Nuclear Weapons Research Articles

Protective structures as a device of ensuring the safety of victims in a war situation

Interest in protective structures is steadily increasing as the armed conflict in Ukraine unfolds. Experience shows that shelters and hiding places are the most effective form of protection for civilians from conventional and unconventional war threats. Meanwhile, there are no guidelines and rules for the construction of public and private shelters in Poland. The problem is a big one, especially in view of the war that is taking place in the close vicinity of Poland. The purpose of the article is to review Polish and foreign legal and organizational solutions in the field of protective constructions and to indicate the technical requirements necessary to meet in a situation of war danger, with particular emphasis on the use of nuclear weapons. The authors put forward the thesis that in the face of military and non-military threats, the effective way to protect and defend the life and health of the population are properly maintained and managed protective structures, including shelters and hiding places and places of temporary shelter. However, the basic problem remains the question of legal regulation in this regard and the responsibility for their financing and maintenance, which involves the issue of ownership (private and public shelters). In Poland, the experience of other countries that have adopted a variety of solutions should be a guideline for forward-looking activities in the area of protective structures. 

Cross Domain Deterrence in Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean Region

Deterrence as a concept is deeply rooted in human nature and for a considerable time it was contested and jilted, yet it resurfaced in one way or the other. Nuclear weapons became the backbone of the concept of Deterrence. Due to the inherent dynamism of Revolution in Military Affairs, the supremacy of Nuclear is being challenged with the advent of the latest technologies which are acting as enablers and disruptors. The concept of Cross DomainDeterrence emerged a decade ago, took shape, and entered the strategic lexicon. It has enablers and drivers, while a gradual shift in this direction is visible. While remaining within the ambit of complex interdependence theory given by Robert O Keohane and Joseph S Nye. This article examines the applicability of Cross-Domain Deterrence in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean Region focusing on the US, China, India, and Pak to identify the need to look beyond the horizon and embrace the change.

A Balanced Approach to Addressing Nuclear Risks in the Middle East While Preserving the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons

The Review Conference of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has been one of the primary international arenas for discussing pathways to establishing a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone (ME WMDFZ). This contentious issue was considered the make-or-break factor that determined whether some past Review Conferences could adopt a final document. With the commencement of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2019, mandated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), questions have been raised about whether this new track replaces the NPT in addressing the Zone issue and, if not, in what format both tracks should interact. This essay sets the context for these questions by discussing evolving nuclear risks in the Middle East, the linkages between the NPT and the Zone, and the potential risks of decoupling the Zone issue from the NPT review process. The essay then argues for a balanced approach in which the NPT and the UNGA-mandated tracks function in conjunction with, and complement, each other. This approach would preserve the integrity and efficacy of each process and maintain the region’s commitments to the Zone, to abolishing nuclear weapons and to preventing further proliferation.

“...We have begun preparing a work on the history of the nuclear project in the country”: on the contribution of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the study of the history of the creation of domestic nuclear weapons

“...We have begun preparing a work on the history of the nuclear project in the country”: on the contribution of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the study of the history of the creation of domestic nuclear weapons

Investigating the aspiration and feasibility of a Turkish shift to nuclear weapons Is Erdogan’s narrative something to fear?

The aim of this study is to investigate why Türkiye might be interested in acquiring nuclear weapons and pursuing armament, and understand whether its nuclear aspirations are truly feasible. In line with existing theoretical nuclear armament models, particularly through realist and idealist views, this paper will determine whether nuclear proliferation in Türkiye can be expected. Considering that in recent years the Middle East region has had points of tension in relation to nuclear developments, it is essential to consider the ways in which international norms, Türkiye’s domestic context, and the role of political figures have impacted Ankara’s nuclear energy policy and demands for nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). By providing a detailed critique, and by taking into account the significance of the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2023 Presidential elections, this article will provide a nuanced understanding to Türkiye’s foreign and domestic policies, whilst providing a new perspective to armament theories.

The Impact of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Crucial Role of the European NATO Allies

This article makes the argument that the role of the European NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies, and especially the non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), may and should play a key role in the future of nuclear disarmament. Once the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is signed and ratified by more or less 100 NNWS, mostly from the Global South, it will be up to the allied NNWS to make up their mind about their role vis-à-vis nuclear disarmament. Will they continue to behave as protégés by (and in some way also protectors of) the nuclear-armed states and break the disarmament process further, or will they shake off the nuclear “protection” in the interest of making progress toward a world without nuclear weapons? This article zooms in on the European NATO allies in particular. The TPNW can and will be used to put pressure on the European NATO allies to switch sides, and it can, on its turn, be used by the European NATO allies to stigmatize the nuclear-armed states in order to make progress in the direction of nuclear elimination. The article starts by reviewing the origins and objectives of the TPNW. In the next section, its impact will be scrutinized. We then turn to the current and possible future role of the European NATO allies.

