A sampling of what's available...
Underestimated or overestimated? North Korea’s satellite launch in perspective
What it means -- and doesn't -- that North Korea launched its Unha-3 rocket and successfully placed a satellite into orbit.
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Who should manage the nuclear weapons complex?
By Robert AlvarezFor the first time since 1946, Congress is seriously debating whether the US nuclear weapons complex should be under civilian or military control. It's a debate that may determine the size of the country's nuclear arsenal and the direction of its energy policy.
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Explain This: Subcritical experiments
By Frank von HippelIn early December, the US National Nuclear Security Administration conducted Pollux, the nation's 27th subcritical experiment since ending nuclear tests in 1992. In this month's "Explain This," the Bulletin turns to Princeton's Frank von Hippel to provide background on these experiments.
Chemical convention countdown
The Third CWC Review Conference is a chance to aggressively pursue the abolishment of chemical weapons. But that can't happen without buy-in from all states parties and a balance among strategic goals -- including dealing with new chemical weapons possessors like Syria.
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Getting to bioweapons consensus
By Malcolm Dando
How a new framework for preliminary meetings could set the table for strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention.
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The new biological countermeasures program: Will it work?
By Leonard A. Cole
The federal government has launched three public-private partnership centers to develop medical countermeasures to bioterrorism and natural pandemics. The program starts with plenty of government money and enthusiasm -- but few details about how it will all fit together.
Weighing the risks of climate change mitigation strategies
Climate mitigation strategies currently undergo economic and engineering analyses, but they are not consistently subjected to rigorous risk assessment and risk management. Mills explores how assessments of various mitigation strategies by the world's largest industry -- insurance -- are critically important in this process. (Subscription required.)
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Armageddon 2.0
By Fred GuterlIn an earlier time, Americans worried about nuclear war. Now new and urgent threats to our health, environment, and civilization have taken center stage.
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Fired up
By Dawn StoverClimate change is like a wildfire racing toward your home. It's smarter to fight it than to fight about it.
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Buying climate stability
By Kennette BenedictMoral arguments, fearsome data, and all the world's scientists aren't moving the ball forward on climate change. Maybe governments around the globe should just buy the change the planet needs.
The German Nuclear Exit Issue
The November/December issue of the Bulletin explores the German government's decision to phase out the country's nuclear industry entirely by 2022. This is the first in a three-part series that will look at the implications of potential phase-out of civilian nuclear power in France and the United States.
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Security at Y-12 nun too good
By Fissile Materials Working Group
The Energy Department released its investigation into an activist break-in at the Y-12 nuclear facility, detailing appalling security failures that may finally get the attention of Congress.
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How to unsnag US-South Korea nuclear negotiations
By Miles A. Pomper
With negotiations toward a new nuclear cooperation agreement in full swing, Seoul wants US consent for South Korean uranium enrichment. Washington is resisting.
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Japan's culture: Culprit of the nuclear accident?
By Toshihiro Higuchi
Japan holds its national culture responsible for bad times as well as good ones. But that won't fix the structural flaws and stakeholder entanglements at the root of the Fukushima accident.
Web Edition
Columnists
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Profile
Uncooperative threat reduction
Russian leaders have indicated the Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement is in jeopardy -- putting global fissile security and years of diplomacy at risk.
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Profile
Democracy and the bomb
The election may be over, but the time for the real work of democracy is just beginning. When it comes to nuclear weapons, in fact, it may be time for citizens to make their voices heard directly -- instead of allowing a small circle of strategists and officials make decisions for us.
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Profile
The nuclear dogs that didn't bark
When it comes to nuclear history, why is society more interested in the weapons that were used, rather than those that weren't?
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Profile
Chemical convention countdown
The Third CWC Review Conference is a chance to aggressively pursue the abolishment of chemical weapons. But that can't happen without buy-in from all states parties and a balance among strategic goals -- including dealing with new chemical weapons possessors like Syria.
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Profile
Revisiting radioactive source security
A top-down approach to radioactive materials security is one way -- but certainly not the only way -- to prevent a terrorist attack.
Analysis
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Who should manage the nuclear weapons complex?
For the first time since 1946, Congress is seriously debating whether the US nuclear weapons complex should be under civilian or military control. It's a debate that may determine the size of the country's nuclear arsenal and the direction of its energy policy.
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Explain This: Subcritical experiments
In early December, the US National Nuclear Security Administration conducted Pollux, the nation's 27th subcritical experiment since it ended nuclear tests in 1992. In this month's "Explain This," the Bulletin turns to Princeton's Frank von Hippel to provide background on these experiments.
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Underestimated or overestimated? North Korea’s satellite launch in perspective
What it means -- and doesn't -- that North Korea launched its Unha-3 rocket and successfully placed a satellite into orbit.
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Buck Rogers and the atomic education of America
Atomic Comics tells the story of the nuclear age through the comic books that made it comprehensible to the masses, raising a provocative question: Could pop culture be the most effective method of warning the public about existential dangers?
