Featured Articles Archive
Pentagon Unveils Plan for Ballistic Missiles on Attack Submarines
The following story was released by Global Security Newswire, 27 January 2011, www.nti.org
USS Virginia, SSN-774. Future Virginia-class
submarines will be designed to field new
conventional ballistic missiles.
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The U.S. Defense Department plans to develop a new conventional ballistic missile for fielding on attack submarines, according to major budget decisions announced on Thursday at the Pentagon.
"The Navy will invest in a design that will allow new Virginia-class submarines to be modified to carry more cruise missiles and develop an undersea conventional prompt strike option," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at a press conference.
[Full Story]
Guatemala Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
The following press release was issued by the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, 13 January 2012, www.ctbto.org
H. E. Mr. Haroldo Rodas Melgar, Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala (left),
depositing his country's instrument of
ratification of the CTBT (CTBTO Preparatory Commission photo)
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Guatemala has reaffirmed its long-standing support for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) by ratifying the treaty. The number of ratifications now stands at 156; while a total of 182 states have signed the treaty. The instrument of ratification was handed over personally by Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas Melgar at a ceremony at the United Nations in New York yesterday afternoon.
[Full Story]
Revitalizing Arms Control through Multilateral Engagement
The following Blog entry was release by the U.S. Department of State Official Blog, 23 December 2011, blogs.state.gov
Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Security for the
Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance
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In what is to be her last visit to Europe in 2011, Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, visited Brussels, London, Sofia, Bucharest, and Chisinau. She engaged in a Verification Dialogue with the European Union in Brussels, and in a speech delivered at Wilton Park in England, she outlined the efforts the United States has made toward commencing Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty negotiations. She also held constructive conversations reaffirming our commitment to revitalizing conventional arms control in Europe with her counterparts in Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova.
[Full Story]
Progress on Commencing Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty Negotiations
The following remarks were released by the U.S. Department of State, December 13, 2011, www.state.gov
Rose Gottemoeller is the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance and delivered the following remarks at the Wilton Park Conference: Challenges of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime.
Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance
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Thank you for having me here today. It is always a pleasure to be at Wilton Park, particularly during this festive time of year.
I am also glad to be here talking about the development of a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). As you all know, an FMCT has long been one of the key goals of multilateral arms control. A cutoff will provide a solid foundation for future disarmament efforts, and help to consolidate the arms control gains made since the end of the Cold War. An FMCT’s verifiable controls on fissile material production will play an important role by strengthening confidence among the relevant states and help to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons. The United States is firmly committed to making this treaty a reality.
[Full Story]
Celebrating 20 Years of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperation Threat Reduction (CTR) Program
The following article was released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on December 12, 2011, www.carnegieendowment.org
In August 2007, Senators Lugar and Nunn led
a delegation to the Mayak nuclear facility in
Ozersk. The visit was organized by ROSATOM
in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the
CTR agreement with Russia.
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December 12 marks the twentieth anniversary of one of the most innovative and important nonproliferation initiatives of the post-Cold War period: the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program. The disintegration of the former Soviet nuclear security apparatus did not result in a major nuclear catastrophe as many experts worried, and CTR is clearly due a significant share of the credit. It has been one of the most successful “whole-of-government” responses to a potentially cataclysmic threat. It remains an important tool today for international cooperation to reduce nuclear dangers, but some tough questions about the continued viability of the model loom.
[Full Story]
Exercising the CTBTO's On-Site Inspectors
The following report was released on the VERTIC Blog, 25 November 2011, www.vertic.org
Magnetometers are used by the CTBTO to
identify anomalies in underground geological
structures.
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The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO) recently announced the approval of a budget for the next on-site inspection (OSI) exercise. With a budget of $10.3 million, this exercise will be a significant step towards strengthening the organization’s OSI capabilities. The first such exercise, held in September 2008, revealed a number of important issues that will have to be resolved before the CTBTO's OSI capabilities reach full strength.
[Full Story]
Russia Conducts Test Launch of Topol ICBM
The following story was released by Ria Novosti, 03 November 2011, en.ria.ru
Russian Topol RS-12M (SS-25) mobile ICBM
en route for a test launch on November 3, 2011
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The Russian Space Forces test launched a Topol RS-12M intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] on Thursday [November 3, 2011], the Defense Ministry said. [The missile] was launched at 10:45 a.m. Moscow time [06:45 GMT] from the Plesetsk Space Center and hit a designated target on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
“The launch was designed to test the stability of the basic specifications of this class of missiles as their service life has been extended to 24 years,” the ministry said.
