Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium 1996 World Inventories
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Secrets Jeremy Bernstein
INFERENCE / Vol. 6, No. 1 Secrets Jeremy Bernstein Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the decided to found a rival weapons laboratory. Even if Teller United States had offered me a job, I doubt that I would have accepted.3 by Alex Wellerstein After obtaining my degree, I was offered a job that University of Chicago Press, 528 pp., $35.00. would keep me in Cambridge for at least another year. One year became two and at the end of my second year I was uclear weapons have been shrouded in secrecy accepted at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. from the very beginning. After plutonium was It was around this time that the chairman of the physics discovered at the University of California in department at Harvard, Kenneth Bainbridge, came to me NDecember 1940, researchers led by Glenn Seaborg submit- with an offer. Bainbridge had been an important figure at ted a pair of letters to the Physical Review. The details of Los Alamos during the war. Robert Oppenheimer had put their discovery were withheld from publication until after him in charge of the site in New Mexico where the Trinity the war.1 Once the project to make a nuclear weapon got test had taken place.4 Bainbridge told me that the labora- underway, secrecy became a very serious matter indeed. tory was offering summer jobs to young PhDs and asked The story of these efforts and how they evolved after the if I was interested. I was very interested. Los Alamos had war is the subject of Alex Wellerstein’s Restricted Data: an almost mystical significance for me due to its history The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States. -
Current & Future Uranium Enrichment Technologies
The History of the Gas Centrifuge and Its Role in Nuclear Proliferation Houston Wood, Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering University of Virginia Presented at Wilson Center Washington, D.C. January 20, 2010 Early Days • Isotopes were discovered in early 1900’s. • Centrifuge separation of isotopes first suggested by Lindemann and Aston (1919) • Chapman, Mulliken, Harkens and others tried unsuccessful experiments. • First successful experiments at UVA in 1934 by Prof. Jesse Beams with isotopes of Chlorine. • Attempts to use centrifuges in Manhattan project were unsuccessful. 20 January 2010 Houston Wood Professor Jesse W. Beams University of Virginia 1898 - 1977 20 January 2010 Houston Wood Early Days at UVA • Work on centrifuges during Manhattan project had a number of failures. • Project was terminated. • Concern over potential competition from German centrifuges led AEC to restart work at UVA in 1955 under guidance of A.R. Kulthau. 20 January 2010 Houston Wood Meanwhile in Europe • German research was being led by Konrad Beyerle in Göttingen and Wilhelm Groth at University of Bonn • Research in the Netherlands was being directed by Jacob Kistemaker. 20 January 2010 Houston Wood USSR • At the end of WWII, Soviets took many POWs from Germany. • They started effort to develop nuclear weapons. • Organization at Sinop: – Von Ardenne – Electromagnetic Separation – Thiessen – Gaseous Diffusion – Steenbeck Group – Included Centrifuge 20 January 2010 Houston Wood USSR (cont’d) • Competition between gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge. • Reputed problems with GD enriching to weapons grade level. • Centrifuge considered for “topping off.” • Competition for long rotor vs. short rotor. • Steenbeck group transferred from Sinop to Kirov plant in Leningrad (~1951). -
USAF Counterproliferation Center CPC Outreach Journal #560
