Nautilus in the News

Over at Nautilus, Roger Cavazos, Peter Hayes and David von Hippel have taken apart the new Chinese sanctions list in a must-read post (the full 236-page Chinese document–“Technical bulletin #59 on prohibition of dual use exports to North Korea”–can be found here. Nautilus also provides the ability to translate it from the original Chinese using Google translate, which will give you a fairly accurate gist considering the language is mostly technical). The list—divided into nuclear, missile, chemical and biological and a “supplemental” section—shows incredible attention to detail, drawing on Chinese knowledge—or concerns—over very specific capabilities as well as product list templates generated by the IAEA and the export control regimes.

“When you make a phone call, send an email or use your Facebook page, information that you send across the airwaves or through the Internet can be scooped up by Western intelligence agencies. Professor Richard Tanter of the University of Melbourne, a senior research associate with the Nautilus Institute, says that the 1946 UKUSA Treaty originally focused on signals intelligence such as radio communications, but this has been expanded through the use of new technology.”

“Professor Richard Tanter, senior research associate at the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, says that going along with American military plans has become a default position for Australia and could damage relationships in the Asia-Pacific region. He was speaking at a symposium about the US military presence in northern Australia in Darwin on Friday.”

Melbourne University’s professor Richard Tanter tells us that prime minister Shinzo Abe’s decisive victory in Japan’s upper house elections raises the prospect of him moving more strongly not just on the economy but on foreign policy.

Peter Hayes, executive director of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, in an e-mail said he sees it both ways: “We keep on saying [North Korea’s nuclear work is] not acceptable.”

On the other hand, there is an implicit recognition of Pyongyang’s strategic status “in terms of how we respond to their nuclear threat … which, de facto, recognizes that they are a nuclear-armed state, if not a nuclear weapons state, under international law,” he wrote.

The U.S. State Department did not respond by press time to a question about whether it is moving toward tacit recognition that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is here to stay.

원자력발전소 부품 비리가 잇따라 적발되고 있는 가운데 우리나라가 원전 도입 초기부터 심각한 ‘안전 불감증’에 빠졌다고 경고한 미국의 보고서가 31년 만에 공개됐습니다.

워싱턴 특파원 화상으로…

보고서 31년만에 공개 “안전 점검·품질 관리 소홀

미국의 안보·환경·자원 분야 정책연구 민간기관인 노틸러스연구소는 11일(현지시간) 우리나라가 원전 도입 초기부터 심각한 안전불감증에 빠져 있었음을 보여 주는 ‘대한민국의 핵 발전 프로그램의 안전 측면 업데이트 리뷰’ 문건을 31년 만에 공개했다.