Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Volume 69 Issue 5

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September/October
2013
Volume: 69
Page count: 81
Issue external URL: Link

Interview

1 September 2013
Interview

Siegfried S. Hecker: The story of Plutonium Mountain

In this interview, former Los Alamos National Laboratory director Siegfried S. Hecker details one of the world’s great nonproliferation stories—the effort to secure the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan.

The Cyber Issue

1 September 2013
The Cyber Issue

Eyes wide shut: The growing threat of cyber attacks on industrial control systems

Joel F. Brenner

Despite a series of well-publicized cyber attacks in recent years, few companies have taken the steps necessary to isolate industrial control systems and sensitive information, and to limit the damage an attack can inflict. 

1 September 2013

Who controls cyberspace?

Nazli ChoucriDavid D. Clark

As the international system and the empowered non-state groups and individuals of cyberspace shape one another, the potential collisions of law, policy, and the practice of governance have barely even been identified—it it time that the international community begin to understand how and where c

1 September 2013

The misunderstood acronym: Why cyber weapons aren't WMD

Joel Carr

As of now, the author writes, there is no evidence to support a claim that cyber weapons meet the legal and historical definitions of weapons of mass destruction.

1 September 2013

The code not taken: China, the United States, and the future of cyber espionage

Adam Segal

Both China and the United States have a common interest in protecting national infrastructure from third-party attacks, but neither appears willing to give up cyber espionage.

1 September 2013

From bombs to bytes: Can our nuclear history inform our cyber future?

Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

In this essay, the author argues that cyber war does not pose the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons do. 

Features

1 September 2013
Features

Easing sanctions on Iran might someday be necessary—but it won't be easy

Navid HassibiTom Sauer

Reviewing decades of sanctions on Iran, the authors write that a diplomatic resolution should be the approach to resolving the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. 

1 September 2013
Features

Easing sanctions on Iran might someday be necessary--but it won't be easy

Navid HassibiTom Sauer

Reviewing decades of sanctions on Iran, the authors write that a diplomatic resolution should be the approach to resolving the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.

1 September 2013
Features

Nuclear denial: From Hiroshima to Fukushima

Charles Perrow

Governments and the nuclear power industry have a strong interest in playing down the harmful effects of radiation from atomic weapons and nuclear power plants.

1 September 2013
Features

Nanotechnology in Japan: A route to energy security after Fukushima?

Hitoshi NasuThomas Faunce

In post-Fukushima Japan, the authors review the recent shift in the nation's Japan’s nanotechnology policy and regulation, analyzing policy documents and government guidelines as well as interviews with prominent scientists and government officials.

Nuclear notebook

1 September 2013
Nuclear notebook

Global nuclear weapons inventories, 1945-2013

Hans M. KristensenRobert S. Norris

The authors calculate that some 125,000 nuclear warheads have been built since 1945, about 97 percent of them by the United States and the Soviet Union and Russia.