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Biopharmaceutical
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A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biologic medical product, biological, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Biologics can be composed of sugars, proteins, or nucleic acids or complex combinations of these substances and they are isolated from living sources—human, animal, plant, fungal, or microbial. Terminology surrounding biopharmaceuticals varies between groups and entities, with different terms referring to different subsets of therapeutics within the general biopharmaceutical category, Specialty drugs, a recent classification of pharmaceuticals, are high-cost drugs that are often biologics. In some jurisdictions, biologics are regulated via different pathways than other small molecule drugs, the term biopharmacology is sometimes used to describe the branch of pharmacology that studies biopharmaceuticals. Some of the oldest forms of biologics are extracted from the bodies of animals, as indicated the term biologics can be used to refer to a wide range of biological products in medicine. However, in most cases, the term biologics is used more restrictively for a class of therapeutics that are produced by means of processes involving recombinant DNA technology. These medications are usually one of three types, Substances that are identical to the bodys own key signalling proteins, examples are the blood-production stimulating protein erythropoetin, or the growth-stimulating hormone named growth hormone or biosynthetic human insulin and its analogues. Receptor constructs, usually based on a naturally occurring receptor linked to the immunoglobulin frame, in this case, the receptor provides the construct with detailed specificity, whereas the immunoglobulin-structure imparts stability and other useful features in terms of pharmacology. Some examples are listed in the table below, the cost of treatment with a typical monoclonal antibody therapy for relatively common indications is generally in the range of €7, 000–14,000 per patient per year. The first such substance approved for use was biosynthetic human insulin made via recombinant DNA. Sometimes referred to as rHI, under the trade name Humulin, was developed by Genentech, but licensed to Eli Lilly and Company, a few examples of biologics made with recombinant DNA technology include, Many vaccines are grown in tissue cultures. Viral gene therapy involves artificially manipulating a virus to include a piece of genetic material. With the expiration of patents for blockbuster biologics between 2012 and 2019, the interest in biosimilar production, i. e. follow-on biologics, has increased. Compared to small molecules that consist of chemically identical active ingredients, biologics are vastly more complex, due to their heterogeneity and the high process sensitivity, neither originators nor follow-on manufacturers produce reliably constant quality profiles over time. The process variations are monitored by modern tools and describe a unique design space for each biologic. Thus, biosimilars require a different regulatory framework compared to small-molecule generics, legislation in the 21st century has addressed this by recognizing an intermediate ground of testing for biosimilars. The filing pathway requires more testing than for generics. In 2003, the European Medicines Agency introduced an adapted pathway for biosimilars and this pathway is based on a thorough demonstration of comparability of the similar product to an existing approved product
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Microbiological culture
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A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions. Microbial cultures are used to determine the type of organism, its abundance in the sample being tested and it is one of the primary diagnostic methods of microbiology and used as a tool to determine the cause of infectious disease by letting the agent multiply in a predetermined medium. Furthermore, the culture is more generally used informally to refer to selectively growing a specific kind of microorganism in the lab. Microbial cultures are foundational and basic methods used extensively as a research tool in molecular biology. It is often essential to isolate a pure culture of microorganisms, a pure culture is a population of cells or multicellular organisms growing in the absence of other species or types. A pure culture may originate from a cell or single organism. For the purpose of gelling the microbial culture, the medium of agarose gel is used, agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. A cheap substitute for agar is guar gum, which can be used for the isolation, there are several types of bacterial culture methods that are selected based on the agent being cultured and the downstream use. One method of culture is liquid culture, in which the desired bacteria are suspended in a liquid nutrient medium, such as Luria Broth. This allows a scientist to grow up large amounts of bacteria for a variety of downstream applications, liquid cultures are ideal for preparation of an antimicrobial assay in which the experimenter inoculates liquid broth with bacteria and lets it grow overnight. Then they would take aliquots of the sample to test for the activity of a specific drug or protein. As an alternative, the microbiologist may decide to use static liquid cultures and these cultures are not shaken and they provide the microbes with an oxygen gradient. Microbiological cultures can be grown in petri dishes of differing sizes that have a layer of agar-based growth medium. Once the growth medium in the dish is inoculated with the desired bacteria. After the desired level of growth is achieved, agar plates can be stored upside down in a refrigerator for a period of time to keep bacteria for future experiments. There are a variety of additives that can be added to agar before it is poured into a plate, some types of bacteria can only grow in the presence of certain additives. This can also be used when creating engineered strains of a bacteria that contain an antibiotic-resistance gene, when the selected antibiotic is added to the agar, only bacterial cells containing the gene insert conferring resistance will be able to grow. This allows the researcher to select only the colonies that were successfully transformed, stab cultures are similar to agar plates, but are formed by solid agar in a test tube
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Bacillus anthracis
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Bacillus anthracis is the etiologic agent of anthrax—a common disease of livestock and, occasionally, of humans—and the only obligate pathogen within the genus Bacillus. B. anthracis is a Gram-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, with a width of 1. 0–1.2 µm and it can be grown in an ordinary nutrient medium under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. It is one of few known to synthesize a protein capsule. Like Bordetella pertussis, it forms a calmodulin-dependent adenylate cyclase exotoxin known as Anthrax edema factor and it bears close genotypical and phenotypical resemblance to Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis. All three species share cellular dimensions and morphology, all form oval spores located centrally in an unswollen sporangium. B. anthracis endospores, in particular, are resilient, surviving extremes of temperature, low-nutrient environments. The endospore is a cell with thick walls and additional layers that form inside the cell membrane. It can remain inactive for years, but if it comes into a favorable environment. It initially develops inside the rod-shaped form, features such as the location within the rod, the size and shape of the endospore, and whether or not it causes the wall of the rod to bulge out are characteristic of particular species of Bacillus. Depending upon the species, the endospores are round, oval and they are highly refractile and contain dipicolinic acid. Electron micrograph sections show they have a thin outer endospore coat, a thick spore cortex, the endospores resist heat, drying, and many disinfectants. Because of these attributes, B. anthracis endospores are extraordinarily well-suited to use as biological weapons, french physician Casimir Davaine demonstrated the symptoms of anthrax were invariably accompanied by the microbe B. anthracis. German physician Aloys Pollender is credited for discovery, B. anthracis was the first bacterium conclusively demonstrated to cause disease, by Robert Koch in 1876. The species name anthracis is from the Greek anthrax, meaning coal and referring to the most common form of the disease, cutaneous anthrax, in which large, throughout the 19th century, Anthrax was an infection that involved several very important medical developments. The first vaccine containing live organisms was Louis Pasteurs veterinary anthrax vaccine, B. anthracis has a single chromosome which is a circular,5,227, 293-bp DNA molecule. It also has two circular, extrachromosomal, double-stranded DNA plasmids, pXO1 and pXO2, both the pXO1 and pXO2 plasmids are required for full virulence and represent two distinct plasmid families. The pXO1 plasmid contains the genes encode for the anthrax toxin components, pag, lef. These factors are contained within a 44. 8-kb pathogenicity island, the lethal toxin is a combination of PA with LF and the edema toxin is a combination of PA with EF
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Weapon of mass destruction
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The scope and usage of the term has evolved and been disputed, often signifying more politically than technically. Who can think without horror of another widespread war would mean. At the time, nuclear weapons had not been developed, japan conducted research on biological weapons, and chemical weapons had seen wide battlefield use in World War I. They were outlawed by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, Italy used mustard gas against civilians and soldiers in Ethiopia in 1935–36. Following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II and during the Cold War, the application of the term to specifically nuclear and radiological weapons is traced by William Safire to the Russian phrase Оружие массового поражения – oruzhiye massovogo porazheniya. That exact phrase, says Safire, was used by Bernard Baruch in 1946. The resolution also created the Atomic Energy Commission, an exact use of this term was given in a lecture Atomic Energy as an Atomic Problem by J. Robert Oppenheimer. The lecture was delivered to the Foreign Service and the State Department, the lecture is reprinted in The Open Mind. The term was used in the introduction to the hugely influential U. S. government document known as NSC-68 written in April 1950. During a speech at Rice University on 12 September 1962, President John F. Kennedy spoke of not filling space with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. The following month, during a presentation about the Cuban Missile Crisis on 22 October 1962. An early use of the phrase in an international treaty was in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. During the Cold War, the weapons of mass destruction was primarily a reference to nuclear weapons. This policy of action against real or perceived weapons of mass destruction became known as the Begin Doctrine. Reagans successor, George H. W. Bush, used the term in an 1989 speech to the United Nations, the end of the Cold War reduced U. S. reliance on nuclear weapons as a deterrent, causing it to shift its focus to disarmament. With the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and 1991 Gulf War, Iraqs nuclear, biological, following the war, Bill Clinton and other western politicians and media continued to use the term, usually in reference to ongoing attempts to dismantle Iraqs weapons programs. After the 11 September 2001 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, however, American forces found none in Iraq. Iraq, however, declared a chemical weapons stockpile in 2009, the stockpile contained mainly chemical precursors, but some warheads remained usable
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Chemical weapon
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A chemical weapon is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. Munitions or other devices designed to deliver chemical weapons, whether filled or unfilled, are also considered weapons themselves. Chemical weapons are classified as weapons of destruction, though they are distinct from nuclear weapons, biological weapons. All may be used in warfare and are known by the military acronym NBC, Weapons of mass destruction are distinct from conventional weapons, which are primarily effective due to their explosive, kinetic, or incendiary potential. Chemical weapons can be dispersed in gas, liquid and solid forms. Nerve gas, tear gas and pepper spray are three examples of CW. Lethal, unitary, chemical agents and munitions are extremely volatile, unitary agents are effective on their own and do not require mixing with other agents. The most dangerous of these are agents, GA, GB, GD, and VX as well as vesicant agents, which are formulations of sulfur mustard such as H, HT. They all are liquids at room temperature, but become gaseous when released. Widely used during the First World War, the effects of so-called mustard gas, phosgene gas and others caused lung searing, blindness, death and maiming. As of 2016, CS gas and pepper spray remain in use for policing and riot control, while CS is considered a non-lethal weapon. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, there is a binding, worldwide ban on the production, stockpiling. Notwithstanding, large stockpiles of CW continue to exist, usually justified as a precaution against putative use by an aggressor. A separate declaration stated that in any war between signatory powers, the parties would abstain from using projectiles the object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases. The Washington Naval Treaty, signed February 6,1922, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, aimed at banning CW, the subsequent failure to include CW has contributed to the resultant increase in stockpiles. It was signed at Geneva June 17,1925, and entered force on February 8,1928. 133 nations are listed as state parties to the treaty, ukraine is the newest signatory, acceding August 7,2003. This treaty states that chemical and biological weapons are justly condemned by the opinion of the civilised world
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Nuclear weapon
