NewsTrust - Nuclear Weapons - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Fmr. Ambassador Pickering: Iran, Istanbul and the future

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering - Apr. 23 (Special Report) - In Iran, the Supreme Leader re-issued his fatwa, which dates back at least to 2003, calling nuclear weapons haram, or "not permitted," for Muslims at least and styling them for the first time as a "cardinal sin." This pronouncement was complemented by guarded praise on his website for Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the reissuance of a book on negotiations surrounding events affecting Shi'ism in the eighth century; the final two words of the book's title are the optimistic "flexibility and compromise."

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What is known about the North Korea Launch?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By David Wright - Apr. 12 (Special Report) - The launch will still teach North Korea about rocket technology it could use in a missile, but it should be clear from the trajectory whether this launch was in fact an attempt to boost a satellite into orbit. What is the significance of the launch? North Korea has not successfully launched a satellite into orbit. If it succeeds, it would be one of a relatively few countries to have accomplished such a feat. While the satellite is small and not very capable, it would give North Korean engineers practice at communicating with a satellite in orbit. That would be useful in regard to future satellites, even if they were launched for North Korea by another country.

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The case for the CTBT: Stronger than ever | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Kingston Reif - Apr. 09 (News Analysis) - Now, within days of the second Obama-initiated global Nuclear Security Summit, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has released its much-anticipated report on the technical and security issues related to the CTBT. It provides ample evidence that the case for the test ban has never been better.

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The new abolitionists: Henry Kissenger, George Schultz, Bill Perry, Sam Nunn, and Sidney Drell

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Hugh Gusteraon - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - Philip Taubman's new book, The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb, recounts the story of five front-rank Cold Warriors who have become nuclear abolitionists in their old age. They are: Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state, 85; George Schultz, President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, 88; Bill Perry, President Bill Clinton's secretary of defense, 82; Sam Nunn, former chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 72; and Sidney Drell, a scientific adviser to the US government and physics professor at Stanford University, 85. In their professional careers, each contributed in important ways to the nuclear arms race.

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Will NATO Finally State How Many Tactical Nukes it has in Europe (and where they are)?

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Francesco Calogero, Giorgio La Malfa - Mar. 19 (Special Report) - Francesco Calogero and Giorgio La Malfa explore options for NATO to finally state the exact number and locations of its tactical nuclear weapons in the upcoming Defense and Deterrence Posture Review. The article explores why this should happen and what a likely response from Russia would be.

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North Korea: Small step forward, many more to go | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

thebulletin.org - By Suyeon Kim - Mar. 02 (Special Report) - South Korean media have reported that Pyongyang suggested it would be willing to temporarily halt its uranium enrichment facility using the "no-load operation" method until the plant is proved to be useful only for peaceful purposes. (The no-load method means allowing centrifuges to continue spinning, but without feeding them the uranium fuel needed for actual enrichment. This process prevents the destruction of centrifuges, implying that the regime intends to restart enrichment at a later point in time.)

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Strategic revelation | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

thebulletin.org - By John Issacs - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - The back story is that the Obama administration is following up on the April 2010 Nuclear Posture Review -- a major Pentagon assessment of nuclear strategy, forces, and readiness -- with options for the future size of the US nuclear arsenal. This study has been delayed for many months; thus, it comes as little surprise that this leak would occur in the middle of a hot political campaign.

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ABC's Iran Propaganda

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Feb. 02 (News Analysis) - The January 31 ABC World News broadcast featured a blatantly propagandistic report on the supposed threat from Iran.

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Panel: Start now to replace Nevada nuke site

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

tri-cityherald.com - By Matthew Daly - Jan. 28 (News Report) - The Union of Concerned Scientists said construction of an interim storage facility for nuclear waste poses a stiff political challenge and could distract from the more important goal of finding a permanent repository site.

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Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, George Weller - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll.

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Jesus Loves Nukes But They Have to Cool It

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Abby Zimet - Aug. 04 (News Report) - The Air Force has suspended a decades-long training course, commonly dubbed Jesus Loves Nukes, that taught "ethics" to nuclear missile launchers by referencing Biblical figures like Abraham, John the Baptist and other "believers engaged in wars."

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As Obama Quietly Pushes for a Nuclear Weapons Renaissance, Wildfire Threatens Los Alamos Nuclear Lab

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 28 (News Report) - In New Mexico, an out-of-control wildfire that began Sunday has already burned nearly 80 square miles and is a mile or less from Los Alamos National Laboratory, home to a nuclear weapons plutonium facility. Pieces of ash from the fire have dropped onto the laboratory grounds, sparking "spot" fires. A senior investigator with the Project on Government Oversight said a fire at the facility would be a "disaster" that could result in large and lethal releases of radiation. Officials insist explosive materials on the laboratory’s grounds are safely stored in underground bunkers made of concrete and steel. But the group, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, told the Associated Press that the fire appeared to be about 3.5 miles from a dump site where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground.

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WikiLeaks: Al-Qaida Already Has Nuclear Capacity

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

newsmax.com - By Martin Gould - Apr. 25 (News Report) - U.S. authorities believe al-Qaida already has nuclear capacity and is ready to use it, new WikiLeaks documents detailing prisoner interrogations in Guantanamo Bay have revealed.

