Nuclear Issues

Dr. Hui Zhang presented "Options for China’s Nuclear Spent Fuel Management" at the Workshop on Strategic Nuclear Issues in East Asia, Beijing, China March 5-6, 2014.

This seminar reviewed the alternatives to nuclear research reactors and the benefits of adopting the technology of accelerators in order to reduce dependence on enriched uranium.

This seminar considered how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reacted to nuclear crises. The IAEA often appears not just to have weathered such crises, but to have successfully leaped through windows of opportunity presented by them. This has resulted in periodic expansions of its mandate, capabilities, and resources. The 2011 Fukushima disaster appears to be a puzzling exception, raising the question of what concatenation of factors needs to be present for the IAEA to take advantage of nuclear crises.

The risks posed by the proliferation of cyber weapons are gaining wide recognition among security planners. Yet the general reaction of scholars of international relations has been to neglect the cyber peril owing to its technical novelties and intricacies. This attitude amounts to either one or both of two claims: the problem is not of sufficient scale to warrant close inspection, or it is not comprehensible to a non-technical observer. This seminar challenged both assertions.

Matthew Bunn presented "Nuclear Security: What is Required" to a joint Harvard/Peking University workshop in Beijing.

Carter discusses the Bush Administration's failure to propose an adequate strategy for combating WMD in the 2006 QDR.

Remarks by Ashton B. Carter at the 36th IFPA-Fletcher Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy, Washington, DC.