2006年VOA标准英语-Security Issues Surround Russian Nuclear Stockp

By Anna Ardayeva
Moscow, Russia
17 August 2006
 
watch Nuclear Stockpile report
 
  
  
It's been almost 15 years since the United States launched its program to help secure the world's largest nuclear stockpile -- in Russia. But analysts¹ warn that the efforts on improving the security have been going at a terribly slow pace. They say the issue of securing the Russian nuclear arsenals³ is starting to fade from the two countries' agenda…. leaving more than half of the Russian nuclear arsenal² vulnerable to possible terrorist attacks.

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Experts agree that one of the most serious security threats in the world today is a terrorist detonating a nuclear device in a large city.  Modern Russia possesses about 16,000 nuclear warheads and 600 tons of nuclear material and is believed to be the likeliest source of material for such a device.

And it takes only a small amount of that material to put together a so-called "dirty bomb." At least several dozen cases of suspected smuggling⁴ of nuclear and radiological materials were reported in Russia over the last several years -- despite all the international efforts to secure Russian nuclear arsenal.

Robert Berls   
  
Robert Berls, Senior Advisor⁵ for Russia Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative says only a part of Russian nukes have been secured.  "Russia has the largest stockpile of weapons-usable material, enough to make from 40,000 to 80,000 nuclear bombs, to some of the estimates. So that's a lot of material, and a lot of it has been secured, but only about 50 percent.

The United States spends about half a billion dollars a year in threat-reduction projects. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. and Russia have worked to destroy or deactivate⁶ the Russian nuclear arsenal -- missiles, strategic bombers⁷, submarines.

But the Russian nuclear research reactors⁸ are also at risk -- many of them are poorly guarded and very unlikely to be able to defend themselves against possible terrorist attacks.

"It's a problem that's worldwide," says Mr. Berls. "There are approximately 128 research reactors around the world -- these are relatively⁹ small reactors quite often located in universities or scientific institutes that have relatively small amount of highly-enriched uranium.  But this highly-enriched uranium could very easily be used for developing nuclear weapons just as it could from a major storage facility in Russia or someplace else. And the problem with these research reactors is that they are in most cases very poorly secured."

In 2002, when some 40 armed men took over a Moscow Dubrovka theater with some 800 people inside, it was revealed that they were also planning to take over the capital's Kurchatov Research Institute, which has several research nuclear reactors.

But despite the remaining threat, the Russian military seems to be increasingly opposed to having Americans too involved in securing the Russian nuclear facilities, fearing that such inspections¹⁰ could give the United States valuable insights into the Russian weapons' technology.

In the past, the Russian officials have said no foreign access will ever be provided to at least two facilities: large Russian weapons factories which store a quarter of Russian highly-enriched uranium and plutonium.

Rose Goethemuller, at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says that in the last five years, Russia and the United States have fallen away from the rich nuclear reduction dialogue they used to have.

 
Rose Goethemuller
  
"We do continue to target our weapons at the Russians and the Russians target their weapons at us. So we have a Cold War deployment¹¹ of nuclear forces even if we don't consider the threat to be there anymore and we don't think the Russians are our enemies in the way we did in the past. I think it's very important that, just by accident or carelessness, that because they are still in this hair-trigger kind of deployment against each other, that we don't end up with the nuclear disaster.

Observers say that if the current rate of effort on dismantling¹² Russian nuclear arsenal continues, it would take up to 14 years to complete the job, but since no one knows exactly how large the Russian nuclear arsenal is, it might take even longer.

1 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

2 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

3 arsenals   

n.兵工厂，军火库( arsenal的名词复数 )；任何事物的集成

参考例句：

• We possess-each of us-nuclear arsenals capable of annihilating humanity. 我们两国都拥有能够毁灭全人类的核武库。 来自辞典例句
• Arsenals are factories that produce weapons. 军工厂是生产武器的工厂。 来自互联网

4 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 deactivate   

v.使无效；复员

参考例句：

• Russia is deactivating some of its deadliest missiles.俄罗斯正在拆除其一些最危险的导弹。
• I go through several complex steps to try to "deactivate" my profile.我尝试了那些复杂的步骤，试图“撤销”我的个人资料。

7 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

9 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

10 inspections   

n.检查( inspection的名词复数 )；检验；视察；检阅

参考例句：

• Regular inspections are carried out at the prison. 经常有人来视察这座监狱。
• Government inspections ensure a high degree of uniformity in the standard of service. 政府检查确保了在服务标准方面的高度一致。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

12 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。