Word: nuclearism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...United States has already made a unilateral commitment not to test nuclear weapons--we have not conducted a nuclear test since 1992. In light of this commitment, we have little reason not to sign on to a treaty preventing other nations from building new arsenals. The logic of a test ban was recognized 40 years ago by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower when he called for a treaty ending nuclear tests: because no arsenal can be developed without testing the components, a test ban would be a perhaps insurmountable barrier to any would-be nuclear power...
...unsafe. Many experts, however, believe that computer simulations and tests of conventional explosives will keep the stockpile reliable. Indeed, a recent letter to the Senate signed by 32 Nobel laureates in Physics (including Higgins Professor of Physics Sheldon L. Glashow) stated that "fully informed technical studies" had confirmed that nuclear tests are unnecessary to maintain the current arsenal. The environmental consequences of exploding a nuclear weapon and releasing radiation provide additional incentives for the U.S. to refrain from breaking its self-imposed commitment...
Others worry that rogue nations would violate a test ban treaty, conducting surreptitious tests and building their arsenals while the world lay complacent. This argument is frivolous. The treaty calls for a global network of sensitive seismic monitoring stations that would detect any nuclear test large enough to be militarily useful. If, indeed, the Chinese government did steal secrets from our nation's nuclear laboratories, only a ban on testing could prevent those secrets from being put to use. Furthermore, any illicit testing that the treaty's enforcement provisions would miss could certainly occur (and undoubtedly would) if the treaty...
...Pounds of uranium believed to have been added to a tank of nitric acid--seven times the safety limit--causing a nuclear accident in Japan...
Once again the suspect safety record of Japan's nuclear power industry has been caught in a harsh blue glare. In a nation where memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still painfully strong, and where earthquake faults run under much of the country, Japan still clings to an uneasy reliance on nuclear power. The country has 52 nuclear power plants, which supply more than 35% of the electricity demand. There are plans to build 20 more plants over the next decade. All of that would seem to demand ultra-strict safety standards. But the industry has been plagued by accidents...