USAF COUNTERPROLIFERATION CENTER CPC OUTREACH JOURNAL Maxwell AFB, Alabama Issue No. 560, 12 March 2007 Articles & Other Documents: Air Force begins giving mandatory anthrax shots in U.S. And Iran Have Been Talking, Quietly Korea U.N. Nuclear Agency Curtails Technical Assistance To Nuclear Weapons Rarely Needed, General Says Iran Defector's Intel Trove Talks On Payments From Iran Founder Where Those Reactors And Centrifuges Came From Iran's President Wants To Tell Security Council Of Nuclear Aims THE UNTHINKABLE Can the United States be made safe from nuclear terrorism? Welcome to the CPC Outreach Journal. As part of USAF Counterproliferation Center’s mission to counter weapons of mass destruction through education and research, we’re providing our government and civilian community a source for timely counterproliferation information. This information includes articles, papers and other documents addressing issues pertinent to US military response options for dealing with nuclear, biological and chemical threats and attacks. It’s our hope this information resource will help enhance your counterproliferation issue awareness. Established in 1998, the USAF/CPC provides education and research to present and future leaders of the Air Force, as well as to members of other branches of the armed services and Department of Defense. Our purpose is to help those agencies better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Please feel free to visit our web site at http://cpc.au.af.mil/ for in-depth information and specific points of contact. Please direct any questions or comments on CPC Outreach Journal to Jo Ann Eddy, CPC Outreach Editor, at (334) 953-7538 or DSN 493-7538. -
\.J ,. John an Mccone/ , ,I;' I Chai7;>Man ' Genei'm A, R
REDACTED COpy Conglreu of the United Statea Joint Committ&:t, on Atomic Ener,>gy Full Committee -=- ,....-'".~_. Meeting No" Time; 10:00 a.tIl> pu.,ce: Room FQ88.• the Capitol Date: Auguat 30. 1960 PURPOSE WITNESSES. AEC \.J ,. , ,I;' John An McCone/i Chai7;>man ' GeneI'M A, R. ~edecke, Gene>l>'al 1'.![anagel' Geol>' ge F. Quinn, DiX'ectOl:'. Div. 0% Plfoduetion Charle.lI L.Marllhall. Dil"?edol:', Di,'" of Clsasification D1:. :?aul McDaniel, pUector, Div, of Relleal:'ch I:lJ:'. (;. L. Rogolla, Oiv.l')f Re8eOlS.d~ Ino ¢eorge A, Kolatlld, Chief, PIWF1.ell and Mathematics Blranch; Div. of Rel!iIlall',ch , ., , I / S&ate 0!:Ral:t.m'!~ / Chul!lll Sullivan /) EXECUTIVE SESSION MEETING NO. 86-2-49 TUESDAY, AUGUST JO, 1960 Joint Committee on Atomic Energy Congress of the United States Washington, D. C. The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy met, pursuant to call, at 10:15 p.m., in the Committee Room, the Capitol, Honorable Clinton p. Anderson (Chairman) presiding. Present were: Senators Clinton p. Anderson (presiding), John O. Pastore, Albert Gore, Bourke B. Hickenlooper and Wallace Bennett; Representatives Chet Holifield, Melvin Price, James E. Van Zandt, Craig Hosmer and William Bates. Committee Consultants present: Captain Edward J. Bauser, USN, and Lt. Colonel Richard T. Lunger. Committee staff present: James T. Ramey, Executive Director, John T. Conway, David R. Toll, Carey Brewer, George T. Murphy, Jr., and Kenneth MacAlpine. Representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission: Honorable John A. McCone, Chairman, Honorable Robert E. Wilson and Hooorable Loren Olson, Commissioners, General A. R. Luedecke, General Manager, George F. -
How the Gas Centrifuge Changed the Quest for Nuclear Weapons
7KH(QGRI0DQKDWWDQ+RZWKH*DV&HQWULIXJH&KDQJHG WKH4XHVWIRU1XFOHDU:HDSRQV 56FRWW.HPS Technology and Culture, Volume 53, Number 2, April 2012, pp. 272-305 (Article) 3XEOLVKHGE\7KH-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV DOI: 10.1353/tech.2012.0046 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tech/summary/v053/53.2.kemp.html Access provided by username 'llane' (21 Feb 2015 01:49 GMT) 04_TEC53.2kemp 272–305:03_49.3dobraszczyk 568– 4/30/12 10:55 AM Page 272 The End of Manhattan How the Gas Centrifuge Changed the Quest for Nuclear Weapons R.SCOTTKEMP Introduction The first nuclear weapons were born from technologies of superindus- trial scale. The Manhattan Project exceeded the domestic automobile in- dustry in its size. The gaseous-diffusion plant that enriched uranium at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee employed at its peak some 12,000 people, enclosed forty-four acres under a single roof, and by 1945 consumed nearly three times the electricity of the highly industrialized city of Detroit.1 In the 1940s and ’50s the making of nuclear bombs was under- stood to be a massive undertaking that required vast resources and nearly unparalleled human ingenuity. The U.S. atomic enterprise encouraged a way of thinking about nuclear proliferation that was intimately tied to technol- ogy and industry. In the words of President Harry S. Truman, it seemed “doubtful if such another combination could be got together in the world.”2 The difficulty was not in the bomb per se—scientists had warned that this step would not be hard to replicate—but rather in the apparently mas- sive effort needed to produce the nuclear-explosive materials that fueled the R. -
