Thẻ: Nuclear weapons

Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century

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chatthamhouse.org Research paper Published 20 April 2020 ISBN: 978 1 78413 391 7

Royal Navy Vanguard Class submarine HMS Vigilant returning to HMNB Clyde after extended deployment. The four Vanguard-class submarines form the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent force. Photo: Ministry of Defence.

Royal Navy Vanguard Class submarine HMS Vigilant returning to HMNB Clyde after extended deployment. The four Vanguard-class submarines form the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent force. Photo: Ministry of Defence.21st century. Researchers at Chatham House have worked with eight experts to produce this collection of essays examining four contested themes in contemporary policymaking on deterrence.

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The first photos of Hiroshima’s nuclear bomb toll

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thebulletin.org By David A. Wargowski | August 6, 2025 

Photojournalist Yoshito Matsushige, in front of the first image he took at Miyuki-bashi Bridge, a little over two hours after the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. He took a total of 5 images, the only recorded evidence of that day that changed history. (Photo by John van Hasselt/Corbis via Getty Images)Share

In the late morning hours of August 6, 1945, a single shutter clicked in Hiroshima and recorded what no camera had ever captured before, and none has again: the immediate, lived aftermath of a city annihilated by nuclear weapons.

Equipped with one camera and two rolls of film, totaling just 24 possible exposures, Yoshito Matsushige, then a 32-year-old photojournalist, ventured toward the city that morning to report for duty. Fires blocked access to his office, so he turned back and reached Miyuki Bridge (about 2,300 meters from ground zero) where he encountered the unfathomable: charred schoolgirls, civilians with melted skin, and a landscape of human agony.

He could barely bring himself to document it. But his five surviving images—the only known photographs of Hiroshima’s destruction on the day of the bombing itself—are among the most harrowing visual records of the nuclear age.

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Lessons from the UN’s first resolution on AI in nuclear command and control

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thebulletin.org By Alice Saltini | December 22, 2025

Flags of nations in front of the UN headquarters in New York against a blue sky.In November, 115 states voted in favor, eight voted against, and 44 abstained from voting on a resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s First Committee that examines the possible risks of integrating AI into nuclear weapons systems. Image: depositphotos

The United Nations rarely moves fast on disarmament. This year, though, it did something unusual. On November 6, the General Assembly’s First Committee, where states debate over questions of disarmament and international security, adopted a resolution that directly looks at the possible risks of integrating artificial intelligence into nuclear weapons systems, especially in nuclear command, control, and communications, known as NC3. Austria, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Malta, and Mexico pushed the text, bringing into a formal setting a problem that has mostly lived in expert circles and informal dialogues.

With 115 states voting in favor, eight voting against, and 44 abstaining, support was broad. Nuclear-armed states and many of their allies voted against the resolution or chose to abstain. In contrast, the Global South and most non-nuclear-weapon states expressed strong support. This split reflects how each group views threats and what policies they prioritize. It also reveals how early and unsettled global thinking on AI in the nuclear field still is. Rather than seeing the outcome of the vote as a clear-cut failure or success, it may be best read as an initial test case. In other words, the resolution was an early attempt to translate a fast-moving technical debate into diplomatic language.

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Atomic Bomb Survivors Win Nobel Peace Prize, Say Gaza Today Is Like Japan 80 Years Ago

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Nobel Peace Prize Winner Toshiyuki Mimaki: “I thought the prize would go to those working hard in Gaza. In Gaza, bleeding children are being held by their parents. It’s like Japan 80 years ago.” 36,000 tons of explosives were dropped on Hiroshima/Nagasaki 82,000 tons have been dropped on Gaza

A Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo, has won the Nobel Peace Prize as fears grow of a new nuclear arms race. The head of the group has compared Gaza today to Japan 80 years ago when the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We feature a Democracy Now! interview with Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and an anti-nuclear activist, and get response from Joseph Gerson, president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, a U.S. nuclear disarmament activist who has spent decades working closely with the group.

Addressing Putin’s Nuclear Threat: Thinking Like the Cold War KGB Officer That He Was

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by Douglas London October 18, 2022 justsecurity.org

The powerful explosion that crippled Vladimir Putin’s showcase bridge over the Kerch Strait linking Russia and Crimea increased pressure on the cornered Kremlin potentate to do something shocking, as he loses control on the battlefield and inside his royal court. But will he stop at the intensified missile bombardments that are hitting apartments and playgrounds in Kyiv and other civilian infrastructure across Ukraine?

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How international law applies to attacks on nuclear and associated facilities in Ukraine

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thebulletin.org

By George M. Moore | March 6, 2022

 Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The two tall smokestacks are at a coal-fired generating station about 3km beyond the nuclear plant. Photo credit: Ralf1969 via Wikimedia Commons.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine began to unfold, Russia’s swift occupation of the Chernobyl reactor complex and the surrounding exclusion zone sparked widespread speculation and concern.[1] The concern was not limited to whether the occupation would cause further radioactive release from Chernobyl;[2] it also included possible Russian military action against other Ukrainian nuclear facilities. These fears were further accelerated when Russian forces shelled and apparently occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex near Enerhodar, Ukraine.[3] There have also been reports of attacks on a former Radon disposal site near Kyiv.[4]

World leaders have expressed concerns, and the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the issue. At the meeting, the US ambassador told the emergency session that the assault on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “represents a dire threat to the world.” [5] The IAEA’s Board of Governors passed a resolution that deplored the Russian invasion and urged Russia to allow Ukraine to continue to control its nuclear facilities. The board’s resolution was similar to a UN General Assembly resolution passed on March 3rd.[6] Despite the high levels of concern the reactors at Zaporizhzhia do not appear to have been damaged and there has been no reported radiation release from the facility.

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Russian troops seize Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine

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Ukraine nuclear power plant attack: All you need to know

aljazeera.com

Russian troops seize Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, after attack sparks fire.

Published On 4 Mar 20224 Mar 2022

Russian forces have captured Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, according to regional officials.

Ukrainian authorities said on Friday Russian shelling had caused a fire at a building in the plant complex that was later put out. The blaze raised alarm from leaders worldwide of a potential massive disaster. Russia blamed the attack on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a “monstrous provocation”.

Here is what we know so far:

INTERACTIVE - Zaporizhzhia

Where is it located?

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located in the southern Ukraine steppe on the Dnieper River, some 550 kilometres (342 miles) southeast of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and about 525km (325 miles) south of Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident in 1986, which has also now been seized by Russian forces.

The plant has a total capacity of about 6,000 megawatts, enough to power about roughly four million homes.

On Wednesday, residents carrying Ukrainian flags had blocked the road to the plant, in an apparent standoff with Russian forces.

What happened?

But on Friday Russian troops were accused of attacking the plant, in an assault Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy branded “nuclear terror” and said could endanger the continent.

A video feed from the plant showed shelling and smoke rising near a building at the plant compound.

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Global nuclear weapons: downsizing but modernizing

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Pie chart showing gloal share of nuclear weapons in January 2016

SPIRI_(Stockholm, 13 June 2016) The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) today launches its annual nuclear forces data, which highlights the current trends and developments in world nuclear arsenals. The data shows that while the overall number of nuclear weapons in the world continues to decline, none of the nuclear weapon-possessing states are prepared to give up their nuclear arsenals for the foreseeable future.

At the start of 2016 nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—possessed approximately 4,120 operationally deployed nuclear weapons. If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possessed a total of approximately 15,395 nuclear weapons compared with 15,850 in early 2015 (see table 1).

 

Table 1. World nuclear forces, 2016 Tiếp tục đọc “Global nuclear weapons: downsizing but modernizing” →

Trump Wanted Tenfold Increase in Nuclear Arsenal, Surprising Military

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NBC News

by Courtney Kube, Kristen Welker, Carol E. Lee and Savannah Guthrie

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest ranking national security leaders, according to three officials who were in the room.

Trump’s comments, the officials said, came in response to a briefing slide he was shown that charted the steady reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons since the late 1960s. Trump indicated he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve. Tiếp tục đọc “Trump Wanted Tenfold Increase in Nuclear Arsenal, Surprising Military” →

Putin and Trump Talk Up Need for More Nuclear Weapons

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In a year-end speech to his top military officers on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threw down the gauntlet, declaring that the Russian military, emboldened by recent adventures in Syria and Ukraine, is ready to defeat any country that dares challenge it. “We can say with certainty: we are stronger now than any potential aggressor,” he proclaimed. “Anyone.”

He also made a pitch for bigger and badder nuclear weapons. Putin said Moscow must “strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems.” Tiếp tục đọc “Putin and Trump Talk Up Need for More Nuclear Weapons” →