10nfl1-Nukes-Cover
UNEMPLOYED NUCLEAR EXPERTS GUARANTEES INFORMATION WILL
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| UNEMPLOYED NUCLEAR EXPERTS GUARANTEES INFORMATION WILL FALL INTO THE WRONG HANDS. Peter D. Zimmerman and Anna M. Pluta 2006 (Peter Zimmerman is a nuclear physicist, is Chair of Science and Security in the Department of War Studies and Director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies at Kings College London. Anna Pluta is is a researcher in the Centre for Science and Security Studies atKingʼs College London and a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. Survival Summer 2006, Vol 48 No 2, pg. 59 In spite of the urgent need to improve economic conditions and encourage foreign investment within the nuclear cities, no international coordinated effort to this end exists today. One such programme was the Nuclear Cities Initiative, launched jointly by the United States and Russia into downsize and reduce the capacity of the Russian nuclear-weapons complex. Fraught with criticism for poor management and performance from the start, the scheme was incorporated into the Russian Transitions Initiative in 2003 and is now no longer active. As Russia downsizes its nuclear complex the number of unemployed nuclear experts will grow. Some have estimated that as many as 20,000–25,000 civilian jobs will be needed, but only 5,000–6,000 have been created Given the difficult economic situation, the presence of organised crime and growing levels of corruption, the closed cities remain a potential source of nuclear material for terrorist groups. According to Deborah Yarsike Balls 2002 study of 600 Russian scientists, 21% were likely to consider relocating abroad to states such as Iran, Iraq, Syria or North Korea where they could work in their fields Ina study the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that more than 62% of the employees working at the nuclear cities earned less that $50 per month and 58% of the experts were forced to take second jobs to earn money. The Carnegie report highlighted poverty, inadequate salaries and a growing willingness to emigrate among the nuclear cities inhabitants. The lack of economic prospects in the nuclear cities has led to a growing exasperation on the part of the scientists, some 200 of whom said they would work for anyone and do anything As Alisa Carrigan has found, such assertions may not pose as much of a risk with regard to proliferant states as would at first appear No successful nuclear- weapons programme to date has relied on foreign scientists working for extended periods in the proliferant state. Rather, proliferators have sent their scientists to study in the nuclear state. Although the economic situation in the closed cities has gradually improved since the survey was carried out, there are no guarantees that the economic upturn will last.Should the Russian economy encounter a recession, the conditions of the swill likely return to the nuclear cities. 10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 85 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
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