LLAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #536 (02/10/2024)
LLAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #536 (02/10/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
LLAW’s THOUGHTS & COMMENTS (02/10/2024):
This is a great anti nuclear war article, and everyone should read it. But, for one thing among many others it doesn’t deal with the other side of the ‘all things nuclear’ coin that is just as dangerous — the nuclear power plant proliferation projections and the potential unintended, but just as possible nuclear radiation fallout for any number of reasons, including using them in international war situations, terrorism, design failures, nuclear radiation fallout from accidents affecting grid systems, and nuclear waste.
But solving the nuclear war situation by nuclear disarmament and destroying all related refineries and other equipment for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction in the future would be achieving half the battle, so I’m all for common sense prevailing on the war threat issues. But, sadly, it ain’t gonna happen because binding agreements and pragmatic practicality are not bound or considered by those who are ‘in charge’. Those eight guys in charge of the nuclear war world are not going to be 100% inclined to destroy an ounce of their nuclear power if just one of-em says hell no, and of course such an agreement would never be fully carried out either. ~llaw
The pragmatist’s guide to nuclear disarmament
Feb. 9, 2024 at 3:17 pm
By
Special to The Seattle Times
The United States has not seen a widespread nuclear disarmament movement since the early 1980s. A new one is desperately needed — but with a twist.
The 1980s movement was based on fear. In 1982, a million people, alarmed by President Ronald Reagan’s nuclear buildup, gathered in New York City’s Central Park to oppose the nuclear arms race — still the largest one-day protest in U.S. history. The next year, 100 million people — almost half the population of the United States — watched the television movie “The Day After,” which horrifically depicted the nuclear destruction of Kansas City.
Fear can generate a fight-or-flight reaction, but it’s ultimately counterproductive. People become so scared that they think nothing can be done and give up. Or they ignore the issue entirely, at least on a conscious level.
There are still plenty of things to fear. Nuclear treaties are lapsing. National leaders have threatened to use nuclear weapons against their enemies. New research, now being reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has strengthened the case that even a limited nuclear war could shut down agriculture for years and doom billions to starvation. A large-scale nuclear war could smother agriculture for more than a decade and end civilization.
But fear isn’t necessary to spur action. There are two very practical reasons to abolish nuclear weapons.
The first is their outrageous cost. The U.S. government is on track to spend at least $1.5 trillion over the next 30 years modernizing its nuclear weapons. That’s as much as the federal government currently spends on the National Institutes of Health. Or, to put it another way, four years of that spending, evenly divided among the 50 states, would buy us an entirely new ferry fleet.
Key parts of the modernization effort, like the new Sentinel ballistic missile program, are already massively over budget. Taking apart nuclear weapons systems would cost a small fraction of the money now slated to build new ones.
The second reason for getting rid of nuclear weapons is that they are far more dangerous than they are useful. Nuclear bombs are too large and destructive to deploy effectively in warfare. They would kill soldiers and noncombatants on both sides of a conflict. Nuclear fallout would drift far from a battlefield. Weapons have been getting smaller and smarter, not bigger and dumber.
Nuclear weapons also don’t make sense politically. If a nuclear weapon were detonated in a war — assuming that a general nuclear war did not follow — the responsible nation would face devastating conventional attacks and be ostracized internationally. No country has been willing to face those consequences, at least not since the very different circumstances that prevailed at the end of World War II.
The existence of nuclear weapons supposedly deters their use. No one has been able to figure out what that nonsensical statement means. Making a threat implies being willing to carry it out. The idea that deterrence has worked ignores the history of crises, miscalculations, and accidents that almost triggered nuclear war. Deterrence works until it doesn’t.
Nuclear weapons are a federal responsibility. For us as Washingtonians, that means working through our 10 U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators to change nuclear policy. Except for U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the members of our congressional delegation have been, at best, guarded in their statements about nuclear weapons. Washington receives about $20 billion a year in defense spending. Reducing that flow of funds would seem to be a recipe for electoral disaster.
But couldn’t at least part of our defense funding be spent in more socially productive ways? After all, flying a nuclear bomb-carrying F-35A jet for two hours costs as much as a nurse makes in a year. Keeping more than 55,000 mostly young men and women here in Washington well-trained and outfitted for future conflicts may help us feel more secure. But it doesn’t build infrastructure, spark innovation, or improve the health and well-being of the population at large.
Here, the Washington Against Nuclear Weapons coalition, led by the Washington chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, has been exerting pressure on our representatives and senators to take a stand against nuclear weapons. The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action — on a 4-acre plot adjacent to the Kitsap submarine base outside Bremerton — works for disarmament right next to the largest stockpile of deployed nuclear weapons anywhere in the world. At the national level, the Ploughshares Fund, the Federation of American Scientists, the Arms Control Association and many other organizations are working to reduce and then eliminate the existential threat these weapons pose.
