Really useful background on the situation with Iran

(From Oscar)
About the nuclear crisis, in 4 minutes (with some opinion added): Background on the history of the US and Iran:

Russia and India - nuclear power deal?

From Jamie: 
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/12/india-build-nuclear-reactors-with-russia-2014121110318518210.html
I feel like it's a little suspicious for these two countries to collaborate so enthusiastically and at the same time I feel that maybe the United States should not warn or give advice so confidently.

Nuclear safety... and nuclear subs

From Caleb, here's an article that outlines part of the model we use for mandating safety measures, namely establishing a cost per human life risked in order to create a cost-benefit comparison. The international community is putting pressure on the U.S. to agree to new international policies regarding nuclear safety. Even Russia is on the sane side. U.S. business interests, however, are campaigning very hard to keep the U.S. from agreeing and thereby raising costs by imposing new safety standards.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/american-lives-valued-at-6-million-less-in-nuclear-meltdown.html


Also, from the related articles on Bloomberg, China is launching nuclear subs that will change the dynamic of nuclear politics between Asia and the west http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-08/china-takes-nuclear-weapons-undersea-where-prying-eyes-can-t-see.html

We shouldn't worry though, they probably wouldn't be able to bomb anywhere in the U.S. besides Hawaii and Alaska. So fewer Palins and volcanoes. I'd miss the bears though.

Government fined for violations on nuclear waste

From Megan, here's an article about a fine (of $54m) New Mexico placed on the Federal Government for violations of nuclear waste.
http://rt.com/usa/212215-new-mexico-nuclear-fine/

White Light/Black Rain
HBO Documentary

This documentary by Steven Okazaki examines the aftereffects of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The movie interviews 14 survivors of the bombing, and investigates the trauma of living through that event.  In addition, the movie looks more broadly at the effects on the national psyche of postwar Japan. Several Americans who were involved in the bombings are also profiled to gauge their perspectives looking back.  You can watch the whole thing via this youtube link, or on HBOgo if you have a subscription.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpMZkXXHf6o


-Taylor Larson

New Defense Secretary and Nuclear Implications?

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nuclear-weapons-military-hagel-20141114-story.html#page=1
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/defense-secretary-chuck-hagel-resigning/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/04/obama-ashton-carter-chuck-hagel-defense-secretary/19895589/

Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced an overhaul of management in nuclear force along with improvements and modernization of weapons and facilities on November 14. Ten days later, he resigned and this morning Obama announced his nomination of Ashton Carter as new Secretary of Defense. Carter was involved in nuclear management, disarmament both domestically and internationally as well as removal of nuclear materials from certain countries. It seems likely, in my opinion, for him to continue with this policy of reduction, especially with the Obama administration, and it is unclear whether Hagel's policy will be continued.

Rachel

History of the Iconic Peace Sign

The "Peace Sign"was originally designed as the symbol of the CND- Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. CND was launched in February of 1958 and soon after the Aldermaston Marches attracted attention, this was the first time the CND symbol appeared. The Aldermaston marches were anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in the 1950's and 1960's demonstrated on easter weekend. The distance between Aldermaston and London is 52 miles.
http://cnduk.org/about/item/437

-Kristi

Ukraine Nuclear Plant Accident

Ukraine nuclear accident 'no threat': Minister

It is interesting to see the level of calm surrounding a mishap at a nuclear plant.
Though it was a small incident, the accident has the potential to cause hysteria as it deals with such a sensitive topic of nuclear plants and the danger involved with them. The article shows how media can set a distinct mood when announcing events and thus affects the way we all approach these incidents.

In addition to that, the writer ends the article noting the amount ("60 million tonnes") of coal the Ukraine produced--inviting an even larger discussion (of coal vs. nuclear energy) and a possible explanation for the moderate tone of the article and surrounding the incident.

-Jamie G.

ISAO HASHIMOTO

An interesting video of the 2053 nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe. Quite similar to the video of the number of earthquakes in Japan each year, Hashimoto intended to evoke "the fear and the folly of nuclear weapons."

"This piece of work is a bird's eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world."

Overkillded by Isao puts the number of explosions into a creepy time lapse perspective

I think it's interesting how Isao expresses explosions in different forms in his work. The elegance and simplicity of this video reminds me of the pedestal that we put these tests on. 

-Kristi

So many things are wrong here...

I recommend this recent opinion piece talking about the situation today in Eniwetok Atoll, a small island in the pacific where the U.S. did many nuclear tests in the past.  The article only has one side of the story, but it is pretty mind-blowing that we (the U.S.) have left things in such a state:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/opinion/a-pacific-isle-radioactive-and-forgotten.html

Uranium mine found in Sahara Desert

http://imgur.com/gallery/6gE7D

- Jacob C

Nuclear Weapons Modernization

There have been a number of news stories popping up lately about investing more money into modernizing, remaking, and even testing nuclear weapons again.  Here's one from the LA Times - an interesting read, perhaps relevant for your final papers?