atomicarchive.com Nuclear News

U.S., Russia reach deal on cutting nuclear arsenals

2010-03-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed on Friday to a sharp cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both nations in the most comprehensive arms control treaty in two decades.

Obama said the pact, to be signed April 8 in Prague, was part of his effort to "reset" relations with Russia and a step on a path toward "the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."

The agreement would require both sides to reduce their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by about a third, from 2,200 now to 1,500 each. The pact, replacing and expanding a 1991 treaty that expired in December, was a gesture toward improved U.S.-Russian relations that have been badly frayed.

Iran said to seek big changes to draft nuclear deal

2009-10-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Iran formally responded to a U.N. draft nuclear fuel deal on Thursday, proposing big changes that could sink the plan, including sending its low-enriched uranium abroad in stages instead of all at once, Iranian media reported.

Tehran submitted its answer to the head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), according to al Alam state television. There was no immediate confirmation from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which had demanded a reply by last Friday.

Nor did Iran's IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, confirm the move when asked by reporters at the Vienna-based IAEA. He would only say that Iran's stance was "positive." [via Yahoo! News]

Tourist Trip To Halabiye

2009-10-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

From ArmsControlWonk

As you might know, close to the reactor there is an old Byzantine fortress called Halabiye (Frank Pabian mentioned it in his presentation). Tourists only seldom visit Halabiye, but still some travel-guides mention it, so a visit to the fortress was not too obvious. I tried to see how close I could get to the reactor, in the end I was 1.5 km away.

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2514/tourist-trip-to-halabiye

Iran Set to Respond to Atomic Deal this Week - Associated Press

2009-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency will present Tehran's position on a draft nuclear fuel deal in Vienna on Thursday, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday. Mehr, citing an informed source, said Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh would personally give Iran's response to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
[via Reuters and Morning Joe]

Iran fails to accept U.N.-drafted nuclear deal

2009-10-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Iran Friday failed to accept a U.N.-drafted plan for it to cut a stockpile of nuclear fuel that the West fears could be used for weapons, and instead said it wanted to buy nuclear fuel from abroad.

The deal drafted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already been approved by the other parties -- the United States, Russia and France. [via Yahoo! News]

August 2009 IAEA Reports on Iran, Syria

2009-09-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

August 2009 IAEA Reports on Iran and Syria. Commentary available at armscontrolwonk.com

Rachel Maddow: Her Intelligence is Right.

2009-09-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you missed Rachel Maddow's interview with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on August 31, then take a moment and at least read this from Joe Cirincione's blog.

Africa Is Now Officially A Zone Free Of Nuclear Weapons

2009-08-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

Thirteen years after it officially opened for signature, the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) has finally come into force with the twenty-eighth deposit of its ratification instrument by Burundi on 15 July 2009.

Entry-into-force of the Treaty of Pelindaba confirms Africa’s resolve to strengthen the global nuclear weapon-free regime and contribute to international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation processes, as was stressed by the AU’s Peace and Security Council in 2006. In addition, the declaration of Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) means that the entire southern hemisphere is now nuclear weapons free.

Like other NWFZ treaties, the Treaty of Pelindaba, includes protocols for the five Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) to sign. To date, the United Kingdom, France and China have signed and ratified these Protocols, but the Russian Federation and the United States are yet to ratify. By adhering to the Protocols, NWS commit themselves to respecting the status of the zone. [via Institute for Security Studies]

