Suchergebnisse

Originally published in 1987. The Chernobyl disaster intensified the whole debate on the nuclear power industry. There was great public concern about the industry regulation, about the siting of nuclear facilities, including the dumping of nuclear waste, and about the alleged secretiveness of the industry. This book examines these and many other important aspects of the industry worldwide and provides much important original research. It focuses in particular on the political processes which control the industry, on waste disposal and on the social impact.

As the world focuses on Iraq, North Korea is seeking to expand its nuclear arsenal as quickly as possible. By summer 2003, barring major technical mishaps, North Korea will be able to extract enough plutonium from spent nuclear fuel for up to half a dozen nuclear weapons, to add to its current suspected stockpile of one or possibly two nuclear weapons. Over the next several years, North Korea could complete facilities capable of producing sufficient plutonium and highly enriched uranium for up to a dozen nuclear weapons annually. Options for dealing with this threat are limited. For now, at least, Washington's basic approach seems to be to ignore and downplay the North Korean threat as much as possible, while focusing its energies on Iraq. Once Iraq is out of the way, Washington will face an even greater challenge in overcoming internal divisions and designing an effective strategy to deal with North Korea, where military and political options are more limited and the adversary is more powerful. (Survival / SWP)