Nuclear

FAS Roundup: February 13, 2012

New report on future of nuclear power, DoD inspector takes on classification oversight,  freedom of the press and much more.

Events

• On February 8, 2012, FAS honored Dr. Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, and Dr. Richard A. Meserve, president of the Carnegie Institution for Science, at a dinner event in Washington, DC. Secretary Chu was recognized with the Hans Bethe Award and Dr. Meserve received the inaugural Richard L. Garwin Award for distinguished service. The evening’s Master of Ceremonies was John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Adviser to the President. The distinguished guests included Congressman Rush Holt, General Brent Scowcroft, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Gregory Jaczko, NRC Commissioners Kristine Svinicki, George Apostolakis and William Ostendorff, and FAS Board Members. Stay tuned to our website next week for video of the event.

• FAS also released a new report produced by FAS and Washington and Lee University at a briefing on Capitol Hill on February 8, 2012. The report, on the future of nuclear power in the United States, was written by a distinguished group of experts who provided insights about the safety, security, building, financing, licensing, regulating, and fueling of nuclear power plants.  Speakers at the event included authors Dr. Albert Carr Jr., Mr. Stephen Maloney, Dr. Ivan Oelrich and Ms. Sharon Squassoni. Dr. Charles Ferguson and Dr. Frank Settle, editors of the report, served as moderators of the panel.

New Report on Nuclear Power

• In the wake of the devastating meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, many Americans are now reevaluating the costs and benefits of nuclear energy. If anything, the accident underscores that constant vigilance is needed to ensure nuclear safety. FAS and Washington and Lee University released a new report examining the future of nuclear power power in the United States.

From the Blogs

• Detention of U.S. Persons: What is the Existing Law?: When Congress passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, it included provisions that authorized U.S. armed forces to detain persons who are captured in the conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. However, Congress also said that those provisions did not provide any new authority to detain U.S. citizens or others who may be captured in the United States.

• DoD Inspector General Takes on Classification Oversight: In a move that can only strengthen and improve oversight of the national security classification system, the Department of Defense Inspector General has begun a far-reaching review of Pentagon classification policy. Among other things, the Inspector General review will focus on “efforts by the Department to decrease over-classification.”

• A Profession Nobody’s Heard Of: What does a health physicist do? Health physics is the profession that deals with radiation safety for people and the environment. Currently, there is a shortage of health physicists in the United States, and the majority of those running radiation safety programs are not trained radiation safety professionals. Dr. Y writes about what exactly a health physicist does, and their importance to the scientific community.

• Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin Online: The Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin is a quarterly journal published by the U.S. Army to promote awareness and discussion of current topics in military intelligence.  Although unclassified, the Bulletin is not made available online by the Army. Recent volumes can be found on the FAS website.

• Leaks, National Security, and Freedom of the Press:  A new book, “Who Watches the Watchman” by Gary Ross, explores the the phenomenon of leaks from multiple angles, including their history, their prevalence and their consequences.  Most interestingly, he considers the diverse motivations of leakers and of the reporters who solicit, receive and publish their disclosures. Some of these he finds defensible, and others not.

• The Radium Age: A century ago, people used radium to treat diseases (such as cancer) and even consumed to help one’s overall health. Radium was also used in products such as watch dials and fishing tackle. With today’s hypersensitivity to radiation this is hard to believe – but one of the reasons for today’s hypersensitivity to radiation might actually have something to do with the profligacy of earlier decades.

• China’s Vice President Visits the US, and more from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained new CRS reports on topics such as Iran’s threat to the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon and the uprising in Syria.

Volunteer Opportunity for DC Members

• FAS will have a booth at the 2nd Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival which will be held on April 28-29 in Washington, DC. We are looking for volunteers to staff our booth-come share your knowledge and career experiences with festival attendees! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Melanie Stegman at mstegman@fas.org.For more information on our booth and the festival, click here.     
  

