Nuclear Non-Proliferation: World's Most-Pressing Issue Not Political Posturing or Fake Concern

Photo from the BBC: Russian Warheads (Topols)

American Nuclear Bomb (B61-12)

Background information on the two nukes shown above:

1.  Russian Topol.

2.  American B 61-12.

Now the main story from the BBC (with my slight editing to fit the blog) that caught my attention and hopefully yours, too. The background and key parts from this story are these:

In a decree, President Vladimir Putin accused the US of creating “a threat to strategic stability, as a result of unfriendly actions” towards Russia.  Moscow also set pre-conditions for the US for the deal to be resumed.

Under the 2000 deal, each side is supposed to get rid of 34 tons of plutonium by burning it in reactors.  It is part of cuts to nuclear forces. The State Department said the combined 68 tons of plutonium was “enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.”  Both sides had reconfirmed the deal in 2010.

In the decree (in Russian), Putin said Russia had to take “urgent measures to defend the security of the Russian Federation.”

Back in April, Putin said the U.S. was failing to fulfill its obligations to destroy plutonium. Instead, he argued, they were “reprocessing method allowed plutonium to be extracted and used again in nuclear weapons.”

Putin also submitted a bill (in Russian) to his parliament setting a series of pre-conditions for the US for the agreement to be resumed, including:

1.  Reduction of U.S. military infrastructure and troops in countries that joined NATO after September 1, 2000.

2.  Lifting of all U.S. sanctions against Russia and compensation for the damage they have caused to date.

Each side had build special facilities for disposing of the surplus plutonium as Putin concluded: “We fulfilled our duties, we built that enterprise. But our American partners did not.”

Meanwhile we rejected that Russian claim, insisting that our disposal methods did not violate the agreement.

Continue the BBC story.

As I said, this I believe is the most-pressing and serious problem facing mankind. This back and forth must be stopped – how? That is the critical question, isn’t it?

Thanks for stopping by.