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e consequence of the fact that the world s first exposure to nuclear energy was by way of nuclear weapons but more importantly because of the simple fact that nuclear is not seen as an indispensable energy option even now what will it take for the situation to change perhaps when war in the middle east decimates dependence on fossil fuels or when extreme climate change exacerbates our lifestyles to an unacceptable extent we will finally accept nuclear energy as an energy intensive climate change friendly power source whose risks must be evaluated and managed just like those of others the only question is whether it would be too late then posted in uncategorized 4 comments louisa gilder and robert oppenheimer september 9 2010 louisa gilder s book the age of entanglement is a rather unique and thoroughly engrossing book which tells the story of quantum mechanics and especially the bizarre quantum phenomenon called entanglement through a unique device recreations of conversations between famous physicists although gilder does take considerable liberty in fictionalizing the conversations they are based on real events and for the most part the device works gilder s research seems quite exhaustive and well referenced which was why the following observation jumped out of the pages and bothered me even more on pg 189 gilder describes a paragraph from a very controversial and largely discredited book by jerrold and leona schecter the book which created a furor extensively quotes a soviet kgb agent named pavel sudoplatov who claimed that among others niels bohr and robert oppenheimer were working for the soviet union and that oppenheimer knew that klaus fuchs was a soviet spy who knew no evidence for these fantastic allegations has ever turned up in spite of this gilder refers to the book and essentially quotes a soviet handler named merkulov who says that a kgb agent in california named grigory kheifets thought that oppenheimer was willing to transmit secret information to the soviets gilder says nothing more after this and moves on to a different topic now take a look at the footnotes on pg 190 191 of kai bird and martin sherwin s authoritative biography of oppenheimer b s also quote exactly the same paragraph but then emphatically add how there is not a shred of evidence to support what was said and how the whole thing was probably fabricated by merkulov to save kheifets s life since kheifets had otherwise turned up empty handed on potential recruits if you want to obtain even more authoritative information on this topic i would recommend the recent book spies by haynes klehr and vassiliev widely regarded as the most complete account of soviet espionage until now the book has a detailed chapter which discusses the merkulov and kheifets letter procured by the schecters and cited by gilder the chapter clearly says that absolutely no corroboration of the contents of this letter has been found in kheifets s own testimony after he returned to the soviet union or in the venona transcripts you would think that material of such importance would at the very least be corroborated by kheifets himself a source as valuable as oppenheimer would also most certainly be mentioned in other communications but no such evidence exists the authors also point out other multiple glaring inconsistencies and fabrications in the documents cited in the schecter volume the book quite clearly says that as of 2008 there is absolutely no ambiguity or the slightest hint that oppenheimer was willing to transmit secrets to the soviets the authors emphatically end the chapter saying that the case is closed what is troubling is that gilder quotes the paragraph and simply ends it there leaving the question of oppenheimer s loyalty dangling and tantalizingly open ended she does not quote the clear conclusion drawn by b s that there is no evidence to support this insinuation she also must surely be aware of several other works on oppenheimer and the manhattan project none of which give the slightest credence to such allegations you would expect more from an otherwise meticulous author like gilder i have no idea why she gives credence to the canard about oppenheimer but in an interview with her which i saw she said that she was first fascinated by oppenheimer as most people were and still are but was then repulsed by his treatment of his student david bohm who dominates the second half of her book bohm was a great physicist and philosopher his still in print textbook on quantum theory is unmatched for its logical and clear exposition a dedicated left wing thinker who was oppenheimer s student at berkeley in the 1930s after the war he was suspected of being a communist and stripped of his faculty position at princeton which was then very much an establishment institution after this unfortunate incident bohm lived a peripatetic life in brazil and israel before settling down at birkbeck college in england oppenheimer essentially distanced himself from bohm after the war had no trouble detailing bohm s left wing associations to security agents and generally did not try to save bohm from mccarthy s onslaught this is well known robert oppenheimer was a complex and flawed character but did gilder s personal dislike of oppenheimer in the context of bohm color her attitude toward him and cause her to casually toss out a tantalizing allegation which she must have known is not substantiated i sure hope not posted in uncategorized leave a comment riding off into the twilight august 30 2010 in the twilight of the bombs the last volume of his breathtaking account of nuclear history richard rhodes describes the post cold war problems and hopes associated with nuclear weapons the books bears many of rhodes s trademarks it is extremely well researched and contains sharp portraits of the major players as well as fast paced accounts of key events that make you feel as if you were there rhodes s abilities as a storyteller are still remarkable this book is relatively slim and does not command the high octane prose of rhodes s masterpiece the making of the atomic bomb but as usual rhodes s authoritative knowledge of nuclear matters provides many revelations and he has a novelist s eye for detail which keeps the reader hooked the book can roughly be divided into four parts the first part concerns the first gulf war and the dismantling of iraq s nuclear infrastructure the second part describes the race to secure nuclear material in the former soviet republics after the fall of the soviet union the third part briefly talks about south africa s nuclear ambitions and and then in more detail about attempts to contain nuclear efforts by north korea and the last part concerns the run up to the second gulf war and some final thoughts on the future of nuclear weapons one striking omission in the book is iran and i think readers would have appreciated rhodes s insightful thoughts on the iranian nuclear problem the first part examines the troubling evidence in the 1980s that saddam hussein was trying to build a nuclear capability rogue pakistani scientist a q khan had even tried to unsuccessfully sell iraq a bomb design based on a chinese weapon at the same time that the us was providing aid and goodwill to iraq to support it against iran in the iran iraq war it was also unearthing evidence in the form of dual use equipment shipments and intelligence analysis that iraq was pursuing enriched uranium interestingly the technology that iraq was