To 10 May – the week in nuclear news
Growing number of Asian countries ravaged by fresh coronavirus waves. World Health Organisation updates its coronavirus advice, acknowledging aerosol transmission as the major source of infection. Covid-19: hopes for ‘Herd Immunity’ fade as virus hurtles toward becoming endemic. Biden’s proposal to waive patent rights for vaccine production has raised quite a storm.
Climate change: how bad could the future be, if we do nothing?
And now – to nuclear issues. There have been a number of important articles this week, on nuclear weapons in space – the militarisation of space. It’s ironic that a big news discussion has also gone on, about an ”out-of-control” Chinese rocket, that could have hit land and caused havoc. Ever ready to put a comforting Western spin on the news, this incident was used by the media to show how very safe U.S. rockets are, in comparison with those reckless Chinese efforts.
(Stanford University Press).
The recent announcement by the British government that it plans a 40 percent increase in the number of nuclear weapons it possesses highlights the escalation of the exceptionally dangerous and costly nuclear arms race.
After decades of progress in reducing nuclear arsenals through arms control and disarmament agreements, all the nuclear powers are once again busily upgrading their nuclear weapons capabilities. For several years, the U.S. government has been engaged in a massive nuclear “modernization” program, designed to refurbish its production facilities, enhance existing weapons, and build new ones. The Russian government, too, is investing heavily in beefing up its nuclear forces, and in July 2020, President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian navy would soon be armed with hypersonic nuclear weapons and underwater nuclear drones. Meanwhile, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea are expanding the size of their nuclear a