Environment & Climate Change

From the July 29, 2003 MIT press release: A distinguished team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard released today what co-chair Dr. John Deutch calls "the most comprehensive, interdisciplinary study ever conducted on the future of nuclear energy." The report maintains that "The nuclear option should be retained precisely because it is an important carbon-free source of power."

The cooperative U.S.-Russian effort to ensure that Russian bomb material does not fall into hostile hands - known as the Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program, managed by the Department of Energy (DOE)-is absolutely crucial to U.S. national security, playing a fundamental role in the global effort to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. Precisely because of the urgency and importance of the task, however, it is essential to ensure that it is being carried out in a manner that will reduce the security threat posed by insecure nuclear material as quickly and effectively as practicable.

This report provides an assessment of the current MPC&A program and makes recommendations designed to accelerate and strengthen the effort, including steps toward the difficult goal of achieving sustainable security for nuclear material in the former Soviet Union over the long term.

Explores policy for managing the national laboratories.