FAS in the News

• Feb 9: PhysOrg.com, “Carnegie’s Richard Meserve Receives Inaugural Richard Garwin Award”
• Feb 9: EurekAlert, ”Carnegie’s Richard Meserve Recieves Inaugural Garwin Award”
• Feb 8: Government Security News, “Study Says Nuclear Plant Designs Need Stepped Up Attention to Security”
• Feb 8: DefenseNews.com, ”IG Reviewing Overclassification at DOD”
• Feb 7: New York Times – The Lede, “Among Liberties Advocates, Outrage Over Expanded Use of Drones”
• Feb 7: Washington Times, “Drones Over U.S. Gets OK By Congress”
• Feb 6: Mother Jones, “Obama’s Golden Nuclear Option”

Watch Nuclear Aftershocks on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

I am excited to tell you that I will appear on PBS’s Frontline on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.  In “Nuclear Aftershocks,” Miles O’Brien examines the hazards and benefits of nuclear energy. I will be speaking about the implications for U.S. nuclear safety after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan last March.

For more information on the episode, click here.

You can find a preview of the episode here.

I encourage you to tune in.  Please check local listings for air times of “Nuclear Aftershocks” on your PBS station.

FAS Roundup: November 21, 2011

Interview with former Iranian nuclear negotiator Amb. Hossein Mousavian, petition to assess nuclear threat, stalled declassification of historical satellite imagery, status of China’s nuclear forces, and more.

From the Blogs

• Declassification of Intelligence Satellite Imagery Stalled: The eagerly awaited declassification of vast amounts of historical intelligence satellite imagery that was supposed to occur this year did not take place, and it is unknown when or if it might go forward. Earlier this year, government officials had all but promised that the declassification and release of miles of satellite imagery film was imminent. But it didn’t happen. Why not?

• Pre-Publication Review as a Secrecy Battleground: Steven Aftergood writes that the Obama Administration’s uncompromising approach to punishing “leaks” of classified information has been widely noted. But its handling of pre-publication review disputes with former intelligence agency employees who seek to publish their work has been no less combative.

• A New Intelligence Org on Climate Change is Needed, DSB Says: According to a new report from the Defense Science Board (DSB), the U.S. intelligence community needs an organization that can assess the impacts of climate change on U.S. national security interests in an open and collaborative manner. The CIA already has a Center on Climate Change and National Security. So why would the Intelligence Community need an entirely new organization to address the exact same set of issues?

• CIA Sees “Little Likelihood” of Finding Docs on Secrecy Reform: The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review (FCGR) was ordered by President Obama in his December 2009 executive order 13526 (section 1.9) as a systematic effort to eliminate obsolete or unnecessary classification requirements.  It is the Obama administration’s primary response to the problem of over-classification, and it has already achieved some limited results at the Department of Defense and elsewhere. That being said, it can’t possibly work if agencies don’t implement it. And so far there is no sign of the mandatory implementation at CIA.

FAS Roundup: November 14, 2011

Dispute over nuclear weapons program costs, IAEA Iran report analysis, new documentary on anthrax, terrorist threat to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and more.

From the Blogs

• New Air Force policy directive on “Directive Energy Weapons” and letter from Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) to President Obama asking to expedite the declassification of U.S. intelligence documents pertaining to Argentina’s so-called “dirty war” during the military dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to the mid-1980s.

• Dispute over Cost of Nuclear Weapons Program:  Steven Aftergood investigates the radically different estimates of cost of the U.S. nuclear program presented by members of Congress in the past few weeks. The disparate estimates, which vary by hundreds of billions of dollars, reflect a lack of consensus about how to properly assess the cost of nuclear weapons.

Letter to the Obama administration regarding nuclear budget, new podcast highlighting sustainable energy and water security, 2011 intelligence budget spending on the decline and  more.

From the Blogs

• Prospects Fade for a Separate Intelligence Budget: Steven Aftergood writes about the National Intelligence Program budget, which will mostly remain hidden in the Department of Defense budget for the foreseeable future; it will not be given a separate budget line item or a separate appropriation despite the efforts of budget reformers and intelligence community leaders.

• Intelligence Spending Declined in 2011: For the first time in more than a decade, the total U.S. intelligence budget declined in 2011, according to budget figures declassified and disclosed last week.