30 countries close to joining nuke club

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/99107,CST-NWS-koreaun17.article

VIENNA, Austria -- The head of the U.N. nuclear agency warned Monday that as many as 30 countries could soon have technology that would let them produce atomic weapons ''in a very short time,'' joining the nine states known or suspected to have such arms. snip

ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called them ''virtual new weapons states.''

ElBaradei was clearly alluding to Iran and other nations that are working to develop uranium enrichment capability, such as Brazil.

Other nations, including Australia, Argentina and South Africa, have recently announced that they are considering developing enrichment programs to be able to sell fuel to states that want to generate electricity with nuclear reactors.

[leveymg]

1. Let's vote for President Bush - he keeps America safe!

Until the next mass casualty incident.:nuke:

[endarkenment]

2. I have a very unpopular opinion about this: good.

In a perfect world no nations would have nuclear weapons. Unfortunately this is not a perfect world. Instead it is a world where one nation, backed by the planet's largest nuclear arsenal, has decided that it can set the rules and call the plays, and has decided that it can use its vast armada to enforce its unilateral policies. This nation has also announced that it has resumed development of new generations of nuclear weapons despite treaty obligations to disarm itself, and it has revised its use policy of these weapons to include the use of nuclear weapons on a first strike basis as it deems appropriate. In this world it is both inevitable and better than the smaller nations develop their own independent nuclear deterrent so that the planetary bully can be put back into the bottle of decent behavior.