Henry D. Sokolski

Any instrument creating a safety zone around Zaporizhzhia must clearly state the plant is Ukraine’s, not Russia’s. As Ukrainians brace for a cold, dark winter and more Russian attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Rafael Grossi is upbeat, working feverishly to secure Ukraine’s largest electrical generator—the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. His…

The country is focused on the Jan. 6 committee’s criminal referral of former President Trump to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for four alleged crimes, including inciting and abetting an insurrection. But Trump’s decision to stash classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence continues to be investigated by DOJ. Although not rising to the level of insurrection, the…

As Washington and the commentariat wring their hands about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sword rattling, the United States and the European Union (EU) continue to shovel hundreds of millions of dollars to Rosatom — a Russian nuclear firm that maintains Moscow’s nuclear weapons complex and just filched a $60-billion Ukrainian nuclear plant. Read more at The Hill

The Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Convention offers a model, but the United States can’t denounce Russia until it embraces the norms it’s seeking to enforce. Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex, which Russia captured early in the war, has been continually in the European and U.S. headlines since Russia turned it into a…

Kyiv’s supporters insist that more missiles of longer range are not a problem, but a solution. Ever since President Joe Biden first swore off fighting World War III (and creating no-fly zones over Ukraine), Washington nuclear intellectuals have enjoyed a momentary splash of relevance. Nuclear fear and loathing—i.e., nuclear mutual assured destruction and deterrence—are back.…

The United States decided decades ago that nuclear reactors could not be defended from military attacks. Now, reactors in Ukraine are coming under fire during Russia’s invasion. Just as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 required a reexamination of how best to protect against terrorist airplane hijackings, Russia’s military assault on Ukrainian nuclear plants raises questions…

New “fast reactors” promise sustainable nuclear energy. They also pose serious proliferation risks because they can make lots of plutonium. The Energy Department’s choice for the leading reactor design for reviving nuclear power construction in the United States is so at odds with U.S. nonproliferation policy that it opens America to charges of rank hypocrisy.…

The principal reason for preferring fast reactors, historically the only reason, is to gain the ability to breed plutonium. Thus, the reactor would make and reuse massive quantities of material that could also be used as nuclear explosives in warheads. TerraPower, the nuclear company founded by Bill Gates, just announced an agreement with private funders, including Warren Buffet,…

With its withdrawal from Afghanistan and decision to end programs that typified America’s conflicts of past two decades, the Biden administration’s Pentagon is planning for long-term competitions against China and Russia. But for the Pentagon’s mobile micro-reactor effort, Project Pele, it’s still 2007. Read more at Defense News

The recent escalation in the “shadow war” between Israel and Iran suggests that, like it or not, the Biden administration’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are not sustainable without support from Israel and its Gulf allies, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). If Israel continues attacking Iran after Biden…