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A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from small amounts of matter. The first test of a bomb released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10 million tons of TNT, a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate a city by blast, fire. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of destruction, and their use. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II, the bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The ethics of the bombings and their role in Japans surrender remain the subject of scholarly, since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for the purposes of testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them, israel is also believed to possess nuclear weapons, though in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states, south Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. Modernisation of weapons continues to occur, all existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as bombs or atom bombs. This has long noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom. The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium. A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons of TNT, all fission reactions necessarily generate fission products, the radioactive remains of the atomic nuclei split by the fission reactions. Many fission products are highly radioactive or moderately radioactive. Fission products are the radioactive component of nuclear fallout
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Albania and weapons of mass destruction
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Albania once possessed a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. This stockpile of weapons included 16,678 kilograms of mustard agent, lewisite, adamsite. Albania was among the countries who signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993. The treaty, which came into force in 1997, requires the declaration of chemical stockpiles, and the destruction of all chemical weapons, delivery systems and production facilities. One of only six nations to declare a stockpile, Albania made its declaration in March 2003, after the discovery, in December 2002, the material was probably acquired by Communist leader Enver Hoxha in the mid-1970s from China although no documentation was found. Costs were approximately 48 million U. S. dollars, the United States assisted with and funded the destruction operations under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction. Albania acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention on June 3,1992 and it also acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in September 1990. Albania joined the Geneva Protocol on 20 December 1989, banning chemical and biological weapons and deposited its accession to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on 23 April 2003
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Algeria and weapons of mass destruction
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In 1991, the government of the United States said it had unearthed details of the alleged construction of a nuclear reactor in Algeria. The Washington Times accused the country of developing nuclear weapons with the help of the Chinese government, the Algerian government admitted it was building a reactor, but denied any secrecy or military purpose. Surveillance from U. S. satellites also suggested that the reactor would not be used for military purposes, china had secretly made an agreement in 1983 to assist Algeria in developing a nuclear reactor. In November 1991, succumbing to pressure, Algeria placed the reactor under IAEA safeguards. Algeria signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 1995, and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention In August 2001, Algeria, Big deal in the desert
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Argentina and weapons of mass destruction
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Argentina has a history with the development of weapons of mass destruction. Under the National Reorganization Process, Argentina began a weapons program in the early 1980s. During the 1980s, the Alacrán and Cóndor 2 missiles were developed, the Cóndor 2, with a range of around 1,000 kilometres, was reportedly scrapped during the Menem administration under pressure from the United States government. The current status of the Alacrán remains unknown, Argentina conducted a nuclear weapon research program during the National Reorganization Process regime. Government officials at the time confirmed, in November 1983, that carried out at the Balseiro Institutes research reactor had yielded the capacity for weapons-grade uranium enrichment. The program was abandoned, however, shortly after the return of democracy, on February 10,1995, Argentina acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Argentina continues to use power in non-military roles, and is noted as an exporter of civilian use nuclear technology. In 2010, the government announced that it would start working in the creation of a nuclear submarine and those types of submarines only use atomic energy for propulsion. The announcement was criticized by politicians from opposing parties. Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials Brazilian nuclear weapons program The Nuclear Club, archived from the original on 14 April 2006. Archived from the original on 19 April 2006, the Woodrow Wilson Centers Nuclear Proliferation International History Project Conference on Brazilian and Argentine Nuclear Programs
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Australia and weapons of mass destruction
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Australia does not possess weapons of mass destruction, although it has participated in extensive research into nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the past. Australia chairs the Australia Group, a grouping of countries that seek to minimise the risk of assisting chemical and biological weapon proliferation. As with chemical and biological weapons, Australia does not possess weapons and is not at all known to be seeking to develop them. Australia has advanced research programs in immunology, microbiology and genetic engineering that support an industry providing world class vaccines for domestic use and it also has an extensive wine industry and produces microorganisms on an industrial scale to support other industries including agriculture, food technology and brewing. The dual-use nature of these mean that Australia, like any country with advanced biotechnological industries. Some disease research laboratories in Australia own strains of the Ebola virus, the Australian Microbial Resources Research Network lists 37 culture collections, many of which hold samples of pathogenic organisms for legitimate research purposes. In the wake of the Japanese advance through South East Asia during World War II, shedden, wrote to Macfarlane Burnet on 24 December 1946 and invited him to attend a meeting of top military officers to discuss biological warfare. The activities of the chemical and biological warfare subcommittee were scaled back soon after, Australia signed the Biological Weapons Convention on 10 April 1972 and deposited a certificate of ratification on 5 October 1977. Australia conducted extensive research into weapons during World War II. Although Australia has never produced chemical weapons, it did stockpile chemical weapons sourced from the USA, Chemical weapons known to have been stockpiled included mustard gas, phosgene, lewisite, adamsite and CN gas. Some of the weapons in the form of mortar and artillery shells, aerial bombs. No actual use of the weapons was made there were many trials using live chemical weapons. After World War II, the weapons were disposed of by burning, venting or by dumping at sea. Some 21,030 tons of weapons were dumped in the seas off Australia near Brisbane, Sydney. This has been covered in a Defence report by Geoff Plunkett, another stockpile of chemical weapons was discovered at Maxwelton, Queensland in 1989. Australia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in January 1993 and ratified it with the Chemical Weapons Act in 1994, Air Chief Marshal Frederick Scherger and Minister for Air Athol Townley supported acquiring nuclear weapons, both for international prestige and because of the small size of the countrys military. While Schergers British and American counterparts were encouraging, the Macmillan, Prime Minister Robert Menzies government decided that domestic production would be too difficult due to cost and international politics. Australia hosted British nuclear testing in Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field, Maralinga was developed as a joint facility with a shared funding arrangement
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Brazil and weapons of mass destruction
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In the 1970s and 80s, during the military regime, Brazil had a secret program intended to develop nuclear weapons. The program was dismantled in 1990, five years after the regime ended. Brazil is one of countries that have forsworn nuclear weapons under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In the 1950s, President Getúlio Vargas encouraged the development of independent national nuclear capabilities, during the 1970s and 80s, Brazil and Argentina embarked on a nuclear competition. Through technology transfers from West Germany, which did not require IAEA safeguards, Brazil pursued a nuclear weapons program known as the Parallel Program. In 1987, President Sarney announced that Brazil had enriched uranium to 20%, in 1990, President Fernando Collor de Mello symbolically closed the Cachimbo test site, in Pará, and exposed the military’s secret plan to develop a nuclear weapon. Brazils National Congress opened an investigation into the Parallel Program, Congress members visited numerous facilities, including the Institute of Advanced Studies in São José dos Campos. The congressional investigation exposed secret bank accounts, code-named Delta, which were managed by the National Nuclear Energy Commission and used for funding the program. The congressional report revealed that the IEAv had designed two atomic bomb devices, one with a yield of twenty to thirty kilotons and a second with a yield of twelve kilotons, the same report revealed that Brazils military regime secretly exported eight tons of uranium to Iraq in 1981. In 1991, Brazil and Argentina renounced their nuclear rivalry, Brazil officially opened the Resende enrichment plant in May 2006. Brazils enrichment technology development, and the plant itself, involved substantial discussions with the IAEA, the dispute came down to whether IAEA inspectors would be allowed to inspect the machines themselves. The Brazilian government did not allow the inspection of the centrifugal cascade halls and they also claimed that their technology is better than that of the United States and France, mainly because the centrifugal axis is not mechanical, but electromagnetic. Then U. S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell and it is likely that Brazil has retained the technological capacity and knowhow to produce and deliver a nuclear weapon. Experts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have concluded that in view of its previous nuclear activities, if Brazil decided to pursue a nuclear weapon, the centrifuges at the Resende enrichment plant could be reconfigured to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. Even a small enrichment plant like Resende could produce several nuclear weapons per year, the Brazilian Navy is currently developing a nuclear submarine fleet, and in 2007 authorised the construction of a prototype submarine propulsion reactor. In 2008, France agreed to transfer technology to Brazil for the joint development of the submarine hull. 23. 397°S47. 601°W / -23.397, -47.601 The Aramar Experimental Center located in Iperó in the State of São Paulo, was inaugurated in 1988 as the first uranium-only enrichment plant in Brazil. The facility is run by the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission and the Brazilian Navy, in addition to the Centrifuge Enrichment Plant, the facility also hosts an Isotopic Enrichment Laboratory and several Small Nuclear Centers
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Bulgaria and weapons of mass destruction
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Bulgaria has developed weapons of mass destruction, most notably chemical weapons. Chemical weapons production was concentrated in Smyadovo, as of 2016, Bulgaria does not possess any weapons of mass destruction. Bulgaria had a significant missile arsenal, including 67 Scud,50 Frog and 24 Spider ballistic missiles. Since the USSR planned to deploy its own nuclear weapons in Bulgaria in case a war broke out, the missiles were not armed with warheads. The SS-23 systems had conventional warheads plus a WMD launching capability, the nuclear missile launching pads and equipment were dismantled in 1991. The first missile brigade was created in 1961, in 1994 the country bought 46 conventional warheads for its SCUDs from Russia. All Scud, Frog and Spider missiles were destroyed in 2002, currently Bulgaria operates a dozen Scarab launchers, but information over the exact number of missiles is classified. They are all armed with conventional warheads of 160 kg each, information over Bulgarias chemical weapons is scarce. The only known chemical weapons production facility is located near Smyadovo, the country ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1994 and dismantled them by 2000. Bulgaria has signed and ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, Bulgaria has never developed nuclear weapons, although some treaties with the Soviet Union guaranteed the deployment of Soviet warheads on Bulgarian territory in case of a war with NATO. The site consisted of four apartment blocks, barracks, a cafeteria, a sports field, a social club, a store, and a plaza. The unit was disbanded in 1989, the warheads were quickly shipped to Ukraine and all equipment, uniforms, another Russian Army official later denied the story. However, in the 1980s four Bulgarian Air Force majors received training in the Soviet Union on releasing nuclear weapons from MiG-23BN aircraft, in 2001 the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry denied the presence of nuclear weapons in Bulgaria. The country has the potential to establish a nuclear program. A nuclear research facility with a 200 kW pool-type reactor is in operation in Sofia, the reactor of the facility produces some nuclear material, which is stored near Novi Khan. The substance, which was 36% enriched and took the form of fuel, was airlifted in December 2003 to Russia. Agency safeguards inspectors monitored and verified the packaging of the fuel, which Moscow says it will re-fabricate into low-enriched uranium
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Canada and weapons of mass destruction
