FMWG member Dr. Alan Kuperman from the University of Texas, Austin recently provided an update on his plutonium study. Over the past year, Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project (NPPP) conducted the first-ever comparative global study of plutonium fuel (MOX) for thermal nuclear power reactors, entitled “Plutonium for Energy?”  The group explores the production and use of MOX […]

FMWG Steering Committee Member Matt Bunn, along with Nikolas Roth and William Tobey argue the U.S. government is failing to prioritize nuclear security, despite the administration’s rhetoric. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), “the agency primarily responsible for working with other countries to reduce nuclear terrorism risks, wants to reduce spending for nuclear security programs by […]

FMWG partner the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) outlines the Department of Energy’s new initiative to build and operate a new small-capacity national military uranium enrichment plant could be decades premature. The plan will cost between $3.1 -11.3 billion. Frank von Hippel finds that, “DOE’s proposal to have a new national enrichment plant on […]

Beyza Unal, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House, examines the ways in which an offensive cyber operation against nuclear weapons would operate and why one has not been executed thus far. She argues, “The suspicion that nuclear weapons systems may be unreliable as a result of cyberattacks should be the basis for a reconsideration of how […]