Coalition welcomes nuclear arms expert
By: Candice Leigh Helfand
MONROE Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is a difficult and dangerous process, says Princeton University Professor Frank von Hippel.
Dr. von Hippel, who teaches public and international affairs, visited the Municipal Center on Wednesday to discuss nuclear terrorism’s threats, and possible solutions.
He was the guest of honor at the most recent Coalition for Peace Action meeting, with a presentation titled Preventing Nuclear Terrorism and Advancing Nuclear Disarmament by Eliminating Nuclear Materials. He is the co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, an independent group of scientists dedicated to controlling the amount of enriched uranium and plutonium available in the world.
Dr. von Hippel said that eradicating nuclear terrorism is about eliminating the materials that exist to make bombs.
"It’s more of a fundamentalist approach to a nuclear weapons solution," he said.
Dr. von Hippel said this point of view occurred to him when he spoke about nuclear terrorism to the United Nations several years ago.
"I told the diplomats there that preventing nuclear terrorism is easy, all we have to is get rid of 2,000 tons of stuff," he said.
He also said that, while the solution is actually that simple, there are aspects that make it more complicated.
Dr. von Hippel first explained how the bombs work.
"Basically, what you have is a chain reaction. A uranium 235 nucleus splits, which produces more neutrons," he said. The reaction continues with nuclei splitting, until an explosion occurs.
He said it is possible to essentially deweaponize nuclear materials by separating and removing the explosive atoms.
The amount of hazardous elements in nuclear material outweigh the non-hazardous by 1 percent, according to Dr. von Hippel, so they can separated when put into a centrifuge a device that sets the nuclear materials into a fast spin.
He said the process would have to be repeated, as the centrifuge produces only a small amount of uranium atoms.
One problem with the procedure, however, is what to do with the material once it becomes radioactive waste.
"What do you do when you have a store of nuclear waste by water, that people would use to drink, and to water their vegetables?" he asked rhetorically.
The diplomatic implications of nuclear material, enriched or not, compounds the problem further.
He said that the United States has weapons-grade uranium powering the nuclear Navy, a practice that raises trust issues between countries. Dr. von Hippel also said Pakistan and India may likely be the only countries making highly enriched uranium in more recent times.
In addition, at least eight major world powers have access to nuclear weaponry and enriched materials, including North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, and Russia, he said.
"We need to get the Russian government and the U.S. nuclear Navy on board," he said. "My message is, we should do more, faster."
Those in attendance asked about the potential involvement of corporations in national nuclear security, the fear factor of the problem and the idea of a separate, independent international organization controlling nuclear materials.
He said J. Robert Oppenheimer the scientist behind Fat Man and Little Boy, the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively suggested independent international cooperation on nuclear weaponry to President Harry Truman. He did so after the death toll from these two bombs began to include those that had worked on making them a result of radiation poisoning. However, he said, the idea was rejected by that administration.
He said more recent events, such as the end of the Cold War between the United States and Russia, dulled the notion of nuclear terrorism as less of a threat to the general public.
"But the amount of arms in both countries is still crazy," he said. "There are still over ten thousand bombs each."
The Coalition is dedicated, though, to spreading the word about the threat.
"From an activist point of view, this is where we come in," said Irene Goldberg, chair of the regional office for the Coalition.

