Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from March 2005

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from March 2005

A cover story for the ages.(Editor's Note)(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE WHAT'S HAPPENED on the global scene over the last 16 years--my tenure as a member of the Bulletin staff--if we hadn't actually lived through it. Let's recap: From 1989 to 1991, as decades-old assumptions fell...

Biodefense benefits.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... SUSAN WRIGHT'S ARTICLE IN THE November/December 2004 Bulletin ("Taking Biodefense Too Far") highlights the "billions for dubious biodefense" and mentions experiments performed under the guise of biodefense that have drawn domestic and...

Doomsdazed.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXCELLENT analysis of "doomsday" ("Rethinking Doomsday," November/December 2004). I do think there is one "weapon of mass destruction" that is regularly left off everyone's list, however: the U.S. economy and its...

Space war--now we're jammin'!(Bulletins)(Operation Iraqi Freedom)
March 1, 2005... ON DECEMBER 14, 2004, Gen. Lance Lord, commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, made a startling announcement: "The war in space," he said, "began during Operation Iraqi Freedom." The general has made similar proclamations for more than a...

The price of paranoia? $1.1 mil and up.(Tampa Super RV Show )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A recreational vehicle said to be "the first high-line motor coach that can protect occupants against nuclear radiation from dirty bombs, nuclear accidents, as well as, biological and chemical agents that might leak into the environment or that...

Still plenty of time.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A report from the Science and Technology Committee of Britain's House of Lords criticized the British government for instructing an advisory board on radioactive waste management to review every possible waste storage solution ever...

Enough lessons to go around.(from Operation Iraqi Freedom says Defense Science Board)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... It's nice to know that a Defense Science Board task force met in closed session on November 18, 2004 to discuss what lessons potential adversaries might have learned from observing Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The...

Secret government, part 1.
March 1, 2005... As Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News pointed out on November 8, 2004, the government is extending its control of information well beyond the established categories of "secret" and "classified" and their various permutations. Although a...

Farewell and thank you.(Stephen I. Schwartz)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Dear Friends, After more than six years as executive director and publisher of the Bulletin, I have decided to seek out new opportunities. I hope to focus more time and energy on analysis, writing, and public speaking on nuclear...

The second coming of nuclear power?(Bulletins)
March 1, 2005... A NUCLEAR POWER REVIVAL could take the first steps from concept to reality as early as next year. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not authorized the construction of a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s. But three energy...

Secret government, part 2.
March 1, 2005... Those documents that cannot be released or talked about also include government regulations, or "secret laws," as pointed out on CapitolHillBlue.com (December 20, 2004). For instance, writes author Lance Gay, if a U.S. citizen wants to read the...

The purrfect pet?(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Los Angeles-based Allerca, Inc. has a deal for the well-to-do but sensitive cat lover. The company is in the first stages of developing a gene-silencing technique that will result, if successful, in producing hypoallergenic kittens. A $500...

The poor, lowly worm.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Last December, the World Future Society, publisher of The Futurist magazine, put out its annual compilation of "forecasts" for the coming year. What can one expect in 2005, according to the futurists? Along with some safe bets (soaring...

A game to end all games.(Bulletins)
March 1, 2005... WANT TO RELAX? TRY nuclear war--the card game. "[The game] is a wonderful opportunity to get rid of your frustrations and aggressions," says Rick Loomis, creator of "Weapons of Mass Destruction," a 110-card, multiplayer game that...

Mover over, segway ...(Toyota is developed one-passenger concept vehicle)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Mover over, Segway...... here comes the "i-unit." Toyota's one-passenger concept vehicle, to be unveiled in March, is being hyped as a "personal mobility device." We just want to know--does it come with that outfit?

Robert Bacher.(Bulletins)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... ROBERT BACHER, THE Manhattan Project scientist who assembled the core of the Trinity test bomb with his hands, placed it in the backseat of his government car, and drove it to the Alamogordo test site, died November 18, 2004 of natural causes....

Losing power.(Lithuania)
March 1, 2005... SOMEWHERE BETWEEN UNIVERSE and Construction Workers' streets, schoolchildren have painted a mural depicting a rainbow, a lake, and--of course--a nuclear power plant. Welcome to Visaginas, Lithuania, home of the Ignalina power plant, the only...

Separation anxiety.(Laser Enrichment)
March 1, 2005... ON NOVEMBER 2004, THE ENVIronmental group Greenpeace accused the Australian government of condoning nuclear proliferation by supporting the work of a laser uranium enrichment company named Silex Systems Limited. "If any other country, be it...

