2012 NPT PrepCom

Media Headlines

May 11: Conclusion of the 2012 NPT Preparatory Committee Meeting
The United States was pleased to participated in the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) held in Vienna, April 30 - May 11.

May 11: 2012 NPT PrepCom Ends as Smoothly as it Began
The 2012 PrepCom for the NPT finished a few hours early after adopting a procedural report and commenting on the "factual summary" that had been circulated the previous evening by the PrepCom Chair, Ambassador Peter Woolcott of Australia.

May 11: Editorial: Taking stock and moving forward
At 6pm on Thursday, Ambassador Woolcott released his summary as the Chair of the first preparatory committee (PrepCom) of the 2015 NPT review cycle. The document is not intended to be adopted by consensus and was submitted as a working paper.

May 11: A nuclear clash could starve the world
Recent ballistic missile tests by India, Pakistan and North Korea -- which has ominously threatened to "reduce to ashes" the South Korean military "in minutes" -- are once again focusing the world's attention on the dangers of nuclear war.

May 11: EU Ashton: Hopes Talks Will Mark Beginning of End of Iran Nuclear Program
The European Union is approaching the upcoming talks with Iran with seriousness and ambitions, hoping they could mark the beginning of the end of the country's nuclear program, EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday.

May 11: U.S. Vows to Go Ahead with Missile Shield, Hopes for Russia's Cooperation
The United States and NATO will proceed with its European missile defense program despite Russia's concerns while continuing to seek Moscow's cooperation on the issue, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon said.

May 11: Cumbria nuclear pylon route plan unveiled
Plans showing possible routes of pylons and cabling for a nuclear facility in Cumbria have been revealed.

May 11: A Higher Price Tag for a Nuclear Project
The flagship project of a hoped-for but not-yet-realized "nuclear renaissance," the Vogtle 3 & 4 reactors under construction near Augusta, Ga., may cost about $900 million more than had been estimated, the Souther Company said in a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

May 10: Vienna nuclear reactor needs more fuel
The nuclear reactor of the Vienna University of Technology needs to get new fuel rods. But the move has angered the Greens who spoke about a "26 million secret deal with America". This allegation was rejected by the ministry of education and science.

May 10: House Committee Approves East Coast Missile Interceptor Site
A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday signed off on plans to build an East Coast long-range interceptor site as protection against potential ballistic missile threats from nations such as Iran, the Associated Press reported.

May 10: Nuke-Ready Pakistani Missile Fired in Trial
Pakistan on Thursday conducted a trial launch of a ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear or conventional warheads as far as 180 miles, Agence France-Presse reported.

May 10: North Korea Pledges to Build up Nuclear Stockpile
North Korea on Thursday vowed it would continue to advance its nuclear weapons program and other military projects in an apparent rebuttal to the U.N. Security Council's demand that the nation refrain from carrying out new missile and nuclear tests, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

May 10: South Korea, U.S. Said Wrangling Over Ballistic Missile Ranges
The United States and South Korea have been unable yet to bridge their differences on allowing Seoul to develop ballistic missiles with longer ranges, the Yonhap News Agency quoted an informed insider as saying on Wednesday.

May 10: Russian, U.S. Presidents to Continue 'Reset'
Russian and U.S. presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama on Wednesday agreed in their telephone conversatino to continue the "reset" in the relations between their countries, the White House said in a statement.

May 10: US Raytheon Co missile interceptor test 'a success'
US forces have destroyed a target missile in their first successful test of a new Raytheon Co interceptor.

May 10: Iran's IAEA envoy calls for review of NPT mechanisms
The Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for a review of mechanisms within the nuclear Non-Proliferation treat (NPT) to prevent any damage on member states.

May 9: Group Sees Sign of Iran Cleanup at Nuclear Site
New commercial satellite imagery of an Iranian military site that has remained off limits to international nuclear inspectors shows recent activity that suggests the Iranians have tried to clean up a suspected explosives testing chamber there, a group that tracks nuclear proliferation said Wednesday.

May 9: Israel: Iran Must Commit to Stop All Enrichment
Israel on Wednesday accused Iran of stalling in negotiations over its nuclear program with the international community, and said an upcoming round of talks can succeed only if the Iranians agree to halt all uranium enrichment.

May 9: Possible Concealment Seen at Iranian Base
A picture taken from space last month suggests Iran might be attempting to eliminate incriminating material at its Parchin armed forces installation before a potential visit by U.N. auditors to gather information about possible nuclear-weapon development activities in the nation, a think tank in Washington said on Tuesday.

May 9: Democrats Accuse GOP of Playing Politics on East Coast Interceptor Site
Democratic lawmakers intend on Wednesday to battle their Republican colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee over a plan to establish a long-range missile interceptor site on the East Coast, The Hill reported.

