Meeting the Challenges of a New Nuclear Age
Robert Levgold and Christopher Chyba | Daedalus
The world has entered a new nuclear era whose characteristics and challenges differ markedly from those of the Cold War. No longer dominated by only two nuclear superpowers (even if Russia and the United States still possess the lion’s share of nuclear weapons), its dangers are at least as great as those during the Cold War, and made more so by a general unawareness of the multiplying ways a nuclear war could begin. Five nuclear-armed states–China, India, and Pakistan, in addition to Russia and the United States with its allies Britain and France–now set the contours of a multisided matrix, determine whether and when nuclear weapons will be used, and bear the responsibility for deciding whether and by what means the risk of nuclear war can be averted.
America’s Allies Are Becoming a Proliferation Threat
Pete McKenzie | Defense One
As the Trump administration scrambles traditional foreign-policy practice, experts warn that some of America’s longest allies are increasingly considering what would previously have been unthinkable: the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Days after the 2016 American election, Reuters published an interview with Roderich Kiesewetter, foreign policy spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc. Reacting to President Trump’s victory, Kiesewetter declared, “Europe needs to think about developing its own nuclear deterrent.” “We initially thought this was going to go away because of how vociferous the opposition was; that it was a phantom debate among fringe elements,” said Tristan Volpe, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s nuclear program. “But it’s come back at least four times with some serious people weighing in as proponents.”
Germany, France, UK Circumvent Sanctions to Send Medical Goods to Iran
Lahav Harkov and Benjamin Weinthal | Jerusalem Post
The UK, Germany and France circumvented Iran sanctions Tuesday morning by using Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges for the first time to send medical goods to Iran in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. INSTEX, the sanctions-busting mechanism that allows non-US dollar and non-SWIFT transactions with Iran, was established in January 2019 and is headquartered in Paris. Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden are also parties to it. “France, Germany and the United Kingdom confirm that INSTEX has successfully concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods from Europe to Iran,” the German Foreign Office said in a statement. “These goods are now in Iran.” INSTEX is a way to allow for trade between Europe and Iran and preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, it said.
IAEA Says Continuously Monitoring Nuclear Deal in Iran Amid Pandemic
TASS
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continues to fully inspect nuclear facilities in Iran in accordance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, IAEA spokesperson Fredrik Dahl told TASS on Tuesday responding to a question of how the agency is monitoring compliance with the nuclear deal amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the IAEA is continuing to monitor the coronavirus developments unfolding in the world. However, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi vowed that the agency "will not stop for a single minute" and will continue safeguarding nuclear material all around the world, the spokesperson quoted him as saying.
WIPP: COVID-19 Outbreak Leads to Reduction in Nuclear Waste Operations Near Carlsbad
Adrian Hedden | Carlsbad Current-Argus
Nuclear waste repository the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant gradually reduced the amount of nuclear waste received and emplaced for disposal in its underground salt deposit during the last three months as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread throughout the country and world leading to the disruption of operations at government facilities. As of March 22, WIPP received four shipments during that month. In January, 24 shipments were received, and 283 containers were emplaced. Donavan Mager, spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership – the Department of Energy-hired contractor to oversee the facility’s day-to-day operations – said the reduction in operations was in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Russia Upgrades Facility to Produce RS-28 Sarmat ICBM
Franz Stefan-Gady | Diplomat
Russia has upgraded facilities for the production of the super-heavy thermonuclear-armed RS-28 Sarmat (NATO designation: SS-X-29 Satan 2), Russia’s latest silo-based intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM), Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a speech in Russia’s Federation Council on March 25. The RS-28 is expected to slowly replace Soviet-era RS-36M2 Voyevoda (NATO designation: SS-18 Satan) ICBMs and has been designed to occupy the R-36M2 silos. As I reported in February, the first serial-produced RS-28 ICBM is slated to enter service in 2021. A regiment of the Strategic Rocket Force’s 62nd Missile Division, deployed in Uzhur, part of the 33rd Guards Missile Army, headquartered in Omsk in southwestern Siberia, will reportedly be the first unit to receive the new ICBM.