加载中…巴菲特承诺将投资5000万美元阻止大规模毁灭性武器
(2010-12-09 11:29:14)
标签：
军事 |
分类： 黑天鹅 |
巴菲特承诺将投资5000万美元阻止大规模毁灭性武器
新浪财经讯 北京时间12月4日早间消息，美国亿万富翁投资者、“股神”沃伦-巴菲特(Warren Buffett)周五称，大规模毁灭性武器是人类所面临的最大问题，并主动提出将花费大量资金来帮助减轻这种威胁。
巴菲特在今天接受采访时称：“在有生之年，我都将对这个主题感兴趣，并将用钱来支持这种兴趣。”巴菲特已经将大多数财产捐献给慈善基金，并承诺将投资5000万美元来支持一项计划，其内容是成立一家核燃料银行。联合国原子能机构的成员国已经在周五批准成立这家银行。
巴菲特通过非政府组织“核威胁倡议”(Nuclear Threat Initiative)向这家核燃料银行捐赠的资金能与美国及其他政府的捐资相比，从而使捐赠资金总额达到1.5亿美元。这项计划旨在阻止原子弹散播，原因是更多国家正在寻求开发核能。
巴菲特称，他认为大规模会毁灭性武器是下一个世纪全世界面临的最重要问题。他在接受电话采访时表示：“如果这一项目听起来很好，而且真有可能降 低核武器、化学武器和生物武器不当使用的可能性，那么我准备投入大量资金。”他进一步表示：“有些事情需要花费100万美元，有些事情则可能需要1亿美 元。”
巴菲特在2006年意外宣布，他将把自己大约400亿美元个人财产的大部分都捐献给比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会(Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)。
这项计划的支持者称，核燃料银行可能有助于满足许多国家增长中的需求，其中一些国家是在有冲突倾向的中东地区，这些国家需要技术上的帮助来发起 核能项目，而不会提高核武器扩散的风险。对奥巴马政府来说，批准这项计划是一项首要任务。奥巴马政府已经制定了一项雄心勃勃的核裁军日程，并宣称将最终消 灭核武器。
目前，美国国会参议院有关与俄罗斯之间达成新的《削减战略武器条约》(START)的前景仍不确定。巴菲特称，通过这项条约是“十分重要的”，并表示他相信该条约会通过参议院批准。
在被问及有关奥巴马消灭所有核武器的想法时，巴菲特表示：“在很长的一段时间里，这一目标是必须实现的……这是人类所面临的首要问题。”(金良)
Warren Buffett: 'Pleasure' to Write $50M Check for Nuclear Fuel Bank
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40506462http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/CNBC_Images/header/icon_text_plus.gif
Executive Producer
| http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/__Story_Inserts/graphics/__PEOPLE/B/Buffett_Warren_10_200.jpg |
|
Getty
Images
Warren Buffett
|
But there's no sign today of that stingy public persona he sometimes exaggerates for laughs.
Buffett says in a statement from Sam Nunn and Ted Turner's Nuclear Threat Initiative that it will be a "pleasure" to write a $50 million check, fulfilling his promise to help fund an international nuclear fuel bank.
Back in 2006, Buffett offered the money if the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency could raise another $100 million from one or more countries around the world.
It took several years, but that goal was met and the IAEA formally voted yesterday (Friday) to create a multinational nuclear fuel bank that will serve as a reliable source of reactor fuel for nuclear power plants, so that countries won't have to make that fuel themselves.
As the
Washington Post
notes today,
That's why the U.S. and other countries are worried about Iran's efforts to make nuclear fuel, despite that country's assertions that it is only trying to make electricity.
Buffett says in the Post, "Essentially what we're saying to the world is, if you want to be in the peaceful use of nuclear power, you don't have to have those enrichment facilities."
In the NTI statement, Buffett (an advisor to the group) is quoted as saying, "The IAEA fuel bank is an investment in a safer world and an essential tool in reducing nuclear dangers. I believe that the fuel bank will help reduce the risk of enrichment proliferation globally. It will be a pleasure to write a check for funds that will help reduce global dangers.”
