile capability. Meanwhile, the United States possesses sea-launched cruise Q: Japan could be a strong candidate for the missiles as well as air power. China would U.S. deployment of their INFs. argue that those capabilities also be included in any arms control framework A: U.S. proposal to put INF-type weapons in Northeast Asia, but the United States on Japanese soil would create a huge would resist such a proposal. The most problem for the Japanese government, huge urgent issue is to reduce the risk of the use political problem. It would be a very difficult of missiles by, among others, increasing fight for the government, and it would create transparency of China’s nuclear weapon divisions in Japanese society about pro-U.S. and missile capabilities and building up a and anti-U.S. That’s not very helpful to sense of trust and confidence among the either Washington or Tokyo. Nobody wants countries involved in security issues in this to do that. It’s obviously not going to be new region. missiles in Japan. Even without nuclear warheads. Q: What role should Japan play?

Q: How could Japan and the U.S. counteract A: If the INF Treaty should become Chinese missiles? invalidated, a situation would arise that could lead to the United States deploying A: If we continue to proceed, as I think we missiles in Northeast Asia. There would will, with boost-glide vehicles. There’s a new be a need for strategic discussions between test, I think, next year, 2020. We can have Japan, the United States and China in light those things in the force by 2025. Those are of a new strategic situation. Dialogue powerful conventional weapons. should be started to talk about such issues, http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ for example, the threat posed by missiles, AJ201904090041.html the possibility of unintended risks as well as the objective of missile development. No Interview/ Hirofumi Tosaki: Japan, progress will be made in creating a new U.S., China Need To Talk About arms control framework without the start of dialogue. Arms Control In Asia The Asahi Shimbun, April 9, 2019 http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ AJ201904090053.html Q: How do you view the concerns about arms expansion as well as the possibility of creating a new arms control framework? 59 Nuclear, Missile & Space Digest

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