It is widely believed that an oil weapon could impose scarcity upon the United States. Impending resource exhaustion is thought to exacerbate this threat. However, threat seems implausible when we consider strategic deficits of prospective weapon users and the improbability of impending resource exhaustion. Here, we explore a hypothesis relating oil to national security under a different assump...

Background: Radioactive contamination in soil arises due to various activities of human being, such as nuclear energy generation, use of radioisotopes in industrial applications, science, technology, medicine and release of radiation in nuclear weapon tests. Materials and Methods: The two districts (Peshawar and Nowshera) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan were selected for the study of anthropoge...

. Dr. William C. Potter is the Director of the Program for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. This essay is his prepared testimony submitted to the Subcommittee on International Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 27, 1994. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and ...

T he United States carried out the world's fi rst nuclear test, codenamed " Trinity, " on 16 July 1945 in the desert of New Mexico. Just three weeks later, on 6 August, the US exploded a uranium device called " Little Boy " 2,000 feet above the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing around 150,000 people. Three days later, the US deployed a second nuclear bomb, a plutonium device called " Fat Man,...

Asingle factor may not fully explain the rationale for India’s quest for a Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system. Security, prestige, and an aspiration for power projection are predominant factors in New Delhi’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, as well as in its pursuit of a BMD system. Particularly after the 2005 India–U.S. nuclear deal, which allowed the United States to provide nuclearrelate...

Abstract For the last five decades, states parties to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have come together every 5 years at Review Conferences explore how they can advance Treaty’s goals, including pursuit of nuclear disarmament. Despite lengthy negotiations, failed reach a consensus final document as many times succeeded and even when has been agreed it contained few tangible gains for th...

An algorithm was developed that uses measured isotopic ratios from fission product residue following the detonation of a nuclear weapon to compute the original attributes of the nuclear material used in the weapon. While more accurate (and more computationally intensive) methods are being explored by others, the method described here could serve as a preprocessing step to a more detailed method...

How will the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) shape broader pursuit nuclear abolition? TPNW critics have argued that new agreement is likely to fuel divisions between and non-nuclear-weapon sates, undermining consensus hampering existing efforts at reducing eliminating arms. In this commentary, I argue one TPNW’s key strengths contributions precisely it pierces feigned abolitioni...