Nuclear fears

[Maquilishuat]

Hello All:

As a Brazilian citizen I can not ignore that mainstream media fabricating a nuclear Brazil. There are no enemies on sight, so let us make one.

Brazil has no intention on building nuclear weapons, though I personally believe that a strong nation is a respected one. Moreover, nuclear capacity has avoided the two superpowers to anihilate themselves in the past, taking the world with them.

But an important issue is constantly out of the media, which is why Brazil signed the Tlatelolco Treat; this document signalled that all nuclear countries would progressively dismantle ther arsenals, so it would be safer for all to proceed with this intent. But exactly the opposite has happened, these countries are improving their nuclear weapons, turning the possibility of a nuclear attack more likely against non-nuclear nations.

It was (and is) a scam.

Saludos, Maquilishuat

[Sakura26]

Hello Otto and all

You know, I'm supposedly catholic, but not a religious person at all. I don't believe in magic, good or bad.. I don't believe that "the end of the world" is coming, from a higher power and although I kind of believe in God, I dont think he would mess with Earth affairs.
I think mankind has evolved beyond the limits meant for human beings. It's amazing that we can clone animals and people as if we were God ourselves, and it's amazing we can transplant organs from one person to another, but this has also led to another problem: For example here in Argentina, there's a new kind of kidnappings, people are kidnapped, they take their organs (if they are lucky, they are left alive) and then, if they're not dead, they can go. If we couldnt transplant organs, people wouldnt be stolen their body parts, so, is it really a good thing that human beings, have such a control of life?
Nuclear weapons are the other side of the problem. Countries that have them, say they do ONLY to discourage other nations to use nuclear weapons against them or anyone else. We have to be really naive to believe this crap. If you have a gun, you're gonna use it, that's why I dont have arms in my house, no matter how unsafe I feel.
So, I think the famous "end of the world" IS going to come, and very soon unfortunately....but not from an allmighty Lord we cannot see or understand, but from human beings ourselves.

I bet I made your day, didn't I ? ;D
Best Wishes for all
Noelia


PS: If anyone fell asleep reading this, it's ok, I've never studied philosophy in my life...

[Johnmcd]

Otto,
Why are UN Atomic Agency Inspectors in Brazil? Heard they arrived in your country last Monday (18/10) in effort to inspect Brazils nuclear enrichment programme that was previously denied access to them.

I understand that both Argentina and Brazil pursued nuclear weapons programmes in the 80’s, but signed an accord to inspect each others facilities, “The Treaty of Tlatelolco” in 1994. Not quite an international treaty, just a bilateral agreement.

Is Brazil signatory to the Nuclear Arms Non-Proliferation Treaty? Or is there a danger that Brazil might export this technology and substance abroad to developing countries just the same as your very healthy conventional arms trade.

Best wishes,
John.

[Johnmcd]

Noelia,
I remember very clearly the terror I felt as a small child back in 1963 when all thought that nuclear war was about to begin and destroy the world over the Cuban Missile crisis.

I still fear them now, because I know that if just one device was used in anger then the response would still be catastrophic for all on the planet. Do you remember the melt-down in Chernobyl in April 1986? That accident was the cause of thousands of slow deaths with fall-out reaching the UK, though not in dangerous doses. It was a wake up call.

As you may know the main nuclear powers: USA, Russia, France, UK and China have all agreed to limit and dispose of such weapons, through the UN, and to stop them being exported outside their countries. Other countries do have them of course, mainly Pakistan, India and Israel. It is possible that N. Korea has developed some sort of device and delivery system and the UN knows that Iran wants them. Iraq, prior to the 2003 offensive, was well on its way as recent news confirmed.

They all must be dismantled - no matter where they are before some idiot makes a political statement by using such a device.

Higher Powers?
Like you I’m not a philosopher or a religious person, in the general sense. However, the God that all pray to, that made man in his own image - could we just be clones of this higher power who left his ’children’ behind? You don’t see Monkeys, our nearest earth relative by 30 million years development, building spaceships. We do though!

Best wishes,
John.

[Sea Eagle]

Otto,

From my reading of the media reports in this country, and it has not been given any prominence, it simply says that it is reported that Brazil has the capability with its nuclear processing facility to produce enough enriched uranium to make 6 or 7 nuclear weapons a year. It does not categorically say that Brazil is actuially doing this. Though it does seem that the refusal of admittance to the inspection team has given rise to some speculation.

