Early breakthrough from President Obama's nuclear security summit

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04/12/10 02:10 PM ET

White House: Ukraine will get rid of all nuke material by 2012

Ukraine will get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, the White House said Monday, the first breakthrough to emerge from the summit of nearly 50 world leaders President Barack Obama is hosting here

"This is something the United States has tried to make happen for more than 10 years," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, adding that the amount of the material held by Ukraine is enough to make several nuclear weapons.

The two-day nuclear summit — the largest gathering of global leaders in the U.S. for decades — kicked off earlier Monday with a series of bilateral meetings devoted to security and other matters. In addition to Mr. Yanukovich, Mr. Obama sat down with the leaders of Jordan, Malaysia and Armenia.

Later in the afternoon, he will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao for a high-stakes session that is expected to touch on an array of issues outside the summit's nuclear focus, including the administration's continued hopes that Beijing eases its control over the yuan. The White House also is keen to win China's backing for tough sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

read: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575180123912535694.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines


Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych said his country would “get rid” of its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs could not say where the uranium would go.

“That's a process that we'll be working on,” Gibbs said. “The United States will provide some degree of both technical and financial assistance to ensure that it happens.”

read: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/91665-white-house-ukraine-will-get-rid-of-all-nuke-material-by-2012

[Captain Hilts]

1. Let's hope we've reinstated the 'buyback' program for nuke material. nt

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2. And our last pResident couldn't even pronounce the word "nuclear".

The contrast is striking, eh teabaggers?

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3. Palin can't either

. . . or else she's just appealing to the anti-lingual constituency of her party.

'Palin just said NU CU LER in her speech . . .'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8119815

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4. Joint Statement by President Obama and President Yanukovych

President Viktor Yanukovych and President Barack Obama today reaffirmed the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States and their intention to realize its full potential. To this end, they committed to build upon the United States-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership and the Strategic Partnership Commission. The two leaders recognized their countries’ common interests and shared values mirrored in the Charter: democracy, economic freedom and prosperity, security and territorial integrity, energy security, cooperation in the defense arena, the rule of law and people-to people contacts.

The Presidents discussed recovery from the global economic crisis. President Yanukovych stressed his commitment to addressing Ukraine’s economic challenges through implementation of systemic reforms and the resumption of Ukraine’s cooperation with the IMF. President Obama supports that commitment. The two leaders recognized the potential for increased bilateral trade and investment, and they announced their intention to strengthen engagement on economic, financial and investment-related issues.

President Yanukovych and President Obama reaffirmed their shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons and pledged to work together to prevent proliferation and to realize the Nuclear Security Summit’s goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear materials. President Yanukovych offered his congratulations on the signing of the new START Treaty. President Obama recognized Ukraine’s unique contribution to nuclear disarmament and reconfirmed that the security assurances recorded in the Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine of December 5, 1994, remain in effect.

President Yanukovych announced Ukraine’s decision to get rid of all of its stocks of highly-enriched uranium by the time of the next Nuclear Security Summit, while the United States will provide necessary technical and financial assistance to support this effort. Ukraine intends to remove a substantial part of those stocks this year. President Obama praised Ukraine’s decision as a historic step and a reaffirmation of Ukraine’s leadership in nuclear security and nonproliferation. Ukraine joins the United States in the international effort to convert civil nuclear research facilities to operate with low enriched uranium fuel, which is becoming the global standard in the 21st century.

The two leaders agreed to explore ways to strengthen cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, including development of Ukrainian nuclear research capabilities and efforts to diversify Ukraine’s nuclear power industry’s fuel supply, in accordance with the 123 Agreement and other complementary bilateral arrangements as may be agreed by Ukraine and the United States. They also agreed to continue working together on nuclear safety, including efforts to safeguard the Chornobyl nuclear reactor site. The United States has contributed almost $250 million to this effort and reaffirms its commitment to further support Ukraine and others in restoring the Chornobyl site to a safe condition.


fact Sheet on the Ukrainian HEU Announcement: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/Fact%20Sheet%20on%20Ukraine%20HEU%20announcement_FINAL%20(4-12-10).pdf

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5. .