The text of Pavel Podvig’s new article (“The Window of Vulnerability That Wasn’t: Soviet Military Buildup in the 1970s”) is available at his website. The outlines of the story are familiar enough: Although the Soviet Union denied that the purpose of its modernization program was to acquire a counterforce capability or to achieve military advantage, …
Safeguards at Natanz
by | 2008-08-28 | 10 Comments
Warning: long post. Observing the frequent travels of the IAEA’s Olli Heinonen to Iran of late, Andreas Persbo suggests that the negotiation of new safeguards measures may be underway for the still-incomplete gas-centrifuge enrichment plant at Natanz, currently undergoing low-level operations. This raises a rather interesting question: just how does the IAEA conduct safeguards at …
What to do with British Pu?
by | 2008-08-27 | 3 Comments
Here’s an interesting factoid. The UK and US each possess about 100 MT of separated plutonium. However, the UK stockpile is largely civilian, whereas the US stockpile is almost entirely military. The UK is currently engaged in a debate about what to do with this plutonium. Last year the Royal Society published a report on …
Here We Go 'Round The Mulberry Bush
by | 2008-08-27 | 9 Comments
Comeback time already? I’m pretty sure this was made of concrete. Following are some excerpts from a translation of the August 26, 2008 statement of the North Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman. The full text appears in the comments. The official English translation is now available here. The 3 October agreement — which stipulates the second-stage …
