Nuclear Nonproliferation, American Style
Photo by Gwydion M. Williams | CC BY 2.0
“U.S. Chases a Saudi Deal” ran the front page headline in the February 21 Wall Street Journal. The story continued:
The Trump administration is pursuing a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia despite the kingdom’s refusal to accept the most stringent restrictions against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, U.S. officials say.
The Saudis have rejected restrictions on “enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel”: steps in building nuclear bombs. Robert Gleason, author of The Nuclear Terrorist (2014), stresses the ease with which “a nuclear power reactor can become a nuclear bomb-fuel factory.”
Why would the Trump Administration do something so risky? (I didn’t realize at first how funny that sentence is.)
Back to the WSJ: “Administration officials consider [the nuclear reactor sale] too important to pass up, especially when the U.S. nuclear industry is on the decline.” And there you have it. Profits today, Armageddon tomorrow. The “U.S. nuclear industry is on the decline.” Instead of celebrating that fact, and going full speed ahead with development of renewable energy sources, the Trump Administration is dead set on keeping the nuclear industry alive, even if it has to administer a few thousand volts to the corpse. It’s the same with the dying coal industry. Lenin boasted that “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Lenin would be overjoyed to learn that we in the capitalist world are perfectly capable of hanging ourselves without outside help.
The February 21 Wall Street Journal notes Congress’ growing uneasy over the potential sale, and adds: “The impending debate has confronted the administration with a dilemma: If it lowers standards in the hope of securing the Saudi deal it will spur criticism about its commitment to fighting proliferation.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
