What should senators ask the nominees?

Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and other experts discuss the legacy of the world’s first nuclear chain reaction.

Some 36 years ago, Israel likely did a nuclear test with South Africa’s help, and the US looked the other way. That ancient history—including the violation on testing—is especially pertinent today.

On Sunday a 44-year-old British woman died from exposure to one of the nerve agents known as novichok, a class of chemical weapons made only by the Soviet Union and Russia. The victim, Dawn Sturgess, was a mother of three living in a facility for the homeless, not an obvious target of the Russian government, Russian … Continued

Crowd-sourcing information on nuclear compliance carries risks as well as rewards.

After a recent UN report suggested that a Turkish-made Kargu-2 had autonomously hunted down retreating troops in Libya, numerous media outlets devoted coverage to the issue of so-called lethal autonomous weapons. But much of the coverage misses an important point: It will be extremely difficult to verify if and when such a weapon is used.

Some people consider physician Wouter Basson South Africa's Josef Mengele. During the 1998 Truth and Reconciliation hearings on Project Coast, South Africa's apartheid-era chemical and biowarfare programs, Schalk Janse van Rensburg, a veterinarian, stated that Basson, the program's head, wanted to devise a way to kill individuals that would appear undetectable to a forensics laboratory.

How to respond to the assassination attempt against Sergei Skripal? Add a class of chemical agents to those prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention.