Nuclear Proliferation and Arms Control
6 Comments Published by Dr. Beyster April 13th, 2010 in Government, Politics.One of the more pleasant surprises that I’ve recently had is to observe the attention that President Obama has paid to nuclear proliferation and arms control. This attention was badly needed. I think the steps to reduce the stockpile to about 2,500 weapons of all shapes, sizes, and colors is sensible and something our country should do. Doing so will magically reduce the staggering cost of maintaining the stockpile of nuclear weapons which we have a very low probability of using.
The alarming thing to me is that there seems to be a revival of interest by countries other than the five primary nuclear powers in having and building nuclear weapons. Even though the United Nations tries to monitor these activities, it is extremely difficult to monitor loose nuclear weapons. As time goes on, I am concerned that rogue countries will obtain one or two nukes. This potential threat has been a problem for a long time and is not new. It will be hard to stop the Irans of the world from putting together a nuclear capability.
– Bob
A very interesting book on nuclear proliferation is “The Nuclear Express” by Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman. This has been a very scary situation since the breakup of the Soviet Union. And it isn’t going to go away.
Cal
Cal: Thanks for the tip on the book. I seem to remember that Thomas Reed is a former Secretary of the Air Force. The topic of the book is extremely important, and I look forward to reading it. There’s nothing I can personally do about nuclear proliferation, but I am extremely curious about what Reed has to say about it. — Bob
Just found your response. Nice to hear from you. Would be great to hear your laugh again.. Maybe come over and have lunch at the new Southwestern YC on a big excursion from SDYC and cruise the bay!
Thinking of you,
Cal
Cal: Thanks for your nice comments. I gather you are a distinguished member of the Southwestern Yacht Club, along with Larry Kull. I haven’t seen him since he left the company. So if you see him, please tell him I said “Hello.” I don’t know about going sailing, but I would like you to join me on my powerboat one Friday on a trip to Oceanside for lunch. Let me know and I’ll have Ralph make the arrangements. It will be good to catch up. — Bob
Bob:
I just came across your comments on nuclear proliferaton amd arms control. I certainly agree with you in applauding the President’s increased attention to this most important issue. In setting a goal of ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide however, he acknowledges that this could take a very long time to achieve (“probably not in my lifetime”) and that so long as others posess such weapons it will be necessary for the USA to maintain a modern, safe and secure nuclear stockpile as a deterrent. It is the supporting nuclear laboratory, industrial and military infrastructure necessary to assure this requirement rather than the numerical size of the stockpile that will continue to drive the costs.
Bob: Thanks for your response, Bob. I have a feeling you’re right, that the size of the costs for maintaining a weapons program are primarily incurred in supporting the laboratories than in the hardware itself. The infrastructure is probably fairly independent of the number of new cores actually being built. — Bob