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If New Zealand signed up to a ban on depleted uranium, it could scuttle any sale of the moth-balled Skyhawk jets. Former British Royal Navy commander Robert Green, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1999, urged Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee today to encourage the Government to ban using depleted uranium. He said Belgium had taken a precautionary approach and he recommended New Zealand follow its lead until all the evidence was in.

Prime Minister John Key will use his first speech to the United Nations to underscore his Government's commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand. In the first speech by a National prime minister to the UN General Assembly in nearly 15 years, Key will reaffirm New Zealand's anti-nuclear credentials and emphasise its determination to keep an independent foreign policy. It is significant that he is making the speech while on his first official visit to the United States, which has been a fault line in foreign policy between Labour and National for most of the past two decades. The issue flared again when Labour opposed the Iraq war while National was still in Opposition. But Key drew a line in the sand before the last election by promising his commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand and an independent foreign policy. He will use his speech to the General Assembly on Saturday to stress the new bipartisan approach.

The high alert levels for U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces are more political statements carried over from the Cold War than military necessities for the 21st century, according to a multinational study released last week. The two nations "could examine how measures to reduce operational readiness can accompany the bilateral arms control process" as part of the current negotiations over renewal of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, according to the study by the EastWest Institute, a nonprofit think tank. The study, "Reframing Nuclear De-Alert: Decreasing the Operational Readiness of U.S. and Russian Nuclear Arsenals," was supported by the governments of Switzerland and New Zealand governments. The study reminds readers that the United States "keeps roughly 1,000 nuclear warheads on alert" atop 450 Minuteman III land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and on the submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) aboard as many as four Trident subs patrolling in different parts of the world.

The high alert levels for U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces are more political statements carried over from the Cold War than military necessities for the 21st century, according to a multinational study released last week. The two nations "could examine how measures to reduce operational readiness can accompany the bilateral arms control process" as part of the current negotiations over renewal of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, according to the study by the EastWest Institute, a nonprofit think tank. The study, "Reframing Nuclear De-Alert: Decreasing the Operational Readiness of U.S. and Russian Nuclear Arsenals," was supported by the governments of Switzerland and New Zealand governments. The study reminds readers that the United States "keeps roughly 1,000 nuclear warheads on alert" atop 450 Minuteman III land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and on the submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) aboard as many as four Trident subs patrolling in different parts of the world.

Takashi Tanemori was 8 years old when an atomic bomb destroyed his home city of Hiroshima. "I had a 14-month-old baby sister, and I had promised my daddy that I would love and protect her with all my heart and all my soul," Tanemori told Marin Academy students Wednesday as part of the school's participation in the World March for Peace and Non-Violence. "My dad said, 'I'm counting on you,'" Tanemori recalled. "That day, my mother, my dad and my baby sister were buried under the ashes." Tanemori and other participants in the march walked from the San Rafael private school to the center of the city as part of a global effort to eliminate nuclear weapons. The event began on Oct. 2 - Mohandas Ghandi's birthday - in Wellington, New Zealand and will conclude on Jan. 2, 2010 in Punta de Vacas, Argentina. Marchers intend to touch down in 90 countries across six continents and are holding forums and events such as Wednesday's talk and demonstration in San Rafael.

Takashi Tanemori was 8 years old when an atomic bomb destroyed his home city of Hiroshima. "I had a 14-month-old baby sister, and I had promised my daddy that I would love and protect her with all my heart and all my soul," Tanemori told Marin Academy students Wednesday as part of the school's participation in the World March for Peace and Non-Violence. "My dad said, 'I'm counting on you,'" Tanemori recalled. "That day, my mother, my dad and my baby sister were buried under the ashes." Tanemori and other participants in the march walked from the San Rafael private school to the center of the city as part of a global effort to eliminate nuclear weapons. The event began on Oct. 2 - Mohandas Ghandi's birthday - in Wellington, New Zealand and will conclude on Jan. 2, 2010 in Punta de Vacas, Argentina. Marchers intend to touch down in 90 countries across six continents and are holding forums and events such as Wednesday's talk and demonstration in San Rafael.

New scientific evidence made the link between participation in Britain's 1950s nuclear tests and ill-health and established the case for compensation, the High Court heard today. Benjamin Browne QC, speaking for around 1,000 servicemen who took part in the programme in the South Pacific, said that the Government had satisfied itself as to the validity of the Rowland study of a small group of New Zealand test veterans, which proved that most if not all of them suffered genetic effects due to radiation exposure.

Nearly 1,000 veterans made ill after British nuclear bomb testing are going to the High Court to claim the MoD knowingly exposed them to the affects of radiation. The 970 British, New Zealand and Fijian claimants say that they have suffered illnesses - including cancers, skin defects and fertility problems - after testing in the South Pacific in the 1950s. The claimants say it has only been due to new technology that the link between the tests are their illnesses has been established They are claiming millions of pounds of compensation from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and say the Government knew it was exposing them to contamination.

The first court hearing is due to start in London later today in a multi-million dollar compensation case brought by veterans of British nuclear weapons tests, including those in the Pacific. The case includes hundreds of British, New Zealand and Fiji veterans who took part in the tests on Malden and Christmas Island in Kiribati in 1957 and 1958. Ben Lowings reports from London. "It's being billed as the veterans' day in court - and one former serviceman is flying in from Fiji for the occasion. Pita Rokovada and the other veterans are suing the British defence ministry for millions in compensation. The veterans believe they were used as guinea pigs to study the effects of radiation."

Calls have been made for relations of Britain's nuclear test veterans to be checked for potential genetic damage. North Durham MP Kevan Jones will consider researching the possible damage caused to children and grandchildren of those exposed to radiation 50 years ago. His pledge comes after a House of Commons debate that revealed similar research in New Zealand found that effects had been passed down generations.

RADIATION left over from 100-year-old experiments by Ernest Rutherford could be partly responsible for the deaths of up to four staff at Manchester University. New Zealand-born Lord Rutherford was the first man to split the atom. Between 1909 and 1917, he conducted experiments in room 2.62 of a red-brick Victorian building, which now bears his name in the northern England city.

Veterans from New Zealand, Britain, Australia and Fiji, are locked in a court battle in London, claiming they were used as guinea pigs during Britain's nuclear bomb tests in the Indian and Pacific oceans in the 1950s. All have suffered a variety of illnesses since they were told to face the bomb without their masks as part of a study to see the effects of radiation fallout. The 800 veterans want compensation. But lawyers acting for the British government have told the court that there is no solid evidence to prove that their health problems were caused by the radioactive blasts.

A radioactive device stuck down an oil bore off the Taranaki coast had to be sealed under 60 metres of concrete to stop radiation leaking out. The incident, in March, was one of four potentially hazardous situations last year requiring emergency responses by the Health Ministry's National Radiation Laboratory. Manager Jim Turnbull said none caused harm to humans. There were two accidents involving nuclear density meters, which use a radioactive isotope source to measure soil density and moisture content.

Nearly 35 years after France thumbed its nose at world opinion and held a series of nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, David Barber's view has not changed. It was a fundamentally wrong thing for France to do and nothing since had altered that opinion, Barber said.

Nuclear-test veterans say the Government must finally "stop sitting on its hands" now international experts have upheld Massey University research exposing the extent of the genetic damage they suffered.

If you are feeling anxious - and you should be - about the world's appetite for nuclear weapons, there is a bit of good news. More countries than we ever expected are refusing to be pressured by the United States and India to approve an ill-conceived nuclear deal.