In 2021, the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibits the development, production, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons, entered into force after being ratified by 50 countries. The nine countries that have nuclear weapons have so far opposed the treaty, but they are nevertheless bound by the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to negotiate an agreement “on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.” That they have not yet done so is both a bitter disappointment and a betrayal of their stated intentions.
Nuclear disarmament will not be unilateral or immediate. Nations will need to negotiate stepped reductions and means of verifying progress. An especially urgent task is to eliminate the ground-based missiles now clustered in underground silos in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming, as well as in Russia and China. These weapons are inherently destabilizing and dangerous. They have to be launched within minutes if a president thinks a nuclear attack is underway. A mistake, miscalculation, or moment of madness could spell the end of the world.
Unlike efforts to slow climate change, which will require widespread changes in how we live, the threat of nuclear annihilation could be eliminated if nine men agreed to destroy about 12,500 pieces of elaborately machined metal. Reagan and then-president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev almost agreed to junk their nuclear weapons in 1986. The only stumbling block was Reagan’s commitment to a nuclear weapons defense program that was canceled a few years later.
True, people will always know how to rebuild nuclear weapons. Also, nuclear power will almost certainly be part of the global response to climate change. But the world will be a safer and less oppressive place once our nuclear arsenals are gone.
Nuclear weapons are humanity’s most obscene invention. Our nuclear arsenals threaten not only us and everything humans have ever created but a natural creation that is inconceivably intricate and interdependent. Getting rid of them will be a wonderful human accomplishment.
Steve Olson is a Seattle author whose most recent book is “The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age,” a history of Hanford and its impact on the world.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available, normally, at the end of this Post.
(A reminder, just in case: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/10/2024):
All Things Nuclear
NEW
Nuclear Fusion feat brings dream of clean energy closer | World News | WION - YouTube
YouTube
European Nations to Invest $100 Billion in India: All You Need to Know | Vantage with Palki Sharma ... 5 BEST Things I Saw in Vegas at CES 2024.
The question we are forgetting to ask: How will we handle this once Iran is nuclear?
The Hill
Special Counsel. Just In... 5 things to know about Tucker Carlson's ... All Rights Reserved. ✕. Nexstar Logo. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal ...
Reactor's final experiment breaks nuclear fusion record - Freethink
Freethink
That doesn't necessarily mean we've learned all we can from this historic nuclear fusion reactor, though. ... things just leads you to understand it a ...
Nuclear Power
NEWS
US seeks solar energy developers for Nevada nuclear bomb test site | Reuters
Reuters
Timothy reports on energy and environment policy and is based in Washington, D.C. His coverage ranges from the latest in nuclear power, to environment ...
Nuclear Fusion feat brings dream of clean energy closer | World News | WION - YouTube
YouTube
Harnessing energy through nuclear fusion has been the holy grail for the energy sector. This is the one solution that could allow humanity to ...
Here is why NASA wants to put nuclear reactor on Moon and ditch solar energy - WION
WION
US space agency NASA wants to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon, and the project just completed its initial phase involving creating the design of ...
Nuclear War
NEW
The pragmatist's guide to nuclear disarmament - The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
A large-scale nuclear war could smother agriculture for more than a decade and end civilization. But fear isn't necessary to spur action. There are ...
US seeks solar energy developers for Nevada nuclear bomb test site | Reuters
Reuters
... War · Japan · Middle East · United Kingdom · United States · US Elections · Ukraine and Russia at War · Reuters Next. Latest in World. Malaysia's top ...
UN experts investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks valued at about $3 billion
The Washington Post
WorldWar In Ukraine Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle East ... And a diesel submarine was retrofitted as a “tactical nuclear attack submarine” and ...
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Feb. 27 drill to test plans for nuclear power station emergency | News | clintonherald.com
Clinton Herald
An exercise to test emergency response plans for the area surrounding the Quad-Cities Nuclear Power Station is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Has North Korea Really Decided to Go to War? | The National Interest
The National Interest
... nuclear weapon tests, and its inflammatory threats. Of course, Kim uses these actions to help his failing regime survive. He diverts the attention ...
UN experts investigate alleged North Korean cyberattacks valued in the billions
BreakingNews.ie
... nuclear deterrent in the face of threats from North Korea (AP). Advertisement. The panel said it also investigated reports of numerous DPRK ...
West must ready itself for new War on Terror with bloody return of ISIS & carnage in Middle ...
The US Sun
Glees “absolutely” thinks the threat of a terror attack on British soil has been increased. He warned that while we have a nuclear deterrent ...