Russia Challenges Cheney's Nuclear Policy 

May 15 (EIRNS)--Russia's Rosatom, its state-owned atomic energy agency, announced that it has signed an agreement with Myanmar, to build a nuclear research reactor there. Myanmar, formerly the British colony of Burma, is one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia, with very little infrastructure of any kind.

Bertrand Russell Sucks

Russia's action is an implicit challenge to the prevailing doctrine of nuclear non-proliferation, under which no developing nation is to be permitted real access to nuclear technology. The argument that nuclear development will lead to arms proliferation has always been a thinly disguised cover for genocide against the developing sector, since it was first enunciated byin the late 1940s. Russell's disciples include, the dean of American arms control policy, and his students Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

The Rosatom statement says that the "agreement provides for cooperation in the design and construction in Myanmar of a centre for nuclear research." The nuclear research center will include a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor with low-enriched uranium consisting of less than 20% uranium-isotope 235.

Late last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an international plan to develop nuclear research and uranium enrichment centers under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to foster development of nuclear energy while avoiding conflict over potential nuclear weapons development. Myanmar is ruled by a military group, and has been subject to Western arms sanctions since 1988.

Rosatom also announced that the project will train personnel for the nuclear facility, Novosti reported. Up to 300 Myanmarians will go to Russia to study nuclear science. The project will also produce medical isotopes, conduct research into silicon alloying, and will handle and dispose of its own nuclear waste.

Ironically, the last nuclear research facility provided to Myanmar, then known as Burma, came from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950's, under the Atoms For Peace Program.