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Canada has not officially maintained and possessed weapons of mass destruction since 1984 and, as of 1998, has signed treaties repudiating possession of them. Canada ratified the Geneva Protocol in 1930 and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1970, the first US nuclear weapon came to Canada in 1950 when the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command stationed 11 model 1561 Fat Man atomic bombs at CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. Goose Bay was used as a staging location for both the RAF V-Force and SAC. From 1963 to 1984, Canada fielded a total of four nuclear weapons systems which deployed several hundred nuclear warheads. Throughout the Cold War, Canada was closely aligned with defensive elements of United States programs in both NORAD and NATO. In 1964 Canada sent its White Paper on Defence to U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to ensure he would not, Canada’s military relationship with the United States has grown significantly since the Second World War. Although the Dominion of Canada came into being on July 1,1867, Canada entered the Great War in 1914 when Great Britain declared war on Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Canadian foreign policy became independent in December 1931 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, in 1939 Canada declared war on Germany a week later than Great Britain, on September 10,1939. The United States did not enter the war until December 7,1941, one of the first formal agreements for military cooperation was made in August 1940. Known as the Ogdensburg Agreement, it established the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, both nations are founding members of the United Nations as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They signed the NORAD Agreement in 1957 and created the North American Air Defense Command to defend the continent against attacks from the USSR and this was the code name for the British Uranium Committee project which had worked on a theoretical design for an atomic bomb. One significant contribution was a calculation of the mass of uranium. The mass was less than earlier estimates and suggested that development of a bomb was practical. Tube Alloys was part of a shipment of the most secret scientific research in Great Britain that was sent to the United States for safekeeping when the threat of German invasion was significant. Materials included the cavity magnetron which was essential to RADAR, British information related to the German Enigma machines, Jet Engine designs as well as Tube Alloys. After briefly allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed in Goose Bay, Labrador. The Americans were refused permission to stockpile bomb casings for the B-36 at Goose Bay and these bombs would have been armed in wartime with materials brought from the United States. Goose Bay was used as a base for air refueling tankers which were to support the SAC B-47, in 1951 the Pinetree Line was established north of the US-Canada border, and in 1953 Canada built the Mid-Canada Air Warning Line, which was manned by the Canadian military
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China and weapons of mass destruction
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The Peoples Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of Chinas nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964, tests continued until 1996, when China signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. China has acceded to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1984, the number of nuclear warheads in Chinas arsenal is a state secret. There are varying estimates of the size of Chinas arsenal, according to some estimates, the country could more than double the number of warheads on missiles that could threaten the United States by the mid-2020s. Early in 2011, China published a white paper, which repeated its nuclear policies of maintaining a minimum deterrent with a no-first-use pledge. Yet China has yet to define what it means by a minimum deterrent posture and this, together with the fact that it is deploying four new nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, invites concern as to the scale and intention of China’s nuclear upgrade. China signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13,1993, China ratified the CWC on April 25,1997. It has declared only three former chemical production facilities that may have produced gas, phosgene and Lewisite. China was found to have supplied Albania with a stockpile of chemical weapons in the 1970s during the Cold War. However, China was reported to have had a biological weapons program in the 1980s. Kanatjan Alibekov, former director of one of the Soviet germ-warfare programs, Alibekov asserted that Soviet reconnaissance satellites identified a biological weapons laboratory and plant near a site for testing nuclear warheads. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expressed her concerns over possible Chinese biological weapon transfers to Iran, in response to this, China issued export control protocols on dual use biological technology in late 2002. Mao Zedong decided to begin a Chinese nuclear-weapons program during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954–1955 over the Quemoy, while he did not expect to be able to match the large American nuclear arsenal, Mao believed that even a few bombs would increase Chinas diplomatic credibility. Construction of uranium-enrichment plants in Baotou and Lanzhou began in 1958, and a facility in Jiuquan. The Chinese, who preferred to import technology and components to developing them within China, exported uranium to the Soviet Union, and that year, however, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev told Mao that he planned to discuss arms control with the United States and Britain. China was already opposed to Khruschevs post-Stalin policy of peaceful coexistence, although Soviet officials assured China that it was under the Soviet nuclear umbrella, the disagreements widened the emerging Sino-Soviet split. The Chinese conducted their first nuclear test, code-named 596, on 16 October 1964, Chinas last nuclear test was on July 29,1996. According to the Australian Geological Survey Organization in Canberra, the yield of the 1996 test was 1–5 kilotons and this was Chinas 22nd underground test and 45th test overall
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Egypt and weapons of mass destruction
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Egypt had a history of weapons of mass destruction and used chemical weapons during the North Yemen Civil War. Egypts chemical weapons program is the most developed of its pursuit of developing a Weapons of Mass Destruction program though it is thought this reached its peak in the 1960s and it also used chemical weapons during the Yemeni Civil War. Phosgene and mustard gas were used against Royalist forces and civilians in Northern Yemen, Egypt has maintained a policy of not signing the Chemical Weapons Convention until questions regarding Israels nuclear weapons program are answered. The first use of gas took place on June 8,1963 against Kawma and this incident is considered to have been experimental, and the bombs were described as home-made, amateurish and relatively ineffective. The Egyptian authorities suggested that the incidents were probably caused by napalm. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Golda Meir, suggested in an interview that Nasser would not hesitate to use gas against Israel as well, there were no reports of gas during 1964, and only a few were reported in 1965. The reports grew more frequent in late 1966, on December 11,1966, fifteen gas bombs killed two people and injured thirty-five. On January 5,1967, the biggest gas attack came against the village of Kitaf, causing 270 casualties, the target may have been Prince Hassan bin Yahya, who had installed his headquarters nearby. The Egyptian government denied using poison gas, and alleged that Britain, on February 12,1967, it said it would welcome a UN investigation. On March 1, U Thant said he was powerless to deal with the matter, on May 10, the twin villages of Gahar and Gadafa in Wadi Hirran, where Prince Mohamed bin Mohsin was in command, were gas bombed, killing at least seventy-five. The Red Cross was alerted and on June 2, it issued a statement in Geneva expressing concern, the gas attacks stopped for three weeks after the Six-Day War of June, but resumed on July, against all parts of royalist Yemen. Casualty estimates vary, and an assumption, considered conservative, is that the mustard and it began its nuclear program in 1954 which expanded to include Russian 2MW nuclear research reactor ETRR-1 that was opened by President Gamal Abdel-Nasser at Inchass in 1961. Further development in its program was stopped in 1967 after its defeat in the Six Day War. In addition, in 1992 Egypt acquired a more powerful 22MW multi-purpose research reactor ETRR-2 from Argentina, Egypt signed the NPT in 1968 which it then later ratified in 1981. It has since 1974 worked to make the Middle East a nuclear free zone. Egypt signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention on April 10,1972 but has not ratified it, prior to signing the BWC President Anwar Sadat of Egypt made the following comment to a question about Israel and should they use Biological weapons. The only reply to biological warfare is that we too should use biological warfare, I believe that the density of the Israeli population confined in a small area would provide the opportunity to reply with the same weapon if they should begin using it. Briefly, we have the instruments of warfare in the refrigerators
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France and weapons of mass destruction
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France is one of the five Nuclear Weapons States under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon in 1960. France denies currently having chemical weapons, ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1995, France had also ratified the Geneva Protocol in 1926. France was one of the pioneers, going back to the work of Marie Skłodowska Curie. Curie’s last assistant Bertrand Goldschmidt became the father of the French Bomb, after World War II Frances former position of leadership suffered greatly because of the instability of the Fourth Republic, and the lack of finance available. During the Second World War Goldschmidt invented the method for extracting plutonium while working as part of the British/Canadian team participating in the Manhattan Project. But after the Liberation in 1945, France had to start its own program almost from scratch, nevertheless, the first French reactor went critical in 1948 and small amounts of plutonium were extracted in 1949. There was no commitment to a nuclear weapons program at that time. However, in the 1950s a civilian nuclear program was started. In 1956 a secret Committee for the Military Applications of Atomic Energy was formed, the intervention of the United States in the Suez Crisis that year is credited with convincing France that it needed to accelerate its own nuclear weapons program to remain a global power. With the return of Charles de Gaulle to the presidency of France in the midst of the May 1958 crisis, the decisions to build an atomic bomb were taken. According to Lieutenant Colonel Warner D, progress in nuclear science and technology in France and Israel remained closely linked throughout the early fifties. Israeli scientists probably helped construct the G-1 plutonium production reactor and UP-1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule, in 1957 Euratom was created, and under cover of the peaceful use of nuclear power the French signed deals with Germany and Italy to work together on nuclear weapons development. The West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer told his cabinet that he wanted to achieve, through EURATOM, as quickly as possible, in 1958 de Gaulle became President and Germany and Italy were excluded. France developed its nuclear and thermonuclear bombs without outside assistance, the United States, however, began providing technical assistance in the early 1970s through the 1980s. The aid was secret, unlike the relationship with the British nuclear program, areas in which the French received help included MIRV, radiation hardening, missile design, intelligence on Soviet anti-missile defences, and advanced computer technology. Because the French program attracted the best brains of the nation, France is understood to have tested neutron or enhanced radiation bombs in the past, apparently leading the field with an early test of the technology in 1967 and an actual neutron bomb in 1980. There were 210 French nuclear tests from 1960 through 1995, seventeen of them were done in the Algerian Sahara between 1960 and 1966, starting in the middle of the Algerian War
17.
Germany and weapons of mass destruction
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Germany is among the powers which possess the ability to create nuclear weapons but has agreed not to do so. Along with most other nations, Germany produces components that can be used for creating deadly agents, chemical weapons. As one of the combatants in World War I, Germany used and developed what we would today describe as weapons of mass destruction. During World War I, Germany developed and used chemical weapons and these kinds of weapon were subsequently also employed by the Allies. The use of weapons in warfare during the Great War was allegedly in violation of clause IV. German scientists also did research on chemical weapons during the war. The first nerve gas, tabun, was invented by the German researcher Gerhard Schrader in 1937, during the war, Germany stockpiled tabun, sarin, and soman but refrained from their use on the battlefield. In total, Germany produced about 78,000 tons of chemical weapons, by 1945 the nation produced about 12,000 tons of tabun and 1,000 pounds of sarin. Delivery systems for the nerve agents included 105 mm and 150 mm artillery shells, a 250 kg bomb, even when the Soviets neared Berlin, Adolf Hitler was persuaded not to use tabun as the final trump card. The use of tabun was opposed by Hitlers Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer and this was not in fact the case, but Hitler accepted Ambross deduction, and Germanys tabun arsenal remained unused. As part of the negotiations of West Germany to the Western European Union at the London and Paris Conferences. This was reiterated in domestic law by the War Weapons Control Act, during the Cold War, nuclear weapons were deployed in Germany by both the United States and the Soviet Union. Despite not being among the nuclear powers during the Cold War, Germany had a political, in 1977, after the Soviet deployment of the new SS-20 IRBM, West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt expressed concern over the capability of NATOs nuclear forces compared to those of the Soviets. Later in the Cold War under the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl, Germany wanted to see such short range systems eliminated, because their major use was not deterrence but battlefield employment. In 1957 the European Atomic Energy Community was created to promote the use of energy in Europe. Under cover of the use of nuclear power, West Germany hoped to develop the basis of a nuclear weapons programme with France. The West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer told his cabinet that he wanted to achieve, through EURATOM, as quickly as possible, in 1958 Charles De Gaulle became President of France, and Germany and Italy were excluded from the weapons project. Euratom continued as the European agency for the use of nuclear technology
18.
