Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy

Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy

Author: Bennett Ramberg

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-10-04

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0520405412

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In June 1981 a squadron of Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction near Baghdad. Until then, few observers had imagined that one nation might attack another by bombing its reactors. Since then, the strategic debate has had to admit a terrifying new fact: a nation with nuclear power plants on its territory places weapons of potential mass destruction in the hands of its enemies. A major nuclear power station or waste storage reservation bombed as the Iraqi reactor was bombed--that is, with conventional explosives--could contimate thousands of square iles and cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of lives. Nuclear power plants turn conventionally armed enemies into nuclear enemies and make nuclear hostages of entire populations. In this book, Bennett Ramberg explains clearly, for both the lay reader and the technical community, the vulnerabilities of different sorts of nuclear facilities and lists reasons why they are likely to be destroyed in war. In a case-by-case analysis of countries using or building nuclear power plants, Dr. Ramberg shows that the safety of thousands could depend on such volatile factors as the psychological sensitivity of national leders and the direction of the wind. A combination of engineering changes, civil defense, use of alternative forms of energy, and changes in international law could lessen these risks; but until the danger is recognized, no change is likely. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.


Nuclear Weapons under International Law

Nuclear Weapons under International Law

Author: Gro Nystuen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-08-28

Total Pages: 804

ISBN-13: 1139992740

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Nuclear Weapons under International Law is a comprehensive treatment of nuclear weapons under key international law regimes. It critically reviews international law governing nuclear weapons with regard to the inter-state use of force, international humanitarian law, human rights law, disarmament law, and environmental law, and discusses where relevant the International Court of Justice's 1996 Advisory Opinion. Unique in its approach, it draws upon contributions from expert legal scholars and international law practitioners who have worked with conventional and non-conventional arms control and disarmament issues. As a result, this book embraces academic consideration of legal questions within the context of broader political debates about the status of nuclear weapons under international law.


Tritium on Ice

Tritium on Ice

Author: Kenneth D. Bergeron

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-09-17

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780262261722

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The dangers of a United States government plan to abandon its fifty-year policy of keeping civilian and military uses of nuclear technology separate. In December 1998, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced that the U.S. planned to begin producing tritium for its nuclear weapons in commercial nuclear power plants. This decision overturned a fifty-year policy of keeping civilian and military nuclear production processes separate. Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is needed to turn A-bombs into H-bombs, and the commercial nuclear power plants that are to be modified to produce tritium are called ice condensers. This book provides an insider's perspective on how Richardson's decision came about, and why it is dangerous. Kenneth Bergeron shows that the new policy is unwise not only because it undermines the U.S. commitment to curb nuclear weapons proliferation but also because it will exacerbate serious safety problems at these commercial power facilities, which are operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and are among the most marginal in the United States. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of the TVA's request to modify its plants for the new nuclear weapons mission should attract significant attention and opposition. Tritium on Ice is part expose, part history, part science for the lay reader, and part political science. Bergeron's discussion of how the issues of nuclear weapons proliferation and nuclear reactor safety have become intertwined illuminates larger issues about how the federal government does or does not manage technology in the interests of its citizens and calls into question the integrity of government-funded safety assessments in a deregulated economy.


Nuclear First Strike

Nuclear First Strike

Author: George H. Quester

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2006-02-07

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9780801882852

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This provocative and timely work examines various scenarios in which the deployment of nuclear weapons could occur, the probable consequences of such an escalation, the likely world reactions, and the plausible policy ramifications. Rather than projecting the physical damage that would result from nuclear attacks, George H. Quester offers an exploration of the political, psychological, and social aftermath of nuclear conflict. The prospect of nuclear attack—sixty years after atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—is difficult to confront on many levels. We may avoid the discussion for emotional reasons, for fear of generating a self-confirming hypothesis, or simply because of the general "nuclear taboo." But there are also self-denying propositions to be harnessed here: if the world gives some advance thought to how nuclear weapons might be used again, such attacks may be headed off. If the world avoids nuclear weapons use until the year 2045, it will be able to celebrate one hundred years of nuclear concord. Quester suggests that this may be achieved through the careful consideration of possible nuclear deployment scenarios and their consequences. In this insightful analysis, he provides a starting point for informed and focused reflection and preparation.


