Category Archives: Nuclear

South Korea and Japan Thinking About Nuclear Weapons

Posted by on May 20, 2013 Comments Off

Growing concern about North Korea’s nuclear program has led many in South Korea to favor the idea of building atomic weapons. Japan too is discussing such a move.

Perhaps it is merely basic human desire to keep up with the neighbors, but an increasing number of South Koreans are saying that they want nuclear weapons too.

Even in Japan, a country still traumatized by the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a debate about the once-taboo topic of nuclear weapons.

The mere fact that the bomb is being discussed as a policy option shows how North Korea’s nuclear program could trigger a new arms race in East Asia, unraveling decades of nonproliferation efforts. The government in Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February and is believed to be preparing a fourth.

More South Koreans support developing nuclear weapons – latimes.com

Japan must develop nuclear weapons, warns Tokyo governor – Asia – World – The Independent

Tokyo’s outspoken Governor says his country, which suffered history’s only nuclear attack, should build nuclear weapons to counter the threat from fast-rising China.

In an interview with The Independent, Shintaro Ishihara said Japan could develop nuclear weapons within a year and send a strong message to the world.

“All our enemies: China, North Korea and Russia – all close neighbours – have nuclear weapons. Is there another country in the world in a similar situation?

Japan must develop nuclear weapons, warns Tokyo governor – Asia – World – The Independent

Will Riyadh Get the Bomb?: Saudi Arabia’s Atomic Ambitions :: Middle East Quarterly

Posted by on May 20, 2013 Comments Off

As the impasse over Tehran’s nuclear program worsens, those most likely to be directly effected by an Iranian bomb are showing greater alarm. While the media fixates on Israel and its possible reaction, other regional players have no less at stake.

Despite Riyadh’s long-held advocacy of making the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, there has been much speculation in the last two decades about the possibility of its acquiring or developing nuclear weapons should Tehran obtain the bomb.[1] In the words of King Abdullah: “If Iran developed nuclear weapons … everyone in the region would do the same,”[2] a sentiment echoed by Prince Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate.[3] Has Riyadh decided to go down the nuclear road, or is this bluster a desperate bid to stop Tehran’s nuclear program dead in its tracks?

Will Riyadh Get the Bomb?: Saudi Arabia’s Atomic Ambitions :: Middle East Quarterly

Obama to Announce Major US Nuclear Force Cuts Soon

Posted by on May 19, 2013 Comments Off

President Barack Obama is set to announce a new round of strategic nuclear warhead reductions in the near future as part of a disarmament agenda that could reduce U.S. strategic warheads to as few as 1,000 weapons.

The next round of U.S.-Russian arms talks would follow Obama’s expected announcement that the United States’ arsenal of strategic warheads can be reduced unilaterally to around 1,000 warheads. That position is expected as part of the Pentagon’s long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review implementation study that Obama was expected to sign earlier this year.

Recent press reports have indicated that President Obama may make the cuts — fully one-third of the nation’s arsenal — by executive action and without Congressional authorization.

Obama to Announce Major US Nuclear Force Cuts Soon

Scenario: Israel-Iran nuclear war

Posted by on May 13, 2013 Comments Off

In those first minutes, they’ll be stunned. Eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare, nerve endings numbed. They’ll just stand there. Soon, you’ll notice that they are holding their arms out at a 45-degree angle. Your eyes will be drawn to their hands and you’ll think you mind is playing tricks. But it won’t be. Their fingers will start to resemble stalactites, seeming to melt toward the ground. And it won’t be long until the screaming begins. Shrieking. Moaning. Tens of thousands of victims at once. They’ll be standing amid a sea of shattered concrete and glass, a wasteland punctuated by the shells of buildings, orphaned walls, stairways leading nowhere.

This could be Tehran, or what’s left of it, just after an Israeli nuclear strike.

Iranian cities — owing to geography, climate, building construction, and population densities — are particularly vulnerable to nuclear attack, according to a new study, “Nuclear War Between Israel and Iran: Lethality Beyond the Pale,” published in the journal Conflict & Health by researchers from the University of Georgia and Harvard University. It is the first publicly released scientific assessment of what a nuclear attack in the Middle East might actually mean for people in the region.

Its scenarios are staggering. An Israeli attack on the Iranian capital of Tehran using five 500-kiloton weapons would, the study estimates, kill seven million people — 86% of the population — and leave close to 800,000 wounded. A strike with five 250-kiloton weapons would kill an estimated 5.6 million and injure 1.6 million, according to predictions made using an advanced software package designed to calculate mass casualties from a nuclear detonation.

.:Middle East Online::Nuclear Terror in the Middle East: Lethality Beyond the Pale :.

