The Battle for Eurasia | The Arab Spring Is in Its Death Spiral | Cold War II Is All About Geopolitics, and more

Reactors that “Recycle” Plutonium Would Create More Problems Than They Solve  (Jungmin Kang and M. V. Ramana, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
In 2021, nine US nonproliferation experts sent an open letter to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In their letter, the experts expressed their concern that the Canadian government was actually increasing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation by funding reactors that are fueled with plutonium. Earlier that year, the Federal Government had provided 50.5 million Canadian dollars to Moltex Energy, a company exploring a nuclear reactor design fueled with plutonium. The linkage to nuclear weapons proliferation has also led several civil society groups to urge the Canadian government to ban plutonium reprocessing.
Much of the concern so far has been on Canada setting a poor example by sending a “dangerous signal to other countries that it is OK to for them to extract plutonium for commercial use.” But Moltex plans to export its reactors to other countries raise a different concern. Even if a country importing such a reactor does not start a commercial program to extract plutonium, it would still have a relatively easy access to plutonium in the fuel that the reactor relies on to operate. Below we provide a rough estimate of the quantities of plutonium involved—and their potential impact on nuclear weapons proliferation—to help explain the magnitude of the problem. But there is more. By separating multiple radionuclides from the solid spent fuel and channeling it into waste streams, Moltex reactors will only make the nuclear waste problem worse.

The Arab Spring Is in Its Death Spiral. Does the West Still Care?  (Kim Ghattas, The Atlantic)
Tunisia was the best case, Sudan the last hope, Syria the bloodiest of all: The countries that not long ago sparked optimism for a democratic wave in the Arab world have descended into dictatorship, and Washington shouldn’t ignore them.

A New Cold War Could Be Much Worse Than the One We Remember  (Charles A. Kupchan, The Atlantic)
A new cold war has come to seem all but inevitable. Tensions between China and the United States are mounting in step with Beijing’s growing power and ambition. Much as it did in the 20th century, Washington is teaming up with allies in Europe and Asia to contain the ambitions of its rivals.
But a cold war between the United States and a Sino-Russian bloc could be even costlier and more dangerous than the original