UFOs and Nukes

UFOs and Nukes

Author: Robert L. Hastings

Publisher:

Published: 2017-05-12

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9781544822198

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SECOND EDITION-REVISED AND UPDATEDThe reality of UFO incursions at American nuclear weapons facilities has been convincingly established. Hundreds of U.S. military veterans now openly discuss these ominous incidents and thousands of declassified government documents substantiate their revelations.Over the past four decades, renowned researcher Robert Hastings has interviewed more than 150 of those veterans regarding their involvement in these astounding cases. On September 27, 2010, CNN live-streamed his UFOs and Nukes press conference in Washington D.C. during which former U.S. Air Force officers described numerous nuclear missiles mysteriously malfunctioning moments after a disc-shaped craft was observed hovering near their underground launch silos.That shocking episode, in March 1967, was merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Documented UFO activity occurred at a plutonium processing plant in Washington State as early as January 1945, months prior to the atomic bombings in Japan. Another incident, in October 2010, involved one missile base in Wyoming being unable to communicate with several of its missile launch control capsules just as a huge cigar-shaped craft slowly flew over them.Significantly, documents smuggled out of Russia in the 1990s confirm that Soviet nukes were also the focus of UFO interest during the Cold War era. On one occasion, in October 1982, a number of missiles temporarily activated for launch, as terrified officers attempted to disrupt the unauthorized count-down. After 15 seconds, the anomaly terminated and the equipment returned to standby status. While this was taking place, an enormous disc silently hovered over the base.In short, the evidence presented in UFOs & Nukes makes clear that humans' deadliest weapons have been, since their development and use during World War II, under intense scrutiny by still-unidentified observers possessing tremendously advanced technology.Given these disclosures, it seems evident that the UFO-Nukes Connection is highly significant and perhaps even the key reason these mysterious aerial craft have appeared in our skies over the past seven decades.


Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction, Its Origins and Practice

Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction, Its Origins and Practice

Author:

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1428910336

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Nearly 40 years after the concept of finite deterrence was popularized by the Johnson administration, nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) thinking appears to be in decline. The United States has rejected the notion that threatening population centers with nuclear attacks is a legitimate way to assure deterrence. Most recently, it withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, an agreement based on MAD. American opposition to MAD also is reflected in the Bush administration's desire to develop smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons that would reduce the number of innocent civilians killed in a nuclear strike. Still, MAD is influential in a number of ways. First, other countries, like China, have not abandoned the idea that holding their adversaries' cities at risk is necessary to assure their own strategic security. Nor have U.S. and allied security officials and experts fully abandoned the idea. At a minimum, acquiring nuclear weapons is still viewed as being sensible to face off a hostile neighbor that might strike one's own cities. Thus, our diplomats have been warning China that Japan would be under tremendous pressure to go nuclear if North Korea persisted in acquiring a few crude weapons of its own. Similarly, Israeli officials have long argued, without criticism, that they would not be second in acquiring nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Indeed, given that Israelis surrounded by enemies that would not hesitate to destroy its population if they could, Washington finds Israel's retention of a significant nuclear capability totally "understandable."


The World's Energy Supply: What Everyone Needs to Know

The World's Energy Supply: What Everyone Needs to Know

Author: Jose Goldemberg

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-03-17

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 0190269219

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The topic of energy is one of the most pressing issues across the globe. In this bundle, consisting of Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know, Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know, and Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know, readers will explore everything from the the basic scientific concepts of energy to questions surrounding the specific ways we obtain it.


Brother in the Land

Brother in the Land

Author: Robert Swindells

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 1994-12-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0141928859

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An 'After-the-Bomb' story told by teenage Danny, one of the survivors - one of the unlucky ones. Set in Shipley, an ordinary town in the north of England, this is a powerful portrayal of a world that has broken down. Danny not only has to cope in a world of lawlessness and gang warfare, but he has to protect and look after his little brother, Ben, and a girl called Kim. Is there any hope left for a new world?