Good morning. This is a Calutron used to enrich uranium in the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. After the 1991 Gulf War, IAEA inspectors found that the Iraqi’s had set up Calutrons, using dual-use products like oil diffusion pumps (right). Many companies, including Germany’s Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, had sold such pumps to Iraq, believing they would …
Future of US & Russian Nukes
by | 2007-06-25 | 15 Comments
Wow, so I met Howard Morland today. That was pretty awesome. James Nagelberg wanted me to blog the panel on What the Future Holds for U.S. and Russian Nuclear Weapons. As I have no rational basis on which to make such decisions, I am pleased to do James’ bidding. Sadly, no one mentioned extending START …
Greetings from The Carnegie Conference
by | 2007-06-25 | 5 Comments
Well, I just settled into the balcony, plunked down 12 bucks for internet access and now George is handing out grades based on the Universal Compliance report: Obligation One: Make Nonproliferation Irreversible. D Obligation Two: Devalue the Political and Military Currency of Nuclear Weapons. F Obligation Three: Secure all nulcear materials. C- Obligation Four: Stop …
Sayonara, Misty
by | 2007-06-24 | 6 Comments
CQ’s Tim Stark reports that new Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has canceled the Misty “stealth” satellite. Patrick Radden Keefe—who wrote the awesome CHATTER—has the details over at Danger Room. The cancellation of the Misty stealthsat—which, let’s face it, wasn’t particularly stealthy—leaves the United States dependent on the Future Imagery Architecture to replace the …
