Public Interest Report: May 2016
President’s Message: Reinvention and Renewal
by Charles D. Ferguson
From its inception 70 years ago, the founders and members of the Federation of American Scientists were reinventing themselves.
The Legacy of the Federation of American Scientists
by Megan Sethi
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) formed after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, precisely because many scientists were genuinely concerned for the fate of the world now that nuclear weapons were a concrete reality.
Scientists and Nuclear Weapons, 1945-2015
by Robert S. Norris
Soon after the end of World War II, scientists mobilized themselves to address the pressing issues of how to deal with the many consequences of atomic energy.
Government Secrecy and Censorship
by Alexander DeVolpi
Our Soviet wartime ally, excluded from the American, British, and Canadian nuclear coalition, used its own espionage network to remain informed. Well-placed sympathizers and spies conveyed many essential details of nuclear-explosive development.
FAS History, 1961-1963
by Freeman Dyson
The meeting started predictably with a discussion of the Test Ban. Many of them spoke suggesting ways and means of getting the public more enthusiastic about the Test Ban.
FAS in the 1960s: Formative Years
by Daniel Singer
By 1960, the test ban treaty and creation of an Arms Control and Disarmament Agency had been added to the FAS agenda and the Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign was underway.
Revitalizing and Leading FAS: 1970-2000
by Jeremy J. Stone
At the beginning, critics whispered that FAS was just “Jeremy and a telephone” because I operated out of a one-room office and made a business of rounding up famous FAS sponsors and/or the FAS executive committee to sign off on my petitions and testimony. In fact, this was my modus operandi throughout the next 30 years.
FAS’s Contribution to Ending the Cold War Nuclear Arms Race
by Frank von Hippel
FAS, in partnership with Velikhov’s Committee of Soviet Scientists, made vital contributions to ending the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms race and the Cold War.
FAS Engagement With China
by Richard L. Garwin
We soon learned of the world travels of a delegation of Chinese scientists who were investigating environmental affairs and
remediation in other countries, and both NAS and FAS worked vigorously and enthusiastically to bring the delegation to the United States.
Nuclear Legacies: Public Understanding and FAS
by B. Cameron Reed
In late 1945, a group of scientists who had been involved with the Manhattan Project felt it was their civic duty to help inform the public and political leaders of both the potential benefits and dangers of nuclear energy.
More From FAS: Highlights and Achievements Throughout Recent Months
A military depot in central Belarus has recently been upgraded with additional security perimeters and an access point that indicate it could be intended for housing Russian nuclear warheads for Belarus’ Russia-supplied Iskander missile launchers.
The Indian government announced yesterday that it had conducted the first flight test of its Agni-5 ballistic missile “with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.
While many are rightly concerned about Russia’s development of new nuclear-capable systems, fears of substantial nuclear increase may be overblown.
Despite modernization of Russian nuclear forces and warnings about an increase of especially shorter-range non-strategic warheads, we do not yet see such an increase as far as open sources indicate.