Hiroshima: The Big Picture

2009-08-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, August 6th, marks 64 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan by the United States at the end of World War II. Targeted for military reasons and for its terrain (flat for easier assessment of the aftermath), Hiroshima was home to approximately 250,000 people at the time of the bombing. The U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber "Enola Gay" took off from Tinian Island very early on the morning of August 6th, carrying a single 4,000 kg (8,900 lb) uranium bomb codenamed "Little Boy". At 8:15 am, Little Boy was dropped from 9,400 m (31,000 ft) above the city, freefalling for 57 seconds while a complicated series of fuse triggers looked for a target height of 600 m (2,000 ft) above the ground. At the moment of detonation, a small explosive initiated a super-critical mass in 64 kg (141 lbs) of uranium. Of that 64 kg, only .7 kg (1.5 lbs) underwent fission, and of that mass, only 600 milligrams was converted into energy - an explosive energy that seared everything within a few miles, flattened the city below with a massive shockwave, set off a raging firestorm and bathed every living thing in deadly radiation. Nearly 70,000 people are believed to have been killed immediately, with possibly another 70,000 survivors dying of injuries and radiation exposure by 1950. Today, Hiroshima houses a Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum near ground zero, promoting a hope to end the existence of all nuclear weapons.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/hiroshima_64_years_ago.html
http://www.hiroshima-remembered.com/photos/index.html

Nuclear Posture Review fact sheet

2009-07-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

DOD released a fact sheet on the Nuclear Posture Review: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20090602NPR.pdf

Confronting the Bomb published

2009-06-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book, Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford University Press). This book is a much-abbreviated version of the scholarly, award-winning Struggle Against the Bomb trilogy and is designed to be accessible to a much broader audience. Like the trilogy, Confronting the Bomb provides a comprehensive history of public activism against nuclear weapons, and concludes that this citizens' movement has played a central role in curbing the nuclear arms race and preventing nuclear war.

Lawrence S. Wittner is Professor of History at the State University of New York/Albany, and a former president of the Peace History Society. He is the author of numerous books on peace and foreign policy issues, including the Stanford University Press trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb: One World or None (1993), Resisting the Bomb (1997), and Toward Nuclear Abolition (2003).

North Korean Yield Revised

2009-05-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Jeff over at armscontrolwonk.com, has posted a nice set of estimates of the yield for the NORK test. They all cluster in an Mb range of 4.5-5.0 -- about 2-6 kilotons.

In depth analysis: North Korea

2009-05-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Project for the CTBT has a calculation from Martin Kalinowski:

The U.S. Geological Survey readings indicate a seismic body wave of magnitude of 4.7, which is larger as compared to the value of 4.1 ± 0.1 in 2006. According a preliminary assessment by Martin Kalinowski of the University of Hamburg, this corresponds to an explosive yield of about 3 to 8 kilotons TNT equivalent with a most likely yield of 4 kt. In 2006. The yield of the 2006 test explosion was approximately 0.5 to 0.8 kt TNT equivalent.

Here is Kalinowski's fact sheet.

For more wonky level coverage, make sure you follow Arms Control Wonk.

North Korea conducts a second nuclear test

2009-05-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed an atomic explosion at 9:54 a.m. (0054 GMT) in northeastern North Korea, estimating the blast's yield at 10 to 20 kilotons - comparable to the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Monday's atomic test was conducted about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of the northern city of Kilju, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said, speaking on state-run Rossiya television. Here is a Google Earth kmz of the test site.

Kilju, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, is where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.

Pyongyang is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half-dozen atomic bombs. However, experts say scientists have not yet mastered the miniaturization needed to mount a nuclear device onto a long-range missile.

Hours later, the regime test-fired three short-range, ground-to-air missiles, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. U.N. Security Council resolutions bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile-related activity. [via MSNBC.com and Arms Control Wonk]

Herbert York Passes

2009-05-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Dr. Herbert York, the first director of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, died on May 19, 2009 of leukemia. In addition, Dr. York served as Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, from 1961 to 1964, and again from 1970 to 1972.

Additionally, York has written some 75 articles and several books, including Race to Oblivion: A Participant's View of the Arms Race. His awards include the E.O. Lawrence Prize (1964), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1972-73), and the American Physical Society's Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest (1994). In 2000, President Clinton named him a recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award for his efforts and contributions in nuclear deterrence and arms-control agreements.

I had the pleasure of hearing speak a few years ago at UCSD on Physicists, the Bomb and the Development of U.S. Science Policy. That event can be viewed here.

