August 2009 IAEA Reports on Iran, Syria

August 2009 IAEA Reports on Iran and Syria. Commentary available at armscontrolwonk.com

Labels: IAEA, Iran, Syria

Rachel Maddow: Her Intelligence is Right.

If you missed Rachel Maddow's interview with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on August 31, then take a moment and at least read this from Joe Cirincione's blog.

Labels: WMD

Africa Is Now Officially A Zone Free Of Nuclear Weapons

Thirteen years after it officially opened for signature, the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) has finally come into force with the twenty-eighth deposit of its ratification instrument by Burundi on 15 July 2009.

Entry-into-force of the Treaty of Pelindaba confirms Africa’s resolve to strengthen the global nuclear weapon-free regime and contribute to international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation processes, as was stressed by the AU’s Peace and Security Council in 2006. In addition, the declaration of Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) means that the entire southern hemisphere is now nuclear weapons free.

Like other NWFZ treaties, the Treaty of Pelindaba, includes protocols for the five Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) to sign. To date, the United Kingdom, France and China have signed and ratified these Protocols, but the Russian Federation and the United States are yet to ratify. By adhering to the Protocols, NWS commit themselves to respecting the status of the zone. [via Institute for Security Studies]

Labels: Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Treaty of Pelindaba

Hiroshima: The Big Picture

Tomorrow, August 6th, marks 64 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan by the United States at the end of World War II. Targeted for military reasons and for its terrain (flat for easier assessment of the aftermath), Hiroshima was home to approximately 250,000 people at the time of the bombing. The U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber "Enola Gay" took off from Tinian Island very early on the morning of August 6th, carrying a single 4,000 kg (8,900 lb) uranium bomb codenamed "Little Boy". At 8:15 am, Little Boy was dropped from 9,400 m (31,000 ft) above the city, freefalling for 57 seconds while a complicated series of fuse triggers looked for a target height of 600 m (2,000 ft) above the ground. At the moment of detonation, a small explosive initiated a super-critical mass in 64 kg (141 lbs) of uranium. Of that 64 kg, only .7 kg (1.5 lbs) underwent fission, and of that mass, only 600 milligrams was converted into energy - an explosive energy that seared everything within a few miles, flattened the city below with a massive shockwave, set off a raging firestorm and bathed every living thing in deadly radiation. Nearly 70,000 people are believed to have been killed immediately, with possibly another 70,000 survivors dying of injuries and radiation exposure by 1950. Today, Hiroshima houses a Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum near ground zero, promoting a hope to end the existence of all nuclear weapons.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/hiroshima_64_years_ago.html
http://www.hiroshima-remembered.com/photos/index.html

Labels: hiroshima

Nuclear Posture Review fact sheet

DOD released a fact sheet on the Nuclear Posture Review: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20090602NPR.pdf

Confronting the Bomb published

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book, Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford University Press). This book is a much-abbreviated version of the scholarly, award-winning Struggle Against the Bomb trilogy and is designed to be accessible to a much broader audience. Like the trilogy, Confronting the Bomb provides a comprehensive history of public activism against nuclear weapons, and concludes that this citizens' movement has played a central role in curbing the nuclear arms race and preventing nuclear war.

Lawrence S. Wittner is Professor of History at the State University of New York/Albany, and a former president of the Peace History Society. He is the author of numerous books on peace and foreign policy issues, including the Stanford University Press trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb: One World or None (1993), Resisting the Bomb (1997), and Toward Nuclear Abolition (2003).

Labels: Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement

North Korean Yield Revised

Jeff over at armscontrolwonk.com, has posted a nice set of estimates of the yield for the NORK test. They all cluster in an Mb range of 4.5-5.0 -- about 2-6 kilotons.

Labels: North Korea, yield