Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from May 1996

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from May 1996

The moral principle. (how weak people can affect the operation and safety of nuclear power plants)(Editorial)
May 1, 1996... The February 1986 issue of Soviet Life, a glossy clone of Henry Luce's Life magazine, contained a 10-page section loudly promoting the virtues of the Soviet nuclear power industry. As journalists are won to do, it tells the big story mostly by...

Buying votes with B-2s. (formulating the 1997 federal budget)(Column)
May 1, 1996... After three years and innumerable studies and statements affirming the decision of the Bush administration that 20 Stealth bombers were sufficient for American national security needs, the Clinton administration, on the eve of the California...

No peace for South Africa's wand'ring warriors. (Executive Outcomes uses Angola as training ground for mercenary soldiers)
May 1, 1996... When its war with the African National Congress ended at home in 1990, a group of former South African Defense Force soldiers started a private "military training and advisory firm" called Executive Outcomes, and hit the road. Apparently,...

Play it again, Bob. (Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole's military policy)
May 1, 1996... On March 21, only days after the success of his quest for the Republican presidential nomination was assured, Bob Dole joined House Speaker Newt Gingrich in introducing a bill that would require the deployment of a national missile defense by the...

Crunch time in Geneva. (final negotiations for the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty underway)
May 1, 1996... The comprehensive test ban treaty (CTB) talks in Geneva have entered their final phase - the "end game." This is the phase in which deals are made, compromises reached, and nations abandon individual objections to achieve consensus. At the...

Nuclear club gets clubbier. (comprehensive test ban on nuclear weapons and research cooperation among countries with nuclear weapons)
May 1, 1996... How useful will information from the series of French tests that ended in January 1996 be to American nuclear weapon designers? And how much information should U.S. weaponeers share with their Chinese and Russia counterparts? These are two of...

Red Army blues. (how voters with ties to Russia's military may affect the presidential election)
May 1, 1996... Although Russia has shed its decades-old heritage of militarism and is moving toward democracy, the military remains a pivotal player in this evolving society. While the armed forces have been cut, the number of potential voters with military...

Peres: peacemaker, nuclear pioneer. (Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres)
May 1, 1996... Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East. Its military might, underscored by its nuclear capability, has been an important factor in persuading Arab leaders that the Arab-Israeli conflict must be resolved peacefully. Meanwhile, low...

No NATO expansion now. (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
May 1, 1996... The Russian polity is fragile. All the ingredients for disaster are there: a former great power humbled by political defeat on the global stage, the loss of huge territories, and a continuing economic disaster involving the pauperization of tens...

The decade of despair. (how the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown has affected Russian life)(Cover Story)
May 1, 1996... The Chernobyl accident on April 26, 1986, was the world's worst disaster at a civilian nuclear power plant. It is also one of the most widely known and controversial industrial disasters of all time. Wildly exaggerated claims have been made about...

Truth was an early casualty: Soviet and Russian authorities have never told the full story of the critical first ten days. (1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident)
May 1, 1996... At a May 1986 press conference in Moscow - held just 11 days after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station - the cult of high technology was unabashedly preached to an auditorium full of shocked news correspondents and invited guests....

The shutdown question. (energy policy and plant status in Ukraine)
May 1, 1996... The winters of 1994-95 and 1995-96 were touch-and-go for Ukraine. On many occasions - and for periods that lasted several days - the power grid frequency hovered precariously just above 49.2 Hertz. If the frequency had dropped to that point,...

The denial syndrome. (efforts to smother the burning nuclear core at the Chernobyl plant in 1986 were insufficient)
May 1, 1996... The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still clings to the myth - first promulgated by the Soviets - that the 5,020 metric tons of sand, clay, dolomite, boron carbide, and lead dumped from helicopters in the first few days after the...

Inside the beast. (Chernobyl nuclear power plant contamination workers; includes related article on how much medical care help is provided to workers from Armenia by republics of the former Soviet Union)
May 1, 1996... As I write this in Kiev in March, I can imagine what life will be like on April 26, 1996. The streets of Ukrainian cities will be decorated with flags of mourning to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power...

Nuclear power browning out: when Unit 4 blasted radionuclides all over the Northern Hemisphere, it all but wrecked the global nuclear power industry.
May 1, 1996... When the sad history of nuclear power is written, April 26, 1986, will be recorded as the day the dream died. The explosion at the Chernobyl plant was a terrible human tragedy - and it delivered a stark verdict on the hope that nuclear power...

Fighting for the scraps: Western nuclear companies are on the prowl in Eastern Europe. (includes related list of countries that plan to expand their nuclear power capabilities)
May 1, 1996... On a moonless autumn night in 1991, I found myself careening down a narrow road in a 15-year-old Lada with two Canadian nuclear inspectors and their crazed driver. We were returning to Bucharest from Cernavoda, a dreary Romanian river port built...

Known nuclear tests worldwide, 1945-1995.
May 1, 1996... Since last year's "Nuclear Notebook," new information about the French and Russian nuclear testing programs has become available. Wit this data we can finally present - after a decade of effort-what we believe is a complete list of all nuclear...

Nuclear excuses. (why Iraq did not use nuclear weapons during the Persian Gulf war)(Column)
May 1, 1996... In the 1980s, Iraq used chemical weapons in its long war against Iran, and in putting down its own rebellious Kurds. Why, then, did it not use chemical weapons against Coalition forces in 1991? It didn't use such weapons because the leadership...