Regulation of Scientific experiments leading to loss of

human life

M. Vishnu603

9’th Semester

Scientific experiments in war• Since the rise of modern science many

individual scientists have steered their investigations towards military purposes.

• Process of incorporation of science into the war system was greatly accelerated by the two world wars

• A large fraction of funding for science is directly or indirectly for the purpose of war. So it is not surprising that many research areas and applications of science are oriented to war

• War influences not only specific scientific projects but also the whole direction of technological innovation. This in turn influences the on going focus of scientific research, which is at all times influenced by current technologies.

• In the first several centuries of modern science, technology usually preceded scientific explanation, but, since the mid 1800s science and technology -- and, more generally, theory and application -- have become more and more symbiotic.

• The massive expansion of interest in nuclear science during World War Two was clearly due to the interest in making a devastating weapon.

• Nuclear power was in many ways a spin-off from nuclear weapons programmes, depending on physical facilities such as uranium enrichment built for making weapons grade uranium, on the scientific and engineering skills gained through weapons research and development and on the political advantage in the early 1950s in associating nuclear technology with peaceful purposes.

• Another area of technological innovation strongly influenced by military imperatives is computing.

• In the 1940s and 1950s military interest in computers was primarily in number-crunching to solve problems such as building more efficient nuclear weapons and designing nuclear-war fighting strategies. The emphasis then was on large mainframe computers.

• In the 1970s and 1980s military interest in number-crunching has remained, but added to this is interest in microprocessors for 'smart weapons‘.

The Nuclear Arms Race• The nuclear arms race was a competition for

supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War.

• In the years immediately after the Second World War, the United States had a monopoly on specific knowledge of and raw materials for nuclear weaponry.

• American leaders hoped that their exclusive ownership of nuclear weapons would be enough to draw concessions from the Soviet Union but this proved ineffective.

• Just six months after the U.N. General Assembly, the United States conducted its first post-war nuclear tests. This was called Operation Crossroads

• Behind the scenes, the Soviet government was working on building its own atomic weapons.

• Both governments spent massive amounts to increase the quality and quantity of their nuclear arsenals.

• The Nuclear arms race of the cold war lasted from 1941 - 1991. None of these defensive measures were secure, and in the 1950s both the United States and Soviet Union had nuclear power to obliterate the other side. Both sides developed a capability to launch a devastating attack even after sustaining a full assault from the other side.

• During the mid-1980s, the U.S-Soviet relations significantly improved, Mikhail Gorbachev assumed control of the Soviet Union after the deaths of several former Soviet leaders, and announced a new era of perestroika and glasnost, meaning restructuring and openness respectively.

• Gorbachev proposed a 50% reduction of nuclear weapons for both the U.S and Soviet Union at the meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland in October 1986.

• However, the proposal was refused due to disagreements over Reagan's SDI. Instead, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987 in Washington, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

• Apart from these, treaties such as Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) I and II along with talks such as Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) I and II were held between the 2 superpowers

• With the end of the Cold War the United States, and especially Russia, cut down on nuclear weapons spending. Fewer new systems were developed and both arsenals have shrunk. But both countries still maintain stocks of nuclear missiles numbering in the thousands.

• After the Cold War ended, a large amount of resources and money which was once spent on developing nuclear weapons in Soviet Union was then spent on repairing the environmental damage produced by the nuclear arms race, and almost all former production sites are now major clean up sites

• India and Pakistan have also engaged in a technological nuclear arms race since the 1970s.

• Smiling Buddha of 1974 test generated great concern and doubts in Pakistan.

• Pakistan had its own covert atomic bomb projects in 1972.

• After the 1974 test, Pakistan's atomic bomb program picked up a great speed and accelerated its atomic project to successfully build its own atomic weapons program.

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board

• The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) was constituted on November 15, 1983 by the President to ensure that the use of ionizing radiation and nuclear energy in India does not cause undue risk to health and the environment.

