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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:45 — 16.4MB)

The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit is currently underway in Seoul, South Korea, where 53 heads of state and international organizations have come together to discuss international cooperative measures to protect nuclear materials and facilities from terrorist groups.

The Nuclear Security Summit comes at a critical juncture. Global terrorist attacks have prompted concerns about nuclear terrorism, and many states may continue to shop for nuclear reactors to meet their energy supply needs, despite the horrific incident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Against this backdrop, world leaders are charged with the difficult task of agreeing on measures that will secure vulnerable materials around the world.

Note:  The new report published by the Federation of American Scientists and Washington and Lee University, The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States, is available online here.

Nuclear power is all over the news today, yet there remains many unanswered questions regarding this power source.  A new article written by Dr. Frank Settle and Dr. Charles D. Ferguson, (editors of the recently published report, The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States), examines questions such as how nuclear power differs from other sources of electricity and future expansion of the nuclear power industry in the United States.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:14 — 3.8MB)

On September 23, 2011, Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project,  participated in a conference call briefing with FAS members . The discussion centered around  the 2012 FY Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan, which was recently highlighted in a four part series on the Strategic Security Blog. Listen above to conference call or read the transcript here (PDF).

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) continues to put the generous support of our members to effective use. In just the last few months, FAS experts have educated policy makers, the press, and the public in America and abroad about the urgent need for making the world more secure. A few notable accomplishments include:

I want to share with you a great new way to raise money for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), and our efforts to create a more secure future.

FAS is excited to release FAS Search, a search engine powered by Google, Bing, and Yahoo. FAS Search provides the same search results you are used to, but now every search raises a few cents for FAS at no cost to you. Net proceeds will go to support the critical work of FAS to educate policy makers, the press, and the public.

Dr. Hans Albrecht Bethe, FAS founder and the father of nuclear astrophysics, turned 104 years old today. Dr. Bethe was one of the leading architects of the first atomic bomb, and devoted his life, following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to nuclear weapons disarmament. A national treasure, Dr. Bethe was a leading innovator in physics, astrophysics, politics and armaments, and science activism.