May 9: House Panel Wants Nearly $1 Billion for Israeli Missile Defense
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee this week released a draft defense spending bill that would provide nearly $1 billion in military aid to Israel's various antimissile efforts, the Israeli business website Globes reported.

May 9: India Readies "Phase One" of Antimissile Protection, Research Leader Says
India has readied the first phase of an antimissile system that could quickly be set up to shield a minimum of two cities from attack, the Press Trust of India reported on Monday.

May 9: South Korea Says Ready for Any New "Provocation" from North
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Wednesday declared his country was absolutely able to respond to any "further provocation" by its northern neighbor, which observers worry could be new atomic device test, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

May 9: Lithuania Sees GDP Boost from Building Nuclear Plant
Lithuania predicts the construction of a planned nuclear-power plant, its biggest investment since the end of communism two decades ago, to boost economic growth by 0.7 percentage points a year.

May 8: Global Insights: Factoring China Into U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control
One issue that warrants greater attention from Washington policymakers moving forward is how relations between Russia and China will affect those two countries' policies relating to nuclear arms control. In particular, the next administration needs to consider how the U.S. government and other actors can help shape this evolving relationship so that it moves in benign directions, while hedging against possible adverse outcomes.

May 8: Iran complains of nuclear double standard
World powers should focus on scrapping nuclear weapons and abiding by their own non-proliferation commitments rather than speculating about Iran's peaceful atomic work, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

May 8: Divisions complicate plans for MidEast nuclear meet
The Western official tasked with preparing for a conference this year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons said on Tuesday he had yet to secure the needed participation of all the region's states, leaving it unclear when the event will be held.

May 8: Interceptor-Dodging Russian ICBM Could Take 10 Years to Prepare
Russia would require at least another decade to equip its armed forces with a planned ICBM designed to evade U.S. missile interceptors, a missile production company in the country stated in Tuesday comments reported by RIA Novosti.

May 8: Mideast conference on weapons of mass destruction in jeopardy as US defends Israel
VIENNA -- Hopes dimmed Monday for staging major nuclear talks later this year between Israel and its Muslim rivals, as Iran and Arab countries at a 189-nation conference accused Israel of being the greatest threat to peace in the region and Egypt warned that Arab states might rethink their opposition to atomic arms.

May 7: Joint TC/NE Side Event at NPT PrepCom: Supporting New Nuclear Power Programmes
The IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation and the Department of Nuclear Energy co-organized a side event on 'Supporting New Nuclear Power Programmes in Developing Countries' on 4 May 2012 for delegates of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) Conference for the 2015 Review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The conference is taking place at the IAEA's Headquarters in Vienna from 30 April - 11 May 2012.

May 7: TABLE-Japan nuclear ops (zero reactors online out of total 50)
Hokkaido Electric Power Co shut down a nuclear reactor for routine maintenance on May 5, the last of Japan's 50 reactors to cease operations, marking the first time since 1970 that the nation has been nuclear power-free.

May 7: U.S. wants "urgent" Iranian steps in nuclear talks
VIENNA - The United States calle on Iran on Monday to take "urgent practical steps" to build confidence during nuclear talks with world powers, and the European Union said Tehran must suspend sensitive atomic activities.

May 7: Nuclear Powers Not Disarming Quickly Enough for Rest of World
The world's five acknowledged nuclear powers -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- are not moving as fast as the rest of the world would like in shrinking their atomic arsenals, as called for by the decades-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Reuters reported on Friday.

May 7: Putin Retakes Command of Russian Nukes
Incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday received the briefcase enabling him to order a nuclear strike from any location, Agence France-Presse reported.

May 7: NATO nuclear weapons and the Defence and Deterrence Posture Review: a non-consensual debate
Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have acknowledged publicly that they would like to see the US nuclear weapons all three are hosting removed from their territories. Yet the debate in NATO on this issue lacks transparency and accountability.

May 7: Kazakhstan, U.S., Russia Team Up -- Again -- to Secure Nuclear Material
Kazakhstan's work to get rid of the nuclear weapons that it inherited after the fall of the Soviet Union is a well told story -- primarily by Kazakhs themselves, who rarely miss an opportunity to tout their nonproliferation record. But a new, apparently previously untold episode in that story has now come to light, via one of its protagonists, former Bush administration nonproliferation official William Tobey, writing in Foreign Policy magazine.

May 7: Putin Pushes for Guarantees on U.S. Missile Shield
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged the Foreign Ministry to stick to the provisions of the new Russia-U.S. Start treaty and push for guarantees that the U.S. missile shield in Europe will not be aimed against national nuclear facilities.

May 5: IPPNW at the NPT PrepCom: Risks and consequences of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy
The first Preparatory Committee session (PrepCom) for the 2105 Review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is midway through its first week in Vienna. IPPNW and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) are among 60 NGOs participating in the PrepCom, with the goal of focusing Member State attention on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war and the urgency of a global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

May 4: Non-Proliferation Treaty: the ground is shifting
Civil society, the Non-Aligned Movement, and a cross regional group of 16 countries have brought humanitarian consequences and international law to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review meeting in Vienna. This may e a potential game changer, says Rebecca Johnson.

