Op-Ed | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Turkey's nuclear ambitions

Aaron Stein — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:08:45 -0400

This month Turkey and Japan agreed to begin exclusive negotiations on constructing four nuclear power reactors at Sinop on the Black Sea. The deal marks the start of Turkey's second nuclear power project, after it reached a similar deal three years ago with a Russian consortium to construct four reactors at Akkuyu near the Mediterranean.

Paying for the great urbanization of China

Hal Harvey — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:27:17 -0400

Consider the impact Pierre L'Enfant had when he laid out Washington, DC, or when Robert Moses worked his plans for New York, or when Daniel Burnham designed Chicago. These planners set patterns that have affected us ever since: They significantly determined how we get around, how our work and home lives connect, whether we live in welcoming neighborhoods, how much traffic congestion we suffer, and more. Their influence reaches into the industrial metabolism as well, as design choices affect our energy and material consumption. And the patterns persist for many decades.

Lessons not learned: Insider threats in pathogen research

Derrin Culp — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:54:38 -0400

In the classic film Dr. Strangelove, Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper was the ultimate insider threat. As the nuclear-armed B-52s that Ripper unilaterally dispatched proceeded toward their Soviet targets, the American president confronted Air Force Gen. Buck Turgidson in exasperation: "When you instituted the human reliability tests, you assured me there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring." To which Turgidson replied, "Well, I don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir."

Disarmament and the pro-life movement: A match made in heaven?

Russ Wellen — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:46:38 -0400

They identify with different ends of the political spectrum, but nuclear disarmament activists and anti-abortion protesters have something in common: A desire to protect innocent life.

That shared interest represents a major opportunity that disarmament activists are letting slip by. Though nuclear weapons pose as great a danger to the planet as ever, the disarmament movement has flagged since the end of the Cold War. It can and should reinvigorate itself by recruiting anti-abortion Christians.

The thin red line

Charles P. Blair — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:04:18 -0400

Both opposition forces and the Syrian government have alleged that chemical weapons were used in last Tuesday's attack on the village of Khan al-Assal, bringing to the fore one of the most potentially far-reaching of the many dangers that have arisen during Syria's civil war. Now entering its third year, the Syrian revolt -- by far the longest uprising of the Arab Spring -- is the first in history that threatens to violently topple a government armed with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

The meaning of Halabja

Jean Pascal Zanders — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:06:49 -0400

Halabja is a name etched in the history of chemical warfare. There are few documented instances of deliberate chemical weapons attacks against civilian communities; the one that Saddam Hussein's forces made against the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja 25 years ago is the largest. Human Rights Watch recorded more than 3,200 immediate fatalities, with many more Kurdish citizens exposed to clouds of poisonous gas.

A proposed endgame for the Iranian nuclear crisis

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:40:33 -0500

After a long hiatus, the Godot of US-Iran diplomacy may finally arrive in 2013, in light of the reciprocal overture at the recent Munich Security Conference, featuring the signs of a new approach to Iran articulated by Vice President Joe Biden.

Iran centrifuge magnet story technically questionable

Yousaf Butt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:12:53 -0500

Last week, the Washington Post reported that "purchase orders obtained by nuclear researchers show an attempt by Iranian agents to buy 100,000 … ring-shaped magnets" and that such "highly specialized magnets used in centrifuge machines … [are] a sign that the country may be planning a major expansion of its nuclear program." As evidence, the Post's Jo

Scientists and an atomic subcontinent

Pervez Hoodbhoy — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:35:09 -0500

In India and Pakistan, leaders have rarely weighed the consequences of their actions. Instead, they have simply reacted to events and circumstances.

The Arctic as a bridge

Jayantha Dhanapala — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:40:17 -0500

No country owns the North Pole or the expanse of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The Arctic region has a population of about 4 million, including more than 30 distinct groups of indigenous people using dozens of languages; they have lived there for more than 10,000 years. The area also has a unique and diverse ecosystem that includes fish, marine mammals, birds, land animals, and a thriving web of bacteria, viruses, algae, worms, and crustaceans that live in sea ice.

