Destruction of its nuclear cooling tower was important but largely symbolic.
North Korea’s destruction last week of the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility was a spectacular piece of geopolitical theater. But as the concrete crumbled, did Pyongyang’s ability to produce plutonium really crumble as well?
The tower’s fall largely was symbolic, say experts. In addition, [...]

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Their political leaders and military planners seem impervious to the fact that a war between Pakistan and India in which each used only five of their nuclear weapons on the other’s cities could kill several million people and injure many more. The effects of a nuclear war could be much worse if India and Pakistan [...]

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Yearly, the directors of the three nuclear weapons laboratories Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories certify the weapons designed by their labs as safe and reliable without testing. This annual certification drives the stewardship challenge. Plutonium is a particularly demanding part of that challenge because it is the component [...]

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Financial sanctions have a big place in a tool-box designed to thwart the proliferators of Pyongyang and Tehran.
To hawkish critics of Mr Bush’s readiness to negotiate with both North Korea and Iran (if only the latter would suspend its uranium and plutonium work as the UN Security Council has demanded) on nuclear matters, these setbacks [...]

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