26 Senators Push for Increased Nuclear Security

On the radar: Senators call out backwards budget priorities; IAEA and Iran making headway; the Pits; About NATO’s nukes; Intellectual freedom at National Labs; Israel’s expanding nuclear capability; Is arms control really dead; and the Tallest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi.

August 19, 2014 | Edited by Geoff Wilson and Benjamin Loehrke

26 Senators - “Citing the dangers to U.S. national security posed by terrorists and rogue states seeking nuclear weapons, a bipartisan group of 26 senators sent a letter last week to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Shaun Donovan, calling on the President to support increased funding in the FY2016 budget to more rapidly secure and permanently dispose of nuclear and radiological materials. The letter comes in response to the President’s proposals in recent years to decrease funding for nuclear material security and nonproliferation programs.”

--Led by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), “the senators indicated that unsecured nuclear material poses unacceptably high risks to the safety of Americans and argued that the rate at which nuclear and radiological materials are secured and permanently disposed of must be accelerated. The senators expressed concern that cutting funds would slow what has been a successful process of elimination and reduction of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium in the international community. In just the last five years, nuclear security and non-proliferation programs such as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) have proven successful in eliminating HEU and separated plutonium from 13 countries, including Ukraine.” Press release here. http://1.usa.gov/1sS2Nvr

--Read the full letter here. (pdf) http://1.usa.gov/1oWUM0M

IAEA on Iran - “The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said on Monday Iran had begun implementing transparency measures ahead of an Aug 25 deadline, as part of a long-running investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Tehran,” reports Fredrik Dahl for Reuters. “Yukiya Amano, speaking at Vienna airport after talks with President Hassan Rouhani in the Iranian capital, said he expected progress by next Monday over the five steps the country agreed three months ago.”

--“They include providing information about two issues that are part of the U.N. nuclear agency's inquiry into what it calls the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is entirely peaceful. Amano's comments suggested some increased optimism after his meetings in Iran on Sunday, but it remained unclear whether it would meet next week's target date. Diplomatic sources last month said the U.N. watchdog was worried about slow headway in the nuclear probe.” Read the full report here. http://reut.rs/1pHUPlW

Pits report - “Manufacturing Nuclear Weapon “Pits”: A Decisionmaking Approach for Congress” by Jonathan Medalia for the Congressional Research Service. August 14, 2014. (pdf) http://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R43685.pdf

Arguments for keeping NATO’s nukes - “With Russia continuing to support forces that are seeking to destabilize Ukraine and taking unsettling actions in both the Baltics and the Balkans, this is no time to destabilize the NATO alliance and traumatize our NATO allies by withdrawing our nuclear weapons from Europe,” write Brent Scowcroft, Stephen Hadley and Franklin Miller in The Washington Post. http://wapo.st/1pXVKOf

Tweet - @Cirincione: For why nukes in Europe are obsolete, see Blechman & Rumbaugh's definitive analysis, @ForeignAffairs: http://t.co/E69uTi08K7

Tweet - @nukes_of_hazard: For different view than Scowcroft/Hadley/Miller on Euro tac nukes, see http://t.co/GthXVjGqn4 http://t.co/fV7QudGHCr

Not dead, but at risk - “In this worsening climate of great-power tension and mistrust, the nuclear arms-control regime long in place between the United States and Russia is in danger. And without it, efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, or at least limit their role in international affairs, are also in trouble,” writes Will Hobart in The National Interest.

--“If the arms-control mechanisms between the United States and Russia collapse, then the world loses its ability—and crucially, the example—to properly interpret and recognize nuclear intentions. We, therefore, need new causes for their reinvigoration, and preferably not borne out of nuclear crisis.” Full article here. http://bit.ly/1pHQvmQ

From the anti-arms control crowd - “Russia Always Cheats on Arms Treaties” by Keith B. Payne and Mark B. Scheider for The Wall Street Journal. http://on.wsj.com/1oMi27r

Checking assumptions - “What if deterrence doesn’t work any more?” asks Loren Thompson in Forbes. He gives five reasons to worry: irrational enemies, limited information, elusive enemies, misreading enemies and Washington’s waning resolve.

--“Rather than waiting for the next time deterrence fails, as it inevitably will, Washington needs to think in more concrete ways about how to protect the nation against the military threats it faces,” Thompson concludes. Full article here. http://onforb.es/1pFEX3g

National labs and intellectual freedom - “Los Alamos may be a government laboratory with lots of classified secrets, but it also guarantees its researchers intellectual freedom on a par with that enjoyed by university professors,” writes Michael Hiltzik for the Los Angeles Times. “Political scientist James Doyle says that freedom was violated when he was fired last month after questioning U.S. nuclear weapons doctrine in a published article.”

--“Doyle should be reinstated. Los Alamos should codify its classification system so its researchers have clear guidance and the murky rules can't be used to punish and retaliate. And perhaps most important, Doyle's analysis should be heeded. The U.S. government's nuclear doctrine must be updated to the 21st century. Mutually assured deterrence doesn't work against the non-state groups that pose the greatest threat to national security. More than ever, a world awash with nuclear weapons is in peril.” Full story here. http://lat.ms/1puuhUZ

Israel’s Dolphins - Israel is “investing heavily in growing its submarine fleet. It’s a reflection of Tel Aviv’s increasing reliance on the underwater boats for a range of operations — including nuclear deterrence,” writes Robert Beckhusen for War is Boring. “Right now, three Dolphin II-class submarines are under construction at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems shipyards in Kiel. Once the submarines complete their trials and head towards the Mediterranean, they will become the most powerful Israeli submarines ever.” Read the full report here. http://bit.ly/1tga99C

Tower of boom - “For more than 40 years, the BREN Tower at the U.S. government’s atomic warfare playground in Nevada held the record as the tallest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi River,” writes Steve Weintz for War is Boring. “Its 1,527-foot height topped the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building… [and] was the result of an unusual requirement. Its height equaled the detonation altitude of Little Boy—the first nuclear weapon—when it exploded above downtown Hiroshima.”

--“The tower allowed American and Japanese scientists to precisely simulate the radiation exposure of thousands of atom bomb survivors. Although scientists scrutinized the aftermath of the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs, wartime circumstances and catastrophic damage left many uncertainties about the effects of radiation on the people exposed to the bombings. Twenty years after the explosion, the U.S. government set out on a major experiment to carefully measure the dosages Hiroshima victims received from the blast. To assist the experiment, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a small, unshielded nuclear reactor which NTS engineers mounted atop the huge spindly tower.

--”[with the] reactor beaming out radiation and contaminating the surrounding buildings and mannequins, the scientists collected precise exposure data unavailable in the days and years after the explosion… the experiment was a bit morbid, but the data helped scientists on both sides of the Pacific better understand the long-term health effects of nuclear weapons. Studies of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to this day—even as those exposed to the bombs’ effects reach the end of their lives.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/1p9XXqZ

Quick-hits:

--“Why America Doesn’t Need All Its Nukes… and It Can’t Afford Them Either” by Kingston Reif for Real Clear Defense. http://bit.ly/1tkm9Ge

--“Frequent Flyer Diplomacy and the Plane to Pyongyang” By Jeffrey Lewis for Foreign Policy. http://atfp.co/1yVqT6V

--“Remarks at the Annual Deterrence Symposium” by Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security. http://1.usa.gov/1oOAEhi

--“Essay: Censorship, Police Intimidation at Missile Defense Conference” by Marcus Weisgerber for Defense News. http://bit.ly/1qjXE9j