သူရူးလက္ထဲ န်ဴကလီယားလက္နက္မေရာက္ေအာင္ ကာကြယ္ေနၾကျပီ သန္းေရႊ ၾကမၼာညွိဳးေတာ့မည္.

Locking down N-supplies
Published: 14/04/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

President Barack Obama's summit on nuclear security has started out interestingly. The US leader managed to convince Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that it was time to stand up to an increasingly bizarre and obsessive Iran. He also convinced a hugely reluctant Ukraine to part with uranium it ''inherited'' as a former Soviet state. With another full day to go, it must be hoped the Washington conference can get similar strong and meaningful commitments contributing to a safer world.

Politics, of course, has intervened. Iran, North Korea and Syria were not even invited to the summit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has sent a deputy. Mr Obama has chosen to leave the problem of South Asian nuclear weapons off the table, because India and Pakistan might even boycott the meeting.

But this is the most important meeting of its kind in many years. The US and Russia have largely locked down their nuclear weapons and fuels. Chile recently set a fine example by moving its enriched uranium from research reactors to the United States. It must be hoped that any agreements reached at the Obama summit, bilateral or unilateral, can be enforced by the United Nations. The UN currently has no viable method to bring the community of nations into policing nuclear fuel and weapons.

This was the conference which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was forced to miss because of the political crisis at home. It was unfortunate Mr Abhisit had to cancel his trip to Washington. Like all civilised countries, Thailand has a great interest in promoting the peaceful use of atomic energy, while combating the spread of the terrible nuclear weapons. Thailand has had an active ''atoms-for-peace'' programme for more than 50 years, including a nuclear reactor in Bangkok which produces isotopes for medical use and for one of the world's most advanced food irradiation plants.

Because of its limited atomic abilities, Thailand does share some concerns with many other countries. There is, for example, no enforcement of international regulations on disposal of nuclear waste. Thailand's waste is exported and recycled, but is lightly policed. A fatal accident in 2000, when a rubbish scavenger found a discarded hospital x-ray isotope tube, highlighted the danger. Criminal or terrorist gangs can easily use such waste to make so-called ''dirty bombs'' which would terrorise a large area and possibly contaminate a city centre.

It is widely speculated, however, that Mr Abhisit's invitation to join Mr Obama and 40-plus other leaders this week was directly because of the increasingly disturbing situation in Burma. That country's always secretive rulers have joined a pact with the rogue nuclear state North Korea. So far, it has produced a huge network of tunnels in remote sections of Burma.

The Burmese generals reportedly want to develop some sort of nuclear capability, but have not told the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency about it, as would be required. The North Koreans, even more underhanded in their nuclear and weapons programmes than the Burmese, may be trying to exploit uranium deposits in Burma. It is all very worrying, with the US and many other countries hoping Thailand can use both its good offices and intelligence capabilities to find out what is happening in Burma.

Mr Obama has pointed out that the greatest security threat to the world is a terrorist group with one or more nuclear weapons. Safeguarding nuclear weapons and material should be an international priority.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/36047/locking-down-n-supplies