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Waking Up to a Nuclear Nightmare

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Barbara Rose Johnston - Apr. 04 (News Analysis) - As Japan's nuclear disaster continues to unfold, a growing number of its citizens and residents are beginning their transition, becoming the newest members of the world's radiogenic community. Like the hibakusha, downwinders, uranium miners, atomic vets and the many who live in towns and cities that hosted the nuclear enterprise, they find their lives profoundly altered by a hazardous, invisible threat, where the fear of nuclear contamination and the personal health and intergenerational effects from exposure colors all aspects of social, cultural, economic and psychological well-being.

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Human Health Effects - WANMEC

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

toxipedia.org - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - Radioactive and toxic substances used in the production of plutonium and its resulting waste are dangerous to both Hanford workers and the public. These substances may have been inhaled or ingested through drinking water. All of the following radioactive contaminants have reached the groundwater at Hanford.

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A World in Denial about Nuclear Power

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Danny Schechter - Mar. 21 (News Analysis) - As Hiroshima becomes yesterday’s distant memory and Fukishima the current threat, the full extent of the human harm from the disaste is not yet in, partly because the Japanese government and the power companies don’t want to alarm the public. Years earlier, a similar cover-up was in effect at Three Mile Island complex in Pennsylvania where reports of the damage people suffered from a serious accident was minimized, never examined in depth by some of the very same media outlets who are today criticizing Japan for a lack of transparency.

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Reflections on Fukushima: A time to mourn, to learn, and to teach

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Robert Socolow - Mar. 21 (News Analysis) - As a physicist, I have spent my life hoping that nuclear power could realize its potential. My teachers were scientists who had penetrated the nuclear world for the first time. They told those of us who were studying physics in the pre-1960s era that we could have all the fun they had had, as the domain of analysis moved down in scale from the nucleus to the hadrons and leptons of the sub-nuclear zoo. But, with that fun, came a second assignment: Our generation had to ensure there was no further use of nuclear weapons. My contemporaries and I were socialized to believe that nuclear physics could bring humankind amazing insights into our past via precise dating and powerful tools of diagnostic and therapeutic medicine -- but nuclear physics, we were taught, also could bring attractive energy sources. The triad of nuclear power weaknesses -- safety, waste management, and couplings to weapons -- was a surmountable challenge.

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How Reagan Brought the World to the Brink of Nuclear Destruction

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Tad Daley - Feb. 09 (Special Report) - Before he assumed the presidency, Ronald Reagan said "the day of Armageddon isn't far off. ... Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained down upon the enemies of God's people. That must mean that they'll be destroyed by nuclear weapons." He told voters that American national interests would best be served if the United States proceeded to build and deploy several new kinds of nuclear weapons and delivery systems -- the B-1 bomber, the neutron bomb, the Trident nuclear submarine, and the MX nuclear missile. He denounced Soviet leaders as "monsters" and "godless communists." He attacked the SALT II treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev as "an act of appeasement." Indeed, prior to assuming the presidency, Ronald Reagan had opposed every single nuclear arms control agreement negotiated since the dawn of the nuclear age.

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Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - By Gareth Porter - Nov. 18 (Investigative Report) - telltale indicators of fraud bring into question the central pillar of the case against Iran and raise more fundamental questions about the handling of the Iranian nuclear issue by the IAEA, the United States and its key European allies. Drawings of the Wrong Missile Warhead

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HANFORD: Highly radioactive soil found in river corridor - Breaking News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

| Tri-City Herald : - By By Annette Cary, - Nov. 17 (News Report) - “This is extremely high radiation. Nothing else compares in the river corridor,” said Mark French, Department of Energy project director. The river corridor includes 75 square miles of Hanford along the Columbia River that are planned to be cleaned up by 2015. Radioactivity has been measured at 8,900 rad per hour. That's 10 times the lethal dose on direct contact.

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US Foreign Policy | Iran Sanctions | Nuclear Bomb

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Barbara E. Martinez - Nov. 07 (News) - Engagement succumbs to political imperative.read more

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Iran may consider ending its nuclear enrichment program

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

allvoices.com - Sep. 24 (News) - After his controversial speech to the United Nations Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran may consider ending its high level uranium enrichment efforts. The Associated Press reports

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Greg Mitchell: How Press Censorship Hid the Shocking Truth About Nagasaki A-Bomb 65 Years Ago

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Greg Mitchell - Aug. 11 (Special Report) - Nagasaki, which lost over 70,000 civilians (and a few military personnel) to a new weapon 65 years ago today, has always been The Forgotten A-Bomb...

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Nagasaki 65 Years Later: A Look Back at the Censored Dispatches of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist George Weller

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Anthony Weller, Amy Goodman, George Weller - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - Today, we remember the US bombing of Nagasaki through the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller, the first reporter to enter Nagasaki, defying General MacArthur’s ban on the press in southern Japan. Weller worked for the Chicago Daily News and hired a rowboat to get himself to Nagasaki. He wrote a 25,000-word report on the horrors that he encountered. When he submitted his story to the military censors, MacArthur personally ordered that the story be killed, and the manuscript was never returned. Weller later summarized his experience with the government censors, saying, "They won."

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Hiroshima And Nagasaki (PHOTOS): Never Before Seen Images From LIFE.com

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Aug. 06 (Special Report) - The site of the world's first A-bomb attack echoed with the choirs of schoolchildren and the solemn ringing of bells Friday as Hiroshima marked its biggest memorial yet. At 8:15 a.m. -- the time the bomb dropped, incinerating most of the city -- a moment of silence was observed.

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