India and weapons of mass destruction
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India possesses weapons of mass destruction in the form of nuclear weapons and, in the past, chemical weapons. In 1999 India was estimated to have 800 kg of separated reactor-grade plutonium, with an amount of 8300 kg of civilian plutonium. India is not a signatory to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, India has signed and ratified the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. India is also a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, India has a well-developed biotechnology infrastructure that includes numerous pharmaceutical production facilities and bio-containment laboratories for working with lethal pathogens. It also has highly qualified scientists with expertise in infectious diseases, some of Indias facilities are being used to support research and development for biological weapons defence purposes. India has ratified the Biological Weapons Convention and pledges to abide by its obligations, there is no clear evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that directly points toward an offensive BW program. India does possess the capability and infrastructure to launch an offensive BW program. In terms of delivery, India also possesses the capability to produce aerosols and has numerous potential delivery systems ranging from crop dusters to sophisticated ballistic missiles. No information exists in the public domain suggesting interest by the Indian government in delivery of biological agents by these or any other means. To reiterate the latter point, in October 2002, the then President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam asserted that India will not make biological weapons and it is cruel to human beings. In 1992, India signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, stating that it did not have chemical weapons, by doing this India became one of the original signatories of the CWC in 1993, and ratified it on 2 September 1996. Others suggested that the fact that India has found chemical weapons dispensable highlighted its confidence in the weapons system at its command. In June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons, India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become third country after South Korea and Albania to do so and this was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations. India has a commercial chemical industry, and produces the bulk of its own chemicals for domestic consumption. Homi Bhabha when he founded the research centre, the Institute of Fundamental Research. India first tested a device in 1974, which it called a peaceful nuclear explosion. The test used plutonium produced in the Canadian-supplied CIRUS reactor, and this also stimulated the early work of the Nuclear Suppliers Group
19.
Iran and weapons of mass destruction
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Iran has first-hand knowledge of WMD effects—over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were victims of chemical weapons during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War. Later versions of this fatwa forbid only the use of nuclear weapons, Iran has stated its uranium enrichment program is exclusively for peaceful purposes. The senior officers of all of the major American intelligence agencies stated that there was no evidence that Iran has made any attempt to produce nuclear weapons since 2003. In a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, the United States Intelligence Community assessed that Iran had ended all nuclear weapon design, U. S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated in January 2012 that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, but was not attempting to produce nuclear weapons. In 2009, U. S. intelligence assessed that Iranian intentions were unknown, some European intelligence believe Iran has resumed its alleged nuclear weapons design work. Iran has called for nuclear weapons states to disarm and for the Middle East to be a nuclear free zone. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad argued that the sanctions were illegal, the IAEA has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, but not the absence of undeclared activities. The Non-Aligned Movement has called on both sides to work through the IAEA for a solution, in November 2009, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a resolution against Iran which urged Iran to apply the modified Code 3. Iran said the hasty and undue resolution would jeopardize the conducive environment vitally needed for successful negotiations, another IAEA report stated there is no evidence that the previously undeclared nuclear material and activities. Were related to a weapons program. Iran has claimed that the threat posed by Israel and the United States is forcing it to restrict the release of information on its nuclear program. On 31 July 2006, the Security Council passed a resolution demanding Iran suspend its enrichment program, on 23 December 2006, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Iran, which were later tightened on 24 March 2007, because Iran refused to suspend enrichment. Irans representative to the UN argued that the sanctions compelled Iran to abandon its rights under the NPT to peaceful nuclear technology, the Non-Aligned Movement called on both sides to work through the IAEA for a solution. US intelligence predicted in August 2005 that Iran could have the key ingredients for a weapon by 2015. On 25 October 2007, the United States declared the Revolutionary Guards a proliferator of weapons of destruction. Iran responded that it is incongruent for a country who itself is a producer of weapons of destruction to take such a decision. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA at the time, said he had no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons and his irresponsible attitude of sticking his head in the sand over Irans nuclear programme should lead to his impeachment. Israel and some western governments fear Iran is using its nuclear programme as a means to develop weapons
20.
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
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Iraqs military arsenal included weapons of mass destruction starting from 1960s, effectively ending with its near total destruction in the 1990s. Iraq used chemical weapons on multiple occasions, both domestically and in the war against Iran, after the first Gulf War in 1991, the UN Security Council required Iraq to eliminate its chemical, biological and previously unknown nuclear weapon programs under UN verification. Iraq was subsequently accused of having restarted its WMD programs, which was the justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States. In the 1980s, Saddam pursued an extensive weapons program. In response to diminishing Iraqi cooperation with UNSCOM, the United States called for withdrawal of all UN and IAEA inspectors in 1998, the 1999 disarmament report by UNSCOM listed large quantities of WMD material that was unaccounted for. The United States and the UK asserted that Saddam Hussein still possessed large hidden stockpiles of weapons of destruction in 2003. In the event of proactive Iraqi cooperation, he said it would take, however, in his May 2003 report to the U. N. Blix said that his team had made little progress accounting for other materials which Iraq claims to have unilaterally destroyed. The United States asserted this was a breach of Resolution 1441, later U. S. -led inspections found out that Iraq had earlier ceased active WMD production and stockpiling. The report also found that Iraq had worked covertly to maintain the intellectual and physical capacity to produce WMDs, in 2015 it was learned that Iraqs weapons of mass destruction had not been fully accounted for by UN inspections. Operation Avarice, headed by army intelligence and the CIA, involved the purchase of the weapons from the unidentified individual to keep them off the black market. 1959 – August 17 USSR and Iraq wrote an agreement about building a power plant. 1968 – a Soviet supplied IRT-2000 research reactor together with a number of facilities that could be used for radioisotope production was built close to Baghdad. 1975 – Saddam Hussein arrived in Moscow and asked about building a model of an atomic power station. Moscow would approve if the station was regulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Yet an agreement of co-operation was signed on April 15, which superseded the one from 1959, after 6 months Paris agreed to sell 72 kg of 93% Uranium and built a nuclear power plant without International Atomic Energy Agency control at a price of $3 billion. In the early 1970s, Saddam Hussein ordered the creation of a nuclear weapons program. Iraqs weapons of mass destruction programs were assisted by a variety of firms. Other German firms sent 1,027 tons of precursors of mustard gas, sarin, tabun and this work allowed Iraq to produce 150 tons of mustard agent and 60 tons of Tabun in 1983 and 1984 respectively, continuing throughout the decade
21.
Israel and weapons of mass destruction
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Israel is widely believed to possess weapons of mass destruction, and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US Congress Office of Technology Assessment has recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared chemical warfare capabilities, officially Israel neither confirms nor denies possessing nuclear weapons. It is believed that Israel had possessed a nuclear weapons capability by 1967. Although no official statistics exist, estimates of Israeli nuclear weapons range from 75 to as many as 400 and it is unknown if Israels reported thermonuclear weapons are in the megaton range. Israel is also reported to possess a range of different systems, including neutron bombs, tactical nuclear weapons. Israel is believed to manufacture its nuclear weapons at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, Israels nuclear-capable ballistic missiles are believed to be buried so far underground that they would survive a nuclear attack. This admission was in contrast to the long-running Israeli government policy of ambiguity on whether it has nuclear weapons. The policy held that Israel would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East, former International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei regarded Israel as a state possessing nuclear weapons. Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but supports establishment of a Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction, Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. Undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas, in late 1982 a probable CW nerve agent production facility and a storage facility were identified at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert. Other CW agent production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry, there are also speculations that a chemical weapons program might be located at the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona. The shipment was from a U. S. chemical plant to the IIBR under a U. S. Department of Commerce license. In 1993, the U. S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment WMD proliferation assessment recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared chemical warfare capabilities. Theres no doubt theyve had stuff for years, Israel is believed to have developed an offensive biological warfare capability. The US Congress Office of Technology Assessment records Israel as a country possessing a long-term, Israel is not a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention. It is assumed that the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona develops vaccines and antidotes for chemical and biological warfare, john Douglas-Grays thriller The Novak Legacy * Israel, WMD Overview, Nuclear Threat Initiative, May 2014. 3 pp. 22–23 Israel and the Bomb, including declassified documents, obsessive secrecy undermines democracy By Reuven Pedatzur Haaretz. Tuesday, August 8, 2000—Cohen published Israel and the Bomb in the United States, in the eyes of the defense establishment, Cohen has committed a double sin
22.
Japan and weapons of mass destruction
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Beginning in the mid-1930s, Japan conducted numerous attempts to acquire and develop weapons of mass destruction. The 1943 Battle of Changde saw Japanese use of both bioweapons and chemical weapons, and the Japanese conducted a serious, though futile, nuclear weapon program, after the end of World War II, the nation ceased all production and abandoned their experiments. Since World War II, Japan has become a state, said to be a screwdrivers turn away from nuclear weapons, having the capacity, the know-how. Japan has consistently eschewed any desire to have weapons. Such weapons are forbidden by the Japanese constitution, in military campaigns, the Japanese army used biological weapons on Chinese soldiers and civilians. Japans infamous biological warfare Unit 731 was led by Lt. General Shirō Ishii, Japan developed new methods of biological warfare and used them on a large scale in China during World War II. Unit 731 used plague-infected fleas and flies covered with cholera to infect the population in China, localized and deadly epidemics resulted and nearly 500,000 Chinese died of disease. Recent additional firsthand accounts testify the Japanese infected civilians through the distribution of plague-infested foodstuffs, such as dumplings, during the Changde chemical weapon attacks, the Japanese also employed biological warfare by intentionally spreading cholera, dysentery, typhoid, bubonic plague, and anthrax. Other battles include the Kaimingye germ weapon attack, Japanese scientists from Unit 731 provided research information for the United States biological weapons program in order to escape war crimes charges. Japanese biological warfare information provided to US authorities after World War II remained a secret and was returned to Japan. Japans employment of BW was largely viewed as ineffective, due to the absence of an efficient production delivery system technology. In August 2002, a Japanese court ended decades of official denials and acknowledged, for the first time, the court acknowledged the existence of Japans biological warfare program but rejected the plaintiffs demands for compensation, saying the issue was covered under postwar treaties. Japans biological warfare experts and scientists from WWII, were alleged to have assisted the US in employment of BW in the Korean War. The Japanese used mustard gas and the blister agent Lewisite, against Chinese troops and guerillas in China, experiments involving chemical weapons were conducted on live prisoners. As of 2005,60 years after the end of the war, canisters that were abandoned by Japan in their hasty retreat are still being dug up in construction sites, causing injuries and allegedly even deaths. In December 1993, Japan signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified it in 1995 and was thus a state party upon entering into force in 1997, however, JSDF possess chemical weapons facilities and some samples for protection which it said JGSDF Central NBC protection Troop. In 1995, JGSDF admitted possession of sarin for samples, a Japanese program to develop nuclear weapons was conducted during World War II. Japan signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in February 1970, for this reason Japan is often said to be a screwdrivers turn away from possessing nuclear weapons
23.
