Just off the wire:
The U.N. nuclear watchdog and its head, Mohamed ElBaradei, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to limit the spread of atomic weapons.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and ElBaradei, an Egyptian, from a record field of 199 candidates.
It praised ElBaradei as an "unafraid advocate" of measures to strengthen non-proliferation efforts. (Full citation)
The prize is to be split equally between the agency and ElBaradei, who will be holding a press conference later today.
Comments
And just what has he or the UN done to further the cause of peace? Ignored India and Pakistan while they stepped up to the very brink? Ignored North Korea and Iran while they prepare to do the same?
Completely overlooked Lybia while thier inspectors were supposedly WATCHING?
If this is the UN's level of competency, I can only IMAGINE how screwed up the web will be if the do manage to take over ICANN.
You forgot to note that ElBaradei and IAEA is calling for a 5-10 year moratorium on new reactor construction. Hmmm... must be concerned about the horizontal proliferation (number of new possessors)of nuclear weapons through the transfer of the "peaceful" atom.
Paul, NIRS
Atomic energy chief in Moscow, proposes global moratorium on new nuclear sites
-----------------------------------Oct 5, 2005 - BBC Monitoring Newsfile
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Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 5 October: The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] "suggests imposing a moratorium for 5-10 years on the construction of new nuclear facilities", IAEA chief Muhammad al-Baradi'i said in Moscow today at a meeting of the nuclear threat reduction initiative foundation.
"This will become possible once an IAEA programme, under which guarantees of fuel and technology supply will be given to certain countries in exchange for abandoning the reprocessing of nuclear materials, has started operating," he said.
"This will resolve 80 per cent of problems in the nuclear sphere," he noted. "Countries will find it difficult to argue with the international community if these supplies are guaranteed to them." "The IAEA is willing to act as a guarantor of agreements of this sort," Al-Baradi'i assured the meeting.
Furthermore, the IAEA chief pointed out, "about 50 countries possess spent nuclear fuel and do not know what to do with it". "The IAEA, as well as the USA and Russia, are discussing the possible creation of a so-called fuel bank. Thus the USA has already put 17 tonnes of low enriched uranium in this bank," he revealed.
Russia "is displaying considerable interest in becoming an international depositary", Al-Baradi'i added. He said that "there are currently over 30,000 warheads on the planet and about 10 countries possess nuclear weapons". "The IAEA intends to stop the process of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to bring these dynamics to a halt," he stressed.