crisis

FAS Roundup: December 5, 2011

Dormant civil liberties oversight board, podcast highlighting Iran’s nuclear program, new CRS reports and more. 

From the Blogs

• Civil Liberties Oversight Board Still Dormant: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight board was supposed to provide independent oversight of U.S. counterterrorism policies. But, it remains dormant as its members have not been named or confirmed.

• In the 1950s, Dr. Mary Jean Scott Silk joined the Federation of American Scientists. She worked at Brookhaven National Laboratories from 1952 to 1958 and graduated from John Hopkins University with a doctorate in nuclear physics in 1958. In a Q+A with Dr. Scott Silk on the FAS in a Nutshell Blog, she discusses her involvement with FAS in its early years, her work at Brookhaven and future nuclear threats. 

• New CRS Reports: The history, missions and operations of the nine U.S. military combatant commands (COCOMs) are detailed in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. Additionally, Secrecy News has obtained new  reports regarding the expanding role of women in combat, secret sessions of Congress, and legislation to authorize and require military detention of suspected terrorists.

• New Intelligence Directive on Congressional Notification: Steven Aftergood writes that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has issued a new Intelligence Community Directive on “Congressional Notification” that generally encourages “a presumption of notification” to Congress regarding significant intelligence activities.

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.

Today at 2 pm, tune into NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow for an update on Japan’s malfunctioning nuclear reactors and the evolving crisis.  As continued attempts are made to cool the reactors and spent fuel rod pools at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, I’ll discuss the state of the deteriorating nuclear facility. Call with questions toll free at 800-989-8255.

Listen to my comments on the Diane Rehm Show this morning.

Japan’s crisis prompts new questions about the safety of nuclear power. An update on efforts to contain the risks in Japan and how the disaster could affect the nuclear power industry worldwide.

While the disaster continues to unfold in Japan, it is not too early to learn lessons for Japan’s future energy policy. One immediate lesson is that Japan may be taking too great of a risk by having a relatively large portion of electricity generated by nuclear power. As of March 16, four reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant have suffered significant damage. The March 11 earthquake and tsunami forced the shutdown of about 12 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity. In comparison, Japan’s nuclear power fleet has a capacity of 49 gigawatts; thus, about one-fourth of Japan’s nuclear generation was knocked out by the natural disaster. While most of that nuclear power will be brought back online eventually, the four damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are still a major loss. Before the disaster, nuclear energy provided almost 30 percent of Japan’s electricity.

Read my article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.