Iron Dome: Behind the hoopla, a familiar story of missile-defense hype

Subrata Ghoshroy — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:15:50 -0500

Since an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire was announced in November, Israel's Iron Dome system has been hailed as proof that missile defense has emerged from the realm of the theoretical and assumed the status of a real battlefield weapon. It's also been called a game changer for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The verdict is in, crowed Max Boot, a defense expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York: "Missile defense works."

DIY graphic design

Yousaf Butt — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:57:50 -0500

This week the Associated Press reported that unnamed officials "from a country critical of Iran's nuclear program" leaked an illustration to demonstrate that "Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima." The article stated that these officials provided the undated diagram "to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted."

Armageddon 2.0

Fred Guterl — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:09:19 -0500

The world lived for half a century with the constant specter of nuclear war and its potentially devastating consequences. The end of the Cold War took the potency out of this Armageddon scenario, yet the existential dangers have only multiplied.

The life and legacy of Moscow’s science center

Glenn E. Schweitzer — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:54:37 -0500

"The Russian Government informs you of its intention to terminate the provisional application of the agreement on the International Science and Technology Center and withdraw from the associated protocol." So read a diplomatic note to the United States, the European Union, Japan, and other interested parties in July 2011.

UK nuclear veterans timed out?

Sue Roff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:56:25 -0400

Sixty years ago, on October 3, 1952, Britain became an atomic power. More than 22,000 UK servicemen and a handful of women participated in British nuclear tests in the 1950s. There were another 10,000 or so participants who hailed from Commonwealth countries, especially Australia, which was home to the first three test sites, the Monte Bello Islands off the country's northwest coast, Emu Field on the mainland in South Australia, and the thinly populated Maralinga area of South Australia.

Israel and the WMD-free zone: Has Israel closed the door?

Emily B. Landau — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:28:28 -0400

Last week, Israel's influential paper, Haaretz, led its front page with a rather decisive headline: "Israel rejects US-backed Arab plan for conference on nuclear-free Mideast." The problem, however, is that the country announced no such decision.

The astonishing National Academy of Sciences missile defense report

George N. Lewis — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:14:17 -0400

Just a few weeks ago, on September 11, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report titled "Making Sense of Ballistic Missile Defense: an Assessment of Concepts and Systems for US Boost Phase Missile Defense in Comparison to Other Alternatives." It is an astonishing document, given that it purports to be the product of a respectable scientific institution. It contains numerous flawed assumptions, analytical oversights, and internal inconsistencies.

Japan’s culture: Culprit of the nuclear accident?

Toshihiro Higuchi — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:00:07 -0400

On July 5, an independent investigative commission established by the Japanese Diet issued its final report on the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Hailed as the definitive word on the subject thus far, the report points to what it calls the "fundamental causes" of the disaster, all of them cultural.

Letter from Pakistan: How an unfair non-proliferation regime undermines nuclear security

Zahir Kazmi — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:06:31 -0400

In a September 1967 speech, V.C. Trivedi, the Indian Ambassador to an early UN arms control effort known as the Eighteen Nations Committee on Disarmament, said that developing countries could tolerate nuclear weapons apartheid, but not an atomic apartheid that prevented them from attaining the economic progress that civilian nuclear power can bring. Regrettably, today's global nonproliferation architecture is being applied with such selectivity that it can truly be called the neo-nuclear apartheid.

Conspiracy of silence: The irresponsible politics of climate change

Robert J. Brulle — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:18:23 -0400

In a summer dominated by heat waves and a devastating nationwide drought, it would seem that climate change would be a major issue in the US presidential campaign. However, quite the opposite is happening. Neither President Barack Obama nor the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, has focused any attention on this critical issue.