• They found the WMDs! OMG – right in our back yard!

    Updated: 2010-02-26 22:38:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar The Nuclear Abolitionist Working towards a nuclear weapons-free world Quotable I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation . Martin Luther King . Jr Friday , February 26, 2010 They found the WMDs OMG right in our back yard , Friends On this day in peacemaking history twelve years ago an international Citizens' Weapons Inspection Team from Vancouver , British Columbia , organized by the Canadian peace group End the Arms Race , and accompanied by members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action , Poulsbo , Washington attempted to enter Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor , then known as Submarine Base Bangor , to document the presence of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery . vehicles The Canadian team was led by Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East and was composed of nine Canadian community and religious leaders and peace activists . Ther group wrote to the base commander a few days prior to the inspection to request access to the base , announcing their intention to : conduct a tour of the base and access to all documentation

  • Important addendum to Rogin's "No 'New START' in 2010, Hill sources predict" story

    Updated: 2010-02-26 22:24:44
    The Cable's Josh Rogin has added an important update to his February 24 story on the allegedly bleak prospects for a Senate ratification vote on New START in 2010.  ccording to a spokesperson for Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Senator Reid has long been expecting to receive and consider the START treaty during the 2010 calendar year. We have seen nothing to this point that would alter this expectation.  rms control treaties have always been handled in a bipartisan manner and, once the Senate receives all the details on this particular treaty, Senator Reid is confident this tradition, which is critical to our national security, will continue. Clearly the longer it takes for the U.S. and Russia to actually complete New START, the more difficult it will be to get a ratification vote in 2010.  ut Reid's statement demonstrates that the judgment expressed by Rogin's "multiple Hill sources" was premature and that these sources may have come from only one side of the aisle.

  • Stuck in the middle

    Updated: 2010-02-26 17:30:35
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Stuck in the middle Chad Feb 26, 2010 0 The S-300 SAM Despite signing a contract with Iran for five batteries of the S-300PMU1 missile defense system back in December 2005, Russia continues to put off delivery of the system to Tehran . The latest news from Moscow alleges that the current delay is due to ‘technical†problems – a rather bizarre excuse given that the S-300 has been functioning quite well since 1979. Perhaps this is why Almaz-Antey the company that builds the S-300 told Interfax news that “there are no technical problems with the S-300 systems . This is a political issue.” With Russia contractually obligated to deliver the system it already received payment from Tehran it†s interesting to speculate about the reasons for the delay… The S-300 is one of the most advanced surface-to-air missile systems in the world . Road mobile , it can be set up in just five . minutes It is capable of engaging up to six targets simultaneously and can lock targets up to 90 km away , at altitudes ranging from 25 – 30,000 meters ,

  • Watch what Jon Kyl says...

    Updated: 2010-02-25 23:03:40
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog Watch what Jon Kyl says . John Isaacs Feb 25, 2010 1 While many people were rightly upset over a recent piece in The Cable by Josh Rogin entitled New START dead on arrival they may have overlooked some very important words by Arizona Senator John . Kyl Kyl is the bête noire of those promoting a new nuclear reductions treaty and a Comprehensive Test Ban . Treaty He has sent a series of missives along with many of his colleagues raising issues such as nuclear weapons modernization and missile defense . He has also delivered a number of speeches on the same . topics As the British would say , he is constantly throwing a spanner into the works i.e . monkey wrenches But check out what Sen . Kyl said in the Rogin : story Unless it is accompanied by a nuclear modernization program that satisfies the requirements of the secretary of defense , it would be very difficult for the Senate to support the new START treaty . If that is his gold standard , then he will get his wish perhaps the gold , silver and bronze . Defense Secretary

  • Nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan in photos

    Updated: 2010-02-25 18:29:28
    The Washington Post has a very moving series of photos today highlighting the human suffering in Kazakhstan as a result of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons tests there from 1949 to 1989. With the Cold War long over, nuclear weapons can sometimes seem like a distant problem; I urge people to take a look at [...]

  • The cost of nuclear security - Conan O’Brien?!