7 (Crazy) Civilian Uses for Nuclear Bombs

2009-04-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Saw this article on Wired.com and thought I would share it.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/yourfriendatom.html

North Korea quits nuclear talks

2009-04-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

North Korea said on Tuesday it would quit international nuclear disarmament talks and restart a plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium after the United Nations chastised it for launching a long-range rocket.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned North Korea's launch on April 5 as contravening a U.N. ban, and demanded enforcement of existing sanctions against Pyongyang.

Prickly North Korea said in a Foreign Ministry statement that the U.N. action and separate six-country nuclear talks were an infringement of its sovereignty and it "will never participate in the (nuclear) talks any longer nor ... be bound to any agreement of the six-party talks." [via Yahoo! News]

A look inside Bushehr, Iran's nuclear facility

2009-02-26T14:51:00.000-08:00

MSNBC's Ali Arouzi takes a look inside Bushehr.

As we were bused from the airport in the southwestern coastal city of Bushehr toward Iran's nuclear power plant, the most noticeable feature was the large number of anti-aircraft guns dotted across the landscape to protect the facility from attack.

It was a rare occasion - after years of delays, Iranian and Russian engineers carried out a series of critical tests at Iran's first nuclear power plant Wednesday. The Iranian authorities offered a group of journalists a guided tour of the facility to showcase the event.

[via MSNBC.com]

K-25 demolition progress

2009-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

A lot of progress has been made at K-25 in the two months since demolition of the World War II-era facility began Dec. 16, with major sections of the west wing already on the ground. Over the next few years, dismantlement of the mile-long building -- the biggest building in the world at the time it was built -- will generate nearly 400,000 cubic yards of radioactive or hazardous waste.

Most of the contaminated rubble will be trucked to a nuclear landfill seven miles away on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation.

Pakistan says nuke scientist Khan is free citizen

2009-02-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

A Pakistan court declared disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan a "free citizen" on Friday after years of de facto house arrest because of his alleged role in leaking atomic weapons technology to countries including Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear program, took sole responsibility in 2004 for leaking the nuclear secrets but was immediately pardoned by former President Pervez Musharraf and placed under de facto house arrest.[via MSNBC.com]

PBS: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

2009-01-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

PBS's American Experience will be airing The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Robert Oppenheimer's life and legacy are inextricably linked to America's most famous top-secret initiative -- the Manhattan Project. But after World War II, this brilliant and intense scientist, tasked with the development of the atomic bomb and widely considered one of the most important minds of the twentieth century, fell from the innermost circles of American scientific policy. At the height of the Red Scare, the veil of suspicion fell over J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was accused of having communist sympathies and was pressed to explain his relationships with known communists.

This biography will present a complex and revealing portrait of one of the most influential American scientists. Interweaving interviews with family members, scholars and colleagues with dramatic recreations featuring Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, and The Bourne Ultimatum), this film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer on a fascinating arc from the heady world of international physics to the top-secret Manhattan Project, and finally to the dark days of the Red Scare and McCarthyism.

To find your local PBS station and the show, visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oppenheimer/

The carbon footprint of nuclear war

2009-01-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

Almost 700m tonnes of CO₂ would be released into the Earth's atmosphere by even the smallest nuclear conflict, according to a US study that compares the environmental costs of developing various power sources. [via The Guardian]

Doctor Atomic on PBS

2008-12-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET launches its third season on PBS with the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Doctor Atomic, John Adams’ powerful portrait of the physicist presiding over the creation of the atom bomb, Monday, December 29 at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings).

New Book - Defusing Armageddon

2008-12-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

Intelligence historian Jeffrey T. Richelson has a new book entitled "Defusing Armageddon". You might recognize the author, he wrote Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea. MSNBC has an article on the NEST team.

Hidden Travels of the Atomic Bomb

2008-12-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

An interesting article from the New York Times about the nuclear proliferation from a more scientific point of view.