Nuclear pearltree
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Happy New Year! There have been five particularly horrific years of living dangerously in the nuclear age. The first was, most jarringly, 1945, when the Bomb made its spectacular appearance. No advance in the history of warfare was more jarring than a city-killing weapon that could be delivered by surprise for which there was no defense. The second period of maximum danger was 1949-1950, when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, President Truman endorsed a crash program to proceed with far more powerful thermonuclear weapons, the People’s Republic of China was born, and the Korean War began. It was an open question whether or not atomic bombs would again be used to end a prolonged land war in Asia that was at times going very badly for the United States before it ground to a bitter stalemate.
Michael Krepon • Years of Living Dangerously
Global Security Newswire - China Augments Nuke Arsenal: Pentagon
China's nuclear arsenal is being augmented through development of a missile that is capable of carrying a number of warheads and can be moved between different locations, the U.S. Defense Department said in a report issued this week (see GSN , Aug. 25). The yearly Pentagon assessment of Chinese military capabilities estimates that Beijing holds as many as 75 long-range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads, along with 120 intermediate- and medium-range systems, the Washington Times reported. “China is both qualitatively and quantitatively improving its strategic missile forces,” according to the report. “Beijing will likely continue to invest considerable resources to maintain a limited nuclear force … to ensure the (People’s Liberation Army) can deliver a damaging retaliatory nuclear strike.”Cable Viewer
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A Warhead’s Life | Ploughshares Fund
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An ongoing impasse at the international Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, might be broken through a U.N. conference, a specially formed commission or a team of prominent individuals, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki- moon said on Wednesday (see GSN , May 17). The 65-nation conference in 2009 ended a deadlock that had lasted for more than a decade, agreeing to a work plan that would focus on preparing a fissile material cutoff pact and three other issues: nuclear disarmament, a ban against space-based weapons, and an agreement by nuclear-armed states not to use such weapons against countries that do not possess atomic armaments. While Pakistan initially backed the work plan, it later canceled its consent and demanded further consideration of the program. Decisions at the conference are made by consensus (see GSN , July 12). “We meet in the midst of a growing crisis of confidence,” Ban said said at a senior-level U.N.
Global Security Newswire - U.N. Chief Floats Measures to Break Conference on Disarmament Stalemate
U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis
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What if we try the nuclear option ?
Three-out-of-four U.S. voters (73%) fear a terrorist threat more than a nuclear attack. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 16% believe a potential nuclear attack is a greater threat to the United States.
73% Fear Terrorists More Than Nuclear Attack - Rasmussen Reports™
Project on Nuclear Issues | Center for Strategic and International Studies
About the Project on Nuclear Issues Addressing the complex array of nuclear weapons challenges will require a solid foundation of expertise across numerous sectors. Because most of these challenges are long-term, the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) aims to build and sustain a vibrant community of young nuclear experts from the military, national laboratories, industry, academia, and the policy community.
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Nuclear humor
A shipment of nuclear fuel has arrived in Russia after a top-secret international operation to remove it from Serbia, where it was feared terrorists could seize it to make a nuclear or dirty bomb. In the dead of night, armed men in balaclavas surround a long convoy of trucks in the woods just outside Belgrade. Radios crackle as they prepare for a long journey. The US set up the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) in 2004 to keep nuclear materials out of the wrong hands, with help from Russia and the IAEA. This year, US President Barack Obama called for an international effort to secure all remaining vulnerable nuclear material within four years.
A secret journey to take Serbian nuclear fuel to safety
Because of what appears to have been a computer glitch, a group of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) was temporarily off-line last week and not ready to launch on a moment’s notice. According to an article in The Atlantic , some Republicans have suggested that this means that New START, the nuclear arms control treaty awaiting Senate ratification, is unwise and should be rejected. This assertion is nonsense but is a useful illustration of how much of current nuclear “thinking” is just a holdover from now irrelevant Cold War doctrine. First, this episode was not the big deal it is suggested to be; at no time did it make any difference to the nation’s security. Some 50 missiles were offline, with 50 nuclear warheads, or about 3% of the nation’s ready arsenal. The missiles were never out of control.
Nonsense about New START and ICBMs » FAS Strategic Security Blog
"This temporary computer glitch was not critical to our security because having hundreds of nuclear bombs ready to launch at a moment’s notice is not critical to our security. These weapons, and more importantly, how they are deployed and kept ready, are a Cold War anachronism. (Far from undermining arguments for New START, this incident highlights one of the greatest shortcomings of the treaty — that it does nothing to reduce readiness levels on both sides.) There may be reasons to oppose the New START (although I can’t think of any) but this incident is not relevant to that debate, or at least should not be." by Oct 29
"During the Cold War, the stakes were ideological control of the future of the planet, that is, the stakes were infinite. So the threatened pain had to be infinite. And what are the stakes now? What is the potential dispute between the U.S. and Russia that can be deterred with 1550 weapons but not with 1500?" by Oct 29
"First, this episode was not the big deal it is suggested to be; at no time did it make any difference to the nation’s security. Some 50 missiles were offline, with 50 nuclear warheads, or about 3% of the nation’s ready arsenal. The missiles were never out of control. It is not as though they could have launched themselves" by Oct 29
Jeffrey Lewis • Biscuits, Cookies, and Nuclear Bombs
Start the clip at about 5:04. General Turgidson: Mr. President, about thirty-five minutes ago, General Jack Ripper, the commanding General of Burpleson Air Force Base, issued an order to the 34 B-52′s of his wing which were airborne at the time as part of a special exercise we were holding called Operation Dropkick. Now, it appears that the order called for the planes to attack their targets inside Russia. The planes are fully armed with nuclear weapons with an average load of 40 megatons each.Environmental Issues > Nuclear Energy, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Main Page > All Nuclear Energy, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Documents Tables and Figures US Nuclear Weapons Stockpile, 2002 US Nuclear Warheads, 1945-2002 US Nuclear Weapons Stockpile, 1945-2002