START ratification in jeopardy in Senate

Minority Whip, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is attempting to block ratification of the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) after an agreement on the treaty was signed by the President Obama and Dimitry Medvedev in April.  Kyl claims there is not enough time during the current lame duck session of Congress, but skeptics point out that delaying the vote until the new Senate is seated gives the Republicans six more seats than currently which could boost Kyl's real agenda to garner billions more for nuclear weapons production as a "quid pro quo" for START ratification. Is Kyl playing politics? Or even jeopardizing national security as many experts in the field have stated, according to a document from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation? The fact that START ratification is a top priority for the Obama administration - which is continuing to push for a vote despite Kyl's opposition - is considered another strong motivation for Republicans to block or dilute the effort.  According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Obama administration has already cow-towed to some of Kyl's demands, revising its 10-year budget for nuclear weapons with an increase in spending of "$4.1 billion over the next 5 years, over and above the more than $80 billion that the Obama administration already pledged for nuclear weapons (not including delivery vehicles) over the next ten years." START would shrink the U.S. and Russian arsenals of strategic warheads, and revive on-the-ground inspections that ceased when a previous treaty expired nearly a year ago.

US would be safer without nuclear weapons

Dr. Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History emeritus at the State University of New York/Albany, argues that the U.S. would be much better off today without nuclear weapons. Writing in the Huntington News, Wittner states: "They fail to deter war (which has raged on ceaselessly among nuclear and non-nuclear nations since World War II), they are enormously costly, and—thanks to the nuclear arms race that followed the U.S. nuclear weapons breakthrough of 1945—Americans, for the first time in their history, face the prospect of total annihilation. In addition, the U.S. government has vast superiority over all other countries when it comes to conventional war. " Read the full article.

Cesium-137 from atomic tests still in Japanese waters

Levels of the radioactive substance cesium-137, which fell into the sea due to Cold War-era atmospheric nuclear tests, have remained constant in waters near Japan for the past 10 years, study results showed Wednesday, reports the Kyodo News. Despite a decrease at the rate of cesium-137's half-life, or about 30 years, levels have remained constant due to the inflow of the substance on the oceanic current from the south. An analysis by the research team has shown that the substance went up to the stratosphere in nuclear explosions and fell in the largest quantities over the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago and the East Coast of the U.S. after being carried by the jet stream and other high-altitude currents.

Not-so-"stealthy" British nuke submarine strands off Scotland

Charting a path toward eliminating nuclear weapons

An new article by Zia Mian in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, looks at the challenges facing the transition to a nuclear-free world. These include the nature of the disarmament process, the issue of reversibility, the management and elimination of stockpiles of fissile materials, and the risks of nuclear weapon reconstruction and proliferation using materials and capabilities in civilian nuclear energy programs. Read the full article. Mian is a physicist and directs the Project for Peace and Security in South Asia at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security.