• The headquarters is in Mumbai.• Currently, the Board consists of a full-time

Chairman, an ex officio Member, three part-time Members and a Secretary.

• The AERB is supported in its functions by various committees like the Apex Safety review and Apex Advisory Committees.

• Members of these committees are recognized experts with long experience in the relevant fields and come from various governmental organizations, academic institutions and industry.

• A large number of retired experts are also part of these committees.

History of International Treaties regarding war and weapons

• Hague Conventions of 1889 and 1907• Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague

Conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular international law.

• Both conferences included negotiations concerning disarmament, the laws of war and war crimes. A major effort in both conferences was the creation of a binding international court for compulsory arbitration to settle international disputes, which was considered necessary to replace the institution of war.

• This effort, however, failed at both conferences; instead a voluntary forum for arbitration, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, was established. Most of the countries present, including the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, and Persia, favoured a process for binding international arbitration, but the provision was vetoed by a few countries, led by Germany.

Geneva Protocol• The Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the

use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts.

• It was signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925 and entered into force on 8 February 1928.

• It prohibits the use of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices" and "bacteriological methods of warfare". This is now understood to be a general prohibition on chemical weapons and biological weapons, but has nothing to say about production, storage or transfer.

• A number of countries submitted reservations when becoming parties to the Geneva Protocol, declaring that they only regarded the non-use obligations as applying to other parties and that these obligations would cease to apply if the prohibited weapons were used against them.

• India signed the treaty on 9’th April 1930• The main elements of the protocol are now

considered by many to be part of customary international law.

Non-Proliferation Treaty• Non-Proliferation Treaty is an international treaty whose

objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

• Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. On 11 May 1995, the Treaty was extended indefinitely. More countries have adhered to the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement.

• A total of 190 states have joined the Treaty, though North Korea, which acceded to the NPT in 1985 but never came into compliance, announced its withdrawal in 2003.

• India has not joined the NPT

Environmental Modification Convention

• Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD) prohibited the military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects. It opened for signature on 18 May 1977 in Geneva and entered into force on 5 October 1978.

• The Convention bans weather warfare, which is the use of weather modification techniques for the purposes of inducing damage or destruction.

• India ratified ENMOD on Dec 15, 1978

Biological Weapons Convention

• Biological Weapons Convention was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons.

• The Convention was the result of prolonged efforts by the international community to establish a new instrument that would supplement the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

• The Geneva Protocol prohibited use but not possession or development of chemical and biological weapons

• This is rectified through article I of the BWC:• Each State Party to this Convention undertakes

never in any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain:

• (1) Microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes;

• (2) Weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict

Chemical Weapons Convention

• Chemical Weapons Convention outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.

• The parties' main obligation under the convention is to prohibit the use and production of chemical weapons, as well as the destruction of all chemical weapons

• India signed on 14’th September 1996

Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material

• The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material provides for certain levels of physical protection during international transport of nuclear material.

• It also establishes a general framework for cooperation among states in the protection, recovery, and return of stolen nuclear material.

• Further, the Convention lists certain serious offenses involving nuclear material which state parties are to make punishable and for which offenders shall be subject to a system of extradition or submission for prosecution.

International Atomic Energy Agency

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons.

• The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957.

• Headquarters in Vienna, Austria

India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement

• Under the agreement India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.

• In its final shape, the deal places under permanent safeguards those nuclear facilities that India has identified as "civil" and permits broad civil nuclear cooperation, while excluding the transfer of "sensitive" equipment and technologies, including civil enrichment and reprocessing items even under IAEA safeguards.

International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation

• ICOC was established on 25 November 2002 as an arrangement to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles.

• The HCOC is the only multilateral code in the area of disarmament which has been adopted over the last years. It is the only normative instrument to verify the spread of ballistic missiles.

• The HCOC does not ban ballistic missiles, but it does call for restraint in their production, testing, and export.

Cases of experiments being used during wars

• During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945.

• These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.