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The Senate Should Oppose the New Low-Yield Trident Warhead
This week, the Senate Armed Services Committee will take its turn to mark up the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This also gives it an opportunity to weigh in on the Trump...
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Update on the Low-Yield Trident Warhead: Time for the Senate to Step Up
A couple of weeks ago, we noted that the Senate Armed Services Committee was about to get its chance to consider the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which in its current form includes $88...
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Trump Wants a New Low-Yield Nuclear Weapon. But the US Has Plenty Already.
The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released in February of this year, calls attention to the composition of the US nuclear arsenal and its adequacy as a deterrent. The NPR calls...
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Opposition to Trump’s New Low-Yield Nuclear Warhead
And the “consensus” on rebuilding the US nuclear stockpile The Trump administration’s program to deploy a new, low-yield variant of the W76 warhead carried by U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missiles...
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Will Japan Try to Save the INF Treaty?
US President Ronald Reagan and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone meet at Camp David in 1986. President Trump said he plans to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. US...
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The Long-Overdue Missile Defense Review Expected (Again) This Week
Where’s the Trump administration’s hugely delayed Missile Defense Review? The latest rumor is that it will be released this coming Thursday, and that seems plausible (but I wouldn’t hold your breath)....
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The Demise of the INF Treaty is Dangerous
On February 1st, the Trump administration announced that the United States will withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia. The next day, Russia responded by doing the...
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Pompeo Opens the Door to Deep US Nuclear Cuts (Or Large Chinese Increases)
April 10, 2019: Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley questions Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about new nuclear arms control negotiations with China. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Foreign...
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NNSA’s FY20 Budget Request: Full Speed Ahead on Weapons Development and...
In March the Department of Energy released its FY20 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is responsible for developing, producing and maintaining US nuclear...
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The Next Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Estimate of casualties from a single Chinese nuclear warhead targeting Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan by NUKEMAP. Japan was the first, the last and the only nation to be attacked with nuclear...
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President Obama Can Still Reduce Stored Nuclear Weapons & Fissile Materials
It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over During the summer and fall, reports appeared that President Obama was considering actions he could take to make a major impact on U.S. nuclear weapons policy before leaving...
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No President Should Be Able to Start a Nuclear War Single-Handedly
Among the general craziness of the 2016 presidential campaign, you can be forgiven if you missed one particular crazy piece of information: the president of the United States currently has the...
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: NNSA’s FY18 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. In an overall federal budget where many, many programs faced severe budget cuts, the National Nuclear...
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The Ugly: Post #3 on the NNSA’s FY2018 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. I am doing a three-part analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget. That...
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The Case of the Missing Numbers
Good performance requires good long-term planning. For federal agencies like the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), one of its important functions is preparing its part of the federal...
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Whose Finger Is on the Button? Nuclear Launch Authority in the United States...
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, and perhaps even more since Trump’s election, the media discovered a newfound interest in the minutiae of US nuclear policy. One question in particular has...
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Japan’s Role in the North Korea Nuclear Crisis
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (second from left) consults with US President Barack Obama during a 2010 summit on nuclear security. During a recent trip to Japan I had the opportunity to...
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The Trump’s Administration’s Dangerous New Nuclear Policy
Last night the Huffington Post released a draft version of the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, a deeply dangerous document that makes nuclear war more likely. UCS has a press statement...
View ArticleTrump’s Nuclear Posture Review: Top Take-Aways
The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), just released, lays out a policy that will make the use of nuclear weapons more likely and undercut US security. It includes a wide range of...
View ArticleNuclear Hawks Take the Reins in Tokyo
Donald Trump’s plan for a more muscular US nuclear posture got a ringing endorsement from the increasingly right-wing government of Japan. Not long after the Trump administration released its Nuclear...
View ArticleFive Things Everyone Should Know About the Nuclear Posture Review
The Biden administration is currently in the midst of a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which is expected to be finished in early 2022. Q: What is the nuclear posture review (NPR)? A: The Nuclear...
View ArticleAsk a Scientist: Will the Biden Nuclear Policy Wind Up Being the Same Old...
More so than most of the previous occupants of the White House, Joe Biden—a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman—is steeped in all things nuclear, and he has long embraced the common...
View ArticleThe Failures of Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review
Released today, the Biden administration’s unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways...
View ArticleWhy is Congress Funding a Nuclear Weapon the Biden Administration Doesn’t Want?
This week Congress will finish the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual bill that provides its views on defense policy and its first crack at setting the military budget. Notably, the...
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