German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project
PAVEL V. OLEYNIKOV German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project PAVEL V. OLEYNIKOV1 Pavel Oleynikov has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70), Russia. He can be reached by e-mail at <[email protected]>. he fact that after World War II the Soviet Union This article first addresses what the Soviets knew at took German scientists to work on new defense the end of World War II about the German bomb pro- Tprojects in that country has been fairly well docu- gram and then discusses their efforts to collect German mented.2 However, the role of German scientists in the technology, scientists, and raw materials, particularly advancement of the Soviet atomic weapons program is uranium, after the war. Next, it reviews the Soviets’ use controversial. In the United States in the 1950s, Russians of German uranium and scientists in particular labora- were portrayed as “retarded folk who depended mainly tories working on different aspects of atomic weapons on a few captured German scientists for their achieve- development. It discusses the contributions and careers ments, if any.”3 Russians, for their part, vehemently deny of several German scientists and their possible motiva- all claims of the German origins of the Soviet bomb and tions for participating in the Soviet bomb program. The wield in their defense the statement of Max Steenbeck importance of the Germans’ contributions was reflected (a German theorist who pioneered supercritical centri- in the awards and other acknowledgments they fuges for uranium enrichment in the USSR) 4 that “all received from the Soviet government, including numer- talk that Germans have designed the bomb for the Sovi- ous Stalin Prizes in the late 1940s and early 1950s. -
1201 Centrifuges a New Era for Nuclear Proliferation
WORKING PAPER 1201 Centrifuges: A New Era for Nuclear Proliferation R. Scott Kemp June 2012 Nonproliferation Policy Education Center Centrifuges: A New Era for Nuclear Proliferation by R. Scott Kemp Nonproliferation Policy Education Center Working Paper 1201 June 2012 Series Editor: Henry D. Sokolski Copyright © 2017 by Henry D. Sokolski Nonproliferation Policy Education Center Arlington, VA 22209 www.npolicy.org Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writting from the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. Nonproliferation Policy Education Center The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is a nonpartisan, educational organization founded in 1994 to promote a better understanding of strategic weapons proliferation issues. NPEC educates policymakers, journalists, and university professors about proliferation threats and possible new policies and measures to meet them. For current publications of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, please visit www.npolicy.org. Contents The Emergence of Supply-Side Controls ...................................................................................2 The Development and Spread of Centrifuge Technology ............................................................5 Reconsidering Nonproliferation Options .................................................................................11 Reducing the -
The Nonproliferation Emperor Has No Clothes the Nonproliferation R
