Yesterday, I was doing a tiny tasking on Russia’s nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor. (The poor agency has recently been restructured under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, a far cry from the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission here.) In the process, I came across *a very lovely picture of Rostekhnadzor’s former head Konstantin Pulikovskiy*. (This picture was so good that I had to share it with you. Don’t you just love the Putin photo on his desk?) Anyway…

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…Having headed up the agency since December 2005, *Pulikovskiy resigned from Rostekhnadzor “for personal reasons”* (or shall we say, “was resigned” or even “restructured out”) *in early September 2008*. Though he frequently appeared on television looking all busy and important, a Russian rag “noted ^ru^”:http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2008/09/05_a_2831898.shtml that Pulikovskiy’s replacement at Rostekhnadzor, his former deputy Nikolay Kutyin, actually *ran the agency during the last three years*.

_For some reason, I had this weird feeling that I had seen Pulikovskiy’s picture before, though I couldn’t remember where. (Fast forward a few hours…) During a humble dinner (a tofu scramble), it came to me…_

*_A book by Pulikovskiy was actually on my bookshelf._*

Pulikovskiy got the Rostekhnadzor job after a stint as Putin’s plenipotentiary in Russia’s Far East from 2000 to 2005. *His book, titled _The Orient Express: Through Russia with Kim Jong Il_, describes Pulikovskiy’s train travels with the Dear Leader*. Though it has no literary value, the book is a real collector’s item. (And not just because Pulikovskiy is seemingly an egomaniac.)

For your enjoyment, a _New York Times_ review of the book is “available here”:http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D81F38F930A35751C1A9649C8B63. This paragraph is quite telling.

On a stop at Omsk, the North Korean *rejected a plate of barrel-salted pickles, dismissing the offer as shoddily marinated cucumbers from Bulgaria*, not prepared in the authentic Russian style.

“Then they served *tiny pelmenis, kopeck-size, in a small frying pan baked under cheese and mayonnaise*,” Mr. Pulikovsky wrote, recalling crestfallen faces on the Siberian hosts at the arrival of the Russian meat dumplings. “*Kim Jong Il picked at them with a fork and said: ‘What kind of pelmeni are these? They should be big, boiled and in broth’*.”

With all that experience, I can’t help but wonder if Pulikovskiy can get a job as Kim’s personal “pelmeni maker”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelmeni.

The “IAEA Office of Nuclear Security”:http://www-ns.iaea.org/security/default.htm released its International Trafficking Database (ITDB) stats during the several days I was away from the office… Go figure. 🙂

OK, I knew that the stats were due this month (the other annual September release I am anxiously waiting for is the 2008 “Securing the Bomb”).

Anyway, here is the “IAEA press release on the ITDB update”:http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2008/itdb.html and here is the “fact sheet with the stats.^pdf^”:http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Features/RadSources/PDF/fact_figures2007.pdf As expected, there are no updates to confirmed incidents involving HEU and Pu, thus the main paragraph is this one:

“As of 31 December 2007, the ITDB contained *1340 confirmed incidents* reported by the participating States and a few non-participating States. Of the 1340 confirmed incidents, *303* incidents involved unauthorized possession and related criminal activity, *390* incidents involved theft or loss of nuclear or other radioactive materials, and *570* incidents involved other unauthorized activities. For the remaining *77* incidents, the reported information was not sufficient to determine the category of incident.”

Unlike last year (“here is the 2006 fact sheet ^pdf^”:http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Features/RadSources/PDF/fact_figures2006.pdf), the 2007 fact sheet doesn’t include incidents reported to the ITDB in 2007, instead just providing an update for 1993-2007.

But, I guess, if we look at the 2006 stats, we can say that during 2007, *260 new confirmed incidents* were added to the ITDB (though they could have happened in 2007 or earlier and have just been reported by the states recently).

Moreover, of these 260 incidents added, *29 cases* involved unauthorized possession and related criminal activity, *58 cases* involved theft or loss of nuclear or other radioactive materials, and *172 cases* involved other unauthorized activities (_note that though the latter number is a jump, this category includes “[i]ncidents … primarily involv[ing] various types of material recovery showing *no direct evidence of criminal behavior*, such as discovery of orphan sources, detection of materials disposed of in an unauthorized way, etc.”_). A tiny disclaimer here is that my numbers are a little rough because of the 70+ cases with insufficient information that are carried over annually (judging from the update, one can’t quite tell whether additional information on any of these cases was provided during 2007 (after which they were put into a specific category), while new cases with insufficient information were added).

‘Tis all.

*Update*: “GSN quotes”:http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2008_9_29.html#802352F5 an “agency staffer” as saying that the 2007 data might be incomplete.

