Features | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

How can we reduce the risk of human extinction?

Anders Sandberg — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:53:05 -0700

In the early morning of September 10, the Large Hadron Collider will be tested for the first time amid concern that the device could create a blackhole that will destroy the Earth. If you're reading this afterwards, the Earth survived. Still, the event provides an opportunity to reflect on the possibility of human extinction.

Japan's struggle to limit illegal dual-use exports

Masako Toki — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:45:32 -0700

Recent revelations of illegal transfers of sensitive materials by Japanese companies has again highlighted the fact that controlling the spread of dual-use materials remains a daunting challenge--even for a country with an advanced export-control system such as Japan.

Internationalizing the nuclear fuel cycle

James E. Goodby — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:06:29 -0700

The rising demand for energy, especially in Asia, has made it all but inevitable that a surge in the construction of new nuclear reactors will occur over the next 20 years. That will pose issues regarding the building of new uranium enrichment and reprocessing facilities or the expansion of existing facilities.¹

Cleaning up Serbia's nuclear legacy

Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:06:08 -0700

The Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, located 9 miles from Belgrade, is Yugoslavia's oldest nuclear research institute. Established in 1948 as the Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, its efforts supposedly included an attempt to build a Yugoslav nuclear bomb. For almost 45 years, it collected Yugoslavia's and Serbia's radioactive waste.

Mixing climate change with the war on terror

Lyle Hopkins — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:13:46 -0700

Climate change and the war on terror mix like oil and water. Our understanding of climate change and its implications is built on hard science, which continues to grow in volume and refinement. It's a singular challenge on an order of magnitude that we've never encountered and solving it requires an unprecedented level of involvement and cooperation from all nations and people.

How the Georgia conflict impacts U.S.-Russian relations

Thomas R. Pickering — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:17:34 -0700

Georgia and the events surrounding it in the second week of August have marked a new and serious downturn in U.S.-Russian relations.

Technical comments on the U.S. satellite shootdown

Yousaf Butt — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:09:09 -0700

Editor's note: The opinions expressed below are solely those of the author and not his employer.

How to prevent the next biological agent attack

Randall Murch — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:35:32 -0700

The recent revelation that Bruce Ivins, a scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, was the likely perpetrator of the anthrax mailings was a welcome break in the case that has gone unsolved since October 2001.

The 2001 incidents prompted a series of studies, hearings, and policy changes regarding biodefense, and the federal government has spent considerable sums of money on programs and activities intended to respond to and protect against biological attacks. Only time will tell whether any of these efforts makes us better off.

India's nuclear fuel shortage

Surendra Gadekar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:39:56 -0700

India is suffering from a severe uranium fuel shortage due to a lack of domestic uranium, which has held up its ambitious nuclear energy program. Without uranium fuel, its existing reactors have run at partial capacity producing less electricity and new plants have been delayed repeatedly.

Polio eradication: The road to global pathogen security?

Jonathan B. Tucker — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:33:26 -0700

Given the rapid increase in the number of laboratories around the world that do research on diseases of bioterrorism concern, such as anthrax and plague, and emerging infections, such as SARS and avian influenza, there is an urgent need to prevent pathogenic microbes from escaping accidentally from a lab or being stolen by terrorists and criminals. With a few exceptions, dangerous bacteria and viruses can be isolated from nature, but different strains tend to vary widely in virulence, or the ability to cause illness and death.

OPEC, peak oil, and the end of cheap gas

Alfred Cavallo — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:45:47 -0700

Since the beginning of the modern oil age in 1859, pessimists have warned that the oil wells would soon dry up or that oil production would peak and not be able to keep up with ever-increasing demand. Again and again, the pessimists have been proven wrong, often embarrassingly so, as science and technology have allowed more oil to be extracted from existing fields and from deposits in more challenging locations such as the Arctic and the deepest waters of the continental shelf.

Deproliferation: An approach to preventing nuclear terrorism

Amitai Etzioni — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:50:38 -0700

Earlier this year, four senior statesmen--former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, all veterans of the Cold War--issued a statement in the Wall Street Journal calling for complete nuclear disarmament. It's an attractive vision, but an idea with little political reality.

Can space weapons protect U.S. satellites?

Yousaf Butt — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:07:01 -0700

Both presumptive presidential nominees--Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama--have called for strengthening and/or increasing the number of international treaties and institutions to combat proliferation should they be elected president. An important new pact for them to consider is an agreement that restricts the weaponization of space. Not only are space weapons expensive and provocative, they're also useless: They simply cannot protect us.

Biological threat reduction in Central Asia

Togzhan Kassenova — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:43:05 -0700

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union weaponized plague bacteria for possible use against the United States. Earlier this year, the deadly bacteria finally made its way into the country--albeit under peaceful circumstances. After five years of negotiation between U.S. and Kazakh officials, a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane transported samples of bubonic and pneumonic plague bacteria from laboratories in Kazakhstan to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado. U.S.

Britain's new nuclear abolitionists

Rebecca Johnson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:43:48 -0700

Britain now has its own "Four Statesmen." Following the example set by former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Georgia Democratic Sen.

Belarus takes a second look at nuclear energy

Anya Loukianova — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:49:00 -0700

When Unit Four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in the middle of the night on April 26, 1986, the resulting radioactive fallout contaminated the territory of three countries--Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Belarus in particular bore a heavy burden, as cesium and iodine particles spread across 23 percent of the country. The devastation forced the resettlement of thousands of Belarusian families and left a legacy of persistent medical and psychological problems, leading to a national allergy to all things nuclear.

The Indian approach to climate and energy policy

Divya Badami Rao — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:00 -0700

At the end of the thirteenth meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that took place in Bali last December, the Indian delegation was relieved, happy even.

COPUOS wades into the next great space debate

Theresa Hitchens — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:38:00 -0700

It is a well-worn cliché that the gears of international diplomacy grind at a glacial pace. Breakthroughs often are preceded by years of background work during which progress barely crawls forward. So, it is not surprising that this year's annual session of the Vienna-based U.N. Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) ended on June 20 without any decisions on the key question now bedeviling the global space community: How to ensure the long-term security of space operations in a more crowded, and more militarized, environment?

Deciphering NNSA's Complex Transformation

Ingrid Drake — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:44:00 -0700

To draw attention to Complex Transformation, its "vision for a smaller, safer, more secure, and less expensive nuclear weapons complex," in January, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that it had begun removing Category I and II special nuclear materials (SNM) from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the Savannah River Site--a task that the NNSA anticipates completing by the end of 2012 and would

The security impact of the neurosciences

Jonathan Y. Huang — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:39:00 -0700

In light of increased research into human brain function and cognition, some important questions have arisen: What are the implications of security-related applications of this research? What impact will this research and its applied technologies have globally? What international regimes could regulate the dual use or potential misuse of these technologies? Or will international regimes develop as a result?