Hui Zhang

A physicist, Zhang is leading a research initiative on China's nuclear policies for Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. His expertise is in both China's nuclear policy and nuclear arms control. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies.

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Articles by Hui Zhang

Analysis
22 April 2013
Nuclear Energy

China moves cautiously ahead on nuclear energy

Hui ZhangShangui Zhao

From 2005 to 2011, China rapidly developed its nuclear power capacity. In 2010 alone, it began operations at two new reactors and broke ground on 10 more, accounting for more than 60 percent of new reactor construction worldwide and making the Chinese nuclear industry by far the fastest-growing in the world. By the end of 2010, China had 14 nuclear reactors in operation with a total capacity of about 11 gigawatts electric, or GWe.

Analysis
25 October 2012
Nuclear Energy

Advancing China's nuclear security

Hui Zhang

China, like all nuclear weapon states, bears a responsibility to provide leadership in nuclear security issues. But China's strategy for securing its nuclear weapons -- and the complex of facilities where fissile material for weapons is fabricated and stored -- has so far remained largely opaque.

1 July 2012
Features

How US restraint can keep China’s nuclear arsenal small

Hui Zhang
Opinion
16 January 2012
Nuclear Weapons

The defensive nature of China's "underground great wall"

Hui Zhang

There has been a lot of prominent discussion lately (in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, among other places) about the size of China's nuclear arsenal, based on a study by Georgetown University professor Phillip Karber, "Strategic Implications of China's Underground

Opinion
23 July 2009
Nuclear Weapons

Is North Korea's reprocessing facility operating?

Hui Zhang

In response to a U.N. resolution punishing its nuclear test on May 25, North Korea defiantly threatened on June 13 to weaponize all of its newly separated plutonium. Pyongyang also declared, "More than one-third of the spent fuel rods has been reprocessed to date." However, recent off-site air samples and satellite imagery suggest that North Korea's reprocessing facility isn't operating, casting doubt on Pyongyang's statements. But is it possible that North Korea's reprocessing facility could be in use without detection?

Opinion
18 June 2009
Nuclear Weapons

Assessing North Korea's uranium enrichment capabilities

Hui Zhang

As retaliation against tighter U.N. sanctions, on Saturday North Korea defiantly threatened to expand its nuclear arsenal and begin a program of uranium enrichment--a threat it first made in response to U.N. condemnation of its early April rocket launch. Compared to North Korea's well-known plutonium production program, the nature of Pyongyang's highly enriched uranium (HEU) program is less clear.

Opinion
2 June 2009
Nuclear Weapons

The North Korean nuclear test: The Chinese reaction

Hui Zhang

On the morning of May 25, many schools in northeast China were evacuated because of the earthquake caused by the North Korea nuclear test. The epicenter of the earthquake, registering 4.5 on the Richter scale, was just 180 kilometers away from those schools.

1 September 2005
Opinion

Article Commentary: Don't Blame Beijing

Hui Zhang
In its own way, China is actually trying to influence North Korea.
1 July 2001
Feature

Eyes in the Sky - Watching for Weapons Work

Hui ZhangFrank N. von Hippel
Commercial satellites can be used to pick up many of the telltale signs of fissile material production.