Nuclear Weapons

The concept of nuclear winter -- a years-long planetary freeze brought on by airborne soot generated by nuclear bombs -- has been around for decades. But such speculations have been based largely on back-of-the-envelope calculations involving a total war between Russia and the United States. Now, a new multinational study…

Average changes in maize yield in the five years following a nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Credit: Adapted from Jägermeyr et al., 2020 The concept of nuclear winter—a years-long planetary freeze brought on by airborne soot generated by nuclear bombs—has been around for decades. But such speculations have been…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The treaty has three separate but inter-related objectives: preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear-weapon technologies to more countries; promoting cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy;…

India tests its Agni-5 rocket in 2013, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.Credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty It all starts in 2025, as tensions between India and Pakistan escalate over the contested region of Kashmir. When a terrorist attacks a site in India, that country sends tanks rolling across…

— By Jeremy Brecher A quarter-century ago, when “Save the Whales!” was a popular slogan, a New Yorker cartoon showed one whale asking another, “But can they save themselves?” In the early 21st century, experts and ordinary people alike are asking each other how we humans can save ourselves from…

In this Monday, March 2, 2020, photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a military drill at undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government.  …

Credit: William E. Sauro/NYT/Redux/eyevine Freeman Dyson’s influence spanned physics, nuclear disarmament, politics, culture and even science fiction. While still a student, he provided the mathematical grounds for quantum electrodynamics, or QED, to explain the interactions of elementary particles. In 1963, as chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, he helped…

Since 1945, there has not been one military use of a nuclear weapon. For the most part, the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept the nuclear powers in check. However, that doesn’t mean that the world has been safe during this time. To the contrary, the age of the…

Key point: Beijing has its own nuclear triad and its sea-based deterrent is especially potent. Here is how China ended up getting (and improving) its own bomb. China’s nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs, or “boomers”) are soon to become a major worry for the United States.  How does this change the…

(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea fired three unidentified projectiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea’s military said, two days after the North threatened to take “momentous” action to protest outside condemnation over its earlier live-fire exercises. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement it detected…