Search results for nuclear terrorism

Reducing the nuclear threat: The argument for public safety

Today, at the other end of the long trek down the glacier of the Cold War, the nuclear threat has seemingly calved off and fallen into the sea. In 2007, the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project found that 12 countries rated the growing gap between rich and poor as the greatest danger to the world. HIV/AIDS led the list (or tied) in 16 countries, religious and ethnic hatred in another 12. Pollution was identified as the greatest menace in 19 countries, while substantial majorities in 25 countries thought global warming was a "very serious" problem.
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After a historic nuclear agreement, challenges ahead for Iran

The deal reached in Vienna is a tremendous success, but Tehran still faces economic and political problems at home

Israel ponders a nuclear Iran

Of all the international nuclear-related challenges facing Israel, the most urgent and important is the possibility of a nuclear Iran.1 Israel's intense response to Iran tells us much about Israel's own existential predicament. The consensus in Israel is that the advent of a nuclear Iran, albeit depending on what this would mean exactly, would pose an unprecedented threat to Israel. For the first time, Israel would confront a hostile state in the region that possesses nuclear weapons.
Brad Roberts

It’s time to jettison Nuclear Posture Reviews

Since the end of the Cold War, there have been four Nuclear Posture Reviews (NPRs). Should there be a fifth? No. It’s time to move on. Despite their many virtues, these reviews are not delivering what the nation needs. Indeed, the entire policy and posture review architecture of which the NPR is a part needs … Continued

Kashmir, climate change, and nuclear war

Along with the risks of war triggered by escalation along the Line of Control in Kashmir or by attacks on Indian cities by Islamist militants backed by Pakistan, a new source of conflict between Pakistan and India has emerged, also centered on Kashmir. It is a struggle over access to and control over the water in the rivers that start as snow and glacial meltwater in the Himalayas and pass through Kashmir on their way to Pakistan as the Indus River Basin, ending in the Arabian Sea.

Why Biden should designate a nuclear waste negotiator

With Yucca Mountain dead and climate action resurrected, Biden has an opportunity to take a fresh run at America’s nuclear waste problem.

Zia Mian on scientists, the nuclear threat, and a treaty to ban nuclear weapons

A talk with Princeton University's Zia Mian, recently honored with the American Physical Society's Leo Szilard Lectureship Award.

More bad news for the nuclear industry as Westinghouse files for bankruptcy

Once-proud Westinghouse files for bankruptcy. Reactor construction in two southern states is up in the air. Toshiba rues its errors. What a mess.

Declaring a no-first-use nuclear policy would be exceedingly risky

With Russia and China advancing on their neighbors, now is not the time for a US promise never to launch a first nuclear strike.

The future of the Iranian nuclear deal is still uncertain

A year after Iran and world powers signed a historic nuclear agreement, politicians in Washington and Tehran seek to derail it as the latter continues to struggle with economic challenges. 

The historic debate about Iran’s nuclear program

Today's doubts about Iran's nuclear program are anything but new.

One way to fight radiological terrorism: alternative technology

Permanently reducing the threat posed by radiological sources will require minimizing and then eliminating their use altogether, transitioning to alternative technologies and practices. 

Leave Iran’s missiles out of nuclear talks

Why negotiators in Vienna shouldn’t yet embark on dealing with Iran’s ballistic missiles.

The banality of death by nuclear power

Scientists estimate that 1,000 people will die from cancer as a result of their exposure to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. This number is often contrasted with the 20,000 who died in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused the nuclear debacle -- presumably to suggest that the 1,000 deaths are less significant and should not be used to justify a nuclear power shutdown.

Parting words: Gates and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe

In a recent speech in Brussels, departing Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized European members of NATO for allowing defense obligations to fall increasingly upon the United States, continuing a funding imbalance that could lead Americans to question whether the costs of NATO are justified.

Will the Senate support new nuclear arms reductions?

President Barack Obama has an ambitious agenda on nuclear weapons issues that will take a long time to implement. For example, the earliest the Senate is likely to vote again on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is 2010. Likewise, a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty is at least three years away. Ditto for the president's goal of safeguarding all vulnerable nuclear weapons and nuclear materials worldwide. And then there is his most ambitious goal of all--a nuclear-weapon-free world, which even he has suggested probably won't take place in his lifetime.

The risks of North Korea’s nuclear restart

On April 13, the U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea's rocket launch earlier in the month. Within nine hours, North Korea denounced and rejected the Security Council statement; expelled international inspectors and the U.S.

10 years after Fukushima: Are Japanese nuclear power plants safe?

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident in 2011, the Nuclear Regulation Authority set stricter and more rational standards. However, in practice, Japanese regulators have often compromised their reviews. It’s worth asking: Are the restarted Japanese nuclear power plants safe?
Mohammad Javad Zarif, in 2019

Nine hurdles to reviving the Iran nuclear deal

Although reviving the Iran nuclear agreement is certainly still possible, it won’t be easy. The two sides will need to overcome nine hurdles to make it happen.
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Revenge is a dish best served nuclear. US deterrence depends on it.

Deterrence appears to depend on rational actors who desire survival above all else. But it's revenge, not rationality, that often drives decisions.