Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from January 2002

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from January 2002

Nuclear insecurity. (Editor's Note).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AT THE BULLETIN WE'RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR PHOTOS of nuclear power reactors. We also want photos of related items, like the cooling ponds where spent nuclear fuel is stored. It's a constant struggle to find new or engaging pictures of plants, and...

Who's an anti-nuclear alarmist now? (Letters).
January 1, 2002... IN HIS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 column titled "Some Things Never Change," William Arkin disparagingly refers to "ambulance chasers in the anti-nuclear community... warning of the vulnerability of nuclear reactors." Coming from such an...

"First use" policy is terror, too. (Letters).
January 1, 2002... ON SEPTEMBER 11, THAT UNFORGETTABLE day, more than 5,000 noncombatants were killed, hundreds were injured, and survivors, witnesses, and many others suffered incalculable psychic damage. Many blocks in downtown New York were destroyed; the...

The clock: closer to midnight? (Letters).
January 1, 2002... I HAVE OFTEN THOUGHT ABOUT THE Doomsday Clock in the past several weeks. At many events in the past I have used it as an important symbol. I'm not certain where the hands of the clock should be pointing at this particular time--it seems to me...

... Or about right? (Letters).
January 1, 2002... FIFTY YEARS AGO, THE BULLETIN WAS a sensible (if not reassuring) voice with the hands of the clock set at five minutes to disaster. Thanks to the Internet, I find it is still sensible (if a little too reassuring). Thanks for being so....

Chemical paradise. (Update).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In "Buried in the Backyard," Jonathan Tucker described the 1993 discovery of buried chemical munitions in Spring Valley, a posh Washington, D.C., neighborhood (September/October 2001 Bulletin). The area had been used during World War I to test...

Any white powder will do. (Bulletins).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SINCE THE SEPTEMBER 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent flurry of anthrax cases, hoaxers have been out in force, and not just in the United States. From Scotland to Australia, Greenland to Denmark, Germany to Norway, and Denmark to...

Where's Dick? (Bulletins).(Dick Cheney)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Administration officials have publicly and repeatedly urged Americans to shop, fly, and otherwise lead normal lives. But privately, it's a different story. Vice President Dick Cheney is spending "close to 80 percent" of his time in a...

Everybody makes mistakes. (Bulletins).(commemorative postage stamps)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Both in the United States and Britain, new stamps commemorate some aspect of physics. In each case, the result has been controversy. In the United States, a stamp marking the hundredth anniversary of Enrico Fermi's birth shows him standing...

Enduring capitalism. (Bulletins).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... IN HONOR OF "AMERICA'S greatest challenge," the Topps Company, makers of bubble gum trading cards, has produced a new 90-card series called "Enduring Freedom." According to the company's web site, these new "picture cards presents (sic)...

Debunkers dot com. (Bulletins).(urban legends of the September 11 terrorist attacks)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A FEW DAYS AFTER September 11, several e-mails to the Bulletin quoted an alleged 1654 Nostradamus prophesy describing the attack on the World Trade Center: "In the city of God there will be a great thunder/ Two brothers torn apart by...

The sound of money.(closing of Russia's military base in Cuba)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... When Russia announced in October that it was closing a base in Lourdes, Cuba, from which it had eavesdropped on the United States for 38 years, the action was heralded in Washington as yet another sign that the Cold War was over. But Cuba,...

Look ma, no batteries.(military supplies with manual generation of electricity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... More than a year ago, the British army began testing boots made by Britain's Electric Shoe Company. These boots used the mechanical energy of walking to produce about 3 watts of electrical energy--enough to power the British fighting forces'...

It's all in the timing, part one.(disease research may lead to epidemics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In late July, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (volume 345, number 4) by Arjun Srinivasan et al. pointed out potential dangers as an increasing number of laboratories conduct research on diseases that can be used as bioweapons....

It's all in the timing, part two.(establishment of the International Day of Peace)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... On September 7, 2001, just four days before the United States declared war on terrorism, the U.N. General Assembly voted to establish an annual "International Day of Peace" on September 21. The "Peace One Day" organization (www.peaceoneday...

Is American security in these guys' hands?(management of the National Security Agency)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... It was odd enough that one of the many government agencies that closed early and sent workers home on September 11 was the National Security Agency (NSA). Then in November the agency decided to cut its payroll and contract out the work of more...

The bunker: it's back.(usage of underground shelters as emergency operations centers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Baltimore is one of many U.S. cities that has decided to refurbish an old fallout shelter to serve as its emergency operations center (Las Vegas Sun, November 15, 2001). Burrowing underground gained new respectability after New York City's...

Well-deserved recognition.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The International Project of the Year award for 2001 may have gone to the builders of an aluminum smelter in Mozambique, but the runner-up was CH2M Hill, the company that brought under control the thick toxic crust that had formed on nuclear...

Don't make this mistake. (Bulletins).(grammatical errors in a will)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... After Canadian Peter Dant died in June at the age of 90, it was revealed that his will was rife with errors. It seems that Dant, who was "deeply disappointed with the decline in written and spoken English," had decided to make the correction of...

Just like an Epson. (Bulletins).(weapon design and product)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A HIGH-TECH WEAPONS firm in Australia is giving new meaning to the phrase "hail of bullets." The Brisbane-based company, aptly named Metal Storm, is developing weapons that can fire more than a million rounds per minute. Instead of relying...

Reinventing the wheel. (Bulletins).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE 2001 IG NOBEL prize ceremony (the eleventh) took place October 4 at Harvard University. As at all Ig Nobel ceremonies since 1996, attendees were treated to a mini-opera. But this year's opera, "The Wedding Complex," was followed by the real...

