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In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
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NEW YORK TIMES: The Terror of Threes in the Heavens and on Earth
The tripolar nuclear age could put human survival at risk. But some experts cite a number of three-body lessons from nature — starting with Newton’s — that illuminate the issue and suggest possible ways forward.
By William J. Broad, THE NEW YORK TIMES | June 26, 2023 nytimes.com
Physicists have long explored how phenomena in groups of three can sow chaos. A new three-body problem, they warn, could lead to not only global races for new armaments but also thermonuclear war. . If achieved, the rise would represent a fivefold increase from the “minimum deterrent” that Beijing possessed for more than a half-century and would make it a nuclear peer of Moscow and Washington.
Dr. Newman calls the tripolar state “much less resilient” than the bipolar standoff. Even so, three-body theorists see a number of ways that the unthinkable might be avoided.
For instance, Dr. Krepinevich, in a Foreign Affairs article last year, argued that Moscow could fade into economic and strategic insignificance, leaving a strong Beijing and Washington to “navigate their way to a new bipolar equilibrium.” The armed revolt over the weekend in Russia drives home not only Moscow’s weakness but the threat of new instability in an atomic superpower.
On a different note, Siegfried S. Hecker , a former director of the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico, argued that Washington should aim to deal with the rival superpowers as separate entities.
“I don’t see Russia and China getting together” on atomic strategies, he said. “I see it as two bipolars.” As the Ukraine war rages and Washington has little interaction with Moscow…
Russia mercenary threat revives concern over nuclear arsenal security
“…the safety of these weapons is a persistent worry for Washington. U.S. intelligence agencies said in their 2023 Annual Threat assessment that ‘Russia’s nuclear material security … remains a concern despite improvements to material protection, control, and accounting at Russia’s nuclear sites since the 1990s.'”
JAPAN TIMES | June 25, 2023 japantimes.co.jp
The Wagner mercenary group’s march on Moscow has revived an old fear in Washington: What happens to Russia’s nuclear stockpile in the event of domestic upheaval?
An agreement on Saturday by Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to order his fighters back to their camps quelled immediate worries of major conflict inside Russia. But the episode signaled that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grasp on power is weakening.
Russia thermonuclear bomb scientist dies, Putin boosts nuke force
Grigory Klinishov, who was in his 90s, has reportedly died by suicide in Moscow.
ALJAZEERA | June 22, 2023 aljazeera.com
Russian nuclear physicist Grigory Klinishov, one of the creators of the Soviet Union’s first two-stage thermonuclear bombs, has been found dead in Moscow apparently by suicide, Russia’s state news agencies have reported.
Klinishov, who was in his early 90s, was reported to have died on June 17. A suicide note was found next to his body at an apartment residence in central Moscow, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Wednesday.
(ABC NEWS) Plan to discharge water into Hudson River from closed nuclear plant sparks uproar; (Spectrum News 1) Legislature approves bill to prohibit disposal of nuclear wastewater in Hudson River
The Indian Point nuclear plant along the Hudson River is at the center of a controversy two years after it was shut down
ABC NEWS – ByMICHAEL HILL Associated Press | June 20, 2023 abcnews.go.com
The latest flashpoint revolves around plans to release 1.3 million gallons of water with traces of radioactive tritium into the river as part of the plant’s decommissioning.
Legislature approves bill to prohibit disposal of nuclear wastewater in Hudson River
SPECTRUM NEWS 1, BY HUDSON VALLEY | June 20, 2023 spectrumlocalnews.com
Santosh Nandabalan, a senior organizer for the environmental group Food & Water Watch, said new legislation that would halt the dumping of all radiological wastewater into the Hudson River is critical to preserving one of the state’s most important ecological features.
“It is a huge threat not only to that water, but to the local communities along the river,” he said. “Then, there’s a vibrant economy that’s linked to this river, which would take a massive hit if that dumping went forward.”
The bill is a response to a plan by Holtec that would dispose of about 300,000 gallons of wastewater into the Hudson in September…
“The Doomsday Machine”: Confessions of Daniel Ellsberg, Former Nuclear War Planner
Daniel Ellsberg was best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers, but he was also a lifelong anti-nuclear activist, stemming from his time working as a nuclear planner for the U.S. government. In December 2017, he joined us to discuss his memoir, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. “This was an actual war plan for how we would use the existing weapons,” he noted, “many of which I had seen already that time.”
| June 20, 2023 democracynow.org
VIDEO: Reports number of stockpiles of nuclear warheads steadily increasing
ABC NEWS: Dan Smith says the Ukraine War has propelled the resurgence of nuclear threats, despite a general decline over the past 35 years.
CNN: Putin warns NATO over being drawn into Ukraine war, says Russia has more nuclear weapons
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned there is a “serious danger” of NATO being drawn further into the Ukraine war if members of the alliance continue to supply military weaponry to Kyiv.
By Zahid Mahmood, CNN | June 17, 2023 cnn.com
…“This is a serious danger of further drawing NATO into this military conflict,” he added.
During his speech to the forum, Putin also suggested Russia’s large number of nuclear weapons would “guarantee” its security – noting that Russia had more such weapons than NATO countries.
Russia has a total stockpile of around 6,250 nuclear warheads as of January 2021, according to the Arms Control Association. The US has more than 5,500 while two other NATO member states, Britain and France, have about 220 and 290 nuclear warheads, respectively.
“Nuclear weapons are created to guarantee our security in the broader sense and the existence of the Russian state,” Putin said.
“But first of all, there is no need and secondly the very fact of talking about it reduces the possibility of the threshold for using these weapons being reduced.”
