Jack McGeorge, left, in one of his rubber suits examines an Iraqi 122 mm rocket potentially filled with sarin One of the great unsung heroes of the UN weapons inspections in Iraq passed away during cardiac surgery on 18 August 2009. We were fortunate to work with Harvey “Jack” McGeorge at the United Nations Monitoring, …
South Korea Blinks
by | 2009-08-19 | 12 Comments
The Republic of Korea (ROK) aborted today’s launch of the KSLV-1 at T minus seven minutes. The crystal-clear blue skies shown in the picture, with the only cloud present being the venting of LOX boil-off, seem to indicate that it was not weather that caused the abort. Instead, it could be either a technical or …
SECDEF Tried to Revive RRW in June
by | 2009-08-18 | 14 Comments
Elaine Grossman has a stellar piece of process journalism on the infighting surrounding the Nuclear Posture Review and START. The short version is that SECDEF Robert Gates tried to revive the RRW program at a Principal’s Committee meeting in June that was supposed to provide guidance on START negotiations. Only Vice President Biden stopped him: …
Acton on Prolif Risk, Nuclear Power
by | 2009-08-18 | 20 Comments
James Acton argues in Survival that proliferation risks ought to play a bigger role in decisions about nuclear power: Policymakers, industry insiders and regulators have usually failed to factor proliferation concerns into decisions about nuclear energy. If the policy of abolishing nuclear weapons is to be anything more than rhetoric, proliferation concerns will have to …
