Can I thank Obama and the U.S. Nuclear Security Administration for Ukraine not having nuclear bombs?

[Fred Sanders]

http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/ukraine/


Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a sizeable nuclear weapons infrastructure. Its sudden possession of the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world left this newly independent country with a strategic decision on whether to return the weapons to Russia or become a nuclear weapon state itself. In the end, Ukraine, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus, decided to return their weapons and delivery systems to Russia and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state.

Additionally, all three countries signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) and helped facilitate the transfer of all strategic and tactical nuclear warheads out of their territories, as well as the dismantlement and/or removal of all their associated launch systems and delivery vehicles. Kiev returned all chemical weapons to Russia for elimination, and is not known to have ever possessed biological weapons, though it may have been involved in some production of Soviet biological agents during its time as a part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is a member of all of the major nonproliferation treaties and regimes, including the NPT, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Australia Group, the Zangger Committee, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), and the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missiles (HCOC).

Nuclear

Ukraine inherited a sizeable nuclear weapons arsenal from the former Soviet Union in the form of 130 SS-19 and 46 SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with 1,240 warheads, and 44 Tupolev-95 and Tupolev-160 strategic bombers (with 1,081 nuclear cruise missiles).[1] Kiev also possessed an unspecified number of tactical nuclear warheads. However, Ukraine acceded to START I in 1992 and joined the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1994, choosing to give up the nuclear weapons it had inherited from the Soviet Union. By June 1996, Ukraine had completed the transfer of approximately 1,900 strategic nuclear weapons to Russia (in return for nuclear reactor fuel), and deactivated all 176 ICBM silos located on its territory. [2]

With assistance from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration's Global Threat Reduction Initiative, Ukraine in March 2012 fulfilled its 2010 Nuclear Security Summit commitment to remove all HEU from its territory. Russia, who originally supplied Ukraine with HEU, accepted the returned 234 kilograms for downblending to LEU. [3] Ukraine has no indigenous uranium enrichment facilities, but relies upon 15 nuclear reactors to generate approximately half of its electricity. [4] Following a number of energy disputes with Moscow, the Ukrainian government is attempting to diversify its reactor fuel suppliers to reduce reliance on the Russian company TVEL. In a bid to achieve this diversification, Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy firm Yadernoye Toplivo purchased a 10% share in the international nuclear fuel repository planned for Angarsk, Russia. [5]



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The 15KT is Hiroshima (Little Boy -16KT) and Nagasaki sized, the two in the middle are the largest hydrogen bombs owned by America, the monster on the right is "La Bomba", from Russia with no love, the largest thermonuclear bomb blast in the solar system outside the Sun.

.............................

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/31/ukraine.uranium/

Ukraine reduces stock of dangerous uranium
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 31, 2010 7:18 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Obama applauds Ukrainian leadership in securing vulnerable nuclear material
Ukraine shipped 50 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to Russia in December
Ukraine has pledged to eliminate its entire supply over the next two years
The shipment is part of a U.S.-led nuclear non-proliferation effort

(CNN) -- The U.S. Energy Department announced Friday the shipment of 50 kilograms -- or 111 pounds -- of highly enriched uranium from Ukraine to Russia.

The removal of the uranium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, is part of a public commitment made by Ukraine at the Nuclear Security Summit in April to get rid of its entire supply within the next two years.

"This action brings us all one step closer to securing all vulnerable nuclear materials," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a written statement.

It represents "continued Ukrainian leadership in making sure that nuclear weapons never fall into the hands of a terrorist, and working toward a world without nuclear weapons."

The removal of the uranium to Russia required multiple aircraft shipments over the last half of December, according to the Energy Department statement.

[Boom Sound 416]

1. Go right ahead

They're listening

[Enrique]

2. absolutely

Obama has been working on loose nukes since his Senate days. Richard Lugar should be thanked also.

[NuclearDem]

4. One of the last few sane R's.

Too bad so many of my fellow Hoosiers fell for Mourdock's bullshit.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Yet, where is the credit, where is the thanks, Obama really pushed this totally American led

nuclear safety and security initiative...and if he had not?

One should give as much credit to harm prevention as to harm reduction or control.

[former9thward]

3. Thank who you want but Obama had nothing to do with it.

Those nuclear weapons were gone when Obama was still doing community organizing on the south side of Chicago.

[Fred Sanders]

5. Please see OP edit. The last weapons grade uranium and related material was removed in 2012.

[former9thward]

7. Per agreements signed many years ago.

I would be surprised if someone sitting in the Oval office would have any awareness of material being moved out. But it is natural to take credit for good things happening on your watch whether you had anything to do with it or not. And the bad things are well ....

[Fred Sanders]

8. The guy sitting in the Oval Office won a Noble Peace Prize that year, in part for this...admit it,

you learned something today. It can be surprising.

[former9thward]

11. Nobel Peace Prize.

The same prize Henry Kissinger won. Look him up if you are not old enough. Won the Noble and then escalated the war in Afghanistan with no results except defeat. I doubt you will learn anything.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Truly, you are a master of deflection. Fox News?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Did you somehow do a Rip Van Winkle and miss this event?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/08/new-start-treaty-and-protocol

[Fred Sanders]

10. Slept right through and the subsequent years of enforcement of removal also I guess.

[Calista241]

12. I'm pretty sure Bill Clinton was responsible for nuclear weapon removal from Ukraine.

It was agreed to in the Budapest Accords in 1994.

Looks like Obama negotiated the removal of some residual uranium stores that were overlooked in the original operation. Enriched Uranium by itself is just a radioactive pile of goop. A very dangerous pile of goop, but it's not a nuclear bomb.

[Fred Sanders]

14. Nonsense. Ever hear of Iran? What exactly is the problem there, do you even know?

[Calista241]

15. I don't know, but I probably should have put some big pictures of nuclear explosions make my point.

[Fred Sanders]

16. Thank you. Pictures do speak a thousand words.