Remembering Bruce Blair
Michael O’Hanlon | Brookings Institution
Editor’s Note: Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy Program and our current and former presidents Bill Burns and Jessica Mathews join many others in grieving the death of Bruce Blair, a longtime friend, colleague, and admired leader in the scholarly and activist communities working to prevent nuclear war.
We were in the process of writing a tribute to Bruce when we read the words of his longtime colleague, Michael O’Hanlon. Mike so eloquently and poignantly portrays Bruce’s talents, accomplishments, and character that we feel it best to simply pass his tribute along so that more people can appreciate why Bruce meant so much to so many, and why the passing now of the great Brookings team of Bruce, Janne Nolan, and John Steinbruner is such a loss.
Trump Nominee to Russia: Abandon ‘Flying Chernobyl’ Nuclear Missile
Moscow Times
U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for a top arms control post in the State Department has said Russia should stop developing what he believes is a dangerous nuclear-powered cruise missile. The Burevestnik, which NATO designates as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is believed to have exploded during secret rocket engine tests at sea in northern Russia last August, killing five scientists. Russian media have described the Burevestnik, which President Vladimir Putin has hailed as being unlimited in range and able to evade U.S. missile shields, as a “small flying Chernobyl.” Marshall Billingslea, Trump’s nominee for the arms control post, said he’s been “very clear with my Russian counterpart that these are enormous wastes of funds” and that Moscow should “cease and desist and abandon these kinds of destabilizing ideas.”
After Huawei, the Nuclear Question Looms Large for China-UK Relations
Philip Crowe | Diplomat
Huawei’s time in the U.K. is running out, but there is another area of substantial Chinese involvement in U.K. infrastructure that is beginning to attract significant scrutiny: nuclear energy. The U.K. currently has eight nuclear power plants, but the majority of these plants are due to shut down before 2030 and so replacement projects are being planned. In 2016, approval was granted for the first of these, based at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. Hinkley C is the subject of a partnership between EDF, a French state-owned energy company holding a 66.5 percent stake, and China General Nuclear (CGN), a Chinese state-owned energy company owning 33.5 percent. Proposals are being put forward to limit Chinese involvement in nuclear and other critical national infrastructure to a share of 10-15 percent, to mitigate the risks of Chinese government interference.
SRS Pit Production Provision in Key Defense Bill Deemed Problematic by White House
Colin Demarest | Aiken Standard
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a version of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – significant defense legislation – for myriad reasons, including a plutonium pit production provision it described as unwieldy, unnecessary and unwise. Among the more than three-dozen reasons President Donald Trump's senior advisers had "serious" reservations about and stood against the House legislation is its Section 3115, which would require an independent cost, confidence and schedule assessment of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, the prospective Savannah River Site factory where nuclear weapon cores would be produced. The White House suggested such a review would be redundant, as similar U.S. Department of Energy guidelines for major projects already exist.
India's Nuclear Strategy Shifting From Pakistan to China, Says Report
Ankit Kumar | India Today
An analysis of India’s nuclear forces published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists suggests that the focus of Indian nuclear strategy has been shifting from Pakistan to China. The Indian posture, according to the study has likely been reinforced after the 2017 Doklam standoff. The authors point out that India’s “nuclear modernisation indicates that it is putting increased emphasis on its future strategic relationship with China”. The study predicts that India’s China focused approach is likely to contribute to development and deployment of new capabilities over the next 10 years and is also likely to impact India’s approach towards Pakistan.