Burma's Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons

By James Burke
Epoch Times Staff
Oct 30, 2010

Burma’s clandestine nuclear weapons are poorly managed but it could become a real threat if another rogue nation such as North Korea steps in to offer assistance, says a former director of the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a technical briefing held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Thailand in Bangkok last week, American nuclear scientist Robert Kelley said he believes the secret nuclear weapons program run by the Burmese military is not well developed and is being badly managed.

“It is a poor program [from what we have seen]. … There’s poor workmanship, [and] it’s a top down management system saying you will do this, not how you will do this,” said Kelley.

“I think it is safe to say the people of Thailand are safe for the next few years because these guys don’t know what they are doing, but I wouldn’t want to give them more than a few years.”

However, Kelley said that he is also concerned about underplaying the Burmese generals' nuclear weapons program saying that it could develop into a genuine threat.

“If another country steps in and has all the knowledge, the materials, and the keys that would unlock what is plaguing them, including bad management, this program could really speed up,” said the former senior U.N. nuclear inspector.

“[Then] everything I’ve said about it being a bad program goes out the door. [Assistance] from North Korea certainly comes to mind,” he said.

Kelley wrote a report for the Democratic Voice of Burma that was released in June, which is predominantly based on the information and evidence such as documents, drawings, and photographs, provided by a defecting Burmese army major, Sai Thein Win.

“[Mr. Sai] was briefed on the nuclear program, not because he was a major, but because he was an aide to some senior officers,” said Kelley.

In his role as aide, the defector, who is also a Russian-trained mechanical engineer, attended briefings that included Burma’s top general, Than Shwe.

“In those briefs the word to the general officers [from Than Shwe] was we want a nuclear bomb, and we want to build a reactor so we can do it,” said Kelley.

“That’s what he heard—he also worked in the special machine tool factories making prototype components for missile and nuclear programs, which gave him a lot of credibility,” said Kelley.

The 34-year-old defector’s information, he added, included details about the nuclear battalion at Thabeikkyin, which has orders to build a nuclear reactor and to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Violation

Kelley said that the Burmese nuclear program is a violation of agreements the junta has signed both with the IAEA and ASEAN, and that the junta should not be allowed to get away with it.

“It’s a violation, it’s against the law. … I’ve been doing this for a long time because I’d like to catch someone early and make them stop,” said Kelley who participated in IAEA missions to South Africa and Libya.

“This program as we see it today is not a threat in terms of a nuclear mushroom cloud, but it is a threat to the whole system. I don’t think ignoring it should be an option,” he said.

“One of the things that we wanted to come out of our process and going public with this is that I worked with people for a long time who when they get the information, classify it very highly and don’t tell anybody and then nobody has to do anything. In this case, we have put enough information out there that somebody needs to do something or I think we can say that they are deficient.”

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/45103/.