Rememberinq S Site. (Bulletins).(preserving site of first atomic explosion)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A NEW SHORT FILM, Handful of Soldiers, produced by the Save America's Treasures program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (saveamericas treasures.org), describes work on the implosion bomb at Los Alamos and includes interviews...

Correction.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2002... Len Ackland, author of "Closing in on Closure" (November/December Bulletin), was misled by an informant who told him that it would cost in the thousands rather than in the millions to remediate the soil in a 50-acre area at the Rocky Flats...

Ditched drums and all. (The Dew Line).
January 1, 2002... HIGH ABOVE A BARREN GRANITE CLIFF ON THE SOUTHEASTERN tip of Canada's Baffin Island, a series of golf ball-shaped white domes tower above the turquoise Arctic waters. This remote radar encampment, abandoned after the Cold War, is leaking a...

The big "what-if." (Nuclear Transport).
January 1, 2002... WHEN A TRAIN CARRYING HAZARDOUS materials caught fire on July 18, 2001, in a tunnel under downtown Baltimore, it burned for more than a day. Nearby residents choked on noxious fumes, local business slowed, and national Internet services...

Not a moment too soon. (Open Skies).(international treaty about aerial reconnaissance)
January 1, 2002... "OPEN SKIES"--A TREATY ALLOWING suspicious nations to fly over and scrutinize their potential enemies--was first proposed in 1955. It remained largely just an idea until last November 2, when Russia and Belarus became the final required...

Slowing the missile race. (The Middle East).
January 1, 2002... BALLISTIC MISSILES HAVE BEEN the deterrent of choice in the Middle East, where countries rely on their missile forces for civilian and military security. The arms race goes on as these nations continue to develop and test missiles. But in...

Bin Laden and the bomb. (Opinion).
January 1, 2002... ARE OSAMA BIN LADEN AND THE AL QAEDA NETWORK SHOPPING FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS--OR DO THEY already have them? Is it possible that today's terrorists could acquire such weapons--and use them? Answering these questions has taken on an added urgency in...

Bomb deal a dud, part one: the cuts in the arsenal announced at the Bush-Putin meeting in Crawford weren't really cuts at all--.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AT THE NOVEMBER 2001 CRAWFORD SUMMIT, PRESIDENT George W. Bush announced unilateral cuts that would bring the number of U.S. "operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads" down to 1,700-2,200 over the next 10 years. Described as a bold...

Bomb deal a dud, part two.
January 1, 2002... IN ITS FIRST EIGHT MONTHS IN OFFICE, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has shown scant regard for other nations' views on global warming, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty....

Cheaters beware: some argue that a nuclear test ban is not verifiable. Meanwhile the test ban treaty's monitoring system of 321 stations, now well on the way to completion, is looking good.
January 1, 2002... For almost three years, representatives from more than 40 nations met in a cavernous chamber of the little-known Palais des Nations in Geneva, negotiating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). They labored over membership obligations, rules...

It's a Scud, Scud, Scud, world.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Scud B is the most popular ballistic missile in the world. It can be found from Vietnam to Slovakia to Yemen to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was used in the Iran-Iraq war, the Afghan-Soviet war, and the Gulf war. Afghanistan's...

The NRC: what me worry?(Nuclear Regulatory Commission statements on nuclear reactor safety)
January 1, 2002... The question immediately arose on September 11 and has persisted: As horrific as the terrorist attacks were, what might have happened if the terrorists who seized jumbo jets and used them as weapons against the World Trade Center and the...

What about the spent fuel?
January 1, 2002... UNTIL RECENTLY, CONCERNS ABOUT ATTACKS on commercial nuclear power plants focused mainly on the vulnerability of reactor containment buildings. But nuclear power plants may have a weaker link--spent fuel ponds. "Reactors are inside steel...

The weapons complex: who's guarding the store?
January 1, 2002... MORE THAN A DOZEN WHISTLE-BLOWERS have given our organization, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), persuasive unclassified evidence that the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, with its tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, is highly...

North Korea: it's taking too long: inspections in North Korea are tied to the reactor deal, which is far behind schedule.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AFTER THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACK on the United States, President George W. Bush embraced a wide range of multilateral initiatives to shore up the international coalition against global terrorism. But the Bush administration has remained...

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century. (Reviews: Umbra Gamm Zarf * (above top secret to you, pal)).
January 1, 2002... Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century By James Bamford Doubleday, 2001 721 pages; $29.95 BY NOON ON SEPTEMBER 11, AS THE Pentagon and what remained of the...

Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics. (Reviews: teller on teller).
January 1, 2002... Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics By Edward Teller with Judith Shoolery Perseus Books, 2001 602 pages; $35.00 EDWARD TELLER IS PERHAPS THE MOST powerful American scientist of the past half century. Born in...

The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion. (Reviews: a game of chance).
January 1, 2002... The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion By Craig Eisendrath, Melvin A. Goodman, and Gerald E. Marsh Praeger, 2001 208 pages; $24.95 SEPTEMBER'S TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST the United States seem to have put national...

Pakistan's nuclear forces, 2001. (NRDC Nuclear Notebook).
January 1, 2002... IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO ESTIMATE the number and types of nuclear weapons in Pakistan's arsenal. Outside experts estimate the country has between 24 and 48 nuclear weapons. The weapons are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core...

Wanted: experts on war. (The Last Word).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE HEAD OF STUDIES AT A PRESTIGIOUS WASHINGTON think tank quipped during a recent conversation that not one liberal foundation is interested in supporting non-governmental work on conventional warm--"unless of course," he said, "you mean...