FAS Roundup - March 11, 2012 Lessons learned from Fukushima, future of nuclear power, Russia's nuclear forces and much more.

FAS Roundup - March 11, 2012   

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Lessons learned from Fukushima, future of nuclear power, Russia's nuclear forces and much more.

Fukushima: One Year Later

• Listen to the new edition of the FAS podcast series, "A Conversation With An Expert,"  featuring FAS President Dr. Charles Ferguson. In this podcast, Dr. Ferguson discusses the lessons learned from Fukushima, safety of U.S. nuclear plants, future of nuclear power use, and Japan's new energy policy post- Fukushima.

• FAS President Dr. Charles Ferguson is the executive producer and featured in the Council on Foreign Relations nuclear energy multimedia guide, which explores the past, present and future of nuclear power.

• Fukushima- A Year Later: March 11 marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, setting into motion the events that culminated in multiple reactor meltdowns. Dr. Y reflects on a few lessons we have learned as a result of this accident on the ScienceWonk blog.

• FAS President Dr. Charles Ferguson presented at a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to examine the impact of the Fukushima accident. Dr. Ferguson spoke about the potential implications for the use of nuclear power post Fukushima and implications for safety, education, economics and waste disposal. You can view the slides from his presentation here.

• Japan's Nuclear Dilemma:  In a new interview with Toni Johnson of the Council on Foreign Relations, FAS President Charles Ferguson spoke about Japan's future energy program and states that Japan's economy is taking a huge hit due to loss of significant power generation and high imported energy costs. Yet, Japan is not open to renewable energy as an alternative. Post-Fukushima, should Japan use nuclear power?

Additional  Fukushima Resources:

• Nuclear Crisis in Japan

• Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, May 2011)

• The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States (FAS Report)

From the Blogs

• Army Lawyers Face "Legal Intensity of Military Operations": Steven Aftergood writes that questions of compliance with law now arise in every aspect of U.S. military operations, including the most highly classified clandestine activities, and so legal assistance must be routinely factored into military planning and mission execution.  A newly updated Army manual describes the diverse forms of legal support to military operations.

• Special Ops Forces Create "Visible and Dramatic Effects":U.S. special operations forces are engaged in “more than 100 countries worldwide,” said Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “In significant ways, our forces are creating visible and dramatic effects of the greatest magnitude across the globe,” Adm. McRaven said.

• China's Banking System and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as rising gas prices in 2012, China's banking system, and restrictions on foreign use of U.S. weapons systems.

Publications

• Russian Nuclear Forces, 2012: Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, and Dr. Robert S. Norris, senior fellow for Nuclear Policy, write in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that Russia is planning to retire more than two-thirds of its current arsenal of nuclear land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles by early 2020. That includes some of the most iconic examples of the Soviet threat against the United States: SS-18 Satan, SS-19 Stiletto, and the world’s first road-mobile ICBM, the SS-25. The plan coincides with the implementation of the New START treaty but significantly exceeds the reductions required by the treaty.

​Events

• Photos and video from the 2011 FAS Awards Ceremony are now available online here. Additionally, the Honorable Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy and recipient of the 2011 Hans Bethe Award, has graciously shared his presentation from the ceremony which discusses the role of science and innovation in solving the energy challenge in the United States. You can view Secretary Chu's presentation here.

​FAS in the News

• Mar 6: Ars Technica, "Chain Reaction: The (Slow) Revival of U.S. Nuclear Power"
• Mar 5: USA Today, "Missiles Give Libyan Militias 'Leverage'"
• Mar 5: USA Today, "Analysts: Iran Sanctions Unlikely to Force Regime Change"
• Mar 5: The New Yorker, "What About Israel's Nukes?"