N-tests blast 5 minutes off doomsday clock

WASHINGTON, June 11: Scientists manning the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic timer measuring the countdown to a nuclear conflagration on Earth, ad...

WASHINGTON, June 11: Scientists manning the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic timer measuring the countdown to a nuclear conflagration on Earth, advanced it on Thursday to within nine minutes of an apocalpytic midnight, citing the slow progress in reducing nuclear arsenals in the world and last months atomic tests by India and Pakistan.

The move was aimed at dramatising the failure of world diplomacy in pushing forward the disarmament agenda, a shortcoming compounded by nuclear tests on the Indian sub-continent, said Dr Leonard Rieser, chairman of the Chicago-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which runs the Doomsday Clock.

The five minute jump 8212; the clock previously rested at 14 minutes to midnight 8212; was among the single largest move in the clocks 30-year history. Only once before did the clock move five minutes 8212; when France and China tested in 1968.

The Clock, which has ticked towards and away from the doomsday midnight depending on the nuclear tensions in the world since it was first keyed up in 1949,was last moved in 1995 when the scientists were again discouraged by the slow progress of arms control treaties between the United States and Russia. Prior to that in 1991 it was set at 17 minutes to midnight acirc;euro;ldquo; the farthest it has been from Armageddon acirc;euro;ldquo; when the US and USSR signed the START treaty and announced unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

Set at seven minutes to doomsday when it began ticking, the nearest the clock came to an Armageddon was in 1953 when it was set to within two minutes to midnight following back to back thermonuclear tests by the United States and then USSR.

India has been cited before for moving the clock. Moved back to 12 minutes to midnight in 1972 after the first SALT talks, India8217;s first nuclear test in 1974 advanced the clock to nine minutes to midnight in 1974.

Significantly, the Bulletins scientists were more harsh on the nuclear powers than on India and Pakistan for the advance towards doomsday. The heightened sense of peril has roots that extendfar beyond the Indian and Pakistani tests. The tests are a symptom of the failure of the international community to fully commit itself to control the spread of nuclear weapons and to work toward substantial reductions in the numbers of these weapons. The end of the Cold War gave the world a unique opportunity to control and reduce the threat of nuclear catastrophe.

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It is clear that much of that opportunity has been squandered, the scientists said. The scientists also blasted the nuclear powers for their failure to adhere to the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty which commits the established nuclear-weapon states to 8220;pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.8221;

Although the East-West nuclear arms race is clearly over, no nuclear state is moving significantly toward nuclear disarmament, they said.Between them, Russia and the United States still have upwards of 30,000 nuclear weapons strategic and tactical in various states of readiness. Nine years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States and Russia collectively have some 7,000 warheads ready to be fired with less than 15 minutes notice.

History of the Doomsday clock

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has marked nuclear danger since 1947, when its famous clock first appeared on the cover. Since then, the clock has moved forward and back, reflecting international tensions and the developments of the nuclear age.

1947: even minutes to midnight
The clock first appears on the Bulletin cover as a symbol of nuclear danger.

1949: Three minutes to midnight
The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

1953: Two minutes to midnight
The United States successfully tests a hydrogen bomb in late 1952 and the Soviet Union quickly follows suit.

1963: Twelve minutes to midnight
The UnitedStates and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, 8220;the first tangible confirmation8230;that a new cohesive force has entered the interplay of forces shaping the fate of mankind.8221;

1968: Seven minutes to midnight
France and China acquire nuclear weapons;
wars rage in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam; world military spending increases while development funds shrink.

1969: Ten minutes to midnight
The US Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

1972: Twelve minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; progress toward SALT II is anticipated.

1974: Nine minutes to midnight
Salt talks reach an impasse; India develops a nuclear weapon. 8220;We find policymakers on both sides increasingly ensnared, frustrated, and neutralized by domestic forces having a vested interest in the amassing of strategic forces.8221;

1980: Sevenminutes to midnight
The deadlock in US-Soviet arms talks continue; nationalistic wars and terrorist actions increase; the rift between rich and poor nations grows

1981: Four minutes to midnight
Both superpowers develop more weapons for fighting a nuclear war. Terrorist actions, repression of human rights, conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland, South Africa add to world tension.

1984: Three minutes to midnight
The arms race accelerates. 8220;The blunt simplicities of force threaten to displace any other form of discourse between the superpowers.8221;

1988: Six minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces INF; superpower relations improve; more nations actively oppose nuclear weapons.

1990: Ten minutes to midnight
In October 1989, the clock is redesigned to expand the definition of world security. Democratic movements in Eastern Europe shatter the myth of monolithic communism; the ColdWar

1991: Seventeen minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty START and announce further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

1995: Fourteen minutes to midnight
Both the United States and Russia still have not implemented START II, nor have they ratified the chemical and biological weapons conventions; worldwide arms trade continues to boom; more than a thousand tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium is stockpiled, much of it under inadequate security.
8220;In the past four years, it has become clear that opportunities have been missed, open doors closed.8221;

1998: Nine minutes to midnight
In May, India and Pakistan each test a series of nuclear devices, adding two more states to the list of declared nuclear powers. But the clock move is also made to dramatize the failure of world diplomacy in the nuclear sphere; the increased danger that the non-proliferation regime mightultimately collapse; and the fact that deep reductions in the numbers of nuclear weapons, which seemed possible at the start of the decade, have not been realized.

Courtesy 8212; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists