Nukes

Key point: Killing a top general of a non-nuclear weapons state is risky enough.The missile strike happened in the dead of night, when millions of Iraqis were either sleeping or retiring for the evening. The plane carrying Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani touched down at Baghdad International Airport just after…

Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant has been in operation for almost ten years.Credit: Majid Asgaripour/AP/Shutterstock Iran has accumulated 1,200 kilograms of enriched uranium — more than doubling the stockpile it had just three months ago, according to a statement from a senior official at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran…

Wildlife inspectors seized 1,400 pounds of dried shark fins at a Miami port, CBS News reported.While it's not illegal to sell shark fins in the US, the shipment contained species protected in the US.Activists have lobbied Congress to ban the sale of shark fins nationwide.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more…

Photo credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory/Harvey Klehr/New York TimesFrom Popular MechanicsHistorians have unmasked a fourth Soviet spy who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory during nuclear bomb development in the 1940s.Los Alamos is still one of the foremost nuclear research facilities in the world.The fourth spy was much more involved…

Key Point: There are even rumors of Ukrainetowns in some Chinese cities founded by the large number of expats hired by Chinese firms. While Ukraine renounced its own possession of nuclear weapons in 1994, many scientists and design bureaus in the country sti…

Key Point: With the advent of nuclear power and the guided missile, the seemingly goofy idea of a heavy surface-attack submarine became an impressive and chilling reality.A century ago submarines presented as much of a challenge for naval war planners as drones do today. Like airborne and surface stealth decades later,…

Key Point: Once the nuclear threshold is crossed, the only possible response would be nuclear. In the event of a war on the Korean peninsula, how would the United States respond to the use of a tactical nuclear weapon on the battlefield that was not aimed at…

Just 100 seconds to midnight. Rachel FeltmanJanuary 23, 2020Nuclear weapons test in 1952.U.S. Department of EnergyThe Doomsday Clock is now closer to midnight than ever before—so close that, instead of minutes, we’re now counting down to metaphorical oblivion in seconds. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, we have…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The keepers of the Doomsday Clock on Thursday moved the symbolic countdown to global disaster to the closest point to midnight in its 73-year history, citing “existential danger” from nuclear war and climate change.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded after the creation of the…

plan a tactica nuclear war escalation scenario animated map princeton sitPrinceton University/Nuclear Futures LabA new simulation called "Plan A," by researchers at Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security, shows how the use of one so-called tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon could lead to a terrifying worldwide conflict.In the roughly four-minute…