[Full Story]
New START Basic Components
The following information was released by the U.S. Department of State on October 20, 2011, www.state.gov
The Central Limits of the New START Treaty
- Deployed Warheads: 1,550 warheads emplaced on deployed ICBMs and SLBMs, and counted for deployed heavy bombers
- Deployed Ballistic Missiles and Heavy Bombers: 700 deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers
- Deployed and Non-Deployed Launchers and Heavy Bombers: 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, deployed and non-deployed SLBM launchers, deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers
- Timetable for Limitations: Parties must meet central limits within seven years after the treaty enters into force
- Duration of Agreement: Ten years with an option to extend for no more than five years, if both sides agree
[Full Story]
Forum for a Nuclear-Free World
The following remarks by Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, were released by the U.S. Department of State on October 13, 2011, www.state.gov
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Gottemoeller
and Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Umarov
arriving at Semipalatinsk test site on October 13, 2011
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First of all, I would like to thank our gracious hosts. It is such a pleasure to be back in Kazakhstan. Your warmth and hospitality always make visits here so memorable. I made my first trip here back in 1976, as part of one of the first U.S. cultural exchanges to Soviet Kazakhstan. It was a beautiful golden October in the city of apples – Almaty. Even though it was 35 years ago, I still remember those delicious apples.
[Full Story]
Memorandum of Understanding with Ukraine on Nuclear Security Cooperation
The fact sheet was released by the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson, 26 September 2011, www.state.gov
U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko sign a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Nuclear Security Cooperation, September 26, 2011
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On September 26, Secretary Clinton signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Gryshchenko on nuclear security cooperation. This Memorandum of Understanding formalizes the shared intent of the United States and Ukraine to implement fully the commitment that President Obama and President Yanukovych undertook at last year’s Nuclear Security Summit to work together to prevent proliferation and to secure all vulnerable nuclear material. President Yanukovych announced Ukraine’s decision to get rid of all of its stocks of highly enriched uranium by March 2012, when the next Nuclear Security Summit will convene.
[Full Story]
Guinea Ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
The following story was released by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, September 20, 2001, www.ctbto.org
 On September 20, 2011 Guinea became
the155th country to ratify the CTBT
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Tibor Tóth, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), hailed [Guinea’s ratification of the CTBT] as “a step that further consolidates Africa’s dedication to end nuclear testing and acts as a powerful beacon for the rest of the world.” Last year’s entry into force of the Pelindaba Treaty established a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa, effectively making the entire southern hemisphere free of nuclear weapons.
Guinea signed the CTBT on October 3, 1996, just a few days after [the treaty] opened for signature. Guinea has shown its support for the treaty by regularly voting in favor of the CTBT in the United Nations General Assembly.
[Full Story]
Message by H.E. Mr. Joseph Deiss, President of the 65th Session of the General Assembly
The following story was released the United Nations, 29 August 2011, www.un.org
The resolution 64/35, approved by consensus by the General Assembly, was a landmark in the work of its First Committee in 2009 as it established August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
Nuclear tests have been shaping military power throughout the 20th century. During the Cold War and its logic of nuclear deterrence, these tests were used for advancing nuclear technology and they were displayed as a demonstration of power, since the actual use of nuclear weapons could lead to the destruction of the entire planet.
Nuclear testing and explosions were carried out underground, under water and in the air, with dreadful dangers for human beings and the environment. The fallout of nuclear tests caused diseases, poisoned the food chain and contaminated the water and its ecosystems; these effects are still felt today. Nuclear tests and, ultimately, nuclear weapons, constitute a serious threat for civilians, which must not be overlooked. Using tests implies the acceptance of huge possible costs for populations.
[Full Story]
Y-12 Gets a Jump on B53 Dismantlement
The following story was released by Knox News on the Atomic City Underground blog, 17 August 2011, blogs.knoxnews.com
B53 Bomb
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Usually, when there's a change of schedule in government, it involves a delay that stretches out the timetable for getting work done. That apparently wasn't the case with Y-12's role in dismantling second-stage components of B53 bombs, some of the biggest nuclear weapons ever put into play.
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, today confirmed that workers at the Oak Ridge plant dismantled their first B53 unit in December 2010. That was far in advance of an earlier schedule, which indicated Y-12 wouldn't begin the work until late FY 2011 or early FY 2012.