Former Palestinian official advocates nuclear attack on Israel | World Tribune

Posted by on May 13, 2013 Comments Off

The Palestinian long deemed Israel’s chief security partner has called for the use of nuclear weapons against the Jewish state. Former Palestinian Authority security chief Jibril Rajoub said the Arab League must help the Palestinians fight Israel, particularly the capture of
Jerusalem.

Rajoub said he supported nuclear attacks on Israel.

Former Palestinian official advocates nuclear attack on Israel | World Tribune

Is there a morale crisis in the US nuclear force? – Salon.com

Posted by on May 12, 2013 Comments Off

In a March inspection the 91st wing was rated “marginal,” the equivalent of a “D” grade, when tested on launch skills.

Folds described a deeper problem, citing willful rule violations such as leaving open the multi-ton blast door to their launch compartment while one of the two crew members was asleep. Sleep breaks are authorized, but the open door is not, given the risk of losing control of the capsule to an unauthorized intruder.

Publicly, the Air Force insists that its missileers, as they are known within the service, are capable, trustworthy and committed. But Air Force Secretary Michael Donley also acknowledged in congressional testimony that he worries that talk of further shrinking the nation’s nuclear force is having a “corrosive effect” on his troops.

Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said at the same congressional hearing that it’s understandable that young missile officers may be demoralized by the realization that theirs is a shrinking field.

Is there a morale crisis in the US nuclear force? – Salon.com

US Launch Officers for Nuclear Missiles: Incompetence, rot and crisis

Posted by on May 8, 2013 Comments Off

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Air Force has quietly stripped 17 officers of the authority to order the launch of nuclear missiles.

The move comes on the heels of a military review that found several failings in the officers’ unit, the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, CBS reported. In March, inspectors gave the officers the grade of “D” on their mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations.

“We are, in fact, in a crisis right now,” said the base commander, Lt. Col. Jay Fields, in an email obtained by The Associated Press. He also said the unit was experiencing “rot” in its ranks, AP reported.

Air Force strips 17 officers of power to launch nuclear missiles – Washington Times

This is just too good. The Obama administration is gutting the US nuclear arsenal, and what’s left can’t be launched due to incompetence and rot.

New START Treaty: The unilateral disarming of US nuclear forces

Posted by on May 7, 2013 Comments Off

In other words, New START provided Moscow an incentive to go up, not down, in strategic nuclear arms. As for the United States, New START will reduce the number of deployed delivery vehicles by about one-fourth. Given these facts, it is perhaps understandable why the new secretary of state chose to say nothing about nuclear reductions, which was, after all, the treaty’s ostensible objective. The one-sided nature of the actual reductions certainly looks more like unilateral disarmament than mutual, bilateral reductions.

Time for Kerry to Face Facts – By Robert Joseph and Eric Edelman | Foreign Policy

Why is the president letting America’s nukes rust?

Posted by on April 25, 2013 Comments Off

Development of a new nuclear submarine and the planned replacement for the nuclear air-launched cruise missile has been delayed by at least two years. We don’t know if the next generation of strategic bomber will be qualified for nuclear missions at the outset, if ever. No decision has been made to replace the Minuteman ICBM. The life extension programs for the B-61 nuclear bomb and the W-78 and W-88 nuclear warheads have slipped by at least two years.

…

As the gap between what was promised for modernization and what is provided continues to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve the responsive nuclear infrastructure that even the president acknowledges is essential for nuclear reductions and the continuing credibility of our nuclear deterrent.

Off to a Bad Start – By Sen. Jim Inhofe and Sen. Bob Corker | Foreign Policy

Apparently, the senators don’t believe the president when he talks about a nuclear-free world. The US will lead the way forward – unilaterally if that’s what it takes. All the president has to do is nothing. If he does nothing (or very little) then the aging US nuclear arsenal will have to be retired and replaced with nothing. Sorry, but there is no money in the budget for new nuclear weapons.

Tehran and Assad slide past US and Israeli red lines – nuclear and chemical

Posted by on April 24, 2013 Comments Off

 Iran has crossed the last red line Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down before the UN Assembly last September, said the well-informed former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. None of the measures for halting Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb have worked, he said. For a while, Tehran was impressed by the Israeli prime minister’s warning, but then went back to uranium enrichment at top speed. By now, Iran has certainly gone past the limit set by Netanyahu.

Likud lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi said Israel has no more than a month or two for stopping a nuclear Iran.

Ron Dermer, a senior Netanyahu adviser and Israel’s next ambassador to Washington, told a group of American Jewish leaders Sunday that the time for action against Iran’s capacity to build a bomb – which he termed an existential threat to Israel – must be counted in months.

Piling on the gloom, Brig. Gen Itay Brun reported that the Syrian army had started using chemical weapons against rebel forces, including Sarin and other paralyzing substances, without the world lifting a finger to stop it.

Tehran and Assad slide past US and Israeli red lines – nuclear and chemical