Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from March 2002

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from March 2002

Safety v. security. (Editor's Note).(Editorial)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... THE WORLD ASSOCIATION OF NUCLEAR OPERATORS (WANO) evaluated the Bruce nuclear power station in Ontario, Canada, in 1998. But it was not until last October that a copy of WANO's report was made public, pried loose from the provincial government...

It's seven minutes to midnight. (From the Board of Directors).
March 1, 2002... Chicago, February 27, 2002: Today, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the minute hand of the "Doomsday Clock," the symbol of nuclear danger, from nine to seven minutes to midnight, the same setting at which...

Keepinq score. (Letters).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... IN A REVIEW OF JAMES BAMFORD'S book, Body of Secrets (January/February 2002 Bulletin), Thomas Blanton states that Bamford "is ahead on points in discussing the U.S.S. Liberty mystery of June 1967." I would remind the reviewer that he is...

In the navy. (Letters).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... THE INDIVIDUALS SHOWN IN A PHOTO accompanying Cindy Kelly's "Remembering S Site" (January/February 2002) are identified as "recruits." But the gentlemen in the jeep are all officers of the U.S. Navy, not "recruits," who are new sailors or...

Rogue cities. (Letters).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... THANKS FOR THE SCUD UPDATE IN THE last issue ("It's a Scud, Scud, Scud World," January/February 2002). Living near Chicago, I never realized the dangers that could lurk from "terror cities" like Dallas and St. Louis. I'll be watching the skies...

Put it in writing. (Letters).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH'S ANnounced abrogation of the AntiBallistic Missile (ABM) Treaty has elated unilateralists, but it portends an increasingly difficult transition to a progressively interdependent world. Columnist Charles...

More nuclear orphans found in Georgia. (Update).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Two years ago, journalist Diego Lluma reported that several "orphaned" radiation sources had been discovered in the former Soviet republic of Georgia ("What the Russians Left Behind," May/June 2000 Bulletin). Many were small, mildly radioactive...

Ground control to Comrade Ivan. (Bulletins).(ficticious cosmonaut Ivan Istochnikov)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... ACCORDING TO SPANish artist Joan Fontcuberta, the Soviets didn't want anyone finding out about Col. Ivan Istochnikov, the cosmonaut who manned the ill-fated flight of the Soyuz 2 spacecraft on October 25, 1968. In fact, they went to great...

Don't worry, be happy.(Department of Health and Human Services and public safety concerns)(issuance of gas masks to members of Congress)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Last fall, after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, followed by anthrax sent in the U.S. mail, many members of the public worried that another bioweapon or chemical attack could come at any time. Tommy Thompson, the head of...

Don't worry, be happy, part two.(U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency's classified report on state governments)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... By mid-December last year, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had completed its comprehensive assessment of state governments' preparedness to respond to acts of terrorism. But any citizen who wanted to see how his or her state...

Zapping the mail.(irradiation of mail)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... After letters containing a powdery, weaponized type of anthrax were sent through the mail, the U.S. Postal Service was left with a very large quantity of "quarantined" mail that, it was feared, might have some small amount of anthrax spores...

Diamonds still a girl's best friend.(irradiation of gemstones through the mail; diamonds unaffected)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The December 24, 2001 issue of Chemical & Engineering News reported that the Gemological Institute of America and SureBeam, a subsidiary of Titan Corporation of San Diego, studied the effects of irradiation on gemstones sent through the mail....

Science bites bugs back.(development of antibacterial polymer glass coatings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Even before fears of a bioweapon attack, many cautious Americans were trying to lead a nearly germ-free life. That germ-free goal was aided by--or at least exploited by--rapidly increasing sales of "antibacterial" soaps and sprays. In October,...

More boomlet than boom?(fallout shelter industry's post-Spetember 11th business)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The U.S. fallout-shelter industry--which one may assume has had fairly flat sales for some years--was described in a December 7, 2001 Associated Press report as experiencing something of a renaissance as a result of Americans' newly stoked...

Rehabilitated?(Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... No one knows if any Al Qaeda members will be rehabilitated, but the BBC reported last November 27 that 21 members of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult, which among other misdeeds launched a poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995, say their...

No one moving on mountain. (Bulletins).(planning Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a radioactive waste dump site)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... LAST FALL, ENERGY SECretary Spencer Abraham began moving toward a final decision on whether Yucca Mountain in Nevada would become the permanent repository for 70,000 tons of radioactive waste--mainly spent fuel rods from the nation's nuclear...

Tails at ground zero. (Bulletins).(the role of animals in the September 11th attacks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... THE WIDELY FELT HUMAN suffering following September 11 has known little end. But not much attention has been paid to the attack's effects on New York's pets. Now, the documentary Tales from Ground Zero, produced by BNNtv.com in association with...

Did you pack your own bags? (Bulletins).(security equipment)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... IN AN EFFORT TO IDENTIFY that terrorist face in the crowd, airports and law enforcement agencies across the country are turning to face-recognition technology. As reported in the November/December Bulletin, some high-profile tests of facial...

Caveat emptor. (Bulletins).(con artists)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... YOU KNOW THAT PHRASE, "crawled out of the woodwork"--often used in reference to insects, vermin, and other undesirables? Like ants to a picnic, scam artists were up and running with brand new cons just hours after the collapse of the World...

