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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.

Video: Top Secret Nuclear Bunker

2008-12-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

ABC News aired a segment on West Virginia's Greenbrier Hotel that housed a Top Secret Government Nuclear Bunker.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SmartHome/story?id=6136250

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

2008-11-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

One rainy night eight years ago, in Watertown, Massachusetts, a man was taking his dog for a walk. On the curb, in front of a neighbor's house, he spotted a pile of trash: old mattresses, cardboard boxes, a few broken lamps. Amidst the garbage he caught sight of a battered suitcase. He bent down, turned the case on its side and popped the clasps.

He was surprised to discover that the suitcase was full of black-and-white photographs. He was even more astonished by their subject matter: devastated buildings, twisted girders, broken bridges - snapshots from an annihilated city. He quickly closed the case and made his way back home.

At the kitchen table, he looked through the photographs again and confirmed what he had suspected. He was looking at something he had never seen before: the effects of the first use of the Atomic bomb. The man was looking at Hiroshima.

In a dispassionate and scientific style, the seven hundred and one photographs inside the suitcase catalogued a city seared by a new form of warfare. The origin and purpose of the photographs were a mystery to the man who found them that night. Now, over sixty years after the bombing of Hiroshima, their story can be told. more...

Securing the Bomb 2008

2008-11-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Nuclear Threat Initiative has released its annual "Securing the Bomb" report, which focuses largely on what the federal government is doing and needs to do to reduce the chance of nuclear terrorism. [via Armchair Generalist]

K-25 demolition may start in December

2008-11-18T16:02:00.000-08:00

Bechtel Jacobs could begin demolition of the west wing of the K-25 building by mid-December, if the readiness reviews turn out OK. That's the latest word from the Dept. of Energy.

[via Knoxville News]

House approves nuclear pact with India

2008-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

The House voted overwhelmingly Saturday to approve a landmark pact that would allow the U.S. to provide nuclear materials to India.

The deal still faces major obstacles in the Senate, making prospects uncertain for passage before President Bush leaves office in January. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate would vote on the accord in the week ahead, possibly Monday.

The House approved the measure by 298-117 without debate in an unusual Saturday session. The accord reverses three decades of U.S. policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian reactors.

Critics say the initiative sends the wrong message to countries like Iran as they pursue atomic programs. India built its bombs outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which provides civilian nuclear trade in exchange for a pledge from nations not to pursue nuclear weapons.

India has refused to sign nonproliferation agreements and has faced a nuclear trade ban since its first atomic test in 1974.

The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries that supply nuclear material and technology agreed this month to lift the ban on civilian nuclear trade with India after contentious talks and some concessions to countries fearful it could set a dangerous precedent. [via msnbc.com]

U.N. tells Iran: Stop enrichment

2008-09-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a new resolution Saturday reaffirming previous sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program and offering Tehren incentives to do so.

The brief document reaffirmed the three earlier Security Council sanctions resolutions, which imposed progressively tougher sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program. [via msnbc.com]

Rosenberg testimony ordered released

2008-09-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

A judge ordered the release of key secret grand jury testimony in the atomic spy trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, citing its value to historians in the debate over national security versus freedom.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein pertained to witnesses whose sealed testimony was taken in 1950 and 1952. The witnesses are still alive but have not consented to the release or could not be located.

The Rosenbergs were convicted of passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union and were executed in 1953. Since then, decoded Soviet cables have appeared to confirm that Julius Rosenberg was a spy, but doubts have remained about Ethel Rosenberg’s involvement.

The judge gave the government two months to appeal. [via MSNBC.com]

A error in Ken Burns' War

2008-07-25T17:47:00.001-07:00

I finally had a chance to watch Ken Burns' epic War. As I was watching the 6th and final DVD, the narrator stated that after the dropping of Fat Man on Nagasaki that "America had no more such bombs, and would be unable to produce any for several months"

What?! I knew that was incorrect. I could not recall the actual delay. I thought it was about 1- 2 weeks at worst, but months?

So, asked Stan Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb, if he could recall when the third bomb would be ready. He replied

On August 10 General Groves informed General Marshall that a bomb would be ready for delivery on the first suitable weather after 17 or 18 August (See Racing, p. 424)

There were other bombs being prepared beyond that third one, if the need should arise.

It was disappointing to hear this error. I wonder what other errors might have slipped into the film.

Iran won't cooperate with U.N. on inquiry into nuclear program

2008-07-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

Iran signaled yesterday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.

Iran, which is obligated as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty not to develop nuclear arms, raised suspicions about its intentions when it admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret nuclear program for nearly two decades in violation of its commitment.

The Tehran regime insists it halted such work and is now only trying to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It agreed on a "work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations that Iran is still doing weapons work.

Britain, one of those suspicious of Iran's nuclear activities, was critical.

"work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations that Iran is still doingWe are concerned by reports that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the IAEA on allegations over nuclear weapons,"work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations that Iran is still doing the British Foreign Office said in a statement. "work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations that Iran is still doingThe IAEA has raised serious concerns over Iran's activities with a possible military dimension. If Iran is serious about restoring international confidence in its intentions, it must address these issues."work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations that Iran is still doing

The IAEA asked in vain for explanations from Iran, and its last report in May said Iran might be withholding information on whether it tried to make nuclear arms. [via Union Tribune]

Nap time in the silo?

2008-07-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

Three hree ballistic missile crew members fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices. The incident occurred at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Minot is home to 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (range 6,000+ miles) and a wing of B-52H bombers armed with gravity bombs, air-launched cruise missiles and stealth advanced cruise missiles.

An investigation by military and National Security Agency experts into the latest incident found that the missile launch codes were outdated and remained secure at all times.

Air Force Colonel Dewey Ford, a spokesman at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said: "This was just a procedural violation that we investigated. We determined that there was no compromise." US officials said the three officers were behind locked doors and had the old code components, large classified devices that allow the crew to communicate with the missiles, with them.

He said the Minot-based crew had code devices that were no longer usable because new codes had been installed in the missiles.

But the lapse on July 12 was serious enough to prompt an investigation by the 91st Missile Wing, in conjunction with codes experts at the 20th Air Force, US Strategic Command and the National Security Agency. [via The Independent]