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Safeguarding the Atom

Nuclear Energy Update Archive

The Nuclear Energy Update (NEU) was a weekly update compiled by The Eisenhower Institute of the most significant news items in international, domestic, and scientific nuclear energy news. Archive of past NEU articles here.

International Atoms for Peace

The Eisenhower Institute has compiled a comprehensive and interactive inventory of foreign nuclear energy programs throughout the world. Called The Nuclear World: International Atoms for Peace, it provides a detailed account of the state of nuclear energy outside the borders of the United States and charts the trends and debates regarding nuclear power technology in the world today. Click here to enter the site.

Tribute to 50th Anniversary of President Eisenhower's
"Atoms for Peace" Vision

Susan Eisenhower Speaks at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LIVERMORE, CA, November 13, 2003 - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) held a two-day concluding conference of the "Atoms for Peace After 50 Years: The New Challenges and Opportunities" Project. Susan Eisenhower delivered a keynote speech "Eisenhower: The Vision," addressing the legacy of President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" fifty years after the landmark Presidential address to the UN was delivered. (Full Press Release)
Susan Eisenhower Delivers Series of Commemoration Speeches
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 2003 & NEW MEXICO, October 24, 2003 -- Although President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech was given 50 years ago, the impetus to reduce the dangers of nuclear war and to extend the life-giving benefits of the atom remains as valid as ever. Fall and early winter 2003 saw a variety of events marking the anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations General Assembly, culminating with the unveiling of President Eisenhower's statue at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Headquarters in Vienna, Austria on December 4, 2003. Susan Eisenhower, Chairman of the Eisenhower Institute participated in a number of "Atoms for Peace" discussions. (Full Press Release)

Personal Perspectives

Is International Law Relevant to Arms Control?
By Thomas Graham, Jr.
(First published in the Chicago Journal of International Law, Spring 2003)
The most publicized element of The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (the "Strategy"), promulgated in September 2002 by the Bush administration, [FN1] is its emphasis on the option to use preemptive military strikes to address threats to the United States before they fully materialize.

Atomic City: Russia's Leading Nuclear Weapons Facility
By Susan Eisenhower
On July 12, I stood to speak before two hundred former Soviet weapons scientists, engineers, industrialists and generals in a closed city in the heart of Russia's Ural Mountains. I was the only foreigner at a gathering to mark the 70th birthday of Russia's leading nuclear weapons designer Evgeny Avrorin, hydrogen bomb designer par excellence.

Meeting the Nuclear Challenge
By Robert S. McNamara
In this article, Secretary McNamara outlines the steps he feels will ensure the success of worldwide nuclear non-proliferation.

Susan Eisenhower Appointed to DoE Task Force

(From left: Secretary Spencer Abraham, Susan Eisenhower and Bill Magwood, Director, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. Background: Picture of President Eisenhower during his Atoms for Peace Speech.

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham recently appointed Susan Eisenhower to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board Nuclear Energy Task Force. The group is charged with identifying and analyzing issues pertaining to the expansion of nuclear power in the United States. For full press release, click here.

EI Hosts Conference on the Future of Nuclear Fusion

Left: Academician Yevgeniy Avrorin speaks as Walter Sadowski of University of Maryland translates. Right: Lord Julian Hunt gives a presentation at EI.

October 11, 2004 - The Eisenhower Institute hosted one day of a multi-day conference convened by the University of Maryland and the Department of Energy to bring together nuclear scientists from around the world to discuss the future of fusion and its possible applications. While at The Eisenhower Institute, the conference focused mainly on the issues of nuclear energy and nonproliferation and the use of fusion in abating the risks of using nuclear energy. Day One included presentations on the benefits of using fusion to burn actinides, the longest lasting part of nuclear waste, the future of fusion-fission reactors and the proliferation risks associated with allowing countries to maintain a complete fuel cycle as part of a nuclear power program.

WASHINGTON, July 2- At the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting June 16-19, Director-General Mohamed El-Baradei released a highly anticipated report on Iran's nuclear program entitled, "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Click here to read the article, the IAEA report and the official reaction from Iran. Photo of Bushehr Reactor
courtesy Federation of American Scientists

Countdown to the IAEA Report on Bushehr

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2003 -- With nonproliferation as a key issue in the post-Iraq War period, and with concern about the nature of Russian-Iranian cooperation now a fundamental driver for US policy towards both countries, the impending report will mark a crucial moment for policymakers. Next week, all eyes will once again be on Mohamed El-Baradei and the IAEA. Click here to read the full article.

