Wolfgang Panofsky, director emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, died of a heart attack on Monday evening. He was 88. There is much to be said about Dr. Panofsky’s contributions, from his pioneering research at Los Alamos, Stanford, and Berkeley, as well as his contributions to the policy debate on proliferation and nuclear security. …
"Pief" Panofsky, renowned physicist and arms control advocate, dies at 88
by | 2007-09-26 | 6 Comments
Syria's Nuclear Program
by | 2007-09-25 | 6 Comments
I was planing a little summary of Syria’s nuclear program. Mark Hibbs, however, beats me to the punch in Syria, IAEA ignore US media reports that Israel attacked nuclear site (it will be posted eventually, subscription only): Officials at the conference suggested that US media reports asserting that Israel had attacked a phosphate production site …
Fire Resistant Pits
by | 2007-09-24 | 11 Comments
Scott Sagan observes that the W80 warhead — you know the type accidentally transported from Minot to Barksdale — doesn’t have a fire-resistant pit (FRP). Why does that matter? Well, this is an old discussion, but when an aircraft carrying nuclear weapons have crashed, they’ve spread plutonium creating a nasty, if very localized, clean-up issue. …
What Went Wrong At Minot
by | 2007-09-23 | 11 Comments
Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus have the scoop on how those six nuclear warheads went missing. One mistake at the beginning enabled a chain reaction that allowed the warheads to be out of custody for 36 hours: A munitions custodian officer is supposed to keep track of the nuclear warheads. In the case of cruise …
