In case you missed part 4 of the UCS/FAS analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Stockpile Stewardship Program for fiscal year 2012, we looked at the relationship between planned nuclear weapons complex and stockpile modernization and stockpile reductions.

We find that “the use of new warhead production facilities to produce additional hedge warheads undermines the administration’s message that the new facilities are needed to allow a reduction of the stockpile. It suggests that even with a new “responsive” warhead production complex, the future stockpile will still include a sizeable hedge of reserve warheads.”

You can read the entire post on the FAS blog or on the UCS blog.

There are two major international gatherings this week. While we’re expecting Middle East issues to grab the spotlight, there are other critical nuclear issues that could and should be addressed. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation has po…

Part three of the UCS/FAS analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Stockpile Stewardship Program for fiscal year 2012, titled “Hydrodynamic Tests: Not to Scale,” sheds light on scaled experiments, which are a relatively unknown form of subcritical nuclear testing.  

We find that “the push for scaled experiments is coming from NNSA officials, not the nuclear weapons laboratories. The labs have resisted because they are overburdened by the increasingly ambitious Life Extension Programs. NNSA officials claim that scaled experiments could yield ten times more data points and save money because one large scaled experiment could replace twenty of the smaller hydrodynamic experiments conducted today. Lab scientists maintain that scaled experiments would require major new equipment investments that are not currently planned.”

As you might recall, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee recently addressed the issue of scaled experiments in its committee report. You can read my summary of its findings here.

You can read all of post #3 on the FAS blog or on the UCS blog.

Video courtesy of the City Club of Cleveland, which is the oldest independent continuous free speech forum in the country, and is renowned for its tradition of debate and discussion. http://www.cityclub.org/ Matthew Hoh is a board member of Livable …

The Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ Miles Pomper and yours truly took to the pages of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today to urge Congress to promptly introduce and approve the implementing legislation for the 2005 Amendment to the Convent…