Libya and weapons of mass destruction
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Libya possesses chemical weapons and ballistic missiles and previously pursued nuclear weapons under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 and ratified it in 1975, the United States and the United Kingdom assisted Libya in removing equipment and material from its nuclear weapons program, with independent verification by the IAEA. In October 2014, Libya asked for assistance to transport its 850 tonnes stockpile of precursor chemicals for making nerve gas out of Libya for destruction. In February 2015, Libyan military sources told media that unidentified armed men have captured large amounts of Libya’s chemical weapons, including mustard gas and sarin. Before the rollback of its nuclear program in late 2003, Libya had a nuclear weapons program. In 1981, the Soviet Union supplied a 10 MW research reactor at Tajura. However, by the time its nuclear program was roll back by Muammar Gaddafi, with an assistance from the U. S. and IAEA, Libyas nuclear program remained in very early developmental and initial stages. Despite commitment to NPT, which Libya became partied of it in 1968, the most famous buying foray was in 1970 when Libyan leaders paying a state visit to China. Gaddafi and his Prime Minister Abdessalam Jalloud made an attempt to convince China to sell tactical nuclear weapons to Libya. In a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, Colonel Gaddafi unsuccessful attempt to convince Enlai to sell him a nuclear bomb, qaddafis justification towards the intentions for nuclear weapons were his concern over the Israeli nuclear capability, and publicly expressed his desire to obtain nuclear weapons. After being invited by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to attend the 2nd OIC conference in Lahore, Libya negotiated and was delegated to participate in its program, Project-706. In 1977, the Libyan technicians were departed to Pakistan but by the time Libyans joined the program, before Pakistans A-bomb project succeeded, Libya had been taken out of the equation as the new President General Zia-ul-Haq had distrusted and strongly disliked Gaddafi. With the Indian Prime minister Indira Gandhi visiting Libya in 1984, an energy pact was signed by Libya and India. Throughout the 1980s, Libyan efforts continue to push for acquiring nuclear weapons from various sources, the approach failed in 1979, and in 1980 Libya decided to pursue a plutonium-based pathway to nuclear weapons. Libya imported 1,200 tons of ore concentrate from French-controlled mines in Niger without declaring it to the IAEA. In 1982, Libya attempted to enter in an agreement with Belgium for purchasing a small plant for manufacturing UF4, at the time, Libya had no declared nuclear facilities that required UF4, and the purchase was refused. In 1980, Libya began to build its infrastructure from various nuclear black market sources. The centrifuges materials and expertise were provided by Swiss national, Friedrich Tinner, tinners work on centrifuges took place at the TNRF aimed at producing gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment
24.
Mexico and weapons of mass destruction
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Mexico is one of the few countries which has technical capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons. However it has renounced them and pledged to use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes following the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1968. It is unknown if Mexico ever created or possessed nuclear or any kind of mass destruction weapons. The use of energy in Mexico isnt something new. The CNEN started nine programs, nuclear physics, education and training, seminaries, reactors, radioisotopes, industrial applications for energy, agronomy, genetics. During the sixties, the most relevant scientific project on the country was the construction of the Salazar Nuclear Center in the state of Mexico, two years later, the center already possessed a Tandem Van de Graaff particle accelerator and in 1968 a TRIGA Mark III. In 1972, the CNEN changed its name to ININ, however, regardless of the new name, its objective remains the same until today. In 1961 the Mexican government argued that use of weapons could not be justified under the right to self-defence in the UN charter. In April 2010, the Mexican government reportedly reached an agreement to turn over its highly enriched uranium to the United States. The US would help convert highly enriched uranium stored at Mexican research facilities into an enriched form unsuitable for weapons. Later in March 2012 Rachel Maddow reported that all highly enriched uranium had been removed from Mexico, in October 2010 Mexico signed a contract with the Russian uranium supplier Rosatom, which will supply low enriched uranium for the Mexican nuclear power plant Laguna Verde. In 2012 Mexico was admitted into the Nuclear Suppliers Group as an observer state, military of Mexico Mexican Army Mexican Navy Agencia Espacial Mexicana
25.
Myanmar and weapons of mass destruction
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Burma is widely suspected to have initiated a nuclear weapons programme. If such a program does exist, Burmas technical and financial limitations may make it difficult for the program to succeed, Burma has faced persistent accusations of using chemical weapons, however, the NTI has stated there is no evidence to suggest that Myanmar has a chemical weapons program. Burma is a member of nuclear, but not chemical or biological, however, the United States then took Burma off the list of nations with chemical weapons programmes in 1993. The deserters described seeing artillerymen wearing masks and gloves to fire the munitions, in a separate report from the same year, Dr. In response to the Christian Solidarity Worldwide report, the Burmese government denied the use of chemical weapons, in January 2014 Unity Weekly, a Burmese magazine, reported that Burma was making chemical weapons. The magazine also claimed Chinese technicians were often seen around the factory, in response, the Burmese government sentenced the head of Unity Weekly, along with four Unity Weekly journalists, to 10 years in prison and hard labor under colonial-era espionage laws. The Burmese government claims the factory produces military equipment but does not produce chemical weapons, Burma signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993 but has yet to ratify the agreement. In 2007 Russia and Burma did a nuclear research center deal. According to an August 2009 report published in the Sydney Morning Herald, the information cited in the newspaper story reportedly originated from two high-ranking defectors who had settled in Australia. A UN report said there was evidence that North Korea had been exporting nuclear technology to Burma, Iran, based on Wins evidence, Robert Kelley, a former weapons inspector, said he believed Burma has the intent to go nuclear and it is. Expending huge resources along the way, but as of 2010, experts said that Burma was a long way from succeeding, given the poor quality of their current materials. The U. S. expressed concern in 2011 about possible NPT violations, but by 2012 stated that its concerns had been partially allayed
26.
Netherlands and weapons of mass destruction
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The Netherlands is also one of the producers of components that can be used for creating deadly agents, chemical weapons and other kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Several Dutch companies provided the United States, Israel and Pakistan with components for these weapons, the Netherlands ratified the Geneva Protocol on 31 October 1930. It also ratified the Biological Weapons Convention on 10 April 1972, the Netherlands ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on 2 May 1975. In the past, the Netherlands took part in the deployment of NATO nuclear artillery shells for its self-propelled howitzers and these 8 inch shells and warheads for Honest John, and later Lance, missiles were stored at the special ammunition stores at t Harde and Havelterberg. These weapons are no longer operational and these weapons were originally the Mk 101 Lulu, which yielded 11 kt, later, they were replaced by the Mk-57. The NDBs were stored under U. S. Marine guard at RAF St. Mawgan, Cornwall, UK, the storage arrangements were agreed in 1965 between the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and President Johnson in a secret memorandum now declassified in the UK archives. At present, the USAF still provides 22 tactical B61 nuclear bombs for use by the Netherlands under the NATO nuclear weapons sharing agreement and these weapons are stored at Volkel Air Base and, in time of war, they may be delivered by Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 warplanes. Many countries believe that this violates Articles I and II of the NPT, not to receive the transfer from any transfer or whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly. Or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other explosive devices. The U. S.455 American and European companies provided aid to Iraq during its war with Iran, the United Nations published a 12, 000-page report about the conflict and named the entire suite of companies involved. On 20 February 2008, it was revealed that the Netherlands had conducted chemical experiments with nerve gas in the early 1950s. These experiments were conducted by the TNO organization on the request of the Defense Department and they consisted of the use of sarin, tabun, soman, and a modified French gas called Stof X, which was more poisonous than sarin. The experiments were carried out on animals in the village of Harskamp and on the Vliehors bombing range, after 1956, the only experiments were those conducted jointly with France and Belgium in the desert of Algeria, which utilized 6 kilograms of Stof X. The reason behind these experiments was the fear of an attack by the Soviet Union, norris, Robert S. Andrew Burrows, Richard Fieldhouse. British, French and Chinese Nuclear Weapons, memorandum of Understanding of Use of Nuclear Weapons
27.
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
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North Korea and weapons of mass destruction concerns North Korea, which declared in 2009 that it had developed a nuclear weapon, and possessed a small stockpile of relatively simple nuclear weapons. North Korea may also have a chemical weapon and/or biological weapons capability, since 2003, North Korea is no longer a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The nuclear program can be traced back to about 1962, when North Korea committed itself to what it called all-fortressization, in 1963, North Korea asked the Soviet Union for help in developing nuclear weapons, but was refused. The Soviet Union agreed to help North Korea develop a nuclear energy program. Later, China, after its nuclear tests, similarly rejected North Korean requests for help with developing nuclear weapons, in 1979 North Korea indigenously began to build in Yongbyon a second research reactor, an ore processing plant and a fuel rod fabrication plant. North Koreas nuclear weapons program dates back to the 1980s, in 1985 North Korea ratified the NPT, but did not conclude the required safeguards agreement with the IAEA until 1992. In early 1993, while verifying North Koreas initial declaration, the IAEA concluded that there was strong evidence this declaration was incomplete, when North Korea refused the requested special inspection, the IAEA reported its non-compliance to the UN Security Council. In 1993, North Korea announced its withdrawal from the NPT, under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the U. S. government agreed to facilitate the supply of two light water reactors to North Korea in exchange for North Korean disarmament. Such reactors are considered more proliferation-resistant than North Koreas graphite-moderated reactors, implementation of the Agreed Framework floundered, and in 2002 the Agreed Framework fell apart, with each side blaming the other for its failure. By 2002, Pakistan had admitted that North Korea had gained access to Pakistans nuclear technology in the late 1990s, on October 9,2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted its first nuclear test. An underground nuclear explosion was detected, its yield was estimated as less than a kiloton, on January 6,2007, the North Korean government further confirmed that it had nuclear weapons. In April 2009, reports surfaced that North Korea has become a fully fledged nuclear power, on May 25,2009, North Korea conducted a second nuclear test, resulting in an explosion estimated to be between 2 and 7 kilotons. The 2009 test, like the 2006 test, is believed to have occurred at Mantapsan, Kilju County, on February 11,2013, the U. S. Geological Survey detected a magnitude 5.1 seismic disturbance, reported to be a third underground nuclear test. North Korea has officially reported it as a nuclear test with a lighter warhead that delivers more force than before. Multiple South Korean sources estimate the yield at 6–9 kilotons, while the German Federal Institute for Geosciences, however, the German estimates has since revised to a yield equivalent of 14 kt when they published their estimations in 2016 Jan. On January 6,2016 in Korea, the United States Geological Survey detected a magnitude 5.1 seismic disturbance, North Korea claimed that this test involved a hydrogen bomb. This claim has not been verified, within hours, many nations and organizations had condemned the test. Expert U. S. analysts do not believe that a bomb was detonated
28.
Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction
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Pakistan is one of nine states to possess nuclear weapons, and the only Muslim majority country to do so. The Kahuta Project started under the supervision of a board that oversaw the activities of KRL. The Board consisted of A G N Kazi, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, and Agha Shahi, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and General Tikka Khan appointed military engineer Major General Ali Nawab to the program. Eventually, the passed to Lt General Zahid Ali Akbar in President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haqs Administration. Moderate uranium enrichment for the production of material was achieved at KRL by April 1978. Pakistans nuclear weapons development was in response to the loss of East Pakistan in 1971s Bangladesh Liberation War, Bhutto called a meeting of senior scientists and engineers on 20 January 1972, in Multan, which came to known as Multan meeting. In December 1972, Abdus Salam led the establishment of Theoretical Physics Group as he called scientists working at ICTP to report to Munir Ahmad Khan and this marked the beginning of Pakistans pursuit of nuclear deterrence capability. Finally, on 28 May 1998, a few weeks after Indias second nuclear test, Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices in the Ras Koh Hills in the Chagai district, Balochistan. This operation was named Chagai-I by Pakistan, the underground iron-steel tunnel having been long-constructed by provincial martial law administrator General Rahimuddin Khan during the 1980s. The last test of Pakistan was conducted at the sandy Kharan Desert under the codename Chagai-II, also in Balochistan, Pakistans fissile material production takes place at Nilore, Kahuta, and Khushab/Jauharabad, where weapons-grade plutonium is refined. Pakistan thus became the country in the world to successfully develop. Although, according to a sent by A. Q. Khan to General Zia, the capability to detonate a bomb using highly enriched uranium as fissile material produced at KRL had been achieved by KRL in 1984. After the Partition of India in 1947, India and Pakistan have been in conflict over several issues, including the territory of Jammu. The uneasy relationships with India, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, on 8 December 1953, Pakistan media welcomed the U. S. Atoms for Peace initiatives, followed by the establishment of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956, in 1953, Foreign minister Muhammad Zafarullah Khan publicly stated that Pakistan does not have a policy towards the atom bombs. Before 1971, Pakistans nuclear development was peaceful but an effective deterrent against India, Pakistans nuclear energy programme was established and started in 1956 following the establishment of PAEC. Pakistan became a participant in U. S. President Eisenhowers Atoms for Peace program, pAECs first chairman was Dr. Nazir Ahmad
29.
Poland and weapons of mass destruction
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Poland is not known or believed to possess weapons of mass destruction. During the Cold War, Soviet nuclear warheads were stockpiled in Poland, Poland was also working with Russia to help eliminate the large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons developed by the Warsaw Pact countries. Poland ratified the Geneva Protocol on 4 February 1929, Poland ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in August 1995 and did not declare any offensive program or chemical weapons stockpiles. In 2004 during the G8 Summit, the Polish-Russian agreement in the sphere of chemical weapons destruction was reached, the chemical weapons agreement will assist Russia in disposing of its lewisite stockpiles. Poland ratified the Biological Weapons Convention on 25 January 1973 and is not known to have conducted any activity prohibited by the BWC, Poland has never possessed nuclear weapons. Formerly, Poland was part of the Warsaw Pact and this meant that it was equipped with aircraft, as well as short range ballistic missiles that could be used to deliver Soviet nuclear weapons. These could and probably would be provided in time of war, prior to the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union maintained large amounts of troops on Polish territory. These troops were equipped with nuclear weapons, in 1991, Poland announced that they would remove the nuclear capable delivery systems from their weapons inventory. They decided to keep about 40 of the OTR-21 Tochka systems armed with warheads for self-defense. These launchers have now completely retired. In the 1970s there was an idea to develop a bomb which was kept secret from the Soviet Union
30.
Romania and weapons of mass destruction
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In the 1980s, during the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romania had a secret program intended to develop nuclear weapons, violating its ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from 1970. The program was dismantled after the Romanian Revolution and currently, Romania is considered free of weapons of mass destruction using nuclear power just for civilian purposes. While Romania had a research program since 1949, for the first decades, it focused on the usage of radioactive isotopes in medicine. The military program was started in 1978, together with the program for the first power plant, the WMD research program was conducted at the Măgurele Nuclear Research Institute, under the strict supervision of the Securitate. In July 1989, the Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn accused Romania of posing military threats to Hungary, through its nuclear program, Horn claimed that high-level Romanian officials announced that Romania is capable of building such weapons, but the Romanian Government denied such claims. Despite of this program, Ceauşescus government did organize massive rallies against nuclear proliferation. For instance, at one rally in December 1981, he addressed a crowd of 300,000 arguing that people in both East and West should stop those who are preparing atomic war. He also urged the US and USSR to end the race which led to the placement of medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. In 1989, Ceauşescu claimed that Romania had the technology to build nuclear weapons, heavy water is an important ingredient in the creation of nuclear weapons and the shipment to India was another violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to a 1992 article in Nucleonics Week, the plutonium was made using a TRIGA research reactor, in 2003, Romania handed over to the IAEA15 kg of highly enriched uranium fuel for the research reactor. Radu How to Become a Customer, Lessons from the Nuclear Negotiations between the U. S, canada and Romania in the 1960s http, //adevarul. ro/cultura/istorie/ceausescusi-programul-nuclear-romaniei-1_510eb9c04b62ed5875d0aaba/index. html
31.
Russia and weapons of mass destruction
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The figures are, by necessity, only estimates because the exact number of nuclear weapons in each countrys possession is a closely held national secret. In addition to weapons, Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons in 1997. The Soviet Union ratified the Geneva Protocol on April 5,1928 with reservations, the reservations were later dropped on January 18,2001. Russia is also party to the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Soviet Union had a peak stockpile of 45,000 nuclear warheads in 1988. It is estimated that from 1949 to 1991 the Soviet Union produced approximately 55,000 nuclear warheads, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed in four of the new republics, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Ukraine agreed to give up its weapons to Russia, in exchange for guarantees of Ukrainian territory from Russia, the UK, China and France also made statements in support of the memorandum. The exact number of warheads is a state secret and is therefore a matter of guesswork. According to 2016 data from the New START Treaty Aggregate Numbers of Strategic Offensive Arms facts sheet, on the other hand, Russia is estimated to have roughly 1,500 tactical nuclear weapons, all of which are declared to be in central storage. S. In 2015, informations emerged that Russia may be developing a new up to 100 megatons nuclear torpedo, two potential carrier submarines, the Project 09852 Belgorod, and the Project 09851 Khabarovsk, are new boats laid down in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Status 6 appears to be a deterrent weapon of last resort and it appears to be a torpedo-shaped robotic mini-submarine, that can travel at speeds of 185 km/h. More recent information suggests a top speed of 100 km/h, with a range of 10,000 km and this underwater drone is cloaked by stealth technology to elude acoustic tracking devices. After the Korean War, the Soviet Union transferred nuclear technology and weapons to the Peoples Republic of China as an adversary of the United States, subsequently, the Soviet Union built all the essentials of China’s new military nuclear industry. Russia is one of the five Nuclear Weapons States under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of Soviet-era nuclear warheads remained on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. It is estimated that the Soviet Union had approximately 45,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled at the time of its collapse, the collapse of the Soviet Union allowed for a warming of relations with NATO. Fears of a nuclear holocaust lessened, in September 1997, the former secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Lebed claimed 100 suitcase sized nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. He said he was attempting to inventory the weapons when he was fired by President Boris Yeltsin in October 1996, in 2005, Sergey Sinchenko, a legislator from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, said 250 nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. When comparing documents of nuclear weapons transferred from Ukraine to weapons received by Russia, indeed, several US politicians have expressed worries and promised legislation addressing the threat. In 2002, the United States and Russia agreed to reduce their stockpiles to not more than 2,700 warheads each in the SORT treaty, in 2003, the US rejected Russian proposals to further reduce each nations nuclear stockpiles to 1,500
32.
South Africa and weapons of mass destruction
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From the 1960s to the 1980s, South Africa pursued research into weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The country has been a signatory of the Biological Weapons Convention since 1975, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1991, and the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1995. In 1957, South Africa reached an understanding with the United States after signing a 50-year collaboration under the U. S. -sanctioned programme, the Atoms for Peace. The treaty concluded the South African acquisition of a nuclear research reactor. The SAFARI-2 reactor was intended to be moderated by heavy water, in 1969, the project was abandoned by the South African government because the reactor was draining resources from the uranium enrichment program that was initiated in 1967. South Africa began focusing on the success of its enrichment programme which was seen by its scientists as easier compared to plutonium. South Africa was able to mine uranium ore domestically, and used aerodynamic nozzle enrichment techniques to produce weapons-grade material. The South African and Pakistani scientists studied the use of aerodynamic-jet nozzle process to enrich the fuel at the University of Birmingham and it is not clear how much knowledge they gained and to what extent they cooperated. South Africa gained sufficient experience with the technology to capitalize on the promotion of the U. S. governments Peaceful Nuclear Explosions program. Finally in 1971, South African minister of mines Carl de Wet gave approval of the countrys own PNE programme with the stated objective of using PNEs in the mining industry. The date when the South African PNE programme transformed into a program is a matter of some dispute. South Africa developed a small finite deterrence arsenal of gun-type fission weapons in the 1980s, six were constructed and another was under construction at the time the program ended. South Africa only produced a weapon after Armscor took over production. In 1982, Armscor built the first operational weapon, code-named Hobo and this device reportedly had a yield of 6 kilotons of TNT. It was eventually dissembled and the warhead reused in a production model bomb, Armscor then built a series of pre-production and production models under the code-name HAMERKOP after a bird. While Hobo/Cabot were not functional, the HAMERKOP series were smart television-guided glide bombs, the South African Atomic Energy Board selected a test site in the Kalahari Desert at the Vastrap weapons range north of Upington. Two test shafts were completed in 1976 and 1977, one shaft was 385 metres deep, the other,216 metres. In 1977, the AEB established its own high-security weapons research and development facilities at Pelindaba, in mid-1977, the AEB produced a gun-type device—without a highly enriched uranium core
33.
Sweden and weapons of mass destruction
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During the late 1940s and 1950s, Sweden had programs for both nuclear and chemical weapons. During the first decades of the Cold War, a weapons program was active. In the late 1960s, the landscape and budgetary problems hindered the use of these weapons. Swedens nuclear weapon programme was started in early 1946 after World War II, in the early years after the war, Sweden made a decision to become a neutral power that could defend itself militarily against any invading power. The biggest threats to Sweden were Soviet nuclear capabilities and, in the late 1940s and 1950s, in 1948, the first solid plans on how to create an atomic weapon was presented to the Swedish National Defence Research Institute. Plans were established to run a nuclear power programme in parallel. The Ågesta and Marviken reactors were supposed to produce plutonium for the weapons, the Saab 36 was a planned attack aircraft that would be able to deliver nuclear weapons. Later on, submarines and aircraft were configured as a means of delivery as well, all of the nuclear development activities took place at the FOA. The plan was to produce 100 warheads in a timespan of ten years, during the 1960s, it was still not clear if Sweden should develop a nuclear weapons capacity. By the end of the 1960s, the Swedish government, because of budget constraints, had to choose between a nuclear weapon or a new fighter aircraft. The choice fell with the new fighter, all the plans for a Swedish nuclear weapon were scrapped by 1968, when Sweden signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1972, the last remnants of a plan for nuclear weapons was discontinued when the FOA stopped their experiments with plutonium, Sweden did, however, continue with civilian nuclear power and, as of 2012, Sweden had 10 active nuclear reactors. In March 2012, Sweden exported 3.3 kilograms of plutonium and approximately 9 kilograms of natural, after World War I, Sweden started research on chemical weapons. In the 1930s, Swedens first chemical weapon programme was born when developing, in 1940, work on the gas was temporarily halted, but, by the end of World War II, new programmes were soon a priority for the Swedish military. Programmes for both sulfur mustards and sarin gas were initiated, in the 1960s, the development of chemical weapons was highly criticised, and, in 1970, the Swedish government stated that it would not further develop or produce any chemical weapons. In 1994, Sweden signed the Chemical Weapons Convention that forbids the development, production, stockpiling, Sweden is one of the parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, which outlaws biological weapons. The Convention was signed by Sweden on February 27,1974 in Moscow and again on February 27,1975 in London and Washington and it was ratified by Sweden in February 1976. Cole, Atomic Bombast, Nuclear Weapon Decisionmaking in Sweden 1945–1972 Stimson Center Occasional Paper No, the Swedish Plans to Acquire Nuclear Weapons, 1945–1968, An Analysis of the Technical Preparations Science & Global Security,2010,18, P. 61–86
34.
