Avatar photoMaking Yield Estimates

Update | James says I misrepesented his method, which I may well have done.  He is going to post a comment that explains his method in better detail than I have apparently done. Apologies that it took so long to post the companion piece on yield estimation to my Foreign Policy column, North Korea’s Big …

Avatar photoYield Estimation Placeholder

It’s late, I am tired.  I’ve got the better part of a post done, but I’ll finish it in the morning. Short version: don’t spend too much time estimating yield using the USGS Mb number.  It gives you only a very rough approximation and there are better ways for seismologists to do it.  Until then, …

Avatar photoPOTUS in Situ for SOTU

On February 12th, the President of the United States will deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. Passages about nuclear dangers are usually included on these occasions. I asked Stimson’s Jonathan Fox to read all of these speeches, going back to President Truman, and to pass along the choicest …

Avatar photoInappropriate Target

Mother Jones and other groups are having a lot of fun with the fact that acting NNSA Associate Administrator for Defense Nuclear Security Steven Asher (above) spent a few years after retiring from the Air Force managing a Target retail store in Spokane, Washington. (Asher’s last command, I believe, was Malmstrom Air Force Base’s 341st Security Forces …