North Korea and Nuclear Technology

North Korea and Nuclear Technology

TODAY, the world faces health, environmental and security dangers from civil nuclear power stations and the risk of catastrophic war from nuclear weapons. Nuclear energy has generated controversy since its inception and more so after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. Nuclear weapons have no legitimacy in international humanitarian law and are morally repugnant. Two atomic bombs were sufficient to obliterate the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in a matter of seconds. The scientists themselves who worked on the Manhattan Project to produce the bombs were divided after the explosions. Many had serious reservations about advancing the development of nuclear technology (Energy Systems and Sustainability, 2003).

Despite these reservations, the post-war period saw the growth of the nuclear power industry and the introduction of nuclear power stations. By the year 2000, there were over 400 nuclear reactors in 31 countries, providing about a sixth of the world's total electricity.1

During the Cold War, dominant military mindsets on both sides of the ideological divide enforced the doctrine of nuclear deterrence and mutual assured destruction (MAD), and gambled with human survival in a nuclear arms race which generated 70,000 nuclear warheads. The threat of an all-out nuclear war has receded, but we still run the risk of nuclear war by accident or miscalculation. Today, out of a residual stockpile of 27,000 nuclear warheads, 12,000 are operational and 5,000 are still on high alert (Daryl, 2005).

A moral deficit

The world is suffering from a serious moral deficit. Global trends indicate that humankind has misplaced its moral compass and is floundering in a sea of man-made crises, not always aware that our conflict-prone, nuclear-armed and environmentally challenged planet is crumbling and that the light of our humanity is ...