Let’s talk nukes
The U.S. can still work with Russia on this
Reports of a new nuclear incident in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia indicate that the country’s past reputation for sometimes lax management of its facilities has carried over into the era of President Vladimir Putin.
There is apparently some sort of toxic cloud wafting over the European continent as a result, but not one that is considered to pose a threat to life and health in the region.
Nonetheless, whatever happened, and it is not easy to find out what it was exactly, is a subject for concern not only to Russians but to the rest of the world.
A not altogether healthy economy and a society that continues to be noted for corruption, with substantial nuclear weapons and other activity, is not one that anyone can have total confidence in when it comes to managing its nuclear capacity. Again, although it is hard to tell, Russia has not taken the same “everything is for sale” approach to nuclear weapons as have, notably, North Korea and Pakistan.
In the more productive, more cooperative early days of post-Soviet Union Russian-American cooperation, the two countries determined to work together to be sure that various Soviet nuclear installations in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and elsewhere did not leak weapons or technology as that part of the world rearranged itself after 1991. That program knew some success until the U.S. Congress blocked new funds for nuclear security projects in 2014.
In the climate of distrust between Russia and the United States, in spite of the still sordid, dangerous potential of nuclear leakage in the world, such cooperation remains out of the question. The circumstances in Washington play a role, as special counsel Robert Mueller and three congressional committees continue, at least in principle, to try to dig out information about Russian interference in America’s 2016 elections, to seek to prevent such intervention in future elections.
At the same time, the argument for American-Russian cooperation in keeping nuclear facilities safe remains strong and valid. History in that regard — which includes the most famous accident, at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, as well as at Mayak in 1957 and Karachay in 1967, as well as the most recent incident — suggests that nuclear safety is one among many more areas where American and Russian interests coincide.
If there weren’t the cloud of Russia’s role in the 2016 elections hanging unresolved over the two countries there would be plenty to talk about, including China, Syria, nonconfrontation in Europe, Islamic terrorism and peace in Ukraine.
A thorough job needs to be done on the Russians and the American elections, without question, but there is no reason for any party to that struggle to drag its feet. Mr. Putin faces his own presidential election in March.