    Updated: 2010-02-25 15:30:41
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog The cost of nuclear security Conan O†Brien Chad Feb 25, 2010 0 I'm more important than nuclear security With President Ahmadinijad last week boasting of the production of Iran's first batch of highly enriched uranium and its capability to enrich at over 20 percent and at over 80 percent , the need to accurately account for and safeguard Iran†s nuclear material is of ever-pressing importance . Most observers agree that any weapons program in Iran is more likely to follow a clandestine path , since Tehran is unlikely to risk diverting materials from IAEA monitored facilities . Yet just how satisfied can we be that Iran can†t actually misuse the stocks of uranium currently safeguarded by the IAEA Given the scope of the IAEA's worldwide responsibilities , it must rely on remote nuclear monitoring equipment to ensure that the nuclear fuel under its watch is not diverted for military use . Many people fail to realize that this system is not fool proof . However , the steps required to fill in these gaps and strengthen

  • Rozen on the Nuclear Posture Review [16]

    Updated: 2010-02-24 19:17:33
    : ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Rozen on the Nuclear Posture Review posted Wednesday February 24, 2010 under nuclear-weapons by jeffrey Laura Rozen in the Politico has written an interesting article on the Nuclear Posture Review . In it , an anonymous US official described the Nuclear Posture Review as seminal . 8221 I would have picked a different bodily . discharge But , this is the new Arms Control Wonk.com . So you won’t see any references to excrement or suggestions that a seminal document is precisely what one would expect from a circle jerk like the NPR Really , we’re above all . that Rozen depicts a very conventional document that will fall far short of the President’s rhetoric in : Prague Disarmament hands say the review draft originally headed by the Defense Department’s Brad Roberts was too status quo on the policy issues from the administration’s perspective , and is being reworked at the senior inter-agency level by Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Jim Miller , officials from the office of State’s Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher , and White House and OVP nonproliferation advisors before heading to the

  • The Obama disarmament paradox: A rebuttal

    Updated: 2010-02-24 18:59:52
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog The Obama disarmament paradox : A rebuttal Kingston Feb 24, 2010 0 In the wake of the release of the Obama administration's FY 2011 budget request , which includes a ten percent increase in funding to maintain our nuclear weapons stockpile and supporting infrastructure , Greg Mello took to the online pages of the Bulletin to posit and answer a : question So how is the president's budget compatible with his disarmament vision The answer is simple : There is no evidence that Obama has , or ever had , any such . vision Center head honchos John Isaacs and Lt . Gen . Robert Gard took issue with this characterization and penned a short rebuttal , which the Bulletin published today . On the issue of whether there's a contradiction between espousing disarmament goals and maintaining our deterrent , John and Gen . Gard write : Mello sees Obama's requested increase in the fiscal year 2011 budget for stockpile stewardship and the construction of new facilities at the nuclear laboratories as a commitment to the production of new

  • India Moving Forward on Nuclear Energy

    Updated: 2010-02-24 17:58:27
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog India Moving Forward on Nuclear Energy Lauren Feb 24, 2010 0 Cheers to nuclear trade In early February , President Obama issued a memorandum certifying that India has placed its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards , thereby bringing the Indian Safeguards Agreement into force and moving the two nations another step closer toward cooperation in the field of nuclear energy under the auspices of the landmark U.S . India . deal Yet while progress is being made toward implementing the agreement , a few steps remain before U.S . firms such as Westinghouse Electric and G.E . Hitachi can begin nuclear trade with India . On September 6, 2008, India , with the strong support of the U.S . secured a rare exemption from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group NSG allowing it to conduct civilian nuclear trade despite not being party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty NPT A little over a month later , on October 6, President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation

  • The Numbers Game

    Updated: 2010-02-24 17:32:21
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog The Numbers Game Travis Feb 24, 2010 0 I wish this movie was about John Bolton John Bolton takes to the pages of the Washington Times today to assail President Obama†s supposedly naïve obsession with nuclear reductions . One of Bolton†s central criticisms is that the Obama administration is placing numbers ahead of strategy . He writes . There is real danger , for example , in negotiating numerical weapons ceilings , such as on numbers of nuclear warheads , unrelated to our real strategic needs . Mere numerical targets typically do not reflect the opposing sides' differing global interests and obligations , their asymmetrical conventional military and intelligence capabilities or their varying economic strengths…This is no place for abstract and naive theories or numbers games at the expense of . strategy This complaint is regularly expressed by Keith Payne , the paragon of conservative nuclear strategists . For instance , Payne wrote last year that “informed estimates about the functioning of deterrence must

  • The Obama disarmament paradox: A rebuttal

    Updated: 2010-02-24 16:49:00
    Greg Mello's recent Bulletin article "The Obama Disarmament Paradox" distorts the Obama administration's nuclear agenda by making unjustified assumptions that discredit President Barack Obama's historic commitment to seek a nuclear-weapon-free world, write John Isaacs and Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, Jr. (USA, ret.) in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

