Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from May 2000

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from May 2000

LETTERS.
May 1, 2000... Sharpen the logic David Gompert ("Sharpen the Fear, January/February Bulletin) favors a no-first-use policy for U.S. nuclear weapons in any situation except in response to another's use of a weapon of mass destruction. He specifically...

How low can you go?(lawsuit filed against the Air Force, alleging excessive noise and use of air space)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Grace Potorti doesn't think she's asking for much. Maybe a little quiet. After all, she lives in a rural desert area. Instead, she finds herself living in an environment crisscrossed by low-level training flights conducted by the air force,...

And then they went home.(demonstrators, who protested in various nuclear disarmament causes, finally break camp and go home after 18 years)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... When women arrived at the gates outside Britain's Greenham Common in 1981 to protest NATO'S decision to place cruise missiles there, few could have predicted that 18 years later there would still be trailers and tents outside the base gates....

WEB Watch.(Energy Dept. Web site offers information on radioactive waste storage locations)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... "WHen I was coming up, it was a dangerous world and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus `them' and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there. George W. Bush's articulation...

The death of common sense?(nuclear waste spill at Hanford Reservation)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... When officials at the Hanford Reservation wanted to test whether a 25-year-old underground pipe could handle the job of transferring highly radioactive waste from one storage tank to another, they didn't mess around with some faux waste...

In Brief.(a 50-foot model of a Trident missile will be on display in various parts of the country)(this and other items are discussed)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... * Missile stop This 50-foot replica of a Trident missile, which appeared at the California Democratic Convention in San Jose on February 12, is only the first of a series of such mockups, says Peter Ferenbach of California Peace Action....

The great Martian flag wars.(although Mars will not be explored for many years, there is already a controversy over a Martian exploration flag)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Although Val Kilmer will set foot on Mars this fall in Red Planet--where Gary Sinise has been traipsing around since March in Mission to Mars--it's unlikely that real-life humans will disturb the Martian dust anytime soon. But that hasn't...

Freudian slip?(confusion over Dept. of Energy budget request for nuclear weapon pit financing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Simple error, wishful thinking, or Freudian slip? In its latest budget request, the Energy Department asked for money to build a new factory to manufacture "new-design pits" as well as more cores for nuclear weapons of existing designs...

Noted in passing ...(some Canadian fighter pilots have been judged too fat to eject from their cockpits)(this and other items are presented)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Some Canadian pilots have been grounded because they are too fat to safely eject from their fighters.... The U.S. Army hopes to confound the increasingly voluble critics of the School of the Americas--alma mater of notorious killers and...

Trouble at the green lagoon.(the Mexican refuses to audit, or close, the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant, despite harsh reports about its operation)
May 1, 2000... LAGUNA VERDE, MEXICO'S SOLE NUCLEAR power plant, has been controversial since it came on line in 1990. Environmental activists accuse plant management of covering up accidents, former employees allege that management is corrupt, geologists...

The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.(Review)
May 1, 2000... The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB By Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin Basic Books, 1999 700 pages; $32.50 During the Cold War, the Soviet Union's secret police--the KGB--was the...

Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today By Paul R. Josephson W.H. Freeman and Company, 1999 352 pages; $26.95 The few publications or documentaries on the Soviet nuclear program that we have seen in the West are the...