The twain between my ACW posts and my day job at the Stimson Center have not met — until now. The following analysis, a trimmed-down version of which has been posted on Stimson’s website, seems way too wonkish to be confined there. On November 28, 2009 the Pakistani media reported that President Asif Ali Zardari …
Estimating SWU with Expert Opinion
by | 2009-12-06 | 23 Comments
So what is the separative power of the IR-1 centrifuge, really? We’ve touched on this question before, sometimes in connection with Natanz breakout scenarios. Lately, it’s come up in connection with the Qom facility, a.k.a. Fordow (see: Iran: Compliance in Defiance?, December 1, 2009). But simple answers are not forthcoming. If you follow this blog, …
Greetings from Monterey, CA
by | 2009-12-04 | 3 Comments
Greetings from Monterey, California and the 20th Anniversary Conference of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. (After convalescing in the hot tub last night, I made it half way through John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and a demi bouteille of Ventana Pinot Noir. That was very civilized.) It is a treat to be at a …
More on Britain's Independent Deterrent
by | 2009-12-03 | 5 Comments
Last winter, after a visit to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston — the Los Alamos or Livermore of the United Kingdom — I came away with a new understanding of how intertwined the US and UK nuclear weapons programs really are: I think it comes as a shock to most people on either side …