Nuclear Disarmament in Latin America: Unveiling the Impact of Humanitarian Perspectives and Advocacy Campaigns on the TPNW

This essay explores the evolution of the humanitarian disarmament initiative toward the TPNW and the links and influences from Latin America civil society efforts. Shifting away from traditional military objectives, humanitarian disarmament integrates civil society organizations, prioritizes Human Security over State security, and emphasizes the humanitarian impact of weapons. The paper examines key campaigns, including the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the Control Arms Campaign, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), elucidating their advocacy strategies. It highlights the unique features of humanitarian disarmament, stressing obligations beyond elimination, addressing challenges in multilateral forums, and presenting Latin America’s distinct approach. The essay concludes by discussing the status of nuclear disarmament in the region, emphasizing universalization efforts and contextual challenges, including the rise of alt-right movements and the region’s historical commitment to nuclear disarmament.

“We’re Taking Back the Narrative”. An Interview with Benetick Kabua Maddison, of the Marshallese Educational Initiative

This contribution features an interview with Benetick Kabua Maddison, the Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI), an NGO that aims to raise awareness of the effects of nuclear testing and climate change on the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The RMI was the site of 67 nuclear tests conducted by the United States between 1946 and 1958, which resulted in environmental degradation and health problems for the local population. The interview explores the current renegotiation of the Compact of Free Association (COFA), a treaty that governs the political and economic relationship between the RMI and the US. The interview also discusses the challenges and opportunities for the Marshallese community, the conflicting statements regarding the contamination of the RMI, and the prospects of a nuclear weapons ban and global solidarity to address the twin existential threats facing the RMI and the world.

Sharing the Burden and Dodging the Blame: NATO as a Western Instrument of Nuclear Advocacy

The West often indicate in discourse their desire to disarm. However, Western pro-nuclear disarmament rhetoric is often contested, since Western nuclear powers claim there are impeding factors to disarmament. These factors usually include the compromise of the security of their allies and generic ‘security reasons’. The argument is that concrete disarmament efforts are unfeasible and unrealistic because they do not consider the wide range of security concerns that nuclear weapons help mitigate. Oftentimes, the security of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies is invoked to justify the need for nuclear weapons. In that sense, I argue that the West instrumentalizes the NATO to rationalize and legitimize their nuclear weapons possession. They do so by 1) deflecting criticism related to nuclear policy to the organization; 2) passing the buck regarding the blame of maintaining nuclear weapons; 3) coercing NATO allies to adopt pro-nuclear policies; and 4) creating threats to justify these policies. Nuclear weapons symbolize material and reputational power and nuclear disarmament represents a severe loss of power for these States. The West creates a narrative wherein nuclear weapons are a ‘necessary evil’ to guarantee their own security and their allies.

Escalation of armed violence: the problem of the limit

The article, based on the mimetic model of military activity, examines the problem of the escalation of armed violence. The author identifies constructive mimesis, aimed at strengthening of social solidarity, and destructive mimesis, which can be regarded as a source of escalation of violence. For the classic of military theory Carl von Clausewitz the limit of violence acts as a speculative figure, but in the nuclear era the absolute maximum of violence received clear empirical contours. The article analyzes escalation ladders, the final step of which is the large-scale war using nuclear weapons. It is concluded that modern reflection on armed violence includes the phenomenon of the limit as its integral horizon; it is further connected with the search for tools for self-limitation of military activity.

Energy Amplifier Systems as Sustainable Nuclear Reactors: An Overview

One of the present major issues for industrialised societies is the environmental impact of energy production. Nuclear power is identified as a possible sustainable opportunity to provide a technological answer to this problem. This review aims to overview the physical bases of accelerator-driven systems, focusing on spallation and transmutation phenomena. A discussion on the possible use of these nuclear devices is developed in the context of sustainable energy production, showing a possible new approach to nuclear energy, based on the developments of accelerator physics and technology during the last century.

