Topic: Emerging Nuclear States and the Global Nuclear Framework
Country: Panama
Delegate Name: Marlena Gray
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Panama position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Over 30 countries are at work to begin their own nuclear power programs. These range from modern economies to developing nations. Some are UAE, Turkey, Vietnam, Belarus, and Poland. This topic is important for the Special Political and Decolonization committee to discuss because nuclear power must be limited to protect all people. In 2011 our committee discussed the atomic radiation consequences of Japan’s 2011 earthquake- and tsunami-related accident at its Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
The country of Panama currently does not have any nuclear reactors or weapons. In 2013, Panama seized a North Korean cargo ship it suspects was hiding missile equipment in a shipment of brown sugar from Cuba. The authorities arrested the crew after finding undeclared missile-shaped objects, a potential violation of U.N. sanctions linked to North Korea's nuclear program. According to José de Jesús Martínez, Ambassador, “Panama firmly believes that creating a world free of all types of nuclear weapons is an endeavor that must be accomplished. The international community continues to face threats to international peace and security and to the international treaties and conventions.” Despite this fact, the world is currently witnessing dangerous regression regarding the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Panama further shows their opinion on this matter in the Disarmament and International Security committee. The USS Sturgis, the US Army Nuclear Power Program, which aimed to develop small nuclear reactors to generate electrical and space-heating energy primarily at remote, relatively inaccessible sites. Its designation stood for mobile, high power. After its first criticality in 1967, MH-1A was towed to the Panama Canal Zone that it supplied with 10 MW of electricity to Panama from 1968 to 1975. According to 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Panama does not want all countries to have nuclear weapons because we cannot create this weapon. Panama is a part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and believes that it is time for states to develop a new legal instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, even if nuclear-armed states refuse to participate. A new legal instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons would help achieve the objectives embedded in the treaty of Tlatelolco, and strengthen and fulfill the purpose of the NPT. On 1 July 1968, Panama signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Panama believes the UN should complete the disarmament of conventional weapons on a regional and sub regional basis, prevent the production of radioactive materials by terrorists, and report information to the International Atomic Energy Agency. We would like Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to be followed and keep a nuclear free zone in the Middle East. Panama would encourage the UN and countries within it to compile an accurate list of nuclear weapons residing in each country.