The use of nuclear fuel in the UK to generate electricity has proved to be a very expensive exercise particularly regarding the decommissioning of old and obsolete nuclear power stations. All this must be funded from general taxation as the sale of electricity from this source at a market price has proved to be an impossibility. France on the other hand is almost entirely reliant on the generation of power from nuclear sources.

Whether Brazil has developed an economic and cost effective way of generating ellectricity from nuclear power is another matter but given the economics of the situation there is alway a question mark over why any country needs to produce enriched uranium.

Militarily of course nuclear power enables submarines to remain under water for extremely extended periods and nuclear powered warships (are there any?) to potentially remain at sea away from home almost indefinitely. The FCO web site tells us that nuclear powered subs still make occasional patrols around the Falklands.

Noelia,

I was also brought up as a catholic and now have no particular indeed any religious affiliations.

I agree with you about the lawlessness you describe in Argentina, and probably elsewhere, regarding the stealing of organs from living persons, this is disgraceful and it must say something about the regulation of the medical profession in the countries concerned. I have not heard of such a thing happening here, though I have heard, indeed I know, that it is possible to go to Indian and advertise for a willing donor who then gets paid for the donor organ. I do not necessarily agree with this practice. In the UK generally only cadaver organs are used for transplant and live donation is very closely controlled and monitored usually within families.

I can speak with some authority on organ transplant as I have reason to be grateful personally for the use of this technology. Properly and ethically controlled it can make a remarkable and life enhancing difference to a transplanted person. I have never mentioned this before excepting to Javier on this site (We have corresponded on an irregular basis over number of years) and now only to say that I believe advances in technology if properly controlled can bring wonderful enhancement to humanity and the quality of life for individuals and their families. However there should never be anything involved in the procedure that is to the detriment of any other human being ever.

With regard to guns, well we are not free of gun crime in the UK and though the gangsters and drug dealers mostly kill each other, there are too often innocent bystanders killed as a result of their activities. Hand guns are totally banned in this country and all firearms very closely controlled. You can get five years in prison simply for being in possession of an imitation gun in a public place and the law is strictly applied.

Best wishes,

Ernie

[Maquilishuat]

Hello John:

The AIEA inspectors are in Brasil to verify if our plant is not enriching uranium above the agreed percentage to fuel our nuclear plants. Well, this is the official story. But a closer look in the international situation leads us to Iran’s refusal to stop doing the same. After all, why would the international agency asks Iran what it does not ask Brasil? So, this is just a necessary move to go after Iran, erasing any kind of a possible bias.

As everybody knows Brasil is indeed a peaceful country, with no problems with any neighboring country. We have an agreement with Argentina to do mutual inspections on our nuclear installations, an agreement with no precedent in international relations. Back in the eighties, when Brasil developed the complete fuel cycle capability, Argentina was the first country to be informed and to have complete access to our installations. That alone speaks about our intentions on this field.

Yes, Brasil signed the non proliferation treaty. That was a huge mistake in my humble opinion, for it entails a freeze in the balance of power among the world nations. Also, because it was understood that all nuclear countries would dismantle their arsenals in a comprehensive time frame. This did not happen, one have simply to look France, with its nuclear arsenal being modernized. As a fact ALL world nations possessing nuclear weapons have made them more suitable to use in small conflicts, opposing the cold war objectives that exist no more.

Brasil does not export any nuclear technology; I see here that this item is just to protect a possible market share for those already selling this technology.

Ernie:

The refusal to let the inspectors do a complete inspection is due to protect our know how on making this process less costly. It is just a problem of protecting our business, not any way to hide something that could be used as a weapon factory. As an example, you may not go to any factory in UK to see what they are doing, as this could destroy their business. Even though, the main objective of the inspection was granted, which is to verify the percentage of uranium enrichment going out of our plants.

To produce enriched uranium is good business; add to this the fact that Brasil has huge uranium deposits and could export it worldwide after enrichment, instead of exporting it raw.

Brasil is also building a nuclear submarine with indigenous technology, but as usual this is just to be used as a defense.

Saludos, Maquilishuat