Satellite image of Bushehr reactor under contruction Image Courtesy of spaceimaging.com©

Eisenhower Institute Co-hosts Nuclear Energy Workshop

WASHINGTON, DC, January 29, 2003-The Eisenhower Institute and the Energy Future Coalition (EFC) hosted a roundtable discussion on the future role of nuclear energy in the United States and globally. The roundtable took place at The Institute's offices as part of its "Safeguarding the Atom" project. Click here for the full article.

Ernie Moniz of MIT addresses the workshop participants.

2003 Eisenhower Institute
Nuclear Fact Sheet

The Eisenhower Institute's Nuclear Fact Sheet is a collection of important data relating to the fields of nuclear weaponry and nuclear energy. The purpose of the Nuclear Fact Sheet is to increase the level of public awareness of the major security issues surrounding nuclear weapons and of the government programs instituted to deal with the associated threats. It also provides a basic account of the state of nuclear energy in the world today. It is our hope that the publication of this fact sheet will foster increased discourse and debate on these critical subjects.

Dr. Georgi Rykovanov and Dr. Evgeny Avrorin Return to Institute for More Meetings
WASHINGTON, DC, September 23-24 --The Eisenhower Institute once again hosted Russia's premier nuclear weapons scientists, Dr. Georgi ykovanov, Director of the Zababakhin Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIITF), and Dr. Evgeny Avrorin, Scientific Director of VNIITF, for another round of meetings on the Institute's project, "Safeguarding the Atom: Engaging Leading Russian Nuclear Decision-Makers on Urgent Nonproliferation Issues."
(Full Press Release)

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Programs at DOE Meets with Institute
WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2002 -- On Wednesday, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Programs for the Department of Energy Dr. Victor Reis made a presentation to the Eisenhower Institute on nonproliferation and nuclear energy. This presentation took place as part of the Institute's project on Safeguarding the Atom, which is looking to engage Russia and other countries on issues associated with, among other things, nuclear nonproliferation and the future of the nonproliferation regime. (Full meeting report)

Testimony of Dr. Siegfried Hecker, Senior Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 23, 2002 on "Increasing Our Nonproliferation Efforts in the Former Soviet Union"

Testimony in English || Testimony in Russian

Eisenhower Institute Threat Reduction Initiatives
The Eisenhower Institute has been focusing on security threats and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Eisenhower Institute President, Susan Eisenhower, served on the Baker-Cutler Commission and is currently on the Board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. For more information on Eisenhower Institute threat reduction programs and initiatives, click here.

Institute Hosts Leading Russian Nuclear Scientists
The Eisenhower Institute hosted Dr. Georgi Rykovanov, Director of the Zababakhin Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIITF), and Dr. Evgeny Avrorin, Scientific Director of VNIITF. Following the meetings, The Eisenhower Institute and VNIITF released a joint statement in a Memorandum of Understanding that affirms the intentions of both organizations to develop a framework for cooperation that will facilitate continued work on the issues discussed.(Details of the meeting)

Memorandum of Understanding The Eisenhower Institute and the Zababakhin Russian Federal Nuclear Center April 24, 2002
In English	In Russian

For Dwight Eisenhower, the use of atomic weapons at the conclusion of the Second World War and the successful detonation just before his election of the first US hydrogen device (800 times more powerful than the bombs used on Japan), left him convinced that von Clausewitz's notion of war as an extension of politics had become obsolete. The continuing development of the destructive power of nuclear weapons in the US and the Soviet Union was destined to lead either to, at best, the instability of an arms race of indefinite proportions, or a war of unthinkably horrific destruction.

Eisenhower proposed that the three nuclear powers of the time, Great Britain, the US and the USSR, give a portion of their stockpiles of fissionable materials to an international agency where scientists would study ways to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes. This would reduce the amount of material that could be used to produce weapons, serve as the basis for more significant future disarmament and create mutual trust between the two superpowers. But while several peaceful atomic programs were created following the initiative, the Soviets delayed their response and by the time the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was created in 1957, the nuclear arms race was already well underway.

Click here to read the full interactive text of President Eisenhower's historic Atoms for Peace speech before the United Nations General Assembly on December 8, 1953