[Random-bits] As North Korea Gives Up Reactor, Kazakhstan Seeks a Nuclear Edge

[James Love]

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000549

As North Korea Gives Up Reactor, Kazakhstan Seeks a Nuclear Edge
DEPARTMENT 	Washington Babylon
BY 	Ken Silverstein
PUBLISHED 	July 17, 2007
Kazakhs demonstrate the game "Chase the Girl." Inset: a nuclear bomb.

North Korea may have just shut down its reactor, but here=92s something =20=

new to worry about: Kazakhstan, the Caspian country ruled by a man =20
who has just effectively declared himself President-for-Life, may be =20
on the verge of acquiring nuclear fuel processing technology. The =20
only thing standing in the way would be a veto by the Bush =20
Administration, and given its close relationship with President =20
Nursultan Nazerbayev=92s energy-rich regime that doesn=92t seem likely.

The scenario is as follows: Toshiba now owns 77 percent of =20
Westinghouse, the U.S.-based nuclear power plant builder and =20
operator. It wants to sell 10 percent of its stake to Kazatomprom =20
(KAP), Kazakhstan=92s state-run nuclear agency. According to accounts =20=

in the Japanese press and international news agencies, the =20
transaction will require Toshiba and Westinghouse to transfer uranium-=20=

processing technology to KAP.

If the deal goes through, KAP would not operate a nuclear fuel-=20
enrichment plant but it would produce uranium hexafluoride, or =93hex,=94 =
=20
which is =93used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel =20=

for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.=94 And obtaining hex would =20
certainly be of keen interest to any country seeking to develop =20
nuclear weapons as it could be used as feed for its enrichment plants.

Nucleonics Week, an industry publication, says the deal would begin =20
transforming KAP =93from a uranium producer into a diversified player =20=

on the global nuclear market.=94 The article said that the =93KAP buy-in =
=20
to Westinghouse would be the first instance in which a part of the =20
former Soviet civilian-military nuclear complex became a shareholder =20
in a Western nuclear supplier company.=94

Kazakhstan was praised for having voluntarily given up its nuclear =20
weapons arsenal in 1992 after gaining independence from the former =20
Soviet Union. But Nazerbayev=92s government is considered to be widely =20=

corrupt and =93there are reports that nuclear facilities and material =20=

are not secure, and there is evidence that people in Kazakhstan have =20
ties to nuclear black-market activities,=94 according to James Love, =20
head of the Washington-based group Knowledge Ecology International.

The sale of a stake in Westinghouse to a company in a third country =20
requires the approval of the U.S. government. Today, Love=92s group and =20=

three others, Greenpeace, Essential Action, and the Nuclear =20
Information and Resource Service, wrote to the Treasury Department=92s =20=

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to oppose the =20
sale on the grounds that it would =93undermine efforts to limit nuclear =20=

proliferation, and . . . give sensitive nuclear technology to a =20
brutal, repressive and undemocratic regime.=94

I ran the potential deal past Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of =20
the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, and he also expressed =20
opposition. =93It would essentially be encouraging a government to get =20=

into the nuclear fuel-making business,=94 he said. =93That is always =20
going to be a problem, especially in the case of a government like =20
Kazakhstan=92s.=94

The fact that Kazakhstan has previously given up its nuclear arsenal =20
does not eliminate concerns. =93Whatever the economic arguments might =20=

be, there always ought to be an overriding security imperative to =20
keep nuclear-fuel making plants out of countries that don=92t currently =20=

have nuclear weapons,=94 he said. =93If you have a fuel-making plant in =20=

the wrong place it doesn=92t matter if there are international =20
safeguards. You won=92t be able to reliably know where all the nuclear =20=

material is and you don=92t know where the expertise involved in =20
running the plant may end up.=94
=09

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James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
mailto:james.love@keionline.org
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / U.S. mobile+1.202.361.3040, Geneva mobile =20
+41.76.413.6584

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks." Bill Walton"