Fall
FAS Fall 2008 Public Interest Reports
Barack Obama’s decisive victory, based on the theme of change, provides a unique chance to make some basic approaches in key areas of national security and domestic policy. There will be a narrow window during which a new team can come forward with specific plans to implement the commitments made during the campaign and work with the Congress to get them passed quickly. It will be critical to pick the right list, to propose plans bold enough to match the need, and be prepared to argue forcibly for the urgency of the goals and the utility of the proposed solution… read more
D. Levine, director of the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is the recipient of the 2008 FAS Public Service Award for “his extraordinary contributions to energy efficiency research and for his work in China to build a strong energy program.”…read more
I’m very much honored to receive this award. And now I’m going to talk about three topics. I want to tell you about the China Energy Group because my colleagues deserve the credit and even more so our colleagues in China…read more
No topic has risen more quickly in recent years than procuring green energy alternatives to help combat climate change. How can China and the United States work together to stop global climate change? What can the new U.S. president do to help China become more energy efficient? On 25 September 2008, the Federation of American Scientists hosted a panel discussion on this topic at the University of California, Berkeley…. read more
I wish to thank the Commission for giving me the opportunity to participate in this hearing. I consider the topic, “China’s Energy Policies and their Environmental Impacts,” to be one of great importance. I believe there are misunderstandings in both China and the United States surrounding this topic that cause both countries to miss opportunities for fruitful collaboration. Perhaps the greatest of these misunderstandings is the failure to recognize that China has in the past (1980-2000) and is again putting tremendous effort into reducing growth of energy-related CO2 emissions through the design and implementation of aggressive and innovative energy efficiency policies…. read more
The Federation of American Scientists has chosen Raymond Jeanloz, a professor of geophysics and astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, as the recipient of the 2008 Hans Bethe Award for “his demonstration of the reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile in the presence of a moratorium on nuclear testing… read more
26 September 2008 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, CA
“Thank you. It was a complete surprise learning of the award, and it is an overwhelming honor to have one’s name associated with that of Hans Bethe. Consummate citizen-scientist, leader of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs during a time of war, he was the one to explain to the world how nuclear fusion makes the Sun shine, and makes life possible. Fusion also powers thermonuclear weapons – the hydrogen bomb – and may someday provide vast amounts of energy to sustain our civilization… read more
Despite the financial meltdown and impending energy crisis, the most important issues the next president of the United States will face are in the areas of nuclear security, nuclear terrorism, and nonproliferation and arms control. What will U.S. nuclear policy look like for the 21st century?…read more
Prof. James C. Warf, a veteran of the Manhattan Project and an early member of the Federation of American Scientists, died last November 7 at age 91. During World War II, he led the analytical chemistry section of the Manhattan Project. He held multiple patents on the separation of plutonium from high-level nuclear waste. “This was a matter of some regret to him because the technology was then used to proliferate nuclear weapons worldwide,” Daniel Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge the Gap told the Los Angeles Times (Nov. 9, 2008). “He spent much of his life trying to reduce the risks that erupted when the genie was let out of the bottle.”… read more
Congress has authorized a major new research center, the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, that will bring the same focused, sustained research funding to technology and learning that the federal government has funded for years in technology for health care at the National Institutes of Health and technology for energy at the Department of Energy….read more
Entering our 64th year, the Federation of American Scientists continues to pursue the best use of science and technology for the benefit of mankind.
In the next three years, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with its critically important verification procedures will expire, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will come up for international review, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) may be resubmitted to the United States Senate for ratification. All of this will occur in a new political environment that includes an ever growing momentum for working toward the global abolition of nuclear weapons. At no time since the end of the Cold War has there been a greater need for the sound scientific, technical, and policy analysis provided by FAS…read more
The election of Barack Obama and a new political landscape in the Congress inaugurates a renewal for Washington science and technology policy. We at FAS are working hard to understand the priorities of the new leadership and the people we should work with. This PIR covers two themes that we will be pursuing with increased emphasis in the coming year: technologies that can address energy and climate challenges around the world, and developing a practical path to a world free of nuclear weapons. FAS hosted two major conferences on these subjects in California during our most recent Board meeting… read more
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