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On the brink of war -- and childbirth -- in Idaho
A former colonel in the US Air Force recalls his efforts to prepare then-brand-new Titan I missiles based in Idaho for use during the Cuban Missile Crisis -- as his wife prepared to give birth to a son.
Development and Disarmament Roundtable
- UPDATED: 18 December 2012
Roundtables
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Iran and the bomb: The legal standards of the IAEA
As concerns grow over Iran's nuclear program, so, too, do the IAEA inspections in Iran. But what are the standards that the agency uses to investigate and assess Iran's compliance with its safeguards agreements, and are they the legally correct standards?
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When politicians distort science
Recently, Rick Perry made misstatements not only about climate science -- but the scientists behind the science. How should scientists respond to such distortions? Over the upcoming weeks, Robert Socolow, Roger A. Pielke, Jr., and Randy Olson will provide authoritative, provocative analysis.
Op-Eds
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Iron Dome: Behind the hoopla, a familiar story of missile-defense hype
Before Congress provides more funding, it needs independent verification that the ballyhooed Israeli rocket-defense system worked as well as advertised in the Gaza hostilities.
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DIY graphic design
The diagram leaked to the Associated Press this week is nothing more than either shoddy sources or shoddy science. In either case, the world can keep calm and carry on.
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Armageddon 2.0
In an earlier time, Americans worried about nuclear war. Now new and urgent threats to our health, environment, and civilization have taken center stage.
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The life and legacy of Moscow’s science center
The first phase of a grand experiment in nonproliferation will end in 2015, but the lessons learned can continue to help Russia and its partners grapple with dual-use technologies.
Special Topics
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The Fukushima Issue - In Japanese
The English-language version of the September/October issue can be found here.
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From the Bulletin archives: Selected readings on Chernobyl
The crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, has brought the past tragedies at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island into the spotlight again. To offer a more thorough understanding of Chernobyl, the Bulletin has compiled this reading list from its archives. Dating from 1945 to 1998 and 1998 to present, the Bulletin's archives are a valuable resource for those interested in additional materials.
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From the Bulletin archives: Selected readings on Three Mile Island
The nuclear crisis in Japan following the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, has brought the past tragedies at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl into the spotlight again. To offer a more thorough understanding of Three Mile Island, the Bulletin has compiled this reading list from its archives. Dating from 1945 to 1998 and 1998 to present, the Bulletin's archives are a valuable resource for those interested in additional materials.
Doomsday Clock
Announcements
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The digital journal is in honor of John A Simpson, a founder of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and was made possible by a gift from the Scorpio Rising Fund and other generous donors.
Current Edition
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Allison Macfarlane: What's next for the NRC
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Allison Macfarlane talks to the Bulletin about her first weeks on the job. A geologist, she talks about her optimism that a long-term nuclear waste repository will be sited.
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The German nuclear exit: Introduction
Deputy editor, John Mecklin, introduces this special issue of the Bulletin: The German Nuclear Exit. This is the first in a three-part series that will look at the implications of potential phase-out of civilian nuclear power in France and the United States.
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From Brokdorf to Fukushima: The long journey to nuclear phase-out
The Fukushima disaster sparked Germany's decision to shut down its nuclear power industry, but the country has been on the path to phase-out for decades. Princeton researcher Alexander Glaser writes that Germany's nuclear phase-out, successful or not, may well become a game changer for nuclear energy worldwide.
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Germany’s merger of energy and climate change policy
Lutz Mez, co-founder of Freie Universitӓt Berlin's Environmental Policy Research Center, explores Energiewende, the merger of climate and energy policy, and writes that it is this -- not the nuclear phase-out -- that will require and possibly inspire continuing reforms of social, economic, technological, and cultural policy in Germany.
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The politics of phase-out
Freie Universitӓt Berlin politics professor Miranda Schreurs looks at the nuclear phase-out and the accompanying shift to renewable energy and writes how this change has brought financial benefits to farmers, investors, and small business.
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Exit economics: The relatively low cost of Germany’s nuclear phase-out
Analyzing the price impacts from the shutdown of 40 percent of the German nuclear power capacity in 2011, Felix Matthes of the Institute for Applied Ecology in Berlin concludes the phase-out will have only small and temporary effects on electricity prices and the German economy.
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The legalities of a nuclear shutdown
Because of its strong constitutional basis and broad political support, the German phase-out of nuclear power will likely withstand legal challenge. University of Kassel legal experts Alexander Rossnagel and Anja Hentschel explain why electric utilities are unlikely to succeed in suing the government over the shutdown.
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Weighing the risks of climate change mitigation strategies
Climate mitigation strategies currently undergo economic and engineering analyses, but they are not consistently subjected to rigorous risk assessment and risk management. Evan Mills, staff scientist at the US Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, explores how assessments of various mitigation strategies by the world's largest industry -- insurance -- are critically important in this process.
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The closest brush: How a UN secretary-general averted doomsday
The authors write on how an unassuming UN secretary-general from Burma enabled the United States and the Soviet Union to take a step back from the nuclear brink.