Budget Savings & Nuclear Reductions

On the radar: Brig. Gen. Adams on defense budgets; Strike on Iran still a bad idea; Markey and Gottemoeller on CTBT; Kazakhstan after 616 nuclear explosions; Iran going local with carbon fiber; and why we should not nuke hurricanes.

August 29, 2011 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke

Opportunity to control defense spending - “It is time for a national discussion on what constitutes American national security, and it is time to reorient our budget accordingly,” writes Brig. Gen. John Adams (ret.) in The Hill. First recommendation: continue nuclear reductions to “eliminate weapons we don’t need” and “free up resources to meet 21st century challenges.”

--”It is also time we work closer with our core allies and Russia to move forward key issues such as cooperative missile defense.” http://ow.ly/6fqQj

No silver bullet for strike on Iran - “We’re not talking about Iraq or Syria where one strike would derail a programme,” said an Israeli defense official, referring to Israel’s past strikes on those countries’ nuclear facilities. “There is no one silver bullet you can hit and that's over." From Reuters http://ow.ly/6frAW

--Followup question that went unasked: What are the (disastrous) consequences of using military force on Iran? http://ow.ly/6fsav

Event: ”Two Decades Without Nuclear Weapons Testing” - Leading experts and officials hold a roundtable on the end of testing and the prospects for the CTBT. Panelists to include Rep. Edward Markey, Amb. Erlan Idrissov, Asst. Sec. Rose Gottemoeller, Rep. Shelly Berkley, Daryl Kimball and Dr. Paul Walker.

-- When: Thurs. Sept. 8 from 3:00-5:00 PM @Cannon HOB, Rm. 121. Reception to follow. RSVP by 9/2 to ggusadc@globalgreen.org.

Still reeling from impact of nuclear tests - 20 years ago today, Kazakhstan shut down the Soviet nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk and became the first country to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons. After 616 nuclear explosions, the region is still living with the consequences. http://ow.ly/6fq1n

Iran producing carbon fiber - So claims Iran’s defense minister. The difficult to produce material has potential use in Iran’s more advanced centrifuges, but has been hard for Iran to acquire thanks to international sanctions. Scepticism is warranted, as such announcements from Iran cannot be verified. AP reports. http://ow.ly/6ficu

Early Tweet: @armscontrolnow: NNSA Final EIS on multibillion $ Los Alamos bomb facility overlooks public comments, changed intl. situation. See: http://bit.ly/8sktIolink

All-Star panel on Iran and the intelligence community - How reliable is our intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program? A new report of the Iran Task Force of the Atlantic Council seeks to answer that question, with lessons from Iraq and beyond. The report launches on 9/15, with a panel featuring Sen. Chuck Hagel, Amb. Stuart Eizenstat, Barbara Slavin, Olli Heinonen, David Albright and Paul Pillar.

--When & Where: Thurs., Sept. 15 from 10:00 - 11:30 am @ The Atlantic Council. RSVP to southasia@acus.org. http://ow.ly/6ftJj

Nukes too weak to stop hurricanes - Not even a multi-megaton nuclear weapon has enough energy to halt a hurricane. Neither that fact nor the potential fallout could keep someone from suggesting the idea, Adam Weinstein reports. http://ow.ly/6fiED

--”A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x1013watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes,” writes the NOAA meteorologist who researched the option. http://ow.ly/6fiRE