March special issue: What to do about Taiwan

pyroprocessing

Some fuels never learn. US Energy Department returns to costly and risky plutonium separation technologies

By Jungmin Kang, Masafumi Takubo, Frank von Hippel | Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Weapons

Idaho National Laboratory’s Fuel Conditioning Facility supports work to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a nuclear recycling technique called pyroprocessing. Photo Credit: Fuel Conditioning Fact Sheet, Idaho National Laboratory.

Why joint US-South Korean research on plutonium separation raises nuclear proliferation danger

By Frank N. von Hippel, Jungmin Kang | Analysis, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Risk

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN. This field of ceramic nose-cones represents, in miniature, all the warheads in the US nuclear arsenal at the height of the Cold War, along with the nuclear submarines, bombers, and ballistic missiles designed to deliver them. Estimates put the warhead count at around 25,000. Denver sculptress Barbara Donachy created this installation to show what such a concentration of nuclear weaponry would look like all in one place. Her display contains 33,561 pieces representing 31,000 warheads, 1,799 ballistic missiles, 324 intercontinental bombers, and 37 nuclear submarines. Amber Waves of Grain installation by Barbara Donachy, Boston Science Museum, Boston, Massachusetts. February 13, 1985. Photograph copyright by Robert Del Tredici, The Atomic Photographers Guild. Used with permission.

Will Canada remain a credible nonproliferation partner?

By Susan O’Donnell, Gordon Edwards | Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons, Opinion

An after-picture of the Urakami Tenshudo (Catholic Church) in Nagasaki, which was destroyed in 1945 by the fission of about one kilogram of plutonium. Credit: Public domain image accessed via Wikimedia Commons.

Plutonium programs in East Asia and Idaho will challenge the Biden administration

By Frank N. von Hippel | Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Weapons

Plutonium reprocessing, breeder reactors, and decades of debate: An Indian response

By Baldev Raj, P.R.Vasudeva Rao | Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Weapons