Nuclear Subsidies and Proliferation: Clarifying the Link

ABSTRACT

In March 2015, the South Australian state government established a royal commission to investigate the financial, social, technical, diplomatic, and nonproliferation benefits and risks of expanding its nuclear industry, including activities related to uranium mining; enriching, reprocessing, and fabricating nuclear fuels for both domestic use and export; producing nuclear power; and storing radiological waste, including foreign spent reactor fuel. Given its enormous uranium reserves and current mining activities, some Australians have argued that Australia could benefit financially by expanding the mining sector and by adding value to its uranium exports by enriching the material and fabricating it into reactor fuel assemblies. Others have maintained that Australia can realize significant economic benefits by recycling and storing foreign spent fuel and producing carbon-free nuclear power. In the end, the commission recommended that Australia consider opening up a high-level waste repository to take in foreign spent fuel. It did not recommend any other nuclear activities at this time. The following viewpoint is based on testimony I delivered to the commission on the nuclear weapon proliferation implications of the proposed activities. If Australia wants to avoid the temptation of selling nuclear goods to states that might use these goods to make bombs, it should only consider new nuclear activities that can be entirely financed by the private sector and turn a profit without having to resort to foreign sales. This policy would also enable Australia to set an important, new international nonproliferation standard.     

New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis

Drawing on evidence collected from eyewitness interviews, new Russian secondary sources, as well as recently declassified documents from both sides, the author significantly widens the academic understanding of the maritime dimension of this gravest crisis of the Cold War. Most significant is her conclusion that Soviet commanders were led by complex and challenging tactical circumstances, including unreliable communications and malfunctioning equipment, which might have prompted them to contemplate a resort to tactical nuclear weapons on more than one occasion. Almost as disturbing is the revelation that US forces were not aware of this particular threat. This research reveals how a chain of inadvertent developments at sea could have precipitated global nuclear war, underlining the extreme danger of the crisis.     

有人机/无人机协同空地攻击效能评估的综合指数模型

研究了未来有人机/无人机协同空地攻击的典型作战模式,然后根据混合编队的作战过程和特点,提出了一种建立有人机/无人机协同空地攻击效能评估的综合指数模型;同时确定了综合指数模型中各分系统和分项能力的评估模型。最后以6种有人机和6种无人机的协同空地攻击效能评估为例计算并检验了模型的可用性。     

舰机协同作战理论的两栖作战火力协同

为了提高航母编队的防空作战效能,必须对火力协同进行优化。提出一种舰艇与舰载机火力协同的方法,该方法在分析舰机协同防空作战火力协同体系的基础上,引入了舰机火力协同防空的概念,描述了舰机火力协同的对象、目标,分析了航母编队防空作战的三道防空警戒幕。通过对预警机引导巡逻机攻击过程的描述,建立舰载机的目标分配模型。在对内层防御区威胁度判断模型进行描述的基础上,建立舰艇的目标分配模型。最后的分析结果表明了该方法的可行性和有效性。     

基于Z形式化规范的多Agent协作模型研究

用形式化规范语言Z定义了多A gen t协作模型的基本元素,包括:A gen t、目标、角色、交互协议和过程,给出了应满足的一致性约束,并通过城市区域的连锁超市物流调度系统说明了该形式化规范为多A gen t协作提供了一致性和连贯性。     

Swedish–Finnish naval cooperation in the Baltic Sea: motives,prospects and challenges

Recently, Finland and Sweden decided to substantially deepen their defence cooperation and this project involves creating a bilateral standing Naval Task Group (SFNTG). The present article aims at examining the deepening naval cooperation between Finland and Sweden from a regional integration perspective, focusing on its motives, current challenges and future prospects. Driven by perceptions of common challenges and desires for cost-effectiveness, and strengthened by recent successes on sea surveillance and a combined Amphibious Task Unit, the bilateral project has considerable potential to achieve success. To fulfil its objectives, substantial legal changes in both countries are required to allow the use of force on each other’s territorial waters. To cater for the requirement of not conflicting with EU, NORDEFCO or NATO cooperations, the bilateral Task Group must operate according to NATO standards and by using English as the language in command and control. The costs of adjusting the naval units to NATO’s technical requirements are far from negligible and this issue still remains to be solved. If Finland and Sweden manage to incorporate new policies, common structures and common organisational norms among their navies, an even deeper integration, as in Belgium and the Netherlands, are conceivable.     

产学研合作模式下的校企“嵌入式”实践教学研究

中国经济结构的转型升级对“复合型优质人才”提出了更高的要求,为增强高等教育对社会的吸引力与竞争力,立足于优质复合型人才的培养,本文结合喀什大学生命与地理科学学院产学研合作模式下的“嵌入式”校企合作项目,结合生物技术专业校企嵌入式教学的特点,就现代教学中存在的问题、校企嵌入式下的实训基地建设内容、建设成效等方面进行阐述。探索出了一种基于工科专业实践教学的嵌入式复合型优质人才的培养方法。更好的实现学校、学生、企业和社会的“多赢”局面,让嵌入式复合型优质人才满足行业的需求,促进社会的发展和进步。     

The Provisional IRA,the Irish border,and Anglo-Irish relations during the Troubles

Using hitherto largely unexplored governmental archives from London and Dublin, this article focuses on the security challenges arising from the existence of the land frontier between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the significance of issues of cross-border security cooperation for Anglo-Irish relations from the beginning of the Troubles until the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. It argues that the relatively safe haven of the Republic was essential to the longevity of the IRA's campaign and that successive Irish governments exploited British security concerns to expand their political influence on Northern Ireland.     

A Novel Framework for Safeguarding Naval Nuclear Material

ABSTRACT

The present international standard allows non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) to forego safeguards when nuclear material is used in a “non-proscribed military activity,” though no criteria have been established to determine when NNWS can remove naval nuclear material from safeguards. Though at present, only nuclear-armed states possess nuclear submarines, the global nuclear naval landscape may soon change with the advancement of Brazil's fledgling program and the possible precedent it would set for other NNWS. A framework is needed to shore up nuclear security and prevent nuclear material diversion from the nuclear naval sector. Proposed and existing nonproliferation frameworks, including a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and commitments through the nuclear security summits, are insufficient to close this loophole. A Naval Use Safeguards Agreement (NUSA), modeled after the Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would provide a framework to remove the opacity surrounding nuclear material in the naval sector. Designed for NNWS and encouraged as confidence-building measures for nuclear weapon states, NUSA would explicitly outline those stages in the naval nuclear fuel cycle where safeguards are to be applied and in what context. This viewpoint also further provides direction for targeted research and development in technical naval nuclear safeguards solutions.