The Unstable Nucleus

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/19/552201844/senator-mulls-nuclear-limits-on-trump

Article on who holds the power of nuclear weapons- the president or the senate? Especially in times where the possibility of nuclear war is at its highest peak, the article questions who should have the say for the nuclear strike to be set off, especially when the president may be “unstable.”

 

Hayan Song

Since the question of EMPs (‘electromagnetic pulse’ weapons) came up in class last week, I thought I would track down a bit of information about the potential threat of a North Korean nuclear weapon being used as an EMP device over the U.S.

The basics are fairly obvious:  the idea here is that a powerful enough nuclear weapon detonated above the ground at the right place could produce electrical surges that would fry a lot of the electrical grid in the U.S., creating massive power outages.

There’s no question that would be a serious problem (look at what’s been going on in Florida this week!).  However there is also an interesting twist in the news stories on this…somehow a thread of science fiction and survivalist reasoning has gotten requoted in mainstream news outlets to make it sound like 90% of the U.S. population could die in such a scenario.  Which is ridiculous, both in the fact that it is a gross exaggeration of reality and in the fact that information from such suspect sources is ending up in ordinary news feeds.  Very weird.

Here’s an example of an article claiming the 90% statistic:  http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-emp-attack-the-dark-possibility-2017-7

Here’s an article debunking the whole 90% thing:  http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a25883/north-korea-cant-kill-ninety-percent-of-americans/

Meanwhile, and much more importantly, here is an article with a lot of helpful infographics that discusses North Korean nuclear capabilities:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/north-korea-targets/

And here’s another one:

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/north-koreas-military-capabilities

 

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/business/article173245106.html

An article discussing political/public support for the use of nuclear power in Japan. This debate becomes more interesting considering that there is “broad public support for a less nuclear-reliant society.” After the disaster in 2011, Japan closed all of its nuclear facilities as a precaution, with multiple reopening within the past year or so. It will be interesting to see how the government there continues to manage a long-term nuclear plan…

-Lucas Reif

These are some articles I found helpful for catching up on the situation this week:

An opinion piece in Scientific American that argues that this week’s nuclear test does not actually change all that much:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/north-korea-panics-the-world-but-h-bomb-test-changes-little/

An opinion piece from Foreign Policy that chides all of us for not expecting that this was exactly what North Korea was planning to do:

Welcome to the Thermonuclear Club, North Korea!

http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/what-is-thaad-what-does-it-do-and-why-is-china-mad-about-it/

A New York Times article discussing the options the US has in responding if there is another missile test in the near future:

 

This image is everywhere today.  It was released by the North Korean news agency, and it purportedly shows a hydrogen bomb with a small enough package that it could be mounted on a missile.  They claim to have detonated such a device in a nuclear test.

It’s big news any time any nation performs a nuclear test, North Korea especially.  Today’s events are astonishingly provocative and also confusing and bizarre.  As I learn more, I will post relevant links here, and I encourage you to do the same!