Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from September 2000

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from September 2000

More than marketing.(readership survey)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... KATHARINE DOWNS, THE BULLETIN'S MARKETING COORDINATOR, HAS been telling me about the results of the reader survey that was mailed with the March/April issue of the magazine. Those results reminded us of something we already knew, but should...

A new "Manhattan Project"?
September 1, 2000... THERE IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR energy future which is not mentioned in the article by Steve Fetter ("Energy 2050," July/August 2000 Bulletin). Most of the obtainable supply of petroleum will be used up by the year 2050. (Actually, it...

Corrections.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2000... In the July/August 2000 Bulletin, Janne Nolan, author of "When Three Heads Are Better Than... Three Heads," was described as a national security specialist at the Brookings Institution. That description was true enough, as far as it goes. But...

When good robots go bad.(BattleBots Inc.: robotic competition)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... These mechanical gladiators are powered up and ready to rip When, as a kid, Dan Danknick begged his mom for $100 to build his first robot, he never dreamed that a few decades later his robots would be hauling in prize money for disabling...

A second chance to make a first impression.(schoolchildren meet scientists at Fermi Laboratory and put aside their stereotyped ideas)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Twenty-two thousand schoolkids stream through Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, on field trips each year. They come with a pretty stereotyped idea of what a scientist looks like and what his--or her--job entails. ...

And the risk of nuclear annihilation is ...(research quantifying risk of nuclear annihilation)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The impulse to rid the world of nuclear weapons bubbles up from a different place in each activist's soul, from outrage at the astronomical U.S. military budget to sheer terror of atomic Armaggedon. But over the years, a few men have been...

Sculpture from scrap.(Tom Jennings makes sculpture with atomic themes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Still holding on to that old Geiger counter from 1950? Don't know what to do with all your nuclear lab scrap? How about making it into art? That's what artist Tom Jennings has done. While plenty of works have tackled the bomb, world peace, and...

In brief.(large reptiles attracted to nuclear power plants; mobile phone powered by shoes; other news)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... * Natural affinity? What is it about nuclear power plants that draws large reptiles--alligators and crocodiles--to them? Apparently it's the cooling ponds. On May 26, the Times of London reported that the crocodile population at a farm at...

My platform can beat your platform.(Republican and Democratic Party platform statements on nuclear weapons)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... As the Republicans and Democrats gathered in August to nominate as presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore, Jr., the Bulletin took a look at the party platforms to see what they said about nuclear weapons. Can you guess which...

WEB Watch.(Greenpeace broadcasts shots of radioactive waste being discharged off the Normandy coast; this and other Web activity is discussed)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Under the sea The Net is all about eliminating intermediaries. Stock without brokers. Groceries without grocery stores. Insurance without slime. And now you can watch the world's great polluters without the nightly news. A recent...

Too close for comfort.(nuclear weapons facilities need better wildfire protection)
September 1, 2000... IN A COINCIDENCE SO CLOSE IT WAS downright eerie, the ferocious 2000 fire season in the western United States saw two American nuclear weapons facilities hit by wildfires in less than two months. First a forest fire invaded Los Alamos National...

Nuclear navies?(India boosts its naval capabilities to counter a perceived threat from China and Pakistan)
September 1, 2000... IT IS NO SECRET THAT INDIA WANTS TO become an important regional power. Attaining nuclear weapons and developing military technological capabilities are important elements in reaching that objective. Indian policymakers also believe that India...

Fueling up fast.(Czech Republic rushes to activate its Temelin nuclear power plant)
September 1, 2000... FOR YEARS, THE ONLY THINGS THE TEMELIN nuclear power plant in the southern Czech Republic churned out were cost overruns and scheduling delays. Four empty cooling towers loomed over an otherwise idyllic countryside some 60 miles south of Prague...

Republicans do it better.(Republican Party has good record on arms control)
September 1, 2000... Historically, Republicans are much more likley to reach arms control agreements. I HAVE NEVER VOTED FOR A Republican in my life. But if I were to vote my professional interests, in November I would cast my ballot for Governor George W....

