“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw
Mar 14, 2025
An undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 16, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launch of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. KCNA VIA KNS / AFP
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS of TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
And the huge mistake(s) Trump has made in his frivolous thoughtless call for nuclear weapons policy and control are destroying the world’s trust in not only Trump, which was predictable, but the United States as a free world nation. He is also the laughing stock of Russia.
The following paragraph is the opening paragraph from the “Foreign Policy” article just below. It is pointedly accurate in my estimation and, just one more reason among many that Trump is incapable and perhaps unwilling to believe in or follow the doctrine(s) and policies, including foreign policies, of the United States of America’s democratic republic . . . ~llaw
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent foreign-policy moves have alienated the country’s traditional allies in Europe while stirring glee in Moscow. While it’s a catastrophic development for Ukrainian security and democracy, this paradigmatic shift portends much larger risks for global security. The most pressing is the threat of rampant nuclear proliferation that the Trump administration’s actions will elicit. ~ Debak Das and Rachel A. Epstein
An expert’s point of view on a current event.
An Unreliable America Means More Countries Want the Bomb
Without credible U.S. security guarantees, nuclear proliferation is likely to increase rapidly across Europe and Asia.
By Debak Das, an assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and Rachel A. Epstein, a professor of international relations at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
An undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 16, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launch of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. KCNA VIA KNS / AFP
March 14, 2025, 5:41 AM View Comments (0)
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent foreign-policy moves have alienated the country’s traditional allies in Europe while stirring glee in Moscow. While it’s a catastrophic development for Ukrainian security and democracy, this paradigmatic shift portends much larger risks for global security. The most pressing is the threat of rampant nuclear proliferation that the Trump administration’s actions will elicit.
While on the surface it might seem as though a warmer relationship between two of the world’s largest nuclear powers could reduce the risk of nuclear war, the opposite is true. We are on the precipice of a global turn toward nuclear instability, in which many countries will be newly incentivized to build their own arsenals, increasing the risk of nuclear use, terrorist subversion, and accidental launch. Countries like South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are all so-called nuclear latent states that could potentially build nuclear weapons quickly—as are Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.
For the last eight decades, the United States has served as a security guarantor to many countries in both Europe and Asia. Trump insists that Washington has received the short end of the stick from these arrangements, since it was the U.S. nuclear arsenal that served as the ultimate deterrent in defense of the United States’ allies. The massive upside of U.S. security guarantees, however, including for Americans, has been the astonishing containment of nuclear proliferation elsewhere.
Only nine countries around the world have nuclear weapons today: the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. (South Africa gave up its nuclear weapons and then signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.) Today, 190 countries are parties to the treaty, which went into effect in 1970. The only non-signatory states are India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Sudan. (North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 to pursue its nuclear weapons program.)
Many countries signed the NPT because of U.S. assurances about their security—what is commonly known as the nuclear umbrella. These countries include NATO members in Europe (such as Germany, Italy, and Belgium), along with other U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea. When Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus inherited a large number of nuclear weapons and delivery systems in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed, U.S. security assurances helped convince them to give up their nuclear weapons.
The confinement of this deadly technology to relatively few countries has been a massive boon to global security and allowed for much greater prosperity. Without U.S. security assurances, the world might have been far more insecure, with several additional nuclear weapons states across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Nuclear safety and inadvertent escalation concerns about the possession of nuclear weapons mean that we might even have seen potential nuclear use—deliberate or accidental—which would have had catastrophic consequences.
U.S. security guarantees, long perceived as highly credible, have been a pillar of the global nonproliferation regime that has reduced the likelihood of nuclear war and nuclear accidents, and allowed countries to devote resources to other purposes—including economic prosperity.
The credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella has now been shattered by Trump. Why would NATO allies in Europe—recent targets of intense criticism by the Trump administration—believe that the United States would stand by them in the case of a nuclear threat from Russia?
Among U.S. allies threatened by China or North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are undoubtedly asking themselves this same question. The broader concern here is that even if just one of these European or East Asian allies decides to secure themselves by building their own nuclear weapons, there might be a domino effect leading to several more nuclear states. This would sound the death knell of the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
There may be higher risks of nuclear proliferation in Asia than in Europe because both France and the U.K. have nuclear arsenals that could provide extended deterrence to NATO. Even in Europe, however, political conditions are concerning. The parties garnering the second-most popular support today in France, Germany, and Poland are all right-wing nationalists. Marine Le Pen, who could potentially become the next French president, recently said that France should not share the country’s nuclear weapons, “let alone delegate” their use to other European countries.
