If India were to dip into its stockpile of reactor-grade plutonium, then instead of dozens of nuclear weapons, it might be able to make hundreds or even thousands. How can we estimate its maximum capacity? By knowing how big India’s stockpile is—and we do that by using this algorithm to plug in some unclassified data publicly available online.
India is estimated to have produced enough military plutonium for 150 to 200 nuclear warheads, but has likely produced only 130 to 140. Free-access.
The effects of climate change stand to heighten nuclear risks in various ways, including by direct impacts on nuclear facilities, exacerbation of political and economic disruption, and diminishment of global institutions.
An annual publication that takes stock of nuclear energy finds only China bucking the global trend of a declining industry.
Any verification regime for eliminating North Korean nuclear weapons is likely to involve uncertainty. But a degree of uncertainty might be an acceptable price to pay.
The authors estimate that the country’s stockpile could realistically grow to 220 to 250 warheads by 2025, if the current trend continues.
The outlook for further US-Russian arms control is not bright today, but both sides should develop new verification techniques in case unexpected breakthroughs occur.
What portrayals of nuclear fear on mid-century television can tell us about ourselves today.
Three to five years ago, a lot of articles were published about scandalously poor morale among missileers at US intercontinental ballistic missile bases. But what about the crews on ballistic missile submarines? If things are weird at Minot and Malmstrom, aren’t they weirder under water? Not in the telling of Sydney J. Freedberg, Jr. of … Continued
Less than a month after the first-ever US-North Korea summit, news reports began emerging that Pyongyang is continuing to develop its nuclear program, just as it was doing before the June 12th meeting in Singapore between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. While these reported activities violate UN Security Council … Continued
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Pyongyang later this week to “continue consultations and implement the forward progress made by President Trump and Chairman Kim” at their June 12 meeting in Singapore. For now, though, North Korea is not making any unilateral moves to dismantle its nuclear arsenal. On June 27, the Wall Street … Continued
What might Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, have found, had he lived long enough to study the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review and its drafters? Anxiety about failure and death, fear of impotence, and an obsession with deterrence that obscures the ultimate question: “What is it that the United States wants in this world?” … Continued
The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, and Robert S. Norris, a senior fellow with the FAS. The Nuclear Notebook column has been published in the since 1987. This issue’s column examines China’s nuclear arsenal, which includes about 280 … Continued
