OK, here’s a song about nuclear war:

Outta town again for a couple of weeks. Back later.

Yeah. Josh Pollack has an excellent “article”:http://www.playboy.com/magazine/the-secret-treachery-of-a-q-khan in the current issue of Playboy (link is pr0n-free) in which he reveals the identity of the fourth country (in addition to Iran, Libya and North Korea) to which AQ Khan provided centrifuge technology: India.

“TMZ”:http://www.tmz.com/2011/12/18/lindsay-lohan-playboy/#.Tu6a5-B-Suv attributes this issue’s rapid sales to the photos of a certain actress, but I think it’s obvious that purchasers are after Josh’s article.

*Update:*

For a primary source, at least on the IAEA’s investigation of the AQK network, check out Olli Heinonen’s comment in “this post”:http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/4905/india-was-khans-fourth-customer#more-2140.

I should write something more intelligent, but…

Definition of megadeath from Collins English Dictionary:

bq. One million deaths. Used as a unit in reference to nuclear warfare.

Something like that was on the back of a Megadeth shirt that I used to have. It may be around somewhere, come to think of it.

If you want a good compilation of IAEA documents about the mid-1990s efforts to improve the safeguards system, you could do worse than “this report”:http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC39/GC39Documents/English/gc39-17_en.pdf from then-DG Hans Blix to the 1995 IAEA General Conference.

Here’s the table of contents:

bq.. Document GOV/2784: “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system: Programme 93 + 2 – A report by the Director General”

Statement regarding “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system: Programme 93 + 2” made by the Director General in his introductory statement at the March 1995 session of the Board of Governors

Discussion including decision on “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system: Programme 93 + 2 ” at the March 1995 session of the Board of Governors

Document GOV/2807: “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system : Proposals for a strengthened and more efficient safeguards system – A report by the Director General”

Statement regarding “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system: 93 + 2” made by the Director General in his introductory statement at the June 1995 session of the Board of Governors

Discussion including decision on “Strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of the safeguards system: Proposals for strengthened and more efficient safeguards system” at the June 1995 session of the Board of Governors

I’m late to the party on the controversy, but I feel the need to post some primary source documents about the “Treaty of Rarotonga”:http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/spnfz.html#1 and its relevance to the sale of Australian uranium to India.

The issue is that Article 4 of the treaty prohibits states-parties from providing “source or special fissionable material” to ” any non-nuclear-weapon State unless subject to the safeguards required by Article III.1 of the NPT.” The treaty also requires states-parties “to support the continued effectiveness of the international non-proliferation system based on the NPT and the IAEA safeguards system.”

(“h/t ACA”:http://armscontrolnow.org/2011/12/03/australia-part-of-the-nonproliferation-solution-or-part-of-the-problem/#more-2632)

This “CNS piece”:http://cns.miis.edu/stories/pdfs/070827.pdf from a few years back contains original documents with official Australian statements indicating that the SPNFZ Treaty prohibits uranium sales to states without comprehensive safeguards agreements.

I’d be interested to see a counter-argument from the Australian government – I’ve not yet found one.

A colleague called my attention to “this post”:http://www.langner.com/en/2011/12/07/the-prez-shows-his-cascade-shape/ over at Langer.com’s “blog.”:http://www.langner.com/en/blog/

The post uses a photo from Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s 2008 visit to the Natanz FEP to determine the shape of the 164-centrifuge cascades. Specifically, it uses “an image”:http://www.langner.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Natanz-SCADA-detail2.jpg from “the SCADA screens in Natanz’ control room.”

I won’t attempt to reconstruct the argument any further. Go ahead and read the whole thing.

This was awesome to witness.