Syria and weapons of mass destruction
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Syria has researched, manufactured, and allegedly used weapons of mass destruction. On September 14,2013, the United States and Russia announced an agreement that would lead to the elimination of Syrias chemical weapon stockpiles by 2014, in October 2013, the OPCW-UN Joint Mission destroyed all of Syrias declared chemical weapons manufacturing and mixing equipment. The following month Syria, further disclosed that it had 4 more previously hidden chemical weapons production sites, the Israeli intelligence community believes the Syrian government retains several tons of chemical weapons. In January 2015, it was reported that the Syrian government is suspected to be building a plant in Al-Qusayr, Syria. Following the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War, and South Lebanon in 1978, Syria first acquired chemical weapons, from Egypt, in 1973 as a military deterrent against Israel before launching the Yom Kippur War. Despite the fact that Syrian officials did not explicitly declare the chemical weapons capability, they implied it through speeches, internal Syrian chemical weapons capability may have been developed alongside indirect Russian, German, Chinese and Indian technical and logistical support. According to security analyst Zuhair Diab, Israeli nuclear weapons were a primary motivation for the Syrian chemical weapons program and their rivalry with Iraq and Turkey were also important considerations. On July 23,2012 Syria implicitly confirmed it possessed a stockpile of weapons which it says are reserved for national defense against foreign countries. During the Syrian civil war in August 2012, the Syrian military restarted chemical weapons testing at a base on the outskirts of Aleppo. Syrias chemical weapons began in the 1970s with weapons and training from Egypt. In July 2007 Syrian arms depot explosion, there were suggestions that the incident involved a secret weapons facility. Prior to September 2013 Syria had not publicly admitted to possessing chemical weapons, in September 2013, French intelligence put the Syrian stockpile at 1,000 tonnes, including Yperite, VX and several hundred tonnes of sarin. In October 2013, the OPCW found a total of 1,300 tons of chemical weapons, on 16 October 2013, the OPCW and the United Nations formally established a joint mission to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program by mid-2014. The Syrian government claims that the opposition has the capacity to launch large chemical attacks such as seen at Ghouta. Sources such as the United States and Human Rights Watch disagree, according to Syria, on 1 June 2013, the Syrian Army seized two cylinders holding the nerve agent sarin from Syrian opposition fighters in Hama. The Syrian government declared the two cylinders as abandoned chemical weapons and told the OPCW that the items did not belong to them, on 14 June 2014, the Joint OPCW-UN Mission confirmed that the cylinders contained sarin. On 7 July 2014, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon informed the UN Security Council about the findings, the alleged assessments were said by Hersh to have concluded that the Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda in Iraq were capable of acquiring, producing, and deploying sarin gas in quantity. A spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence replied that Hershs report was simply false
35.
Taiwan and weapons of mass destruction
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The Republic of China denies having any weapons of mass destruction. There is no evidence of Taiwan possessing any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the development of nuclear weapons by the Republic of China has been a contentious issue, as it had been triggered by PRCs first nuclear test in 1964. The U. S. hoping to avoid escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, has continually opposed arming the Republic of China with nuclear weapons after 1979. Accordingly, the Republic of China adheres to the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has stated that it does not intend to produce nuclear weapons, past nuclear research by the ROC makes it a threshold nuclear state. In 1967, a weapons program began under the auspices of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research at the Chungshan Institute of Science. The Republic of China was able to acquire nuclear technology from abroad allegedly for an energy system. During the 1970s, the Republic of China had a program to produce plutonium using heavy water reactors. The other states were Israel, South Africa, South Korea, U. S. intelligence believed that the Republic of China also had designed devices suitable for nuclear testing. General Hau Pei-tsun claimed that scientists in Taiwan had already produced a nuclear reaction. Under pressure from the U. S. the program was halted, a study into the secret program concluded that at the time of Changs defection, Taiwan was one or two years away from being able to complete a nuclear bomb. The Republic of Chinas nuclear power plants use imported enriched uranium and are subject to International Atomic Energy Agency inspection, the Peoples Republic of China has announced that any Republic of China possession of nuclear weapons is grounds for an immediate attack. Attempts by ROC officials to form a dialogue with the PRC on the subject of weapons of mass destructions have been rebuffed, the Republic of China may be in possession of small quantities of sarin. However, the Republic of China government has stated that any such materials are only for research purposes. In response, Taiwans Ministry of National Defense said that he should be conscious of national security. In this book God Bless Taiwan, Tsai stated that the missiles have been test fired in southern Taiwan on February 2008, the Republic of China ratified the Geneva Protocol on August 7,1929 and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970 before PRC entered UN. In addition, the ROC has stated that it continue to abide by the NPT. Taiwan was one of the members of the NPT in 1968. After the People’s Republic of China took Taiwan’s place at the United Nations in 1971, however, it signed a trilateral agreement with the United States and the IAEA in 1971 stating that it would continue to abide by the terms of the NPT as a ratification party
36.
Nuclear weapons and Ukraine
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Prior to 1991, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had Soviet nuclear weapons in its territory. In 1994 Ukraine agreed to destroy the weapons, and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a 2016 study argues that the denuclearization of Ukraine was not a stupid mistake and that it is unclear that Ukraine would be better off as a nuclear state. The study argues that the push for Ukrainian independence was with a view to make it a nonnuclear state, the United States would also not have made Ukraine an exception when it came to the denuclearization of other post-Soviet states such as Belarus and Kazakhstan. The ICBMs also had a range of 5. 000-10.000 km, Ukraine would also likely have faced retaliatory action by Russia. Ukraine would also have struggled with replacing the nuclear weapons once their service life expired, in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons, Ukraine received financial compensation, as well as the security guarantees of the Budapest Memorandum. The four parties signed the memorandum, containing a preamble and six paragraphs, france and China also provided Ukraine with assurances similar to the Budapest Memorandum, but with some significant differences. China fully understands the desire of Ukraine for security assurance, the Chinese Government has always maintained that under no circumstances will China use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States or nuclear-weapon-free zones. This principled position also applies to Ukraine, the Chinese Government urges all other nuclear-weapon States to undertake the same commitment, so as to enhance the security of all non-nuclear-weapon States, including Ukraine. The Chinese Government has constantly opposed the practice of exerting political and it maintains that disputes and differences should be settled peacefully through consultations on an equal footing. Thus, Chinas pledge, similar to Frances, does not pledge to involve UN or consultative mechanisms in case of crisis, however, it does pledge to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Despite Russias claimed annexation of Crimea, the Government of Ukraine in 2014 reaffirmed its 1994 decision to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapon state, after the Ukrainian Parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office, a power vacuum formed, and Russia annexed Crimea. The Russian pretext used nationalist and cultural rhetoric, stating that the Russian military was protecting ethnic Russians from attack in Crimea, Russias military actions violated the Budapest Memorandum. He said We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement, now, theres a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake. He also said that, In the future, no matter how the situation is resolved in Crimea, if you have nuclear weapons, people dont invade you. On 13 December 2014 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated that he did not want Ukraine to become a nuclear power again
37.
United Kingdom and weapons of mass destruction
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The United Kingdom possesses, or has possessed, a variety of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The United Kingdom is one of the five nuclear weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has an independent nuclear deterrent. The UK has been estimated to have a stockpile of 120 active nuclear warheads and 215 nuclear warheads in total and it had renounced the use of chemical and biological weapons in 1956 and subsequently destroyed its general stocks. They also manufactured five million linseed-oil cattle cakes with a hole bored into them for addition of anthrax spores between 1942 and mid-1943 and these were to be dropped on Germany using specially designed containers each holding 400 cakes, in a project known as Operation Vegetarian. It was intended that the disease would destroy the German beef and dairy herds, preparations were not complete until early 1944. Operation Vegetarian was only to be used in the event of a German anthrax attack on the United Kingdom, offensive weapons development continued after the war into the 1950s with tests of plague, brucellosis, tularemia and later equine encephalomyelitis and vaccinia viruses. In particular five sets of trials took place at sea using aerosol clouds, Operation Harness off Antigua in 1948-1949. Operation Cauldron off Stornoway in 1952, the trawler Carella unknowingly sailed through a cloud of pneumonic plague bacilli during this trial. It was kept under observation until the incubation period had elapsed. Operation Hesperus off Stornoway in 1953, Operation Ozone off Nassau in 1954. Operation Negation off Nassau in 1954-5, the programme was cancelled in 1956 when the British government renounced the use of biological and chemical weapons. In 1974, biological weapons were banned, and the United Kingdom ratified the Biological, the UK was a signatory of the Hague Conventions which outlawed the use of poison gas in warfare. Britain used a range of gases, originally chlorine and later phosgene, diphosgene. They also used small amounts of the irritant gases chloromethyl chloroformate, chloropicrin, bromacetone. Gases were frequently mixed, for example white star was the given to a mixture of equal volumes of chlorine and phosgene. See Use of poison gas in World War I, historians are divided as to whether or not gas was in fact used. The UK ratified the Geneva Protocol on 9 April 1930, the UK signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on 13 January 1993 and ratified it on 13 May 1996. Despite the signing of the Geneva Protocol, the UK carried out testing of chemical weapons from the early 1930s onwards
38.