Not Ready for Prime Time.(missile defense system repeatedly fails tests)
September 1, 2000... LATE IN THE EVENING OF JULY 7, BALLISTIC MISSILE Defense Organization officials gathered around a screen to watch a highly publicized intercept test of the Clinton administration's new national missile defense system. A rocket had taken off...

Shootin' for the moon.(history of space defense programs)
September 1, 2000... The idea of weapons in space is nothing new. One early military. plan for nuking the moon was publicized a few months ago with the publication of Keay Davidson's biography, Carl Sagan: A Life. Early in his career, Sagan worked for a secret...

Exploding the past.(Laos still littered with ordnance from Vietnam War)
September 1, 2000... Twenty-five years after the Vietnam War, Laos is still coping with the aftermath of one of the most extensive bombing campaigns in history. THREE WHITE TOYOTA PICKUP TRUCKS EMBLAZONED with bomb-shaped insignias roll into Ban Kaelae Mai, a...

PLAYING WITH FIRE.(book 'Cassidy's Run' recounts true spy saga)
September 1, 2000... IN APRIL 1968 EDMUND FREUNDLICH, A SOLITARY, 58-year-old office worker from Vienna, Austria, arrived in the United States to begin his new career as a "sleeper agent" for the Soviet Union's military intelligence agency, the "GRU." His principal...

POLYAKOV'S RUN.(cold war spies)
September 1, 2000... When U.S. intelligence deceived the Soviets, were they being a little too clever? TO HIS SOVIET HANDLERS, SGT. Joseph Cassidy seemed like any other of the dozen or so well-placed noncommissioned officers of the U.S. Army and Navy who had...

"WE SERVED THE CAUSE".(cold war espionage)
September 1, 2000... Although he was used to mislead the Soviets, Lopez says his spying helped to keep the "equilibrium." CASSIDY'S RUN DESCRIBES ONE night in a St. Petersburg, Florida park in April 1972, when FBI agents watched as a Mexican couple, Gilberto...

No place like home.(paramilitary groups in Mexico)
September 1, 2000... A small, isolated village is overwhelmed by refugees fleeing the paramilitaries. YOU WON'T FIND XOYEP ("CHOYEP"), A tiny hamlet in the highland municipality of Chenalho, on a map of the Mexican state of Chiapas. Nor will you pass it as...

LET 'EM EAT NUKES.(economic effects of armament by India and Pakistan)
September 1, 2000... Two years after their nuclear tests, India and Pakistan are less secure, economically weaker, and plagued with increasing poverty. AN INDIAN TELEVISION COMMERCIAL for a local whiskey shows two stern-faced border guards, one in the khaki of...

Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons Edited by Jonathan B. Tucker MIT Press, 2000 303 pages; $20.00 In December 1993 Colin Ferguson, a 35-year-old Jamaican immigrant, ambled down the aisle of a Long...

The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters.(Review)
September 1, 2000... The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters By Frances Stonor Saunders The New Press, 2000 427 pages; $29.95 In 1955-57, I worked in the Paris office of the Coordination Committee for International Voluntary Work Camps,...

Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Way Or There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End By Frances FitzGerald Simon & Schuster, 2000 592 pages; $30.00 In January 1985, the White House published a pamphlet describing President Ronald Reagan's "Strategic Defense Initiative"...

Lifting the Fog of War.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Lifting the Fog of War By Adm. Bill Owens, with Ed Offley Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2000 280 pages; $25 Admiral Bill Owens (retired) doesn't beat around the bush. In the first 650 words or so of his book--not much longer than this...

French and British Nuclear Forces, 2000.
September 1, 2000... France On February 22 and 23, 1996, President Jacques Chirac announced several reforms of the armed forces to be undertaken between 1997 and 2002. Chirac's decisions in the nuclear area combined the withdrawal of several obsolete systems...

The SIOP--forever immoral.(single integrated operational plan)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... THE SIOP (THE SINGLE INTEGRATED OPERATIONAL Plan), the central nuclear war plan, is offered as the holy text that explains why the Clinton administration cannot reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to less than 2,000-2,500 warheads. ...