The Nonproliferation Emperor Has No Clothes The Nonproliferation R. Scott Kemp Emperor Has No Clothes The Gas Centrifuge, Supply-Side Controls, and the Future of Nuclear Proliferation What policies have most constrained the proliferation of nuclear weapons over the last sixty years? Will they continue to do so in the future? Scholars have long acknowledged that states may forgo nuclear weapons if their security concerns, domestic politics, and social norms do not favor ac- quisition.1 These political and cultural factors may be the primary determi- nants of proliferation, but they are not easily modulated by public policy. As such, policymakers have more often focused on impeding the path to nuclear weapons acquisition by controlling technology. This “supply-side” approach keeps with a long tradition. As far back as 1944, senior political ofªcials in the United States and the United Kingdom believed that, although the bomb itself was not particularly difªcult to fabricate, the effort needed to replicate the Manhattan Project’s enormous ªssile material production facilities would pro- vide an almost automatic barrier to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.2 More recently, scholars have represented proliferation rings, illicit trade, and nuclear smuggling as being critical vectors that enable proliferation among the technically weak.3 A.Q. Khan has become a pop icon for contemporary prolif- R. Scott Kemp is Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author is indebted to Valentin Borisevich, Christopher Chyba, Owen Coté, Trevor Edwards, Alexander Glaser, Olli Heinonen, Tsunetoshi Kai, Sultan Bashir Mahmood, Zia Mian, Masud Naraghi, Mahdi Obeidi, Joshua Pollack, Riazuddin, Lawrence Sparks, Frank von Hippel, Houston Wood, Shi Zeng, and several engineers and government ofªcials who have asked to remain anonymous. -
NM Perspectives Vahid Majidi, DASD(NM)
UNCLASSIFIED Emerging WMD threats and the Proliferation of WMD material: NM Perspectives Vahid Majidi, DASD(NM) March 2015 UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED National Preparedness Intelligence: Collection, Dissemination, Integration, Analysis and Action Preparedness Prevention Protection Mitigation Response* Recovery Policy & Planning Training/Exercises Countermeasures Intelligence Assessment Tiered Deployment NCB/NM Efforts (Deterrence, Physical Security, International Engagements, Technical Capabilities) DoD Efforts (Planning, Programs, Policy, Operations) Interagency/National Effort (Joint TF, Regional, Multi-jurisdictional) * Response is both following an incident or response to informaon leading to interdic6on UNCLASSIFIED Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs Does Industry Have A Role? § Infrastructure & Vulnerability – Electrical Grid – Internet § Subject Matter Expertise – Cyber, Physical Sciences, Manufacturing § Material Source – Chem, Bio, Rad, Energetic Material § Unique Response Capabilities – Deep Water Horizon (BP) Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs 3 UNCLASSIFIED USG CWMD Team Construct DOS DNI DOE NCTC DOC OSD NCPC DIA CCMDs WH Joint Staff Treas DHS Services CIA DoD IAEA DTRA/ INTERPOL CCWMD UN 1540 NSA STIG FBI GICNT Defense Global Partnership Agencies Nuclear Summit WINS Bi-Lateral Multi-Lateral Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs UNCLASSIFIED 4 Commerce, DOD, DOE, DOS, FBI, Treasury -
SWU for U and Me Jeremy Bernstein
SWU for U and Me Jeremy Bernstein The intent of the sections that follow is to present the basic physics required to understand the workings of the gas centrifuge. The theory was first worked out during the Second World War and involved people like Dirac. I will provide references so that anyone who wants more detail will know where to find it. Gas centrifuges are at present the method of choice to separate the isotopes of uranium. That is a good motivation for studying the physics. I. The Iranian centrifuge program has brought up technical details about the separation of isotopes which have been heretofore the province of people from URENCO, and the like, who do this sort of thing for a living. Now, anyone interested in nuclear proliferation will run across the unit SWU- “separative work unit”- pronounced SWOO-which is a measure of how much an individual centrifuge can actually separate. One is therefore motivated to understand what this unit is. Here is a typical and rather good website The equation defining Separative Work is: SWU = P·V(Np) + W·V(Nw) – F·V(Nf) Where P is the product amount, Np is the product concentration, W is the waste amount, Nw is the waste concentration, F is the feed amount, Nf is the feed concentration, and V(x) is a value function that takes the form: V(x)=(2x-1)ln(x/(1-x)) where x is a given concentration Where on earth does this bizarre unit come from? The purpose of this section is an attempt to explain. -
