Nuclear Policy News – June 10, 2019

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Top News

House defense bill sets stage for contentious nuclear debate
The Hill

The world is heading for a new missile arms race
Quartz

A rare tour of the tunnel that is ground zero for a nuclear waste controversy
CBS News

U.S. Nuclear Policy

House defense bill sets stage for contentious nuclear debate
The Hill6/10/19
Nuclear issues are shaping up to be among the most contentious issues as Congress debates this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with Republicans already coming out strongly against what’s in the bill.

House Bill Silent on Space Force, Sets Up Debate on Nuke Modernization
Breaking Defense6/10/19
House Democrats release a 2020 defense policy bill that requires the Pentagon to write plenty of reports, but eases away from the HASC Chairman’s earlier remarks on nuclear modernization.

Army Charts New Path for Air and Missile Defense
National Defense6/10/19
To counter new and evolving weapons on the battlefield, the Army has created a new roadmap aimed at beefing up its air-and-missile defense force.

Middle East

Pentagon Warns Turkey of Sanctions Over Russian Missile System
Foreign Policy6/10/19
Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan warned his Turkish counterpart in a letter last week the U.S. could levy sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, over Ankara’s decision to move forward with the contentious purchase of a Russian missile system that U.S. officials say threatens the F-35 fighter jet.

IAEA chief worried about rising tensions over Iran nuclear issue
Reuters6/10/19
The U.N. atomic watchdog’s chief said on Monday he was worried about rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and called for de-escalation through dialogue, departing from his usual guarded language on the country.

Germany’s Maas: Europe will stick to Iran’s nuclear deal, but cannot work miracles
Reuters6/10/19
Britain, France and Germany are committed to stick to their commitments from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, adding that it was important to keep on talking to avoid a military escalation.

Opinion/Analysis/Commentary

Is It Too Late to Stop a New Cold War With China?
The New York TimesStephen Wertheim
6/8/2019
Led by President Trump, Washington is swiftly and decisively turning against the world’s No. 2 power. That could be disastrous.

The world is heading for a new missile arms race
QuartzTim Fernholz
6/9/19
The world is witnessing a huge growth in the number of ballistic missiles used to threaten enemies thousands of kilometers away with conventional and nuclear weapons, as tensions ratchet higher between world powers and international arms agreements fall by the wayside.

Did China Really Test a New Submarine-Launched Nuclear Missile?
The National InterestMichael Peck
6/8/2019
Last week, world media was abuzz with reports that China had test-fired the JL-3, its most advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile. But did it really happen?

Henry Kissinger’s Mixed Record on Nuclear Arms Control
Arms Control WonkMichael Krepon
6/10/2019
“Henry, like most geniuses, has spectacular talents but corresponding faults. He was amazingly successful juggling a profusion of balls while pirouetting atop a highwire. When some of these balls dropped, however, it was obvious that devotion to truth was not always his guiding principle.”

Special Interest

A rare tour of the tunnel that is ground zero for a nuclear waste controversy
CBS News6/10/19
About 100 miles outside Las Vegas, deep in a remote patch of desert, is a $19 billion hole in the ground. That’s how much it has cost to fight over and build a five-mile test tunnel under Yucca Mountain. Now largely abandoned for almost a decade, it was designed to be the answer to America’s nuclear waste problem – a problem still piling up at faraway places, like San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, where engineers produced power for half a century.

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