Features | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The IAEA's dilemma with Syria's Al Kibar nuclear site

Fiona Simpson — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:46:00 -0600

Although Israel's September 2007 raid on what it believed to be the Al Kibar nuclear site in Syria has often been compared to its 1981 raid on the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, the aura of secrecy surrounding the Syria raid stands in stark contrast to the extensive public explanations offered by Israel 27 years ago. Further details about the Syria raid have recently been provided, but they didn't come from Israel. Instead, senior U.S. intelligence officials presented them to Congress and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late April--nearly eight months after the raid.

The upside to FutureGen's demise

Kurt Zenz House — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:09:00 -0600

In January, the Energy Department announced it would back out of its 2003 commitment to FutureGen, a public-private partnership that planned to build an advanced coal power plant employing carbon-capture-and-storage technology (CCS).

Kazakhstan's nuclear ambitions

Togzhan Kassenova — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:40:00 -0600

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the international community anxiously watched to see what newly independent Kazakhstan would do with the thousands of nuclear weapons left on its territory. If Kazakhstan had decided to prevent their withdrawal, it would have become the fourth largest nuclear power in the world. Thankfully, the country decided to disarm--a choice it reached due to a combination of international pressure, a desire to integrate into the international community, and assured Western assistance with dismantling its nuclear weapons and facilities.

Republicans, missile defense, and the Reagan legacy

Lawrence J. Korb — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:52:00 -0600

When developing a weapons program for the Defense Department, there is normally an orderly and somewhat rational process to be followed: First, a threat is identified; research is then conducted on how best to deal with said threat; and finally, a weapon system is developed and eventually produced.

If at any time in this process the threat changes or the research demonstrates that no available technology exists to deal with the threat, or a weapon system cannot be developed in a cost-effective manner, the research is stopped, slowed down, or canceled.

Improving infectious disease surveillance

Eileen R. Choffnes — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0600

The advance of human civilization has brought people, plants, animals, and microbes together in otherwise improbable combinations and locations. Today, international travel and commerce (most notably the explosive growth of commercial air transportation during the past 50 years) drives the rapid, global distribution of microbial pathogens, and the organisms that harbor them. These include humans, whose migrations have been implicated in the spread of diseases including SARS, drug-resistant malaria, and chikungunya (a vector-borne viral disease) in Europe.

Twenty-five years after Reagan's Star Wars speech

David Wright — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:00:00 -0600

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan made his famous Star Wars speech, announcing his plan to develop a missile defense system that would make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." His vision of a "shield that could protect us from nuclear missiles just as a roof protects a family from the rain" was both seductive and audacious.

The U.S. nuclear weapons complex: Pushing for a new production capability

Greg Mello — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:00:00 -0600

On January 15, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, which 37 other national security experts also endorsed. Entitled "Toward A Nuclear-Free World," it was the second such essay in the Journal by these authors in as many years.

Reducing emissions in transportation fuels

Daniel M. Kammen — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:00:00 -0600

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the high-profile environmental crusade in the vehicle and fuel industries was to establish a ban on lead additives in gasoline--encapsulated by the catchphrase, "get the lead out." After initial uncertainty and some opposition based on the fear that prices would rise and vehicle performance would suffer, the transition to unleaded fuels proved remarkably easy and effective. The average blood-lead level in the U.S.

The U.S. satellite shootdown: China's response

Eric Hagt — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:00:00 -0700

Despite characterizations in the Western media to the contrary, China's official reaction to Washington's intentional destruction of the errant USA-193 spy satellite--an action many have interpreted as an antisatellite (ASAT) test--has been fairly muted.

Behind Iran's nuclear weapons "halt"

Michael S. Goodman — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:00:00 -0700

The release of the declassified summary of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities" on December 3, 2007 was an event of major political and strategic significance. Its conclusion with "high confidence" that Iran halted its military nuclear activities in fall 2003 removed, for the foreseeable future at least, any grounds for military action to prevent Tehran's further progress in the nuclear field. This outcome has been welcomed in many quarters in the United States and elsewhere, but it has also generated intense debate and some controversy.

IAEA special inspections after Israel's raid on Syria

Fiona Simpson — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:00:00 -0700

"The Israelis are already attacking our allies. It is time to teach them a lesson or else Syria will be next."

-- Statement attributed to Soviet Defense Minister Dimitriy Ustinov at a cabinet meeting immediately following Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.

Fixing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

David Lochbaum — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:00:00 -0700

The United States operates 104 nuclear power reactors, which provide nearly 20 percent of the nation's electricity. More than half have had their original 40-year operating licenses renewed for an additional 20 years. Encouraged by billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives in the 2005 Energy Bill, a handful of companies applied for licenses to build new reactors last fall, and other companies are expected to apply later this year.

The need for an international moratorium on coal power

James E. Hansen — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:00:00 -0700

Over the past year, it's become clear that the way the political and environmental communities are approaching global warming isn't going to solve it.

When could Iran deliver a nuclear weapon?

Richard L. Garwin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:00:00 -0700

The traditional concern about Iran's capability to deliver a nuclear weapon involves an Iranian ballistic missile that could reach the United States from Iran. Therefore, in this piece I describe the current state and expected time when Iran could achieve these capabilities on the basis of recent statements by U.S.

Setting the nanotech research agenda

Andrew Maynard — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:00:00 -0700

In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Twenty-first Century Nanotechnology Research & Development Act, establishing a framework for enabling what some have described as "the next industrial revolution." Four years on, the act is up for reauthorization. As legislators grapple with how the nanotechnology landscape has changed in the intervening years, they face the complex task of continuing to ensure U.S. leadership in the development of nanotechnologies that are successful, sustainable, and above all, safe.

Where the presidential candidates stand on nuclear issues

Lawrence Krauss — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:00:00 -0700

With primary season upon us, the presidential candidates have been busy debating and making policy presentations so that we can begin to glean some ideas of their views on everything from the economy to national defense. As is often the case, the media haven't focused on the candidates' views on technical issues, but in the end, these may be among the most significant issues that the next president will face.

Reflections on the U.N. climate change negotiations in Bali

Richard C. J. Somerville — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:00:00 -0700

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), long regarded as the single most trustworthy source of information on climate science, states unequivocally that Earth's climate is warming rapidly and that we're now more than 90 percent certain that human activities have caused most of the observed warming in recent decades. The research behind these findings, published in the IPCC's landmark 2007 report, is rock-solid science.

Nuclear safeguards for a new nuclear age

Charles D. Ferguson — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:00:00 -0700

The commercial nuclear age started on December 2, 1957, when the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania began operating--the first use of a nuclear power plant dedicated solely to peaceful purposes. Five months earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded with a dual mandate--promote the peaceful uses of atomic energy and prevent its military uses. Ever since, the tension inherent in this mission has strained and constrained the application and evolution of IAEA safeguards.

Nuclear safety lessons from Japan's summer earthquake

Ashwin Kumar — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:00:00 -0700

On July 16, 2007, an earthquake with a magnitude of somewhere between 6.6 and 6.8 struck Japan. Its epicenter was about 16 kilometers north of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), the biggest such plant in the world. The known results of the earthquake include a fire and leaks of radioactivity. However, news of damage to the reactors continues to emerge, the most recent being the discovery of a jammed control rod in Unit-7.

Africa's pursuit of nuclear power

Igor Khripunov — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:00:00 -0700

In Africa, nearly every aspect of human development (health, agricultural, educational, or industrial) depends upon reliable access to modern energy sources. Therefore, it's worth investigating whether nuclear power can safely alleviate energy shortages and optimize an energy mix consistent with the national interests of African countries.