using turned out to be electromagnetic separation a primitive technology that the us did not initially believe would be used for nations pursuing nuclear capability separating uranium isotopes by using centrifuges is much more efficient yet electromagnetic separation is exactly the kind of technology that a relatively primitive and cash strapped economy would pursue this is a good example of how biases can lead to false conclusions in spite of supporting evidence later rhodes has pulse racing accounts of searches for enrichment technology in iraq conducted by the weapons inspectors of the iaea and the un even after the inspectors discovered evidence of enrichment in the form of equipment used for electromagnetic separation this was not yet conclusive evidence of weapons building probably the most exciting moment was when deep down in a small room in a basement the inspectors discovered a report that did provide such evidence in the form of clear and detailed descriptions of materials and design for an implosion bomb the second part of the book deals with the fragmentation of the soviet union and the spirited and at times desperate race to acquire nuclear weapons from the former soviet republics of ukraine belarus and kazakhstan there are many heroes in this story which stands as a model of bipartisan cooperation against a serious threat among these are david kay hans blix and bob gallucci who were nuclear inspectors and disarmament specialists probably the most prominent ones are the democratic and republican senators sam nunn and richard lugar who worked day and night to acquire funds from congress to secure nuclear material and weapons from the three countries and have them transferred back to russia concomitantly secretary of state james baker hopped from one capital to another urging the presidents of the new nations to sign the npt and start using a combination of carrots in the form of monetary rewards and sticks in the form of possible sanctions and threats from russia all three nations agreed that they were better off without nuclear weapons and the result was a transfer of thousands of strategic and tactical weapons back to russia a third important and massive effort involved blending down the enriched uranium from soviet weapons to reactor grade and shipping it back to the us for use in us nuclear reactors americans may be amused to know that about 10 percent of their current electricity derived from nuclear energy comes from nuclear weapons that their former foe had targeted against their cities curiously the biggest reformer in this drama was president george h w bush who orchestrated the largest arms reductions in history he abolished entire classes of weapons including missiles with multiple warheads and all ground based weapons and he needs to get much more credit for doing this than what has been given to him in the third part rhodes first briefly talks about the dismantling of south africa s nuclear program which is a fine lesson for nations wanting to eschew nuclear weapons in case of south africa the same reasons internal strife border conflicts and international alienation because of the government s apartheid policies that provoked the country to acquire weapons also encouraged them to give them up an uglier reason was their fear in the 80s that the weapons might fall into the hands of the black government rhodes then describes in detail the difficult relationship between the us and north korea in the context of north korea s nuclear ambitions along the way rhodes also provides perspective by noting that the us had mercilessly bombed the north during the korean war since then the north koreans have constantly been in a kind of perpetual state of war surrounded by giant powers like russia and china it s also worth keeping in mind that the us had stationed hundreds of nuclear weapons in south korea as a deterrent until about 1990 although these actions by the us do not justify the north s nuclear efforts they do explain the paranoia and deep sense of insecurity that has fueled north korea s animosity towards the us again there are heroes in this story but one singled out by rhodes is former president jimmy carter who went to north korea of his own volition in 1994 and successfully mediated the koreans proposal to stop reprocessing in return for light water reactors the consequence of this diplomacy was the so called agreed framework to regulate north korea s commercial nuclear program which unfortunately broke down in 2003 in the face of north korean non compliance and disagreements since then north korea has always had to be kept on a tight leash and there have been several moments of tension between the two countries but rhodes s accounts make it clear how diplomacy has averted another korean war rhodes also has succinct discussions of efforts to develop and implement a framework for the ctbt which was signed by clinton but unfortunately not ratified by the senate the last part of the book concerns the run up to the second gulf war this story has been told before but rhodes tells it succinctly and well meticulous weapons inspections in iraq between 1992 and 1998 had unearthed no evidence of a wmd capability although iraq had also not furnished clear documentation of the dismantling of its wmd capability as rhodes tells it regime change had already been on the table especially pushed by neoconservatives like dick cheney and paul wolfowitz but even contemplated by former vice president al gore but even after 9 11 it does not seem like bush was thinking of attacking iraq however as the record indicates something changed in his thinking in the next two months and invading iraq became a concrete strategy in his mind rhodes thinks that a major reason for this shift in his thinking may have been the anthrax attacks which followed 9 11 it seems that these attacks really rammed the threat of terrorism home at one point alarms even went off in the white house and dick cheney suspected that he himself may have been contaminated nonetheless as is well known now bush and his associates decided to invade iraq fueled by the tried and tested strategy of threat inflation and on evidence that was dubious at best rhodes clearly establishes the prevarications of the administration s claims about wmds in iraq based on discredited reports about uranium shipments from niger to saddam reports discredited even by the cia as well as chinese imports of supposed aluminum tubes for centrifuges which turned out to be parts for short range rockets at best iraq was years behind the difficult goal of building a nuclear weapon a goal which would have needed extensive operations of enrichment and processing which would most likely have been detected no matter how you cut it there was no concrete justification for invading iraq except one based on ideology and belief bush also seriously damaged arms reduction efforts by withdrawing from the abm treaty by his belligerent rhetoric against north korea which withdrew from the npt and tested a nuclear weapon in 2006 and iran by lifting sanctions on pakistan a particularly recalcitrant and prolific proliferator and by agreeing to supply india which had not signed the npt with nuclear related equipment and yet in the midst of this tragedy it is easy to miss bush s one success in arms control in which he signed major arms reductions with russia these reductions brought down the number of warheads on us delivery vehicles from ab...
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