International Atomic Energy Agency: Nuclear Safety and Security in Ukraine

https://www.iaea.org/nuclear-safety-and-security-in-ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field. It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress

On August 6, 2015 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report entitled Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress By Kenneth Katzman and Paul K. Kerr. The agreement between Iran and the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China (countries labelled the P5+1), is under review by Congress until September 17. A paragraph in the report's summary describes the agreement in broad terms:

Broadly, the accord represents an exchange of limitations on Iran’s nuclear program for the lifting or suspension of U.S., U.N., and European Union (EU) sanctions. The text contains relatively complicated provisions for inspections of undeclared Iranian nuclear facilities, processes for adjudicating complaints by any of the parties for nonperformance of commitments, "snap-back" provisions for U.N. sanctions, finite durations for many of Iran’s nuclear commitments, and broad U.N., E.U., and U.S. commitments to suspend or lift most of the numerous sanctions imposed on Iran since 2010. Many of the agreement’s provisions have raised questions about the degree to which the accord can accomplish the P5+1 objectives that were stated when P5+1-Iran negotiations began in 2006.

The Nuclear Weapons Effects National Enterprise

"The Nuclear Weapons Effects National Enterprise," the latest report from the Joint Defense Science Board (DSB)/Threat Reduction Advisory Committee Task Force is now available at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/NWE-National-Enterprise.pdf.

According to Paul G. Kaminiski's introductory memorandum in the report:

Nuclear weapons remain a serious threat to our nation's security. The nation's capability to deter against this threat and provide assurance to our allies requires that US nuclear and conventional forces are able to operate in a nuclear environment. Unfortunately, the nation's expertise and capability to operate in a nuclear environment have decayed. As a result the Department of Defense and the nation are not as well prepared as it should be to deter, defend, and mitigate an attack.

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Additonal reports from the Defense Science Board are available at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports2000s.htm

U.S. Nuclear Strategy

The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States has released its final report about U.S. nuclear strategy. Entitled America's Strategic Posture: The Final Report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United, the executive summary's introduction states that in preparing its report the Commission addressed the following questions:

• What factors in the external security environment should inform U.S. policy and strategy?
  
• How has U.S. nuclear and strategic policy evolved since the end of the Cold War?
  
• What role should nuclear weapons and U.S. strategic military capabilities more generally (including missile defense) play today in U.S. military strategy and national security strategy?
  
• How should U.S. forces be postured? How many nuclear weapons are “enough?”
  
• How can political instruments be used to shape the security environment? What can arms control contribute? How can nonproliferation be strengthened?
  
• What is the most efficient and effective way to maintain a safe, secure,
  and reliable deterrent?

Response to Nuclear Detonation

Unfortunately in today's world United States public and private institutions must think about what to do in the event of a nuclear detonation. To address this topic the Homeland Security Council has just released its Planning Guide for Response to a Nuclear Detonation: First Edition targeted to emergency response planners and their leadership. The guide "addresses the unique effects and impacts of a nuclear detonation such as scale of destruction, shelter and evacuation strategies, unparalleled medical demands, management of nuclear casualties, and radiation dose management concepts." It focuses on what to do the first few days before Federal resources could be put in place.

Threat From Iranian Nuclear Development

On Sept. 19, 2008 the Bipartisan Policy Center (a non-profit organization established in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell to provide a forum to address tough policy challenges) released a report entitled Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development. Not surprisingly, the report, co-chaired by former senators Daniel Coats (Republican from Indiana) and Charles Robb (Democrat from Virgina) concluded that "Iran's nuclear development may pose the most significant strategic threat to the United States during the next administration."

Nuclear Threat to Electronic Communications Sytems

The Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has released its latest report entitled Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: Critical National Infrastructure. According to the report:

The electromagnetic pulse generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. The increasingly pervasive use of electronics of all forms represents the greatest source of vulnerability to attack by EMP. Electronics are used to control, communicate, compute, store, manage, and implement nearly every aspect of United States (U.S.) civilian systems. When a nuclear explosion occurs at high altitude, the EMP signal it produces will cover the wide geographic region within the line of sight of the detonation.¹ This broad band, high amplitude EMP, when coupled into sensitive electronics, has the capability to produce widespread and long lasting disruption and damage to the critical infrastructures that underpin the fabric of U.S. society.