Buffett tells the
New York Times, "I've never
been $50 million lighter and felt better."
In an interview with Reuters, Buffett says he may be contributing even more money to efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction:
"Throughout my lifetime I will be interested in this subject and I will back that interest up with money...
If the project sounds like a good one and has any real chance of reducing the probabilities of the terrible use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons I'm prepared to put up significant money... Something can come up that requires a million dollars or something can come up that requires a $100 million."
Calling the threat of WMDs the biggest problem facing mankind in the 21st century, Buffett said, "We really have to prevent weapons of tremendous potential harm being used by these people who have evil intentions ... this is not a problem that we can wish away."
Current Berkshire stock prices:
Class B: [BRK.B
Class A: [BRK.A
For more Buffett Watch updates follow alexcrippen on Twitter.
Email comments to buffettwatch@cnbc.com
U.N. sets up 'bank' to ensure nuclear plants can get fuel
Saturday, December 4, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/03/AR2010120306762.html
After years of debate and a fundraising campaign launched by investor Warren Buffett, the U.N. atomic agency decided Friday to set up a $150 million uranium fuel "bank" aimed at slowing the spread of dangerous nuclear material around the globe.
The idea of such a bank has been floated for decades, but the concept took on new urgency with the development of Iran's nuclear program and the recent explosion of interest in nuclear energy.
The bank would guarantee the sale of fuel for countries' nuclear power plants, theoretically eliminating their need to develop it themselves. The same centrifuges used to prepare uranium for power plants can also be used to enrich it to higher, weapons-grade levels.
President Obama has touted the fuel bank, which will get $50 million from the U.S. government.
"This is a breakthrough in global cooperation to enable peaceful uses of nuclear energy while reducing the risks of proliferation and catastrophic terrorism," said former U.S. senator Sam Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private group that played a key role in getting the bank off the ground.
Although more guarded, academic experts said the bank was a positive step at a time of rising fears of nuclear proliferation.
"The bank is not a guarantee against the risk some countries might choose to proliferate," said Lawrence Scheinman of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. "But the fewer the countries that have capacity to enrich [uranium] in the first place, the lower the prospect is they will be able to weaponize."
Nations on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted 28-0 to approve the bank, with six abstentions and one country absent.
The fuel bank, in essence, will ensure the sale of uranium for power plants to countries that are in good standing with the U.N. energy watchdog. The new institution is meant to be a backup in case countries face a cutoff from commercial suppliers.
A senior U.S. official said the bank was not likely to prompt Iran to alter its nuclear program, which is widely suspected of being aimed at developing weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
"But it does undercut their argument that they need to have an indigenous [uranium] enrichment program because they can't be confident they can rely on" outside suppliers of fuel, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The fuel bank project got going in 2006 after Nunn approached
Buffett with the idea. Buffett pledged $50 million, on the
condition that governments kick in $100 million. That total was
reached last year, with donations from the United States, the
European Union, Kuwait, Norway and the United Arab
Emirates.
But the project still had to navigate the tricky road of global nuclear politics.
Under the world's central nuclear pact, the 187-nation Non-Proliferation Treaty, countries are guaranteed the right to nuclear energy as long as they abstain from building atomic bombs. The five original nuclear-armed powers are supposed to gradually give up their nuclear weapons.
Many countries have been wary about giving up any rights to nuclear energy, including the ability to make their own fuel. They were assured the bank doesn't force them to do so.
"Essentially what we're saying to the world is, if you want to be in the peaceful use of nuclear power, you don't have to have those enrichment facilities," Buffett said in an interview. The Nebraska-based investor is a director of the Washington Post Co.
Kazakhstan has offered to host the new bank, although no decision has been made.
Russia recently set up a somewhat similar bank, which provides uranium to countries approved by the IAEA.
Buffett had initially set a deadline of September 2008 for the atomic agency to approve the project. That was extended several times.
"There is joy in Omaha," he said. "It's been over four years, so I feel terrific."
喜欢
0
赠金笔