United States and weapons of mass destruction
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The United States is known to have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons. The U. S. is the country to have used nuclear weapons in combat. It had secretly developed the earliest form of the weapon during the 1940s under the title Manhattan Project. The United States pioneered the development of both the nuclear fission and hydrogen bombs and it was the worlds first and only nuclear power for four years, until the Soviet Union managed to produce its own nuclear weapon. The United States has the second largest number of deployed nuclear weapons in the world, Nuclear weapons have been used twice in combat, two nuclear weapons were used by the United States against Japan during World War II in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Altogether, the two bombings killed 120,000 people and injured another 130,000 while devastating hundreds or thousands of military bases, factories, the U. S. conducted an extensive nuclear testing program. 1,054 tests were conducted between 1945 and 1992, the exact number of nuclear devices detonated is unclear because some tests involved multiple devices while a few failed to explode or were designed not to create a nuclear explosion. The last nuclear test by the United States was on September 23,1992, Air Forces heavy bomber group The United States is one of the five Nuclear Weapons States under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the U. S. ratified in 1968. On October 13,1999, the U. S. Senate rejected ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, having previously ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963. In the early 1990s, the U. S. stopped developing new weapons and now devotes most of its nuclear efforts into stockpile stewardship. The administration of George W. Bush decided in 2003 to engage in research towards a new generation of nuclear weapons. The budget passed by the United States Congress in 2004 eliminated funding for some of this including the bunker-busting or earth-penetrating weapons. The exact number of weapons possessed by the United States is difficult to determine. In its Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty declaration for 2003, the U. S. listed 5968 deployed warheads as defined by START rules, other warheads are in some step of the disassembly process. The exact number as of Sept.30,2009, was 5,113 warheads, in 2002, the United States and Russia agreed in the SORT treaty to reduce their deployed stockpiles to not more than 2,200 warheads each. In 2003, the U. S. rejected Russian proposals to reduce both nations nuclear stockpiles to 1,500 each. In 2007, for the first time in 15 years, the United States built new warheads and these replaced some older warheads as part of the Minuteman III upgrade program. 2007 also saw the first Minuteman III missiles removed from service as part of the drawdown, overall, stockpiles and deployment systems continue to decline in number under the terms of the New START treaty
39.
Chemical weapon proliferation
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Many nations continue to research and/or stockpile chemical weapon agents despite numerous efforts to reduce or eliminate them. Most states have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, which requires the destruction of all chemical weapons by 2012, twelve nations have declared chemical weapons production facilities and six nations have declared stockpiles of chemical weapons. All of the production facilities have been destroyed or converted to civilian use after the treaty went into force. According to the United States government, at least 17 nations currently have active chemical weapons programs, to the right is a summary of the nations that have either declared weapon stockpiles, or are suspected of secretly stockpiling or possessing CW research programs. Albania, as a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, declared in March 2003 a stockpile of 16 tons of chemical agents. On July 11,2007, with the help of the U. S. governments Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, angola has been accused of using chemical weapons in its civil war. Chinese government has declared that it had possessed small arsenal of weapons in the past. It has declared only two former production facilities that may have produced mustard gas and Lewisite. Additionally, it is possible that Egypt may possess limited stockpiles of chemical bombs, rockets, the reasons for this belief are several, Egypt is known to have employed mustard gas in the Yemeni civil war from 1963 to 1967. In the early 1970s, Egypt is believed to have supplied Syria with mustard gas, in the 1980s, Egypt supplied Iraq with mustard gas and nerve agents, and related production and deployment technology. More recent analyses are more careful by estimation the current status of chemical weapons program in Egypt, only one facility has been identified as likely involved in the offensive activities. Although the offensive program may be still in existence, it not seem that Egypt has a considerable stockpile of operational weapons. In 1991 Rear Admiral Thomas Brooks identified Ethiopia as a chemical weapons possessor in testimony before Congress. Ethiopia has ratified CWC in 1996 and did not declare any offensive CW program, from that time no evidence has been presented to contradict this statement. In 1997, in compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Indian government declared that it possessed a chemical weapons stockpile, also in compliance with the CWC, it has destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile. Near the end of the Iran–Iraq War, Iran is supposed to have limited use of chemical weapons, and since that time has been steadily building stockpiles of cyanide, phosgene. The delivery vehicles Iran possesses includes artillery shells, mortars, rockets, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran currently maintains at least two major facilities for the research and production of chemical weapon agents. Iran began its production of nerve agents no later than 1994, Iran signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13,1993 and ratified it on November 3,1997, and denies allegations of having clandestine CW program in violation of CWC
40.
Nuclear proliferation
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Four countries besides the five recognized Nuclear Weapons States have acquired, or are presumed to have acquired, nuclear weapons, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. None of these four is a party to the NPT, although North Korea acceded to the NPT in 1985, then withdrew in 2003, Research into the development of nuclear weapons was undertaken during World War II by the United States, Germany, Japan, and the USSR. The United States was the first and is the country to have used a nuclear weapon in war. With their loss during the war, Germany and Japan ceased to be involved in any nuclear weapon research, in August 1949, the USSR tested a nuclear weapon. The United Kingdom tested a nuclear weapon in October 1952, France developed a nuclear weapon in 1960. The Peoples Republic of China detonated a weapon in 1964. India exploded a device in 1974, and Pakistan conducted a series of nuclear weapon tests in May 1998. In 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, none of these efforts were explicitly public, because the weapon developments themselves were kept secret until the bombing of Hiroshima. The Baruch Plan, which drew heavily from the Acheson–Lilienthal Report of 1946, proposed the verifiable dismantlement, Security Council could veto, and which would proportionately punish states attempting to acquire the capability to make nuclear weapons or fissile material. Baruchs plea for the destruction of nuclear weapons invoked basic moral, in one part of his address to the UN, Baruch said, Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work out our salvation. If we fail, then we have damned every man to be the slave of Fear and we must elect World Peace or World Destruction. We must answer the worlds longing for peace and security, with this remark, Baruch helped launch the field of nuclear ethics, to which many policy experts and scholars have contributed. Although the Baruch Plan enjoyed wide support, it failed to emerge from the UNAEC because the Soviet Union planned to veto it in the Security Council. Still, it remained official American policy until 1953, when President Eisenhower made his Atoms for Peace proposal before the U. N. General Assembly, eisenhowers proposal led eventually to the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957. Efforts to conclude an agreement to limit the spread of nuclear weapons did not begin until the early 1960s. Although these efforts stalled in the early 1960s, they renewed once again in 1964, in 1968, governments represented at the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee finished negotiations on the text of the NPT. In June 1968, the U. N. General Assembly endorsed the NPT with General Assembly Resolution 2373, and in July 1968, the NPT entered into force in March 1970. The main materials whose generation and distribution is controlled are highly enriched uranium and plutonium, dual-use technology refers to the possibility of military use of civilian nuclear power technology
41.
Bacterium
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Bacteria constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods, Bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised, and only half of the bacterial phyla have species that can be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology, There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water. There are approximately 5×1030 bacteria on Earth, forming a biomass which exceeds that of all plants, Bacteria are vital in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of bodies and bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In March 2013, data reported by researchers in October 2012, was published and it was suggested that bacteria thrive in the Mariana Trench, which with a depth of up to 11 kilometres is the deepest known part of the oceans. Other researchers reported related studies that microbes thrive inside rocks up to 580 metres below the sea floor under 2.6 kilometres of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States. According to one of the researchers, You can find microbes everywhere—theyre extremely adaptable to conditions, the vast majority of the bacteria in the body are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system, though many are beneficial particularly in the gut flora. However several species of bacteria are pathogenic and cause diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy. The most common fatal diseases are respiratory infections, with tuberculosis alone killing about 2 million people per year. In developed countries, antibiotics are used to treat infections and are also used in farming, making antibiotic resistance a growing problem. Once regarded as constituting the class Schizomycetes, bacteria are now classified as prokaryotes. Unlike cells of animals and other eukaryotes, bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus and these evolutionary domains are called Bacteria and Archaea. The ancestors of modern bacteria were unicellular microorganisms that were the first forms of life to appear on Earth, for about 3 billion years, most organisms were microscopic, and bacteria and archaea were the dominant forms of life. In 2008, fossils of macroorganisms were discovered and named as the Francevillian biota, however, gene sequences can be used to reconstruct the bacterial phylogeny, and these studies indicate that bacteria diverged first from the archaeal/eukaryotic lineage. Bacteria were also involved in the second great evolutionary divergence, that of the archaea, here, eukaryotes resulted from the entering of ancient bacteria into endosymbiotic associations with the ancestors of eukaryotic cells, which were themselves possibly related to the Archaea
42.
Protozoa
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In 21st-century systems of biological classification, the Protozoa are defined as a diverse group of unicellular eukaryotic organisms. Historically, protozoa were defined as single-celled animals or organisms with animal-like behaviors, such as motility, the group was regarded as the zoological counterpart to the protophyta, which were considered to be plant-like, as they are capable of photosynthesis. The terms protozoa and protozoans are now mostly used informally to designate single-celled, non-photosynthetic protists, such as the ciliates, amoebae and flagellates. The term Protozoa was introduced in 1818 for a taxonomic class, in several classification systems proposed by Thomas Cavalier-Smith and his collaborators since 1981, Protozoa is ranked as a kingdom. The seven-kingdom scheme proposed by Ruggiero et al. in 2015, places eight phyla under Protozoa, Euglenozoa, Amoebozoa, Metamonada, Choanozoa, Loukozoa, Percolozoa, Microsporidia and Sulcozoa. This kingdom does not form a clade, but an evolutionary grade or paraphyletic group, from which the fungi, for this reason, the terms protists, Protista or Protoctista are sometimes preferred for the high-level classification of eukaryotic microbes. In 2005, members of the Society of Protozoologists voted to change the name of organization to the International Society of Protistologists. The word protozoa was coined in 1818 by zoologist Georg August Goldfuss, as the Greek equivalent of the German Urthiere, meaning primitive, Goldfuss erected Protozoa as a class containing what he believed to be the simplest animals. Originally, the group included not only microbes, but also some lower animals, such as rotifers, corals, sponges, jellyfish, bryozoa. In 1848, in light of advancements in cell theory pioneered by Theodore Schwann and Matthias Schleiden, von Siebold redefined Protozoa to include only such unicellular forms, to the exclusion of all metazoa. At the same time, he raised the group to the level of a phylum containing two broad classes of microbes, Infusoria, and Rhizopoda. As a phylum under Animalia, the Protozoa were firmly rooted in the old two-kingdom classification of life, criticism of this system began in the latter half of the 19th century, with the realization that many organisms met the criteria for inclusion among both plants and animals. For example, the algae Euglena and Dinobryon have chloroplasts for photosynthesis, as an alternative, he proposed a new kingdom called Primigenum, consisting of both the protozoa and unicellular algae, which he combined together under the name Protoctista. In Hoggss conception, the animal and plant kingdoms were likened to two great pyramids blending at their bases in the Kingdom Primigenum, six years later, Ernst Haeckel also proposed a third kingdom of life, which he named Protista. Despite these proposals, Protozoa emerged as the taxonomic placement for heterotrophic microbes such as amoebae and ciliates. A variety of systems were proposed, and Kingdoms Protista and Protoctista became well established in biology texts. While many taxonomists have abandoned Protozoa as a group, Thomas Cavalier-Smith has retained it as a kingdom in the various classifications he has proposed. As of 2015, Cavalier-Smiths Protozoa excludes several major groups of organisms traditionally placed among the protozoa, including the ciliates, dinoflagellates, Protozoa, as traditionally defined, are mainly microscopic organisms, ranging in size from 10 to 52 micrometers