There have also been calls for Germany to recommit to civilian nuclear research, with the aim of developing its ability to build nuclear weapons. Poland is also considering its nuclear options. The stability of the erstwhile European security architecture that used to be upheld by the promise of U.S. nuclear assurances is now rapidly fraying and giving way to a path of nuclear proliferation on the continent.Subscribed
TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Thursday, (03/13/2025)
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War Threats
- Nuclear War
- Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
- IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Friday, (03/14/2025)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Iranian officials talk nuclear program with Chinese and Russian counterparts – KLCC
KLCC
All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The World. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.
Iranian officials talk nuclear program with Chinese and Russian counterparts – NPR
NPR
All Things Considered · Fresh Air · Up First. Featured. Embedded · The NPR … nuclear energy,” and promote “the nuclear non-proliferation regi
Iranian officals meet Chinese and Russian counterparts in Beijing – WSIU
WSIU
All Things Considered · Morning Edition · Law Enforcement · Politics … nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster. See …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
The U.S. Is Running Out of Uranium. This Potent New Fuel Is the ‘Only Way’ to … – Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics
… nuclear energy at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Small modular reactors are an attractive replacement, as they have lower …
CERAWeek Event: Tripling Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050
World Nuclear Association
From tech to petrochemicals, aviation and beyond, there is an opportunity to expand nuclear’s clean, reliable and economical energy to power these …
China, Russia and Iran hold talks in Beijing as Trump pushes for new nuclear deal with Tehran | CNN
CNN
China is hosting diplomats from Iran and Russia for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program Friday as Beijing aims to position itself as a power broker …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
U.S. Nuclear Agency Runs Disaster Drills Across Multiple States
Gizmodo
If you live in the Midwest and and see a bunch of emergency personnel who look like they’re responding to a nuclear power plant explosion over the …
State Police Emergency Management to Help Coordinate International Nuclear Reactor Simulation
WSGW 790 AM & 100.5 FM
Michigan is home to two active nuclear power plants, with a third slated to return online within the next year. The exercise will enable response …
MSP holding major radiological incident exercise | | iosconews.com
Iosco County News Herald
“Michigan is home to two active nuclear power plants, with a third … emergency management and homeland security. “Given our location near …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
China hits out at ‘threats of force’ on Iran as Trump pushes for new nuclear deal | CNN
CNN
China hits out at ‘threats of force’ on Iran as Trump pushes for new nuclear deal … war in Ukraine. China remains a key economic and diplomatic …
China Backs Iran in Nuclear Talks, Slams ‘Threat of Force’ From the West
The New York Times
The United States is now pursuing maximum political pressure with a threat of military action. But China and Russia are pursuing a more cooperative …
Russia, China call on US to drop Iran sanctions, restart nuclear talks – Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful. While Iran has maintained it would not negotiate under threat, its economy has been savaged by the US …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Andrzej Duda: US nuclear weapons in Poland would be ‘deterrent’ for Russia – BBC
BBC
War in Ukraine · US & Canada · UK · UK Politics · England · N. Ireland · N. Ireland … Duda: US nuclear weapons in Poland would be ‘deterrent’ for …
An Unreliable America Means More Countries Want the Bomb – Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
… nuclear powers could reduce the risk of nuclear war, the opposite is true. We are on the precipice of a global turn toward nuclear instability, in …
Iranian officials talk nuclear program with Chinese and Russian counterparts – NPR
NPR
… nuclear programs that the JCPOA promises. Wu says no parties want a war over the Iran nuclear issue, so “supporting negotiations and the spirit …
IAEA Weekly News
14 March 2025
Read the top news and updates published on IAEA.org this week.
13 March 2025
IAEA Director General Visits Niger to Strengthen Cooperation in Mining, Water Management and Cancer Care
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has been to Niger this week for high-level meetings with Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine and other senior officials to enhance support for the country through the peaceful uses of nuclear technology for mining, water management and cancer care. Read more →
13 March 2025
IAEA Director General Visits Niger Uranium Mines
Uranium is the primary fuel for nuclear reactors and its production cycle must be managed carefully, in a safe and secure manner. Read more →
12 March 2025
Tritium Level Far Below Japan’s Operational Limit in 11th Batch of ALPS Treated Water, IAEA Confirms
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have confirmed that the tritium concentration in the 11th batch of diluted ALPS treated water, which the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) began discharging on 12 March, is far below Japan’s operational limit. Read more →
11 March 2025
What are Molten Salt Reactors?
International interest is increasing in molten salt reactors, because they have the potential to provide large amounts of efficient and cost-effective electricity and produce high-temperature process heat usable for various industrial applications. Read more →
10 March 2025
Rwanda Advances Cancer Control with Focus on Cervical Cancer and Health Workforce Development
Rwanda has taken important steps to tackle preventable cancers nation-wide, a recent international assessment has found. Read more →