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FBI Files Say China Firm Pushed U.S. Experts for Nuclear Secrets

IN THIS ISSUE: FBI Files Say China Firm Pushed U.S. Experts for Nuclear Secrets, North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal Progressing, Likely to be Within Striking Range: Experts, The Common-Sense Fix That American Nuclear Policy Needs, ‘Opposite Of Peace,’ Suggests China About BrahMos Missile In Arunachal, Here Comes a New Chinese Export: Nuclear Reactors, Nuclear’s Glacial Pace

Published on August 25, 2016

FBI Files Say China Firm Pushed U.S. Experts for Nuclear Secrets

David Voreacos and David McLaughlin | Bloomberg

China has made it a priority to advance its domestic nuclear-power capability, and companies in the industry have sought to obtain technology from corporate partners and foreign governments as part of that effort, said Mark Hibbs, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “What you hear again and again from foreign company executives working in China is that the Chinese are absolutely determined to have as much technology transferred from foreign entities as they can,” Hibbs said.

North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal Progressing, Likely to be Within Striking Range: Experts

Ayako Mie | Japan Times

After what North Korea claimed was the successful test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday, Pyongyang is on track to develop the capability to strike targets in the region, including Japan, by 2020, given the speed of its development, according to a website run by a U.S. research institute. The report posted on the website 38 North was compiled by the U.S. Korea Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. 

The Common-Sense Fix That American Nuclear Policy Needs

Jeffrey G. Lewis and Scott D. Sagan | Washington Post

President Obama, in his final months in office, is considering major nuclear policy changes to move toward his oft-stated goal of a world without nuclear weapons. One option reportedly under consideration is a “no first use” pledge, a declaration that the United States would not be the first state to use nuclear weapons in any conflict. While we think that such a pledge would ultimately strengthen U.S. security, we believe it should be adopted only after detailed military planning and after close consultation with key allies, tasks that will fall to the next administration. 

‘Opposite Of Peace,’ Suggests China About BrahMos Missile In Arunachal

NDTV

India should focus on fostering peace “rather than the opposite,” China has said today about Delhi's decision to put advanced cruise missiles along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. On Tuesday, NDTV reported that the army dismissed Beijing’s criticism of the BrahMos missile in the Northeastern state as India “exceeding its own needs for self-defense.” 

Here Comes a New Chinese Export: Nuclear Reactors

CBS

On a seaside field south of Shanghai, workers are constructing a nuclear reactor that’s the flagship for Beijing’s ambition to compete with the U.S., France and Russia as an exporter of atomic power technology. The Hualong One, developed by two state-owned companies, is one multibillion-dollar facet of the Communist Party’s aspirations to transform China into a creator of profitable technology from mobile phones to genetics. 

Nuclear’s Glacial Pace

Allison Macfarlane | MIT Technology Review

Climate change has forced us to rethink how we get electricity. Use of renewable sources like solar and wind is rapidly increasing, while nuclear, though long a reliable source of carbon-free electricity, is not. Meanwhile, a number of startups are promising cheap, safe, proliferation-¬resistant nuclear energy in the next decade (see “Fail-Safe Nuclear Power”).
 

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.