Last week, David Albright and Paul Brannan of ISIS published a DigitalGlobe image showing new construction in the area of the demolished cooling tower of the 5 MW(e) reactor at Yongbyon. They were circumspect in their analysis, concluding only that “the actual purpose of this excavation activity cannot be determined from the image and bears …
Cold War Secrets
by | 2010-10-05 | 13 Comments
Not all, Cold War secrets have been revealed. The time has come at last to reveal one more. During a particularly nasty chapter of the Cold War in the 1980s, an amazing couple from New Hampshire, Jim and Carol O’Rourke, took it upon themselves to set up a Track II channel for up-and-comers in the …
Over-Enrichment at Natanz
by | 2010-10-04 | 12 Comments
Deep in the last IAEA safeguards report on Iran (GOV/2010/46, para. 7) is a mention of a curious finding at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), the larger of Iran’s two centrifuge enrichment facilities at Natanz. FEP isn’t supposed to enrich uranium past 5% U-235 content, but inspectors’ routine environmental samples have for the first time …
How Suicide Bombers Are Like Nuclear Ones
by | 2010-10-02 | No Comments
That’s not a joke, but the answer is part of the core question explored in Mike Horowitz‘s book, The Diffusion of Military Power: Why some military innovations spread and influence international politics, while others do not. CSIS is hosting a panel discussion of the book, with Mike Horowitz, Frank Hoffman, Clark Murdock, and Wick Murray …
