Our September 9, 2020 panel discussion provides background on current nuclear policy topics and updates on relevant legislation. Panelists Prof. Steve Fetter (University of Maryland) and Prof. Frank Von Hippel (Princeton University) provide briefings on nuclear weapons testing and New START while Dr. Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists) moderates a spirited Q&A session. Also […]
Our January 29th, 2021 webinar covers a range of policy topics including no-first-use, launch-on-warning, ICBM modernization, and presidential sole authority. Speakers include Prof. Angela Di Fulvio (University of Illinois), Prof. Steve Fetter (University of Maryland), Dr. Laura Grego (Union of the Concerned Scientists), Prof. Zia Mian (Princeton University), Prof. Stewart Prager (Princeton University), and Prof. […]
Our June 10, 2021 webinar discussed how government policy for nuclear weapons is formed, aspects of the current political landscape for nuclear arms control, and current Coalition advocacy on no-first-use. Speakers include Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists), Sharon Weiner (American University), Stephen Young (Union of Concerned Scientists), Stewart Prager (Princeton University), and Charlotte Selton […]
Our July 13, 2021 webinar examines the effects of nuclear weapons, including the immediate and direct effects, the impact on climate and food, and how government war planners understand these effects. Speakers include Steve Fetter (University of Maryland, College Park), Matthew McKinzie (Natural Resources Defense Council), Alan Robock (Rutger University), and Lynn Eden (Stanford University). […]
Our September 13, 2021 webinar discussed the dynamics of a nuclear arms race between the US, Russia, and China. Speakers include Steve Fetter (University of Maryland, College Park), Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists), Lyle Goldstein (Naval War College), and Pavel Podvig (United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research – UNIDIR). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQqBGnkVLpU
Our December 3, 2021 briefing discussed the current status of the Biden Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and unpacked the biggest outstanding controversies and questions. Speakers included Jessica Sleight (Global Zero), Tom Collina (Ploughshares Fund), Laura Grego (MIT), and Charlotte Selton (APS). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTejYv6xno
Our March 28, 2022 briefing examined Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the connection to nuclear weapons. Speakers included Alex Glaser (Princeton University), Daryl Kimball (Arms Control Association), Pavel Podvig (United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research – UNIDIR) and Laura Grego (MIT). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PGv6eCmFic
The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), also known as the Nuclear Ban Treaty, went into force in January 2021. The treaty was negotiated with the purpose of strengthening the largely unimplemented disarmament pillar of the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT has been signed by […]
Colloquium Abstract We live in an increasingly dangerous nuclear world marked by the abandonment of hard-won arms-control and nonproliferation agreements; the modernization at a cost of trillions of dollars of existing nuclear arsenals; the development of new types of strategic weapons; and threats to use nuclear weapons that risk escalation to large-scale nuclear war. This […]
To provide more context on the U.S.-Russia arms control and effective advocacy for nuclear threat reduction, we held a special meeting on March 3, 2023 for members of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. This session included remarks by the panelists (recording below), followed by an open discussion between the Coalition's experts and members. […]
Colloquium Abstract A nuclear war could inject so much smoke from the resulting fires into the stratosphere that the resulting climate change would be unprecedented in recorded human history. Our climate model simulations find that the smoke would absorb sunlight, making it dark, cold, and dry at Earth’s surface and produce global-scale ozone depletion, with enhanced […]
Colloquium Abstract The first nuclear weapon was tested in Alamogordo, NM, in July 1945. In the following month, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed through the explosion of two nuclear warheads. These horrifying strikes directly led to the surrender of Japan almost 4 years after its attack on Pearl Harbor. An industrial scale effort with more than […]
