Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Myth of Proliferation-Resistant TechnologyWriting in the journal Science in 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin observed the existence of a category of problems for which there was no technical solution. Focusing on the challenge of feeding a burgeoning global population, Hardin argued, "It is fair to say that most people who anguish over the population problem are trying to find a way to avoid the evils of overpopulation without relinquishing any of the privileges they now enjoy. They think that farming the seas or developing new strains of wheat will solve the problem—technologically. I try to show here that the solution they seek cannot be found."

Forty years on, Hardin’s central thesis—that it is impossible to solve a political problem with a technical solution—is still salient and applicable to more than just managing population. At the moment, a number of initiatives promote a technological approach to solve—or at least ameliorate—the problem of nuclear proliferation through the misuse of civilian nuclear facilities (particularly reactors and reprocessing plants). Their aim is to make novel nuclear technologies "proliferation resistant."