Just in case you missed it, _The New York Times_ profiles today’s launch of the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) in “this article”:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/world/europe/29nuke.html. Here is the “NTI page on WINS”:http://www.nti.org/b_aboutnti/b7_WINS.html. And here is the “WINS website”:http://www.wins.org too.

*Update*: “IAEA on WINS”:http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2008/wins.html.

This fits my mood about now:

Just thought I’d share this peculiar picture of Russia’s “Kalinin NPP”:http://knpp.rosenergoatom.ru/eng/. (And, no, “I didn’t photoshop it”:http://www.rosenergoatom.ru/media/gallery/aps/kalininskaya/foto-aes/13_b.jpg.)

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On September 1, Russia’s Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Oversight (Rostekhnadzor) “reportedly ^ru^”:http://www.nuclear.ru/rus/press/other_news/2110566/ issued a license to the International Uranium Enrichment Center (IUEC) joint-stock company that allows it to handle nuclear materials. (This follows an August 25 presidential decree that I “mentioned earlier”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1696/angarsk-iuec-can-now-own-nuclear-materials.)

I somehow missed this, but I guess there is now “talk ^ru^”:http://www.nppzap.zaporizhzhe.ua/news/nuclear/830 of *Finland and Belgium as potential IUEC participants (South Korea has been mentioned before)*. Though I should note that I don’t yet have access to any of the papers that were presented at the World Nuclear Association symposium earlier this month (this is seemingly where discussions with potential participants took place). Hmm…

*Update*: I think these surprising news just might call for “*the lemur*”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1704/je-blog.

I was informed today by a member of the “_Monterey mafia_”:http://www.miis.edu/alumni-welcome.html?catid=74 (who was present at June’s “cooling tower destruction party at Yongbyon”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1644/yongbyon-tower-blown-up) that apparently *reading* “*A Corpse in the Koryo*”:http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/06105Hayes.html *while staying at the* “*Koryo*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koryo_Hotel is not as silly as it may seem. 🙂

The Russian military used *15 Tochka-U (SS-21)* short-range ballistic missiles as well as *”a few” Iskander (SS-26)* short-range theater ballistic missiles in the campaign against Georgia, the guys at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) argue in “this article”:http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/item3/article1/.

As you may recall, I first brought up the issue of what missiles were used by the Russians in “this post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1678/georgians-say-russians-used-iskander. Subsequently, ACW had quite an informative, but a somewhat inconclusive discussion about it “here”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1998/did-russia-fire-ss-26s-at-georgia and “here”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1999/more-ss-sumthin-pics.

I’ve asked the guys at CAST about their level of certainty. They told me that the use of both systems is “*a fact*,” notwithstanding the denials of the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the use of both the “SS-21”:http://www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=49571 and the “SS-26”:http://www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=49537.

So there you have it. Make of it what you wish.

By the way, the most recent issue of CAST’s “*_Moscow Defense Brief_*”:http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/, which is titled “The Empire Strikes Back” and deals with — _guess what?_ — the conflict with Georgia, is worth a read.

ISIS has “today’s IAEA DG report”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/libya/IAEA_Libya_Report_12September2008.pdf on Libya. I’m still reading through it, but there’s some very interesting Khan network information in there, from what I can tell.

OK, so the Russians are not “waiting till December”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1684/tw-india-weekend-special-the-russia-edition to talk NPPs in India. (_But of course they wouldn’t… Would you?_)

The “statement released by Rosatom”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/news/11715_09.09.2008 is quite priceless…

bq. “It was *an absolutely right decision* and Russia was one of its initiators,” Kiriyenko said. He pointed out that the United States was of the same opinion. “This is *an example of mutual understanding between Russian and American nuclear power engineers*.”

As an aside, this is sort of the same point on U.S.-Russian “nuclear cooperation” on India that was made in a great “op-ed in _The Hindu_”:http://cns.miis.edu/other/potter080909.htm by CNS’s William Potter. *NOT*.

Anyway, Atomstroyexport head Leonid Reznikov is scheduled to visit India in *late October* to discuss the 4 new Kudankulam units. (According to Interfax, Atomstroyexport is also interested in cooperation with the Indian steel industry.)

Indian officials “reportedly expect”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/news/11702_09.09.2008 construction at Kudankulam to commence this year or in 2009. And they’re apparently ready.

bq. *In the last months NPCIL has actively worked to prepare area for the new reactors*: it has been building infrastructure: roads, power networks, houses for constructors. The next stage is digging the foundation pit.

I should note that I learned something else today. Apparently, the units at Kudankulam are “*protected from possible earthquakes, hurricanes, _air crashes_*.” Moreover, “*The two existing units*, located on the Indian Ocean coast, *have already survived a tsunami — the wave was stopped by _a special wave cutter_*.”

_Ooh… A special wave cutter… I want “one”:http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wave%20cutter too._