  • GOV/INF/2010/5 [9]

    Updated: 2010-02-24 15:33:53
    Somewhat belatedly, I have come into possession o f GOV/INF/2010/5, which contains Iran’s answer to the proposal to swap its stockpile of low enriched uranium for fuel assemblies for the Tehran Research Reactor. Here is the key graf: …the Islamic Republic of Iran is still seeking to purchase the required fuel in cash. However, if the Agency is not able to fulfill its duty under Article 3, then Iran is ready to exchange the TRR required fuel assemblies with the LEU material produced at Natanz, simultaneously in one package or several packages in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thanks to those of you who sent it along.

  • Fact Sheet: 2010 Nuclear Posture Review

    Updated: 2010-02-24 15:10:00
    The Nuclear Posture Review is scheduled for release sometime in March or April 2010. The review will set U.S. nuclear weapons policy for the next five to ten years and influence the implementation of President Obama's far-reaching agenda to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons laid out in Prague. In this new factsheet, Kingston Reif and Chad O'Carroll examine the background, purpose, significance, and challenges of the Nuclear Posture Review.

  • Iran Probes The Limits [18]

    Updated: 2010-02-19 06:21:22
    : ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Iran Probes The Limits posted Friday February 19, 2010 under iran pakistan by joshua_pollack Enough slicing and a salami ends up like . this What happens when a government with a nuclear program systematically works itself into the position of being a screw turn’ away” from building a nuclear weapon On one hand , let’s say this government wants to preserve its relations with a great power ally that arms it and shields it from sanctions on the other hand , its leaders compete to be more pro-nuclear , aiming to win the favor of the military , the scientific establishment , and the . public The balance can be hard to maintain . With enough jostling , it could . tip To get a sense of the problem , take a few moments to read this declassified memorandum from the U.S . National Security Council staff in 1987, previously described by Mark Hibbs in the December 28, 2009 issue of . NuclearFuel Titled , Dealing with Pakistan’s Nuclear Program : A U.S . Strategy , 8221 it expresses the difficulties faced by the White House in persuading the Government of Pakistan GOP to stay within certain nuclear red lines” including no enrichment beyond

  • Biden Talks U.S. Nuclear Strategy: Pushing Increased Funding, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and START Renewal

    Updated: 2010-02-19 00:29:28
    Biden talks up the Obama administration’s spending on the US nuclear arsenal. The apparent contradiction:  the President who has pledged to work toward nuclear abolition is now seeking to increase U.S. spending on their nuclear arsenal by $624 million. Total spending in Obama’s proposed budget would sit at $7 billion. Watch Biden’s speech at WhiteHouse.gov. So where [...]

  • Vice President Biden’s Nuclear Weapons Speech

    Updated: 2010-02-18 23:47:56
    Vice President Biden gave a major policy speech today on nuclear weapons (full text here), discussing the administration’s nuclear weapons agenda, their funding request for nuclear weapons, and key steps towards a nuclear weapons free world, like ratification of the New START agreement and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Much of the speech reaffirmed the Obama [...]

  • Gov/2010/10 and Gov/2010/11 [12]

    Updated: 2010-02-18 16:27:03
    Here is the full text of the IAEA Board of Governor’s reports: ℘ Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Gov/2010/10 ℘ Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Syrian Arab Republic, Gov/2010/11 Also, don’t forget, the IAEA released a document on Iran’s re-enrichment of LEU last week: GOV/INF/2010/2. I feel agile today. And grateful, as always, to that little bird in Vienna.

  • Report on French Nuclear Testing [8]

    Updated: 2010-02-17 22:16:14
    : ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Report on French Nuclear Testing posted Wednesday February 17, 2010 under france by jeffrey Sacrebleu I’ve never seen a classified French document before , but this one is a doozy . Bruno Barrillot who I have just discovered has written a lot about French nuclear testing , how did I miss this somehow obtained , and published , a confidential history of France’s nuclear program , entitled Report on French Nuclear Testing 1960-1996 It appears this is Volume 1 : Organizational Genesis and Experiments in Sahara Presumably there is a second volume for the period after testing moved to the South Pacific in 1968. Barrillot released the document as part of the push for his book , Victimes des essais nucléaires : histoire d’un combat on France’s atomic veterans . Nicolas Jacquard in Le Parisien writes Intitulé la Genèse de l’organisation et les expérimentations au Sahara ce texte rédigé par un ou des militaires anonymes daterait de 1998, juste après l’abandon définitif des essais par Jacques Chirac . Il y évoque avec emphase une grande aventure scientifique tout en jugeant inopportun d’en extraire une synthèse grand public . A sa lecture

