ATOMS FOR PEACE

Abstract

Atomic Assistance: How “Atoms for Peace” Programs Cause Nuclear Insecurity, by Matthew Fuhrmann, Cornell University Press, 2012, 344 pages, $29.95.

Keywords:

• Nuclear energy
• nuclear power
• proliferation

Notes

1. See David Albright and Christina Walrond, North Korea's Estimated Stocks of Plutonium and Weapon-Grade Uranium, Institute for Science and International Security, August 16, 2012, <http://isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/dprk_fissile_material_production_16Aug2012.pdf>; Jay Solomon and Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. Raises Monitoring of Iranian Reactor,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2012, p. 1, <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323717004578155510372482102.html>; and ”From Bushehr to the Bomb: Add Plutonium to Iran's Nuclear Weapons Risks,” Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2012, <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324355904578159550372337228.html>.

2. See “Statement by the Irish Foreign Minister [Aiken] to the First Committee of the General Assembly, November 6, 1962,” in US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Documents on Disarmament, 1962 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1962), pp. 1025–28, and “Statement by the Swedish Representative [Alva Myrdal] to the Eighteen National Disarmament Committee: Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, October 3, 1967,” Documents on Disarmament, 1967 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1967), p. 444.

3. On these points, see 50 Years of Public Power (Energy Northwest, 2007), <www.energy-northwest.com/downloads/EN_Annual_Report_2007_small.pdf>; “RBMK Reactor,” GlobalSecurity.org, <www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/rbmk.htm>; Central Intelligence Agency, “The French Nuclear Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Program: An Intelligence Assessment,” September 1984, approved for release July 1992, <www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB184/FR30.pdf>; Paul Brown, “First Nuclear Power Plant to Close,” Guardian, March 21, 2010, <www.guardian.co.uk/2003/mar/21/nuclear.world>; The Nuclear Weapon Archive, “British Nuclear Facilities,” <http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Uk/UKFacility.html>; and Zia Mian, A.H. Nayyar, R. Rajaraman, and M.V. Ramana, “Fissile Materials in South Asia and the Implications of the US-India Nuclear Deal,” International Panel on Fissile Materials Research Report, September 2006, <www.fissilematerials.org/library/southasia.pdf>.

4. Lawrence Scheinman, Atomic Energy Policy in France under the Fourth Republic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965).

5. Leonard Beaton, Must the Bomb Spread? (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1966); Mason Willrich, Non-proliferation Treaty: Framework for Nuclear Arms Control (Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Co., 1969); and Victor Gilinsky and William Hoehn, Nonproliferation Treaty Safeguards and the Spread of Nuclear Technology (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, May 1970, R-501), <www.rand.org/pubs/reports/2006/R501.pdf>.

6. For more on this, see Roberta Wohlstetter, “The Buddha Smiles”: Absent-Minded Peaceful Aid and the Indian Bomb (Marina del Rey, CA: Pan Heuristics, May 1977), <www.albertwohlstetter.com/writings/19771100-RW-BuddhaSmiles-Revised.pdf>.

7. This popular interpretation of the NPT is referred to as the “three pillars of the NPT.” On its rebuttable quality and that of the environmental and energy security arguments made to promote new nuclear power plant construction, see John W. Rowe, “Energy Policy: Above All, Do No Harm,” presentation made before the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, March 8, 2011, <www.exeloncorp.com/assets/newsroom/speeches/docs/spch_Rowe_AEI2011.pdf>; Henry Sokolski, “Needed: A New Narrative for Peaceful Nuclear Energy,” in Henry Sokolski, ed., Nuclear Nonproliferation: Moving Beyond Pretense (Arlington, VA: The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, 2012), pp. 1–10, <www.npolicy.org/userfiles/image/oving%20Beyond%20Pretense%20Introduction(2).pdf>; and Henry Sokolski, “The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's Untapped Potential to Prevent Proliferation,” in Henry Sokolski, ed., Reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2010), pp. 3–15, <www.npolicy.org/thebook.php?bid=2#intro>.

8. See Victor Gilinsky, Marvin Miller, and Harmon Hubbard, A Fresh Examination of the Proliferation Risks of Light Water Reactors (Washington, DC: The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, October 2004), <www.npolicy.org/article_file/A_Fresh_Examination_of_the_Proliferation_Resistance_of_Light_Water_Reactors.pdf>.

9. See “Letter to the Honorable Barack Obama from Congressman Howard L. Berman et al,” September 20, 2012, <www.npolicy.org/article_file/Gold_Standard_Letter_to_President_Sept_20_2012.pdf> and Jessica C. Varnum, “U.S. Nuclear Cooperation as Nonproliferation: Reforms, or the Devil You Know?” Nuclear Threat Initiative—Analysis, November 27, 2012, <www.nti.org/analysis/articles/us-nuclear-cooperation-nonproliferation-reforms-or-devil-you-know/>.