Gamma-spectrometry measurements of filtration media from an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor

Filtration media used to quantify particulate and gaseous releases have been collected from Hartlepool Power Station in the United Kingdom and measured using high-sensitivity gamma-spectrometry systems. Radionuclides that are relevant to the monitoring regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) have been detected. Results are reported and compared to detections recorded on the International Monitoring System (IMS). Time series activity plots have been produced and results interpreted with respect to known plant activities. The reported results improve the understanding of trace-level radionuclide emissions from Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) and aid interpretation of IMS measurements. This work is being performed as part of the Xenon Environmental Nuclide Analysis at Hartlepool (XENAH) collaboration between the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE, UK), EDF Energy (UK), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, US) and the Swedish Defence Agency (FOI, Sweden).

Nuclear weapons and interstate conflict behavior: The moderating influence of civil–military relations

Do nuclear weapons deter aggression or make states more likely to engage in conflict? I argue that we can explain whether and when nuclear capabilities increase state belligerence by examining the role of domestic institutions that shape state security policy. This study provides evidence that nuclear weapons have an emboldening effect on conflict initiation by elevating state capacity but that whether this emboldening translates into higher levels of belligerence depends on the extent to which civilians (relative to the military) control the state, an important dimension of state decision-making. Results provide suggestive evidence in support of my argument. I illustrate this mechanism using the case of Pakistan (1972–2010).

3.0 - MOOSE: Enabling massively parallel multiphysics simulations

The development of MOOSE has kept accelerating since the last release, with over 2,100 pull requests merged over the last 30 months that involved nearly fifty contributors across close to a dozen institutions internationally. The growth in MOOSE's capabilities and downstream applications is reflected in the growth of the community. User support provided on the GitHub discussions forum has steadily increased to nearly 50 daily interactions. New simulation projects, notably to model advanced nuclear reactor and fusion devices, are driving a significant expansion of the capabilities. This paper reports on these developments, with several major released features, new physics modules, and key improvements to the user experience and simulation workflow.

The international legal regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons

Of all the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction of all types, the threats posed by nuclear weapons are the most devastating and far-reaching in their effects, because even limited use of such weapons anywhere in the world would have devastating economic, ecological and societal consequences in overall consequences. Addressing this danger requires a multifaceted approach. It was under this circumstance that the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) became global and approached universality in terms of the number of participating countries.
 Regarding the issue of balance between the consensus model of decision-making and the institutional hierarchical structure of decision­making within the framework of the nuclear non­proliferation system, opponents and supporters of the concept of multilateralism in international relations believe that the nature of the nuclear non-proliferation system should be considered from opposite positions. The first perspective is based on the theory and practice of the Westphalian system of interaction between sovereign states, each of which seeks to survive or maximize its power in a world in which interstate relations are anarchic. From this perspective, nuclear nonproliferation is a purely national policy with its own goals, including disarmament.
 Therefore, the NPT is nothing more than a combination of political will and government commitments aimed at preventing or hindering the possibility of obtaining nuclear weapons by other states. However, the global nature of the threat of nuclear proliferation forces opponents of the concept of multilateralism to recognize the need for limited cooperation between states, mainly within the framework of non-binding agreements that only partially define national policy and often do not contain any provisions for collective enforcement measures. Therefore, for opponents of the concept of multilateralism, the NPT is a tool for promoting national interests.

Gamma-ray imaging of Np-237 metal using an organic glass imager

Neutron and gamma-ray imaging systems are deployed within the field of nuclear safeguards for the detection and localization of special nuclear materials and other materials of interest. 237Np is one of these materials of interest due its presence in spent nuclear fuel and potential for use in nuclear weapons when purified. Here, for the first time, a 6 kg neptunium sphere (98.8 wt% 237Np) was measured using a dual-particle imager, from the University of Michigan, consisting of organic glass and inorganic scintillators. The novel composition of organic glass scintillator was recently developed at Sandia National Labs and has been used in particle imaging systems due to its time resolution and particle discrimination capabilities. Gamma-ray energy spectra from single and coincident events were extracted and the sequencing of Compton scatter and photoelectric absorption gamma-ray events was used to generate images using simple backprojection. The emissions of interest in this work are the 312 keV and 416 keV gamma rays from 233Pa, a daughter isotope from the neptunium decay series. The results of this work show that there is close agreement between the true source location in angular space and the converged location from the gamma ray images created using the system. The gamma spectroscopy from single and coincident events also identified the characteristic emission from the daughter isotope and could be used to assist with the identification of 237Np. Furthermore, successful localization of the source with 5 s of data demonstrates the practical application of the imaging system for imaging and detection of material in weapons-useable quantities.