Nuclear comes home to roost.(Idaho)(National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory )
March 1, 2005... SINCE 1949, The Energy department, other federal agencies, and the navy have built and tested 52 nuclear research reactors in the high desert plains of southeastern Idaho; a few still operate today. Number 53 might be built at the new Idaho...

Pentagon power play: turf wars and bad analysis are just two likely products of the disastrous new intelligence reform.(Opinions)
March 1, 2005... GEN. WILLIAM ODOM, FORMER HEAD OF THE CODE-breaking National Security Agency, responded to the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by speculating that the alliance of families of victims of the September 11,...

Echoes of Vietnam: as the costs of the Iraq War--in lives and money--continue to rise, public and political support continue to drop. Now is the time to find a way out.
March 1, 2005... IN THE EARLY 1970s, TWO U.S. SENATORS HARNESSED anti-Vietnam War sentiment when they introduced legislation to end U.S. involvement in that misbegotten war. Oregon Republican Mark Hatfield and South Dakota Democrat George McGovern tried in 1970...

Preemption: far from forsaken: sure, it was a lousy idea when put into play in Iraq. But don't think the concept has disappeared--or that it's going away any time soon.
March 1, 2005... PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH STUNNED THE INTERNATIONAL community in 2002 when he announced that taking preemptive military action was an acceptable option for coping with the new threat environment characterized by transnational terrorism and the...

An ounce of prevention: at a time when cooperative threat reduction desperately needs to expand, its programs are instead at risk.
March 1, 2005... THE COOPERATIVE THREAT REDUCtion (CTR) programs operating in Russia and other former Soviet states have been an unprecedented nonproliferation success. (1) But the threat reduction agenda now faces a potential crisis driven by mounting unsolved...

W's multilateralism primer.(The Center Spread)
March 1, 2005... As they transition into a second term, President George W. Bush and his foreign policy team say they want to embrace, not alienate, the nations of the world. How will they do it? According to Bush, by "building effective multinational and...

Dangerous doctrine: a U.S. policy of preemption and a push for new nuclear weapon designs could be a recipe for disaster that makes proliferation more likely, not less.
March 1, 2005... IN SEPTEMBER 2002, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush announced his new National Security Strategy. Although this doctrine retains some elements from the past, in some respects it is a bold departure from previous U.S. policy. It declares that the United...

CTBT: forecasting the future: the nuclear test ban treaty can't enter into force until eleven "holdout" nations both sign and ratify it--including the United States. Many seem to be hiding behind U.S. in action.(Special Report)(Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty)
March 1, 2005... ALTHOUGH THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was designed ban the "bang,' not the bomb, it was widely expected to contribute both to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. Yet today, politicians and experts, especially in the...

Watching the world: with sensors in the ground, water, and air, the global system to detect nuclear tests already exceeds designers' expectations. Its potential now depends on political will.(Special Report)
March 1, 2005... WOLFGANG HOFFMANN, EXECUTIVE SECREtary of the nascent organization that will verify compliance with the nuclear test ban, recently declared that the agency's Vienna-based monitoring system has achieved global coverage. (1) The unfinished system...

Correction.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2005... Due to an editing error, "Rocky Flats: The Bait-and-Switch Cleanup" (January/February 2005) referred to recommendations made by an Energy Department-created focus group. While the focus group discussed cleanup goals for the site, it never made...

Diplomatic illusions.(Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb: A Memoir )(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb: A Memoir By Strobe Talbott Brookings Institution Press, 2004 256 pages; $29.95 DAYS AFTER INDIA CONDUCTED ATOMiC tests in May 1998, provoking the United States to impose sanctions and...

Avoiding the nuclear nightmare.(Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe)(The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe By Graham Allison Times Books, 2004 263 pages; $24 The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism By Charles D. Ferguson and William C. Potter, with Amy Sands, Leonard S. Spector, and Fred L....

Edward Teller: the Real Dr. Strangelove.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Edward Teller: The Real Dr. Stranqelove By Peter Goodchild Harvard University Press, 2004 469 pages; $29.95 How DOES ONE PAINT A BALANCED portrait of a man generally perceived as a great villain of the twentieth century? British author and...

The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency By James Naughtie PublicAffairs, 2004 250 pages; $26.00 COULD BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY Blair have headed off President George W. Bush's push to war with Iraq? Perhaps, but the point...

Russian nuclear forces, 2005.(NRDC Nuclear Notebook)
March 1, 2005... THERE WERE SEVERAL KEY QUANTITATIVE and qualitative developments with regard to Russian nuclear forces during the past year. Russia continued to reduce its nuclear forces, and officials were unusually candid in describing the likely composition...