When Barack Obama travels to Hiroshima on May 27, he will be the first sitting US President to visit the site of one of two instances in human history where a nuclear weapon was used. Over 70 years have passed, but the reverberation from the "rain of ruin" unleashed on August 6, 1945 remains....
Retired Marine General James E. Cartwright, who from 2004-2007 oversaw the US nuclear arsenal as commander of USSTRATCOM, believes that there are three existential threats humanity faces today: a major asteroid strike, a worldwide pandemic, and nuclear weapons....
Next week marks the second anniversary of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactors in Japan. Remember? The days and weeks we collectively crossed our fingers as heroic workers improvised and threw everything they could at melting reactors and damaged spent fuel pools to stave off disaster...
With a new year come exciting opportunities to expand your knowledge of nuclear issues. Since you have probably read through last year’s list (well done!) and our summer list (kudos!), we’re providing you with a brand new list to satisfy your reading resolution for 2013. Covering diverse topics from Hiroshima manga (Japanese graphic novels) to the development of the bomb in Pakistan there is something to satisfy the nuclear wonk in everyone.
Say what you will about North Korea. It’s “backwards,” impoverished, isolated, led by an enigmatic, secretive leader, or even that it is “the land of no smiles” whose people live a life on the edge of survival.
Nuclear terrorism ranks at the top of many national security experts lists of possible nightmares. It’s hard to overstate the damage that could be caused by even a small nuclear weapon in one of the world’s major population centers. But just as terrorism has become a global phenomenon, efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism has to be a global effort. Thankfully, it is.
Anniversaries have a way of generating reflection and re-assessment, and that is a good thing. But next week’s anniversary of the Fukushima catastrophe risks missing a huge piece of the story – that ALL things nuclear are inherently risky and that our assumptions about how we can control them need to be rethought.
