Workers at PANTEX dismantled the last B53 nuclear gravity bomb, a nine-megaton behemoth affectionately known as the “Crowd Pleaser.” It sheer size and unfathomable explosive power — 600 Hiroshimas! — are so difficult to comprehend that one can’t help think…
Reporters are calling around town inquiring about this site, which is located at 36°30’33.99″N, 40°46’34.75″E near the town of Al Hasaka in Syria (sometimes transliterated as Hasakah or Hasekeh). The facility is said to be of some interest to the…
The other day, I posted a picture of an Iranian give-away at the IAEA General Conference — a laser-pointer shaped like a centrifuge. Another reader, who also must remain anonymous, sent along this image of the booth. Gosh, that’s a…
Readers know that I yield to no one in my love of atomic schwag. A colleague, who sadly must remain anonymous, snapped this picture of a giveaway from the IAEA General Conference held last month. Yes, the Islamic Republic of…
Jack Murphy and several colleagues at SAIC have released a very interesting paper that uses a variety of geospatial and seismic data to locate the 2006 and 2009 nuclear explosions conducted by the DPRK, as well as estimate the yield…
At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June, outgoing-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dropped a little bombshell: With the continued development of long-range missiles and potentially a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile and their continued development of nuclear weapons, North Korea…
Several readers have mentioned a piece that Bridge Colby and I wrote in The Diplomat (“How To Worry Kim Jong Il”) arguing that the Obama Administration should seriously consider modifying the B83 to hold at risk certain targets in North…
I really hate putting public service announcements on the blog, in part because there are so many worthwhile causes. Still, I make an exception every now and again. Friday, September 30 is the deadline for two really important opportunities. First,…
“urumqi – best lamb kebabs ever! And that’s ￥1.50 (or $0.20) per stick!” Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, August 2005 Photo credit and caption: Flickr User Cåsver Now that Fox News has released several of the documents that AQ Khan gave to…
Micah Morrison at Fox News, with the cooperation of Simon Henderson, has published the set of documents that AQ Khan provided to Henderson including (1) his so-called “confession” (which is hardly contrite and probably better described as a “statement“), (2)…
