The Bush Administration is trying to keep North Korea and Iran from developing nuclear weapons, all the while saying it needs to build new ones itself (4-page pdf - see the item called RNEP). If I were a negotiator for the PRK or Iran, I think I'd bring that up during talks.
In a much less visible or publicized way, Congress is now about to allow proliferation of weapons-grade uranium for medical purposes.
A provision tucked into the 1,724-page energy bill that Congress is poised to enact today would ease export restrictions on bomb-grade uranium, a lucrative victory for a Canadian medical manufacturer and its well-wired Washington lobbyists.The Burr Amendment -- named for its sponsor, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) -- would reverse a 13-year-old U.S. policy banning exports of weapons-grade uranium unless the recipients agree to start converting their reactors to use less-dangerous uranium. The Senate rejected the measure last month after critics in both parties warned that it would accelerate the worldwide proliferation of nuclear materials, but a House-Senate conference committee agreed this week to include it in the final bill.
The worst part of this is that the Canadian company "already has enough highly enriched uranium to make one or two Hiroshima-size bombs, and its factories do not have to meet the same security standards as Energy Department facilities."
Yet another example of the best Congress money can buy. National interest counts for far less than campaign cash, it seems.
Posted by Linkmeister at August 6, 2005 09:05 AM | TrackBack