This post is from December 2005. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

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Leap Year Will Not Cause Nuclear War


Phew!

From the “good to know” category.

The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces assure us that the extra second being added to 2005 (leap second) is no problem:

28/12/2005 13:20 MOSOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti) – The extra second being added to 2005 to make up for the slowing down of the Earth’s rotation, will not affect the operation of the Russian Strategic Missile Force, its press office said Wednesday.

The New Year in Russia and throughout the world will be ushered in one second later.

Yevgeny Fedoseyev, the head of time service at Russia’s Sternberg Astronomical Institute, said scientists throughout the world would correct the time December 31 by adding one second to the end of the day.

“This will be a state correction across the world, including Russia,” Fedoseyev said.

For more about Russian nuclear forces, I highly recommend Pavel Podvig’s sensibly titled blog, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

All posts by Jeffrey Lewis