Fred Sterzer
Interview mit Fred Sterzer InterviewerIn: Philipp Rohrbach Weitere anwesende Personen: - Sprache(n) des Interviews: Englisch Datum und Ort des Interviews: 18. September 2008, Princeton, New Jersey/USA Sammlung: Austrian Heritage Collection (Leo Baeck Institut, New York) Signatur: AHC 3217 Art des Interviews: Audio Interviewdauer: 02:35:27 Sitzungsanzahl: 1 Teile (Audio/Video): 3 Transkribiert von: Tom Juncker, Adina Seeger URL: www.austrianheritagearchive.at/interviews/person/108 Verwendete Kürzel: PR Philipp Rohrbach FS Fred Sterzer Teil 1 PR: This is an Austrian Heritage Collection interview with Mr. Fred Sterzer, conducted by Philipp Rohrbach on September 18th, 2008, at Mr. Sterzer’s office. Mr. Sterzer, could you please tell me your life story? FS: [Lacht.] In five minutes or less. I was born in Vienna, on November 18th, 1929. We lived in the 20th district, as I mentioned to you, in the Brigittenau. I went to Volksschule there, and I was a very good student. I still have my records to prove that. And when the Germans came to Austria, we eventually had to move from where we lived in the 20th district, which was…to a large apartment in the 1st district, which clearly had belonged to a Jewish family who had left. It was a huge apartment, and a number of families were put into the same apartment. And we stayed there until October 1942 when we were deported to Theresienstadt. We included eventually…sorry, before that my grandmother on my father’s side had died in Zelinkagasse 2, my grandfather was still there. My sister managed…emigrated first to England, and from there to the United States. -
Mitmepooluselise Ja Mitmekesise Maailma Poole?
MITMEPOOLUSELISE JA MITMEKESISE MAAILMA POOLE? Rein Müllerson Tolkinud˜ Marek Laane 6. KAS ON ÜLDSE ELUJÕULISI ALTERNATIIVE? Minu arvates oleks isegi väär küsida, kuhu maailm suundub. Juba nii üldise küsimuse esitamine sisaldab eeldust, nagu me liiguk- sime kõik ühes suunas, ja sunnib omaks võtma mõtte maailma ühesuunalisest lineaarsest evolutsioonist mingi kindla sihi poole. See tähendaks ka ajaloo teleoloogilist käsitust. Maailm on küll omavahel seotud, kuid liigub paljuski eri suundades, aga sellest ei tohiks siiski masendusse langeda. Küllap oleksid paljud nõus Ian Morrise väitega, et “võimu ja rikkuse kandumine läänest itta 21. sajandil on arvatavasti sama paratamatu, kui oli kandumine idast läände 19. sajandil” (2011: 615). Nii Hiina kiire tõus kui ka Brasiilia, Venemaa, Türgi ja Viet- nami suurenev potentsiaal ning varasem autoritaarsete Aasia tiig- rite (Lõuna-Korea, Taiwan) majandusime on sundinud mõningaid autoreid, sageli veidi pelgliku alatooniga, arvama, et autoritaarne kapitalism võib kujutada üht võimalikku tulevikumudelit. Näiteks Iisraeli strateeg Azar Gat väidab, et “autoritaarsed kapitalistlikud riigid, kelle näiteks tänapäeval on Hiina ja Venemaa, võivad ku- jutada endast elujõulist alternatiivi teel modernsusele, mis oma- korda lubab arvata, et liberaalse demokraatia lõplikus võidus või Algus eelmises numbris. 963 Mitmepooluselise ja mitmekesise maailma poole? Rein Müllerson kas või tulevases domineerimises pole midagi paratamatut” (2007: Hiina ei pruugi tingimata olla vastutulelikum Lääne või Ameerika 60). Vene analüütik Sergei Karaganov täheldab samuti, et tekki- huvidele (sama hästi võib demokraatlikum Hiina olla ka natsiona- val “uuel vastasseisu ajajärgul” on teinegi aspekt, “nimelt tärkav listlikum Hiina). Ja kindlasti on Hiina demokraatia “hiinapärane”. võitlus kahe arengumudeli, traditsioonilise Lääne liberaaldemo- Türgi areng Recep Tayyip Erdo˘gani Õigluse ja Arengu Par- kraatliku kapitalismi ning Aasia “tiigrite” ja “draakonite” vee- tei valitsemise ajal võib näidata teed teistelegi islamimaadele.