The recollections of Bush Administration officials who dealt with Pakistan in the first round of nuclear consultations after September 11th do not inspire confidence.
Despite an unending round of nuclear consultations there remain fundamental questions about "what if" issues such as fuel supply and manufacture, vulnerability to attack, radioactive waste management, radiation risk, decommissioning, reactor coastal siting, flooding, nuclear costs and accident liabilities.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis held out hope that renewed efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear program in consultation with European nations could still work, a day after President Trump announced his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear pact, upsetting some of the Pentagon's most important allies abroad.
Not surprisingly however, there were some important concerns expressed during the consultation about nuclear power.
Gordon Brown's public consultation on nuclear power is being fixed by the market research company carrying out the polling.
In 2007 I watched with interest as the high court told the then Labour government that its public consultation on nuclear power was seriously flawed.
The ongoing consultation on nuclear security between Washington and Islamabad intensified after the announcement in March of President Obama's so-called Af-Pak policy, which called upon the Pakistan Army to take more aggressive action against Taliban enclaves inside Pakistan.
Ministers planned to publish the bill last year, but when an environmental pressure group won a court case arguing that the government's consultation on nuclear power had been misleading, the bill was shelved and the consultation re-run.
His administration reached out to the thuggish junta in Myanmar, reversing a policy of isolation, and on November 10th said Mr Obama's special envoy to North Korea would go to Pyongyang for talks with the obstreperous nuclear state (after close consultation with South Korea and Japan first).
His comments came a day after he and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia agreed to "consultations" on nuclear weapons cuts and discussions on defensive technologies.