[Full Story]
Sensor Network Detects Nuclear Blasts Worldwide
The following story was released by the U.S. Department of Defense, 12 July 2011, www.defense.gov
The Air Force's WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft collects air samples from areas around the world where nuclear explosions have occurred.
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At any time of the day or night, on any day of the year, if a nuclear device explodes anywhere on Earth, a Defense Department network established in 1947 will know about it.
That was the year Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the Army Air Corps to develop such a capability, and the U.S. Atomic Energy Detection System [USAEDS] has evolved over 64 years into a one-of-a-kind global web of sensors that see, feel, hear and sniff out nuclear explosions that occur under land or sea, in the atmosphere or in space.
[Full Story]
NNSA, U.S. Air Force Partner on Flight Test of W78 JTA Sensor and Hardware Payload
The following story was released by Military Aerospace, 10 July 2011, www.militaryaerospace.com
NNSA/Air Force W87 JTA test
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The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), working with the U.S. Air Force, has conducted a W78 Joint Test Assembly (JTA) flight test from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Helping to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile, the event employed sensors and hardware used during flight tests to ensure that weapons perform as intended; moreover, it marked the first flight test of Command Receiver Decoder, a new command destruct system developed for the Minuteman program.
[Full Story]
No Decision on Final Nuke Carrier Reduction, Air Force Official Says
The following story was released by Global Security Newswire, 23 June 2011, www.globalsecuritynewswire.org
The U.S. Air Force has submitted its proposal for cutting the remaining 20 strategic nuclear-weapon delivery systems necessary for the United States to be complaint with the New START nuclear arms control treaty, a senior service official told Global Security Newswire [GSN] on Wednesday.
Missile maintenance crew check the
electronics on a Minuteman III ICBM in its silo.
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"The Air Force has a position, it has taken it forward to the Joint Staff and there have been a couple of 'Tank' meetings with the service chiefs ... but there has been no decision yet," Air Force Global Strike Command chief Lt. Gen. James Kowalski said after a breakfast event on Capitol Hill, referring to the ultra-secure conference room inside the Pentagon.
[Full Story]
Air Force Officials Fund Future ICBM Studies
The following story was released by U.S. Air Force News, 08 June 2011, www.af.mil
"The Air Force is strongly committed to the ground-based leg of the nation's nuclear triad and we're taking all actions appropriate – the analysis, the assessment, the planning – for this capability, in 2030 and beyond," said Maj. Gen. William A. Chambers, the assistant chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration.
[Full Story]
Hill Air Force Base Readies for New START Inspections
The following story was released by the Hill Arms Control and Treaty Office on March 3, 2011
B-2 aircraft at Hill AFB
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During the next few months the Hill Arms Control and Treaty Office (ACO) will likely host a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty [New START] inspection either at Hill AFB or Oasis, Utah. Under the New START Treaty there are two types of inspections. After much debate and negotiation between the U.S. and Russia, they came up with the "creative" names of ... Type One and Type Two inspections.
[Full Story]
Treaty Implementation: IAEA Safeguards Equipment and Testing
The mission of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards is to verify that countries are compliant with their nuclear safeguards agreements and additional protocols. It is also to ensure the use of nuclear materials and facilities in non-nuclear weapon states, as designated under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), is only for peaceful purposes.
[Full Story]
Treaty Issues in Depth: New START Verification
Rose Gottemoeller
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation
Statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC
July 29, 2010
Chairman Levin, Senator McCain, and members of the Committee, I want to thank you for this opportunity to appear before you. I am honored to be here to provide my perspective as chief negotiator of the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, also known as the New START Treaty. I'm also pleased to be joined by Dr. Ted Warner, who served on the delegation as Secretary Gates' representative and as one of my deputies. We share a strong belief that the New START Treaty will make our country more secure, and we urge the Senate to provide its advice and consent to ratification. At the conclusion of my remarks, I will be pleased to respond to your questions.
[Full Story]
Treaty Issues in Depth: The New START Treaty
On April 8, 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new START treaty. This new treaty is intended to replace the START I treaty that expired on December 5, 2009. When the new START treaty enters into force, it will also supersede the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow Treaty).
Overview
The new START treaty is a legally-binding bilateral agreement between Russia and the United States. The treaty is composed of three integral parts: the treaty text; a technical protocol specifying additional rights and obligations associated with the treaty text; and detailed technical annexes to the protocol. Each of these documents is a legally binding component of the treaty.
[Full Story]
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