  • John Isaacs vs. Baker Spring on Nuclear Reductions

    Updated: 2010-02-17 00:17:00
    On February 16, 2010, Center Executive Director John Isaacs debated Baker Spring, a research fellow in national security policy at the Heritage Foundation, on the topic of nuclear reductions as part of a live debate series conducted by the Project on Nuclear Awareness (PONI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

  • Benicio Del Toro: Doing for Werewolves What Heath Ledger did for the Joker

    Updated: 2010-02-15 03:05:05
    The second vid has a much better trailer clip if you can sit through an annoying, infotainment show, introduction.

  • TNR Explains Why China and Russia Don’t Mind Iranian Nukes

    Updated: 2010-02-10 20:55:10
    Matthew Kroenig’s TNR article reads like a review of ‘Confessions of Frustrated, Lonely Superpower’. Yes, a strategic goal to limit American influence undoubtedly plays a part in Chinese and Russian foreign policy. But one shouldn’t discount simple realism. An Iranian bomb, then, won’t disadvantage China or Russia. In fact, it might even help them. Neither country [...]

  • Nuclear Pork Action Alert: 10 Percent Increase for Nuclear Weapons

    Updated: 2010-02-09 21:02:27
    Below is an alert we sent to some of our supporters on the nuclear pork in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Click on the following committee links to check if your representative is a member of a key committee that decides how much funding nuclear weapons will actually get. If your representative is on either [...]

  • Let’s Stop This Silly Nuclear Posturing!

    Updated: 2010-02-06 04:32:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar The Nuclear Abolitionist Working towards a nuclear weapons-free world Quotable I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation . Martin Luther King . Jr Friday , February 5, 2010 Let's Stop This Silly Nuclear Posturing , Friends In May 2010 nations will gather in New York City for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty NPT Review Conference . nbsp This will be the year that the pressure will be on to set binding and enforceable targets for reducing and ultimately eliminating the signatories' nuclear arsenals . nbsp Of course , it will not be as simple as that since there are nations that are not signatories to the NPT that have developed nuclear weapons , the proverbial flies in the . ointment No matter who currently has nuclear weapons , the entire world is at risk the longer nations maintain their arsenals . nbsp Some arsenals , such as the United States' and Russia's , are so massive as to be ludicrous . nbsp As of 2009, just the U.S . nuclear weapons stockpile was estimated at 5,200 nuclear warheads , 2700 of those operational in other words deployed and

  • Analysis of FY 2011 Budget Request

    Updated: 2010-02-04 11:20:00
    For Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, which begins on October 1, 2010, the Obama Administration has requested a base budget of $548.9 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD). This is $18 billion, or 3.4 percent, above the appropriated Fiscal Year 2010 base budget of $531 billion. In addition, the Administration has requested $159.3 billion for “Overseas Contingency Operations,” to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This brings the Fiscal Year 2011 defense budget request to a total of $708.3 billion.

  • Flight Testing a Centrifuge

    Updated: 2010-02-04 02:07:46
    On 13 January, Ivanka Barzashka and I gave a briefing at the AAAS on our work regarding Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity.  Joshua Pollack also gave a briefing, which he has described.  Joshua’s analysis is thorough and interesting but I think I would use a different distinction than the “actual” and “nominal” values that he defines. Pollack [...]

  • The Reliability and Safety of U.S. Nuclear Weapons

    Updated: 2010-02-03 11:00:00
    On January 28, 2010 at a Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation briefing for Senate staffers that was moderated by Center Chairman Lt. General Robert Gard (USA, Ret.), Dr. Richard Garwin discussed the reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons and options to ensure that these weapons remain safe and secure, and provided insight into what “modernization” is necessary.

  • Biological Threats: A Matter of Balance

    Updated: 2010-02-02 15:03:00
    In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the Center's Scientists Working Group on Biological and Chemical Weapons Control argues that the Graham-Talent WMD Commission exaggerates the bioterrorist threat and proposes solutions that won't produce the comprehensive approach needed to strengthen public health security.

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