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Nuclear disaster risk remains high

Mohamed ElBaradei, left, and Yukiya Amano, right, chairman of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the Nobel Peace Prize award for 2005, in Oslo on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, the risk of nuclear disaster is as great as ever with terrorists zealously pursuing atomic arms, chief UN nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei said in accepting the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) leads received the coveted award in the Norwegian capital for their efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.

"We are in a race against time," the 63-year-old Egyptian said on Saturday about efforts to keep nuclear weapons away from terrorists. "In four years, we have completed perhaps 50 percent of the work. But this is not fast enough."

To escape self-destruction, the world must make atomic weapons as much of a taboo as slavery or genocide, ElBaradei said in his acceptance speech.

It has been 60 years since the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet the world is still deeply concerned over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

As ElBaradei received his peace award, Iran's top nuclear official said his country would enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, despite an international drive to curb such efforts.

Gregory Schulte, the chief US representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, called it "sad and ironic" that Tehran's announcement coincided with the peace prize ceremony in Oslo.

In Oslo, a smiling ElBaradei and the IAEA's board of governors chairman Yukiya Amano, from Japan, accepted the prize to applause from the crowd.

"If we hope to escape self-destruction, then I believe nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security," ElBaradei said.

"The hard part is: How do we create an environment in which all of us would look at nuclear weapons the way we look at slavery or genocide, as a taboo and a historical anomaly?" he said.

Awards committee chairman Ole Danbolt praised the IAEA and ElBaradei's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. He also reminded the world of the horrible consequences of using such weapons.

"The atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago," he told the 1,000 or so guests. "Since then, the world has been united in the wish that nothing like that must ever happen again."

ElBaradei said his half of the 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.3 million) prize would go to orphanages in his native Egypt, while the IAEA planned to establish a fund for cancer and nutritional research.

ElBaradei said globalization, with the free flow of people and products, had presented new challenges in curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, especially by terrorists. He has warned that nuclear terror attacks could be imminent.

"Our security strategies have not yet caught up with the security threats we are facing," he said.

"There are three main features to this changing landscape: first, the emergence of an extensive black market in nuclear material and equipment; second, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and sensitive nuclear technology; and third, the stagnation in nuclear disarmament," the laureate said.

He said immediate steps were needed to curb all three trends.

ElBaradei also said it was baffling that nuclear powers remained on "hair-trigger alert," ready to destroy other nations in minutes, so many years after the end of the Cold War caused many to hope the balance of terror would end.

"A good place to start would be for the nuclear weapons states to reduce the strategic role given to these weapons," he said.

"Today, eight or nine countries continue to possess nuclear weapons. We still have 27,000 warheads in existence. To me, this is 27,000 too many," the laureate said.

"Imagine that the only nuclear weapons remaining are the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children," he said.
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