Under Secretary Burns Says U.S., Russia are "On the Verge" of Completing START Follow-on

We are happy to serve you a daily summary of the day's top nuclear policy stories each morning, with excerpts from the stories in bullet form.  

Stories we're following today:

U.S., Russia 'On the Verge' of Nuclear Treaty - AFP [link]

• The United States and Russia are "on the verge" of a new nuclear disarmament treaty after months of talks, US Under Secretary of State William Burns said in comments released on Thursday.
• "We're on the verge of completing the agreement and ... I'm optimistic that we'll complete it soon," Burns said, according to the transcript of an interview released by the US Embassy in Moscow as he was visiting Russia.

Atomic Scientists Push Back Doomsday Clock - Still, Six Minutes to Midnight is None Too Good - Max Bergmann in the Wonk Room [link]

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it would push the doomsday clock back one minute, to six minutes to midnight, in recognition of President Obama’s efforts to combat nuclear proliferation and climate change.
• Progress has definitely been made, but before we pat ourselves on the back it is worth noting that in 1947 the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight, therefore, according to the clock, the times we live in now are more dangerous than they were 60 years ago. 
• Today we are confronted by new nuclear dangers, stemming from the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the dangers of illicit terrorist groups gaining access to nuclear materials. 
• Combating proliferation and nuclear terrorism is a real and serious problem and has been set at the top of the Obama foreign policy agenda, which is largely why the clock has been moved back. However, to move the clock back further the coming six months will be crucial.

It's the Telemetry, Stupid - Nukes of Hazard [link]

• The Cable’s Josh Rogin and Global Security Newswire’s Elaine Grossman confirm what we’ve known for some time: verification, specifically telemetry, is delaying completion of the New START agreement.
• The Russians are arguing that they should no longer be required to share (and broadcast unencrypted?) telemetric information because they are building new missiles while we are not. The Obama administration is under pressure to retain START I’s provisions on telemetry in part because, as Travis notes, "certain [mostly Republican] senators will go nuts without access to the data."
• Given that New START is likely to have new provisions on throw-weightand new counting rules for delivery vehicles and warheads, we should be able to live with “simpler” and “less demanding” provisions on telemetry.
• Of course, Jon Kyl and company don’t really care about this distinction; they want to score political points. How else to explain the fact that when the Bush administration was in office, Republicans couldn’t have cared less about verification?

A View from the Dark Side

Midnight Masquerade - Wall Street Journal Editorial [link]

• Prediction," the Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr once observed, "is very difficult, especially about the future." For more than 60 years, the folks at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have been merrily discarding this useful piece of advice with dire warnings that the seconds are ticking toward a nuclear and, more recently, climate catastrophe. As of yesterday, their clock stood at six minutes to midnight.
• That's a funny judgment. The Administration has failed to negotiate so much as a pause in Iran's nuclear programs or rein in North Korea. Pakistan remains in a precarious political state. Russia and China are building a new generation of nuclear weapons even as the reliability of America's aging arsenal is increasingly in doubt. Meanwhile, the risks of a Middle East arms race involving current nonnuclear states like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt grows as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes closer to getting his bomb.
• But these facts apparently don't impress the Bulletin's editorial staff or its governing board. The driving motivation here is the familiar mix of apocalyptic politics and utopian dreams that now typifies so much thinking about disarmament and global warming.