Incineration island. (Chemical Weapons).(military activity on Johnston Island)
March 1, 2002... TWO HOURS AFTER LEAVING HONOLULU, WE BEGIN OUR descent. As we turn to land, I see the reef, a line etched in the cresting surf. The water is beautiful, turquoise and sapphire, with bands of khaki and bone white where land meets sea. Then the...

Bavaria bucks ban. (Weapons Uranium).(Germany and nuclear weapons)
March 1, 2002... THE MAIN TECHNICAL BARRIER preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the difficulty of acquiring the necessary plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU). While most recent attention has focused on plutonium disposition, the ongoing...

More money than sense. (Defense Budget).(issues affecting upcoming elections)
March 1, 2002... WITH CONTROL OF BOTH THE SENate and House up for grabs in the mid-term elections, the two parties will spend the next year maneuvering to gain political advantage. Traditionally, American elections are decided over domestic issues, and the...

U.S. vetoes verification. (Bioweapons).
March 1, 2002... JOHN BOLTON, UNDERSECRETARY of state for arms control, waited until the final hours of the review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention last December to deliver his attack: "The Conference takes note of the work of the Ad Hoc...

Letter from Pakistan. (Opinion).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD, IF A RELIGIOUS STATE TURNED LIBERAL AND MODERATE WITHIN THE period of a few days, it would be considered a revolution. But in Pakistan, all it takes is a general's speech. [paragraph] If the attacks of September...

Twisting Cold War logic. (Opinion).(Editorial)
March 1, 2002... THE 1972 ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE (ABM) TREATY WAS considered by many the cornerstone of nuclear arms control. But to the Bush administration it is an outmoded relic of the Cold War, and on December 13, 2001, President George W. Bush announced...

International custody of excess plutonium. (Opinion).
March 1, 2002... SEVERAL COUNTRIES POSSESS LARGE AND GROWING STOCKPILES of separated plutonium. Despite plans to ultimately dispose of or use this material, in the short term these stockpiles--of both civil and military plutonium--will continue to grow. In a...

The history of the Bulletin clock. (covers from the past).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... For nearly 55 years, the Bulletin clock (a.k.a. the "Doomsday Clock") has been the world's most recognizable symbol of nuclear danger. The first representation of the clock was produced in 1947, when artist Martyl Langsdorf, the wife of a...

Defusing nuclear terror.
March 1, 2002... On October 16, 1994, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received word that one of its informants was being held hostage by a domestic terrorist group, the Patriots for National Unity, in a New Orleans safe house. The next morning, after...

Canada's nuclear schizophrenia.
March 1, 2002... Despite grumbling, Canada seems likely to go along with U.S. missile defense plans, just as it is currently cooperating with the United States by testing the use of a small amount of U.S. nuclear weapons plutonium in a government-owned power...

Russia's nuclear industry: the next generation.
March 1, 2002... WHERE WILL FUTURE NUCLEAR personnel--physicists and engineers--come from? That question is being asked not only in the United States, but also in Europe and Russia. The number of nuclear engineering schools in the United States continues...

Access denied: to forestall potential terrorist actions, the Energy Department closed Web sites and removed documents from the Internet. In the process, the public got shut out.
March 1, 2002... FOLLOWING THE SEPTEMber 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Energy Department not only enhanced physical security at its national laboratories and sites, it began questioning the information available on its Web sites. In...

Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. (Reviews: the rest of the story).
March 1, 2002... Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces Edited by Pavel Podvig MIT, 2001 692 pages; $45.00 THE STORY BEHIND THE WRITING OF Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces is almost as interesting as the material that it covers. When there was still a Soviet...

The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. (Understanding Central Intelligence).
March 1, 2002... The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology By Jeffrey T. Richelson Westview Press, 2001 386 pages; $26.00 WITH INTELLIGENCE MORE IN DEMAND than ever in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, we...

The Secret History of the CIA. (Understanding Central Intelligence).
March 1, 2002... The Secret History of the CIA By Joseph J. Trento Prima, 2001 542 pages; $30.00 WITH INTELLIGENCE MORE IN DEMAND than ever in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, we have a brace of books to help us understand the history and...

India's Emerging Nuclear Posture. (India's ambitions).
March 1, 2002... India's Emerging Nuclear Posture By Ashley Tellis Rand, 2001 885 pages; $40.00 The year 2001 did not bode well for the nuclear future of South Asia, as sensationalized fears of loose nukes in Pakistan turned to real alarm over an Indo-Pak...

India: Emerging Power. (India's ambitions).
March 1, 2002... India: Emerging Power By Stephen P. Cohen Brookings, 2001 377 pages; $28.95 The year 2001 did not bode well for the nuclear future of South Asia, as sensationalized fears of loose nukes in Pakistan turned to real alarm over an Indo-Pak...

India's nuclear forces, 2002. (NRDC Nuclear Notebook).
March 1, 2002... THE SIZE AND COMPOSITION OF INDIA'S nuclear arsenal is difficult to determine. From various sources, we estimate that India has a stockpile of approximately 30-35 nuclear warheads (fewer than Pakistan), which it is thought to be expanding. The...

Whose finger on the button? (The Last Word).(regulations of the executive branch)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "AS OF NOW, I AM IN CONTROL HERE." WHO DOESN'T remember Secretary of State Alexander Haig's mini-coup on March 30, 1981, when President Ronald Reagan was shot? That assassination attempt introduced most Americans to the intricacies of...