• Seismographs accurately detected North Korea's nuclear test

    In 1998 the U.S. Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) partly owing to fears that countries could cheat by claiming that small covert weapons tests were earthquakes; the quick and accurate detection of the North Korean test shows that the currently deployed system of sensors works

  • The security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal // by Dinshaw Mistry

    Pakistan has significantly strengthened its nuclear command and control mechanisms; still, under some situations, its nuclear arsenal may be vulnerable to takeover by extremists

  • Radioactive spills in Scotland

    U.K. Ministry of Defense reveals a series of serious radioactive leaks in 2004, 2007, and 2008 into the Firth of Clyde

  • DHS seeks nuclear detection research

    DHS is looking to award $3 million this summer for nuclear detection technology exploratory research that could lead to a dramatic improvement in the U.S. nuclear detection capabilities

  • Iran makes a major step toward the bomb

    Iran inaugurated its the country’s first nuclear fuel production plant, allowing it to produce enough plutonium for two bombs a year; at the same time it is increasing the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges; Iran already has enough enriched uranium for one bomb

  • Gates expects Israel to hold back on Iran -- at least in 2009

    U.S. secretary of defense Robert Gates says he does not think Israel would attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2009: “I guess I would say I would be surprised…if they did act this year”

  • Report: Israel may attack Iran with missiles

    New study says that Israel would use conventionally tipped ballistic missiles rather than planes to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon facilities; the destruction of these facilities is feasible — the problem lies with the likely Iranian retaliation to such an attack

  • U.S. searching for a nuclear waste graveyard

    Congress has killed the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, so the United States has no central location for storing nuclear waste; 50,000 metric tons of toxic nuclear waste that has already been produced by the U.S. nuclear plants; 30,000 metric tons more of nuclear waste is expected to be generated in the coming decades

  • U.S., Israel differ sharply on Iran's nuclear threat

    Dennis Blair tells Senate committee that Iran has not yet made decision to pursue nuclear weapons; Pentagon leaders also differ in their view of Iran’s intentions, capabilities

  • BNS wins £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract

    Dounreay was the site of a brave, new idea — a fast breeder nuclear reactor which would convert an unusable form of uranium to plutonium which could be recycled and turned into new reactor fuel; it would, that is, breed its own fuel, offering the prospect of electricity in abundance; it has not worked out that way; now it is the site of a big decommissioning effort

  • Of facts and wishful thinking in the Iran debate

    Dennis Blair, the new DNI, said today that it will be “difficult” to convince Iran to give up its quest for nuclear weapons through diplomatic means; he also repeated the November 2007 NIE assessment that Iran had “halted” its weaponization work in 2003

  • New reactor design solves waste, weapon proliferation problems

    A new nuclear reactor design — called Traveling-Wave reactor — is noteworthy for three things: it comes from a privately funded research company, not the government; it would run on what is now waste, thus reducing dramatically the nuclear waste and weapon proliferation problems; and it could theoretically run for a couple of hundred years without refueling

  • Researchers develop plutonium which is good for power but not for weapons

    Israeli researcher finds that adding the rare-earth isotope Americium-241 in due proportion during reprocessing “declaws” plutonium, making suitable for power generation but not for weapons

  • Historic sample of bomb-grade plutonium discovered

    Scientists stumble upon, then identify, the oldest batch of weapon-grade plutonium; methods used in identification can help in anti-proliferation efforts

  • Iran launches plutonium path to the bomb

    Iran makes an important — if symbolic — step toward joining the nuclear weapon club; the Busher plant will allow Iran to produce bombs from plutonium, in addition to bombs made from uranium enriched at a facility at Natanz