On The Nuclear Risk

Former Georgia Senator, Sam Nunn who has been active against nuclear proliferation and is now co chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, believes that “we can greatly diminish the risk” of a nuclear accident in Europe or America through global cooperation. He does include working with China and does think that in doing so the risk posed by North Korea can be better handled. But instead of North Korea and its recent testing, he draws attention to the progress that has been made whether or not the general public realizes it. “Ten years ago, 40 countries had weapons-usable nuclear materials,” he said in an interview with Der Spiegel, “now there are only 28 left.” He adds, “And a number of nations have given up their nuclear weapons entirely, like Kazakhstan, Belarus or Ukraine. Others like South Korea or Brazil could have developed nuclear weapons, bud did not do so.” Nunn and his colleagues aren’t the only group working on proliferation and its issues, he mentioned there are at least 1000 people working in this field. Like the tree in the forest which falls whether or not someone hears it, key problems are being worked on whether we are aware of those efforts or not.