Environment & Climate Change

We are appalled by the terrorist attacks last week in New York and Washington D.C. Our sympathies are with the innocent victims and their families and friends. But we are also extremely alarmed by this event. There can now be little doubt that if such terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction in the future they will use them. It is imperative, therefore, that preventing terrorists from gaining access to the technologies and materials of weapons of mass destruction - including nuclear materials - be a high priority component of the new global battle against terrorism.

Fifty-five years ago this week, America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So began the nuclear age.

It hasn't gone as the experts predicted. There have been no "limited" nuclear wars, and although nine nations did eventually acquire nuclear weapons, an additional 20 countries started down the nuclear path only to stop and reverse course. Today, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the cornerstone of international efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, has more members than the United Nations.

AFTER THEIR nuclear tests in May 1998, the Governments of India and Pakistan sought to placate international criticism by announcing that they did not intend conducting more tests and promising to control nuclear technology exports. They have also not yet deployed nuclear weapons. But, India and Pakistan have continued building up stocks of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons in a fissile material race with profound economic, environmental and health consequences for their people. Stopping this race would benefit both countries. Using newly available commercial satellite images they could verify a production freeze independently with considerable confidence