Saving the World, One Kilogram of Uranium at a Time

ON THE RADAR: Maddow and Markey on the critical effort to secure HEU; Reducing spare nuclear weapons; Ploughshares website gets a facelift; GPS could strengthen Test Ban monitoring; Drones and missile defense?; and a hypersonic cannonball.

August 19, 2011 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Rizwan Ladha

Editors’ note: Welcome to Early Warning, Ploughshares’ new feature to get you the day’s top nuclear news with timely analysis from the brightest nuclear experts. Subscribe to our email list to get Early Warning in your inbox each weekday morning. Tell us what you think by emailing earlywarning@ploughshares.org.

The Department of Saving the World - That’s how Rachel Maddow refers to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which only two days ago removed 6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from South Africa in a covert operation.

-- Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), talking with Maddow, praised the NNSA operation. Political insight: “nuclear bomb prevention is not nearly as attractive to defense contractors as nuclear bomb production.” But it’s far more important. Here’s a clip:

-- See the full video here: http://ow.ly/66LPa

-- By the numbers: “A crude nuclear weapon can be made with as little as 25 kilograms of HEU. Since April 2009, the National Nuclear Security Administration has removed nearly 1000 kilograms of HEU. In total, it has removed over 120 bombs worth of HEU,” writes Kingston Reif at Nukes of Hazard http://ow.ly/1vVPzX

Ploughshares Fund’s Website Gets an Overhaul - Tweets @JoelMartinRubin: Plougshares Fund has a new look. Check us out! Greater Impact, Greater Presence. bit.ly/q7gzjh

Cut spare nukes by relying on spare parts - Elaine Grossman reports that NNSA is adopting an approach to nuclear weapons maintenance called “component sparing,” which “allows defective or corroded nuclear systems to be refurbished by installing new or reused parts … [thereby] decreasing reliance on using fully assembled warheads to replace non-functioning weapons.” http://ow.ly/66RlE

-- This move would allow the U.S. government to reduce its stockpile of non-deployed or “hedge” nuclear weapons. Most arms control analysts recommend including reductions in non-deployed weapons in the next treaty with Russia. http://ow.ly/1vVUZ2

iPhone is about to get a nuclear test app - Scientists from The Ohio State University ask in The Bulletin, “Could the [2009] North Korean explosion have disturbed [the ionosphere] layer of atmosphere to the level detectable by GPS signals?” Answer: Yes.

-- For pols: “GPS could complement other nuclear test detection methods and give the US more reason to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.”

-- For wonks: we believe that GPS could work as a complement to other detection methods used by the test-ban organization and could help confirm that a nuclear test has taken place -- especially when the test is underground, making its emissions into the air very subtle and otherwise nearly impossible to detect.” http://ow.ly/66PJn

Prompt Global Splash - DARPA’s much-touted test flight of the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) last week started with a successful launch, but ended with an unplanned crash into the Pacific Ocean, following a loss of communications with ground control, reports Popular Science.

-- The vehicle achieved Mach 20 flight for a full three minutes before the flight anomaly, which is yet to be determined. Early Warning wants to know the size of the splash. http://ow.ly/1vVSsr

Another mission for drones: missile defense? - Aviation Week reports that Missile Defense Agency (MDA) officials are eyeballing using Reaper drones to setup a “picket fence” of sensors tied to Aegis ship- and land-based SM-3 interceptors. Whether such can fit in current MDA plans and smaller budgets is up for debate. http://ow.ly/67tcY

-- Flashback: MIT’s Ted Postol proposed using drones for early-intercept missile defense in The New York Times in 2009. http://ow.ly/67tH5