박정희 정부의 전력증강 정책 추진에 대한 미국의 대응 분석

This article examines the response of the U.S. to the Korean government's power enhancement project in terms of alliance management. The Park Chung-hee administration resolved security concerns caused by increased threats from North Korea and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea, and promoted a policy to increase power for self-defense. A dual-path strategy was implemented by the Park Chung-hee administration's power enhancement policy, which combined the conventional power enhancement policy and the nuclear weapons development policy. The U.S. showed double-faced strategy to the Korea’s power enhancement policy. First, the U.S. was in a favorable position to Korea’s conventional power enhancement policy. Second, the U.S. thwarted Korea’s nuclear weapons development by checking and obstructing it. Through this study, it can be confirmed that the success or failure of an attempt to change power through the power enhancement of a weaker country in an asymmetric alliance system depends on the interests of the powerful countries. Therefore, in order to resolve the imbalance in alliance relations through the increase of its own power, weaker countries must consider and persuade the interests of powerful countries.

Impact of urban shielding on radiological risk after a hypothetical nuclear event

Nuclear events have always represented a threat to societies, and nowadays, the concept of tactical nuclear weapons occupies a prominent place in the field of concern. The actual use of such a weapon has not yet been recorded. However, studies involving computationally simulated hypothetical scenarios are periodically published. This study considers a hypothetical event involving the activation of a tactical nuclear device in an urban area. The central objective was to evaluate the protective capacity of urban structures (buildings) for reducing the radiation dose to which the population may be subjected. Analytical computational simulation was applied to create the event. The threshold dose for deterministic effects is the interest isodose for the scenario that considers a 10 kT power device. The concept of Margin of Safety (MoS) was applied to the results in order to turn them into useful information for decision-makers. Applying MoS allowed to organize the urban structures according to their dose reduction capacity (reduction factors). It can be foreseen that in the case of a real application, the proposed methodology will facilitate the classification of structures distributed throughout the urban area, supporting the decision, especially regarding the prioritization of urban zones, and the type of structure. The results showed that it is useful to discriminate urban structures according to criteria conditioned on radiation doses related to deterministic effects. The discrimination introduces scientific basis to advice and support for decision-making, which may increase confidence levels for decision-makers. Therefore a possible positive impact on the optimization of resources and improved conditions for crisis management can be expected.

Exploring the Zone of Possible Agreement on the Nuclear Issue of the Korean Peninsula

From 2003 to 2009, China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States engaged in a series of multilateral negotiations to address North Korea’s nuclear program. On September 19, 2005, the six participants achieved a “gold standard” agreement on denuclearization. North Korea agreed to relinquish all nuclear weapons, abstain from deploying nuclear weapons, and rejoin the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), as well as adhere to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. The United States affirmed its lack of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and expressed no intention of attacking or invading the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with nuclear or conventional weapons. China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States concurred to provide energy assistance to the DPRK. Furthermore, the agreement established the principle of “commitment for commitment, action for action,” which holds significance for the spirit of future engagement. The prevailing impasse in resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula prompts the inquiry of a possible negotiation model. This paper uses the Harvard negotiation method to examine a zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) between China, North Korea, Russia, and the United States, which culminated in the September 19, 2005 Six Party Talks agreement addressing the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. The first section of the article is devoted to scrutinizing the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA), which facilitated the 2005 agreement. Based on the acquired insights, the second section assesses the prospects for implementing the 2005 Joint Statement in the current context. This section also concentrates on identifying a ZOPA under current conditions, taking into account past experiences and lessons learned from past negotiations.

Integration of Military Education into the Teaching of (not only) Chemistry: Radioactivity and Nuclear Weapons

Human protection in emergencies is a compulsory educational content in the Czech Republic loosely related to the former military education. It offers a very wide range of topics that can be included not only in chemistry education, but also in other (not only) natural sciences. For example, it is very suitable to include it as a (short- or medium-term) project focused on radioactivity and nuclear weapons, which is of interest to the students. For this purpose, we have created a concept map and guiding questions, as well as a list of recommended sources of information that teachers and their pupils can use. The aim of the project is not only to gain new knowledge and understanding, but also to gain holistic insight into the topic through cross-curricular educational approach.