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Implications of the Recent Deal with Iran on Getting Controls on Civilian Nuclear Fuel Cycles
In an op-ed published on the Hiroshima Report Blog of
the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in
Japan, FAS President Dr. Charles Ferguson takes a look at one of the
largest challenges to nonproliferation: how states can walk up to the
line of crossing into nuclear weapons capability by developing uranium
enrichment plants or reprocessing plants. Both of these technologies
are dual-use in that the same enrichment plant can be used to make
low-enriched uranium useful for fueling peaceful nuclear reactors or to
further enrich to high enough concentrations of the fissile isotope
uranium-235 useful for powering nuclear
weapons. Very few non-nuclear weapon states have one or both of these
technologies; the one non-nuclear weapon country that has both
enrichment and reprocessing is Japan. Could the new deal with Iran have
implications for Japan and other non-nuclear weapon states like South
Korea that aspire to acquire enrichment or reprocessing capabilities?
The answer is yes.
Read the op-ed here.
From the Blogs
Prioritizing Topics for Declassification: The
Public Interest Declassification Board, which advises the President on
classification and declassification policy, is proposing to recommend
that certain historically significant topics and events be prioritized
for expedited declassification. There is a longstanding disagreement
over whether it is appropriate to prioritize some areas for
declassification because of their topicality, or whether it is better to
gradually declassify everything in an orderly and systematic way.
Steven Aftergood writes that a
necessary consequence of prioritization of some records for
declassification is that other records will be pushed back in the queue.
What this means is that, without remedial action, more and more records
may never be declassified.
A Pictorial History of the Russian Nuclear Weapon Program: Secrecy
News has obtained newly published briefing slides from a Los Alamos
history of the Russian nuclear weapons program include rare images and
photographs of key personalities and facilities in the Russian (formerly
Soviet) nuclear program.
Mexico's Oil and Gas and More from CRS: New
Congressional Research Service reports on topics such as U.S.-China
military contacts, Mexico's oil and gas sectors, and interstate natural
gas pipelines.
HPSCI Seeks "Continuous Evaluation" of Security-Cleared Employees: Recent
unauthorized disclosures of classified information might have been
prevented if U.S. intelligence agencies “continuously evaluated the
backgrounds of employees and contractors,” according to the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). In its new report on
the FY 2014 intelligence authorization bill, the Committee would
require intelligence agencies to “continuously determine whether their
employees and contractors are eligible for
access to classified information” by using all available transactional
records and social media.
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