IAEA to investigate Burma's nuclear program
Updated June 30, 2010 20:43:24
It's been a rumour for years but now the international nuclear watchdog has formally turned its attention to Burma. The International Atomic Energy Agency is understood to be investigating a report, written by one of its own former directors. The document draws on a new dossier of material which was smuggled out of Burma, by a Burmese weapons expert. The IAEA has approached the Burmese regime asking it to explain why it appears to be manufacturing parts for nuclear weapons.
Presenter: Jeff Waters
Speakers: Robert Kelly, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency
BURMA'S JUNTA LIED TO THE IAEA
ျမန္မာစစ္တပ္က ၁၉၆၂ မတ္လ ၂ ရက္ေန ့ကထဲက လိမ္လာတာ
အမွန္တရား အတြက္ ဘုရားသခင္ ရွိပါတယ္ ၊
DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)
Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org
PROOF: BURMA'S MILITARY JUNTA LIED TO THE IAEA
June 28, 2010
Please forward widely.
The Democratic Voice of Burma has published photos and other documentation
from their source, Sai Thein Win, about the SPDC's nuclear ambitions.
Former IAEA Director Robert Kelley has examined this evidence and
concluded that the ruling generals have “a clandestine nuclear program.”
Mr. Kelley also graciously noted that the new evidence confirms what
groups such as Dictator Watch have previously revealed, albeit without
tangible backing.
After being asked by the IAEA on June 14th to explain itself, the SPDC
responded on June 19th that it did not have such a program:
“... the allegations made by the international media against Myanmar
regarding the nuclear programme are groundless and unfounded; that no
activity related to uranium conversion, enrichment, reactor construction
or operation has been carried out in the past, is ongoing or is planned
for the future in Myanmar...”
Dictator Watch is now in a position to prove that this is a bald-faced
lie. We have secured hard evidence that confirms, and from a completely
different direction, that the SPDC has nuclear designs. Evidence of this
has actually been piling up for years, but our new documentation makes it
incontrovertible.
We have obtained lists of the 660 students who constitute 2009's Batch 9
of the SPDC's
State Scholar Program to Russia, and who are enrolled at a total of 14
different universities; as well as a list of 50 more students, we suspect
from Batch 8, at one of the universities.
The lists give each student's name, passport number (for one institute we
even have images of their passport ID page), rank in the Burma Army (for
many), area of study, and, most importantly, the SPDC project for which
they are being trained and their detailed educational specialties. From
Batch 9, 111 of the students, or 17%, are assigned to the "Nuclear"
project. Some individuals assigned to other projects also have nuclear
related specialties.
We have previously published information that the total State Scholar
population, since its inception in 2001 (when Burma reached an agreement
to purchase a nuclear reactor from Russia), is as high as 5,000 people.
The figure for Batch 9 makes this estimate appear completely reasonable.
Without doubt, hundreds and hundreds of people have been trained since
2001 for the Nuclear Project.
Some of the identified specialties are also quite revealing:
- Production of uranium
- Purification of uranium
- Nuclear power plant and installation
- Nuclear reactor control system
- Spent fuel reprocessing
Under a project called HRD, we find production of uranium metals, and
zirconium cladding for enriched uranium fuel; under Computer Control, data
processing in nuclear experiments; and under Rocket, fabrication of
uranium plutonium mixed nitride.
While no one is openly being trained in “bomb-making,” the skills being
taught in Russia would certainly prepare some of the students for the
basics of atomic weapons manufacture. Also, as we have previously
reported, a smaller group of Burmese students has studied in North Korea.
We have further learned that teams of North Korean and Chinese experts are
now in Burma, although their precise activities are unclear: The Chinese
technicians may be working on conventional heavy weapons, not nuclear.
An open question is where all of the nuclear specialists are being
employed. Such a large group implies that there are many different
facilities in operation. It also likely means that the Nuclear Project is
broader than what seems apparent from the documentation of Sai Thein Win.
There clearly remains a lot of investigation to do.
Indeed, we believe a close review of the lists will enlighten technically
informed readers of many elements of the SPDC's overall military
modernization program. If you know the general projects, and the specific
areas of study, you should be able to deduce much about what is planned if
not already underway.
The projects listed include: Nuclear, HRD, Rocket, Tunnel, various
computer including Super Computer, Aero, Air Base, Navy Base, Hydro,
Geology, Road and Bridge, and Medical.
In light of all of this, it is an outright lie for the SPDC to say that it
does not have a nuclear program. The IAEA and the International Community
should reject the junta's statement and instead pursue the most vigorous
steps to unveil, and counteract, its efforts to develop or otherwise
obtain atomic weapons.
PDF LIST
Moscow State Pedagogical University passports
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MGPUpp.pdf
Moscow State Pedagogical University
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MGPU.pdf
Moscow State University
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MSU.pdf
State Technical University – MADI
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MADI.pdf
Moscow Aviation Institute
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MAI.pdf
Moscow Institute of Aviation Technology
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MATI.pdf
Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MIET.pdf
Moscow State University of Railway Engineering
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MIIT.pdf
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MIPT.pdf
Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MISA.pdf
Moscow Power Engineering Institute
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MPEI.pdf
Moscow State Mining University
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MSMU.pdfMendeleev University of Chemical Technology
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MUCTR.pdf
St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/SMTU.pdf
Moscow State University of Technology – Stankin
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/Stankin.pdf
Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology - suspected Batch 8
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/images/MIET8.pdf
