Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from September 1997

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from September 1997

Commitments.(US nuclear disarmament)(Editorial)
September 1, 1997... Every country has myths, stories, aphorisms, and heroes that collectively define the nation. Those of us reared in the United States know how young George Washington cut down a cherry tree and fessed up to it; how Abraham Lincoln freed the...

December in Ottawa.(the US, and banning of anti-personnel land mines)(Column)
September 1, 1997... In scenic, rural Vermont, we sometimes call Canada "the giant to the North." Canada's effort to propel the nations of the world toward a treaty banning the production, transfer, use, and stockpiling of anti-personnel land mines truly gives her...

Turbulent times for fusion power.(Column)
September 1, 1997... Although all early power reactors were expected to produce energy "too cheap to meter," fusion energy was the holy grail. Fusion power was supposed to imitate the sun with a tightly held plasma in which fusion reactions would be indefinitely...

The U.S. Military Online.
September 1, 1997... "The Pentagon doesn't go anywhere with light luggage," says William Arkin, describing the military's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to the Internet. Arkin, a Bulletin columnist and military expert, has taken the time to riffle...

Panama: life after the Zone.
September 1, 1997... Like urban hubs throughout the developing world, Panama City's Plaza Cinco de Mayo is a noisy, grimy, impossibly crowded place where traffic, commuters, and petty criminals fight for control of a limited supply of swelterin asphalt. You can...

Nuclear disarmament: the NAS blueprint.(National Academy of Sciences report, 'The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy')
September 1, 1997... A recent report by a standing committee of the National Academy of Sciences challenges the United States to rethink its Cold War-era nuclear weapons policies and seriously consider the goal of nuclear disarmament. Specifically, the United...

Playing to win.(Congressional supporters of land mine ban)
September 1, 1997... On June 12, 1997, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy introduced a bill to ban new deployments of anti-personnel land mines beginning in the year 2000. Joining him as co-sponsors were 56 senators (a number that has subsequently grown), including 15...

More power to thorium?(thorium-powered electricity reactors)
September 1, 1997... Alvin Radkowsky, a pioneer nuclear scientist now living and working in Israel, is a man with a mission. At 81, he still hopes to create a "new era of nuclear power" based on one of the oldest of the Nuclear Age's ideas -- electricity generated...

Targets of opportunity: how nuclear planners found new targets for old weapons.(Cover Story)
September 1, 1997... In 1978, in an attempt to shore up support for the still-shaky Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Carter administration issued a "negative security assurance." It said, in effect, that if a non-nuclear state attacked the United States...

Harvest season.(working on a 'de-miner' landmine sweeping squad in Mozambique)(includes related article on the international ban on landmines)
September 1, 1997... The day in Mozambique breaks hot and dirty. Life at the demining camp is stirring before the sun begins to blaze. Before actual work in the dirt can start, life in the tent and around the camp is already under way. By 6:30 in summer, 7:30 in...

A chemical weapons atlas.
September 1, 1997... Few states admit that they possess chemical weapons. In recent years, only the United States, Russia, Iraq, and now India, have done so. The United States, which has started to destroy its chemical weapons, has a stockpile of about 30,000...

The slow death of the fast breeder. (plutonium nuclear power plants)
September 1, 1997... Revelations about accidents and cover-ups at Japan's three multi-billion-dollar demonstration plutonium-recycle facilities have undermined public confidence in Japan's nuclear power program. Beyond that, the loss of confidence in Japan's...

The ghost of Christmas past.(British nuclear-testing military veterans seek compensation)
September 1, 1997... In 1958, Ken McGinley was a 20-year-old British serviceman and "participant" in Operation Grapple -- a series of five British hydrogen bomb tests near Christmas Island. On the morning of the first test, he and the other men assembled on the...

Caging the Nuclear Genie: An American Challenge for Global Security.
September 1, 1997... In September 1970, Rear Adm. Stansfield Turner took command of a carrier-centered task group in the eastern Mediterranean. He knew the general mission of the task group and the role it played in the continuing East-West nuclear chess game. But...

Where the bombs are, 1997.(nuclear weapons based in the US)
September 1, 1997... U.S. nuclear weapons are currently stored at some 26 locations in 15 states and seven foreign countries. This column updates the comprehensive accounting done in 1992 (see "Nuclear Notebook," September 1992 Bulletin) and is adapted from a...

Still glowing.(depleted uranium in tactical weapons and armor)(The Last Word)(Column)
September 1, 1997... By exploiting fears associated with Gulf War syndrome, The Nation magazine, Helen Caldicott, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark have unleashed a new crusade against depleted uranium (DU). They offer an unfocused rant, replete with...