Michael Douglas: No-nukes world would be good deal

[May 21, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Greed is good. A world without nukes is better.

Actor Michael Douglas, whose performance as the conniving Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street" won him an Oscar in 1987, spent part of Wednesday evening focused on a more critical cause -- ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

Douglas moderated a panel of Washington experts on the issue -- former Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Robert Gallucci, a former U.S. diplomat who was chief negotiator during the nuclear crisis with North Korea in 1994.

Douglas questioned Hagel about whether the new Obama administration has provided a transformational opportunity for the world's nuclear-armed nations to address the issue. He pressed Nunn on recent multinational conferences and his recent White House meeting with other former diplomats and President Barack Obama.

Gallucci told the forum gathered at the Italian Embassy that recent discussions between the United States and Russia hold promise, but the threat of nuclear terrorism is a legitimate concern, given the unrest in Pakistan.

The event was sponsored by the Ploughshares Fund, which is dedicated to a nuclear weapons-free world. Hagel and Douglas are members of its board of directors, Douglas since 2005.

Douglas' interest stems from another movie -- "The China Syndrome" -- the 1979 film about hazards at a nuclear power plant.

[Associated Press]

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