May 4: In the Wake of Fukushima: the NPT and Nuclear Energy
As a first time visitor to Vienna as well as to an NPT PrepCOm, I've had a lot to take in over the past few days--orienting myself on the Viennese metro system at the same time as getting acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of the NPT. As I reflected on the landscape of the disarmament and non-proliferation regime in preparation for the PrepCom, I thought about what might be different at this year's conference and about what had changed since 2010.

May 4: NATO Calm in Face of Russian Threat of Pre-Emptive Military Action
NATO on Thursday responded coolly to a threat by Russia that it would use preemptive military force to destroy alliance antimissile systems in Europe should the missile defense buildup continue, the New York Times reported.

May 4: India Developing Long-Range Missile Interceptors
The Indian military has begun work on long-range ballistic missile detection technology in accordance with national security efforts to defend against a feared ICBM attack, the Times of India reported on Friday.

May 4: The eye-watering expense of nuclear power
The coalition wants us to depend more and more on nuclear power, but quite simply, it is too expensive to be able to deliver.

May 4: Israel Gets Nuke-Capable Submarine
An official ceremony to hand over to Israel a Dolphin-class submarine, which can carry nuclear weapons, was held on Thursday in the German city of Kiel.

May 4: South Korea Starts Building Two New Reactors
South Korea started on Friday construction work on two nuclear reactors in what President Lee Myung-bak described as a "big milestone" in the country's atomic industry, Yonhap news agency reported.

May 3: World powers urge Iran to give more nuclear access
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council put pressure on Iran on Thursday to allay international concern about its nuclear program, and said they expected talks with Tehran to lead to concrete steps toward a negotiated solution.

May 3: Its last nuclear reactor going offline, Japan takes tentative steps toward renewable energy
TOKYO--Another long, stupefyingly hot summer is looming for Japan just as it shuts down its last operating nuclear power reactor. The last of the country's 50 usable nuclear reactors will be switched off Saturday, completely idling a power source that once supplied a third of Japan's electricity.

May 3: Russia's military threatens preemptive strike if NATO goes ahead with missile plan
MOSCOW--Russia's top military officer has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.

May 3: Chapelcross nuclear plant defuelling reaches milestone
The multi-million pound decommissioning of the Chapelcross nuclear plant has reached another significant milestone.

May 3: Five Powers Call on North Korea to Not Detonate Nuke Device
The world's five acknowledged nuclear powers on Thursday called on North Korea to abstain from carrying out a new atomic test and to return to long-paralyzed denuclearization negotiations, Reuters reported.

May 3: Nuclear Opponent Exposes French Reactor Security Vulnerability: Greenpeace
An antinuclear activist on Wednesday used a paraglider to fly close to a French atomic energy plant, where he dropped a smoke device on the roof a reactor in an apparent effort to highlight site defense vulnerabilities that could be exploited by terrorists in an airstrike, Reuters reported.

May 2: Iran seeks end to sanctions at talks, hits out at France
Iran said on Wednesday it would seek an end to sanctions over its nuclear activities at talks with big powers later this month and it sought to turn the tables on its Western foes by accusing France of helping Israel develop "inhumane nuclear weapons".

May 2: Japan, South Korea urge no more North Korea "provocations"
VIENNA--Japan and South Korea urged North Korea on Wednesday to refrain from any new "provocations", amid concern the secretive Asian state will soon conduct a new nuclear test.

May 2: Iran optimistic about Baghdad nuclear talks with G5+1
Vienna, May 2, IRNA--Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh said on Wednesday Iran is optimistic about upcoming nuclear talks with G5+1 due to be held in Baghdad on May 23.

May 1: Japan says no change in its stand on India joining the NPT
New Delhi: Notwithstanding India and Japan deciding to move forward with discussions on civil nuclear co-operation, Tokyo on Monday maintained that there was no change in its stand that New Delhi has to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, though it is not a pre-condition for the atomic deal.

April 30: NPT "PrepCom" 2012 in Photos
First Meeting Preparatory Cycle for the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. Vienna, Austria, 30 April 2012. Organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA), the Preparatory Committee (PrepCOM) for the 2015 Review Conference is meeting in Vienna for five days (30 April till 11 May 2012). The meeting is chaired by Ambassador Peter Woolcott, Australia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

April 30: China wants "drastic" U.S., Russia nuclear arms cuts
China called on the United States and Russia--which hold the vast majority of the world's nuclear warheads--on Monday to make further "drastic" cuts in their atomic arsenals.

April 30: China stands for promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy: senior official
Promoting peaceful use of nuclear energy bears great significance for the international society coping with the challenges posed by the energy crisis and climate change, a senior Chinese official told a major conference on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons on Monday.

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