Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from May 1997

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from May 1997

Little orphan fissban. (attempts to set ban on production of fissile materials)(Column)
May 1, 1997... Who cares about a ban on the production of fissile materials? Not very many in Geneva, it seems. At least not any more. Back in 1993, when they were awash with plutonium and highly enriched uranium and more was being recovered weekly from...

Competitive computing and "creative acquisition." (how Russia obtained computer equipment for its nuclear weapons program)
May 1, 1997... U.S. policy makers are learning that they are not the only players in the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) game, even if they are the only team in the big leagues. In recent months, Russian weapons labs have pursued an active...

Happy birthday, Mr. Lodestar. (analysis of the Korean Central News Agency's World Wide Web site)
May 1, 1997... When North Korean Hwang Jang Yop defected, seeking asylum in the South Korean embassy in Beijing in early February, Web-surfing news junkies checked out the Korean Central News Agency's two-month-old Web site (the official voice of North...

Fissile materials: facts & figures.
May 1, 1997... "There is a common perception that, with the end of the Cold War, the dangers of nuclear weapons materials have decreased. But in many ways the problems of control... have grown more serious." So conclude authors David Albright, Frans...

Energy's NIFty move. (National Ignition Facility construction ready to begin)
May 1, 1997... By sidestepping a pesky court order, the Energy Department has cleared the way for construction to begin on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a mega-laser complex that is one of the crown jewels of the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship...

Mysteries under Moscow.(Moscow, Russia)
May 1, 1997... What is hidden under MOSCOW? This question has intrigued Vadim Mikhailov since be was a child in the early 1970s, when his father, who drove a train in the Moscow subway, first gave him a ride in the driver's cabin and showed him the network...

From bad to worse.(Bulgaria)
May 1, 1997... I've Live in Eastern Europe for Six years and taken a lot Of overnight trains, but a trip last winter on the Bucharest-Sofia Express was the worst of the lot. At the Bulgarian border, the heat was cut off and the cabin temperature plummeted to...

Beating swords into ... furniture.(Mozambique)
May 1, 1997... Five years after the end of a 30-year war and three years after the country's first free elections, Mozambique is a long way from prosperity -- but it is on the short list of war-torn countries making genuine strides toward rebuilding and...

Spending more, enjoying it less.(Congress)
May 1, 1997... It looks as if congress's replay of the last two years' budget squabbles mill be a lot like the re-release of George Lucas's Star Ways movies: The story will be the same -- only the graphics will be updated. During the last batch of...

Stewardship: don't claim too much or too little.(Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program for nuclear weapons)
May 1, 1997... In 1994, the nuclear posture review concluded that the United States needed 3,000-3,500 deployed strategic nuclear weapons (the "lead" option of start II), or approximately double that number (the "hedge" option). Energy Department officials...

Unsafe at any speed.(tactical-nuclear-weapons control)
May 1, 1997... IN AUGUST 1991, A CABAL OF SOVIET GENERALS AND bureaucrats led a coup against the government of Mikhail Gorbachev. Their revolt ultimately was unsuccessful, but it persuaded President George Bush and Gen. Secretary Gorbachev to take action to...

New bomb, no mission.(US develops B61-11 gravity bomb despite commitment to no new nuclear weapons)
May 1, 1997... The cold war may be over, but the nuclear arms race has not quite ended. The United States is fielding a new nuclear weapon -- a bomb that was used to threaten Libya, a non-nuclear nation, even before it was deployed. The B61 "mod-11"...

Paring down the arsenal.
May 1, 1997... The helsinki summot in March gave a much needed impulse -- albeit a modest one -- to the long-dormant nuclear arms reduction process. There had been no negotiations since the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) had been signed...

De-alerting.(nuclear warheads)
May 1, 1997... Even if the United States and Russia agree to further reductions in nuclear arms, the greatest danger -- a mistaken or unauthorized nuclear lunch -- would decline only slowly. Contrary to popular belief, thousand of nuclear warheads are still...

Disquiet on the Eastern front: Russia has the expertise - but not the money - to maintain its nuclear stockpile.
May 1, 1997... EVEN IN THIS MORE RELAXED post-cold War era, Russia's leaders believe that nuclear weapons are vital to national security. Maintaining confidence in their safety, security, and reliability is therefore essential. But whether Russia can...

Tritium, pits, and warheads.(US and Russian nuclear weapon maintenance)
May 1, 1997... The principal responsibilities for stockpile management activities in Russia reside with three of the Main Directorates of the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom). The Fourth Main Directorate is responsible for the production of highly...

A possible program....(nuclear weapons testing)
May 1, 1997... More than five decades into the nuclear age, the processes involved in the workings of nuclear weapons are still not completely understood. In the past, underground testing provided the ultimate assurance that deployed weapons were safe and...

Have guns, will travel. (Russia's arms exports)
May 1, 1997... In the Latter decades of the Cold War, defense industries were at the heart of the Soviet economy, absorbing one-third of the country's industrial force; 60 percent of the machine-building industry; 80 percent of all research and development...

Smuggling update. (nuclear materials from the former Soviet Union)
May 1, 1997... In the politically noisy 1990s, the pilfering of nuclear materials from former Soviet nuclear complexes has received some -- but not enough -- attention. Fuel cycle enterprises, research institutes, submarine bases, and even weapons assembly...

An Enemy of the State: The Life of Erwin Knoll.
May 1, 1997... After one of the presidential debates in 1980, a political cartoonist took aim at jimmy Carter for describing how his teenage daughter Amy had sensitized him to the horrors of nuclear war. The drawing showed Amy tugging at the president's...

Estimated Russian stockpile, end of 1996. (nuclear weapons)(NRDC Nuclear Notebook)
May 1, 1997... Estimating the size and composition of the former Soviet nuclear stockpile remains difficult, even with improved -- though at times conflicting and ambiguous -- information from the Russian government. U.S. officials now make few, if any,...

Blame the Internet. (bomb information dissemination)(Column)
May 1, 1997... "I thinks unfortunately it's becoming all too easy" for rogue elements to build weapons of mass destruction. "Some of this is on the Internet as to how to construct bombs." Thus incoming Defense Secretary Wiliam S. Cohen joined a growing...