The 2016 presidential race is unusual in many ways, but a silver lining of sorts has emerged: For the first time since Lyndon Johnson’s famous “Daisy” political ad during the 1964 presidential campaign, the control that the president of the United States wields over the US nuclear arsenal is under serious discussion. In his introduction … Continued

A quick guide to some of our coverage in the run up to the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit

A daily roundup of quality nuclear policy news. North Korea Pompeo’s secret Korea trip may not save his nomination, but it could save Trump’s summit Trump says he’ll bail on North Korea talks if they’re not “fruitful” North Korea willing to discuss dismantling nuclear program, says Trump official North Korea wants total denuclearization, says Seoul … Continued

What would happen — environmentally, socially, economically, and politically — if terrorists managed to explode a single nuclear weapon in a city?

We certainly can spend $1 trillion on nuclear forces at the expense of other military capabilities and domestic needs, but we may also gravely regret it. 

Top articles on the nuclear weapons landscape from the Bulletin's experts.

The medical isotope metastable technetium 99 emits gamma rays that physicians heavily rely upon to examine how organs such as hearts, lungs, and kidneys function. Technetium 99 is so beneficial to the medical community that it's used in approximately 80-85 percent of the world's diagnostic imaging procedures (cardiac perfusion scans and bone scans among them) and 12 million procedures in the United States alone. The size of the global nuclear imaging and therapeutics market is estimated at $3.7 billion per year.

The world has not secured all nuclear materials vulnerable to theft and sabotage. Will it find a way to keep working toward this goal? 

A major outcome of the April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, was the commitment by 47 nations to collaborate in developing new technologies that require neither highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuels for reactor operation nor HEU targets for producing medical or other isotopes. This principle of HEU minimization also was included in the final document of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which was adopted by consensus.

The White House fails to put its money where its mouth is on nuclear weapons security

What Canberra has done—and can do—do to keep dangerous radioactive materials out of malicious hands.

Earlier this month, widespread inaction on the increasing dangers posed by nuclear proliferation and climate change forced the Bulletin's Doomsday Clock to move one minute closer to midnight, indicating the mounting perils confronting humanity's survival. One factor pushing the clock forward to five minutes to midnight was the failure to ensure strict security and comprehensive international oversight for nuclear weapons and materials, which continue to accumulate in a few nations.

Probing the 2016 presidential candidates’ records on nuclear weapons makes for some interesting reading and could foretell US nuclear policies to come, yet the subject still deserves far more attention between now and November. 

What signatories of the Trilateral Initiative can do between now and the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit

A compilation of quality nuclear policy news published on the Web, around the world. Iran Nuclear Deal How the Nuclear Deal Has Reconfigured Iran’s Political Landscape Nikki Haley Slams the Iran Deal, Says It ‘Empowered’ Iran and Russia Russia and Iran’s Marriage of Convenience United States Q&A: Moniz looks to get U.S. nuclear scientists more … Continued

Nonproliferation projects are getting squeezed by sequestration and fiscal battles.

As we witness the increasingly detrimental effects of global climate change, the role that nuclear power could play globally to mitigate its effects continues to be debated. The series of articles featured in the Bulletin in December 2016 aired a broad spectrum of opinions, ranging in assessment of the role of nuclear power from insignificant … Continued

How will we track progress on nuclear security once removals are done?

Few national security issues are as important to President Barack Obama as reducing the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Obama devoted his first major foreign policy speech as president to the subject in April 2009 in Prague, where he pledged America's commitment to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. In particular, the president laid out a series of interim steps that the United States must take to reduce the risk of a nuclear catastrophe.