317 posts
Glenn T. Seaborg knew about the Bomb from the inside out: he discovered plutonium, worked at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, served on the General Advisory Committee during the Truman administration, and accepted President Kennedy’s offer to become Chairman of the…
Whenever I give a public talk for a general audience, I always focus on the question, “Why is it okay for some countries to have nuclear weapons, but not for others?” Someone asked that question this morning on The Diane…
Maybe. Over at 38 North, I have a post up about North Korea’s boast that its scientists “succeeded in nuclear fusion reaction” and what that might mean for its stockpile of nuclear weapons: A boosted weapon requires tritium (or, in…
We have official word about Bob Einhorn’s new role at State — he is the U.S. Coordinator for Iran and North Korea Sanctions. That acronym works out to CINKS (as in, throwing everything at them, including the Kitchen CINK), but…
In a workshop in Islamabad today, one of the Pakistani presenters quoted from Henry Kissinger’s Big Splash on nuclear issues, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. This book was first published in 1957. It carried the imprimatur of the Council on…
This morning’s news reports indicate that, once again, South Korea has failed to put a satellite into orbit. Some might wonder why we discuss this issue on ACW. However, it makes a very interesting case study for how countries acquire…
The Stimson Center has a fun scenario, Cheater’s Risk, in which you can attempt to evade international detection in pursuit of bomb. The odds are stacked against you (well, so they are in real life!) I did pretty well, I…
So what does the dog do after it catches the car? That is, in effect, the question faced by the leaders of the P5+1, now that they’ve managed to overcome their differences, settle on a draft Iran sanctions resolution, and…
The family of Shahab-3 warhead variants as compiled by Tal Inbar and Uzi Rubin. The NRV, the New Reentry Vehicle, is shown on the right. Note it’s a triconic design but with a larger base diameter than the Ghadr-1 warhead.…
There are two stories in the press, one stating that Bob Einhorn will become the new coordinator for implementing UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea and another that he will become the top official to enforce sanctions on Iran.…
