http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/11-9

Published on Monday, March 11, 2013 by Common Dreams

We Must Make the Whole Planet a 'Nuclear Free Zone'

by Karl Grossman

With the second anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster this week, with North Korea having just threatened a “pre-emptive nuclear attack” against the United States and a U.S. senator saying this would result in “suicide” for North Korea, with Iran suspected of moving to build nuclear weapons, with the continuing spread of nuclear technology globally, the future looks precarious as to humankind and the atom.

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The only realistic way to secure a future for the world without nuclear war is for the entire planet to become a nuclear-free zone­. No nuclear weapons, no nuclear power.

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There are major regions of the Earth—the entireties of Africa and South America, the South Pacific and others—that are Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones because of regional treaties recognized by the United Nations. In 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution defining a Nuclear-Weapon Free Zone as an area with the “total absence of nuclear weapons” and establishing “an international system of verification and control…to guarantee compliance with the obligations deriving from (this) statute.”

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Having seen the light after decades of being deeply involved in nuclear technology, Rickover said: “I’m talking about humanity, ­the most important thing we could do is to start in having an international meeting where we first outlaw nuclear weapons to start off with, then we outlaw nuclear reactors, too.”

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