Topics

An intelligence sharing forum involving the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

The September 11 attacks in 2001 focused attention on the risk of non-state actors acquiring weapons of mass destruction. 

AQ Khan was a key individual associated with Pakistan nuclear program and the early nuclear programs of a number of other countries including North Korea and Iran. 

A synonym for machine learning. Not to be mistaken for actual artificial intelligence, which does not exist. 

Atoms for Peace was an initiative launched to share nuclear technology as a result of a speech by President Eisenhower in 1954. 

A partnership between the US, UK and Australia focused on the provision of nuclear submarines to Australia and other strategic cooperation.

A concept and technology that can allow for the shooting down of incoming ballistic missiles.

Offensive weapons that are generally propelled for the start or their flight before following a ballistic trajectory. 

Bernard Baruch was the US representative to the UNAEC and was thus a key figure in the early nuclear age. 

A strong, lightweight material with civil, aerospace and nuclear applications. 

Command and control as defined here relates to the process for authorising the release and launching nuclear weapons. 

An export control regime that functioned during the Cold War and which was disbanded in the 1990s.

An Israeli nuclear site. 

A key international forum for nonproliferation and disarmament negotiations. A forum in which the NPT was negotiated. 

A high powered phenomena resulting primarily from the detonation of nuclear weapons that can cause temporary interruption to electronic devices.

Espionage (spying) has taken place throughout the nuclear age and before. 

A European forum separate from the EU that focuses on nuclear cooperation between European states. 

Export controls are measures used by states to control the export of technology. Export controls can be coordinated between states through export control regimes and other measures. 

Full Scope Safeguards (FSSG) - a concept in which all nuclear facilities in a country are subject to safeguards. Distinct from other types of safeguards including INFCIRC. 66 (or facility specific) safeguards.

A group of economically developed countries who coordinate on certain economic and security issues.

Country in Europe. Note that during the Cold War more specific terms were used such as FRG and West Germany which might have other entries in the topic list. 

Water with deuterated hydrogen which has certain nuclear applications. 

US official who was pivotal in nuclear and strategic thinking. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA has a dedicated repository on this site. 

A program in the late 1970s and early 1980s to examine whether reprocessing is necessary in nuclear fuel cycles. 

Interpretations can be associated with any international treaty. As used here, interpretations relates to different interpretations of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty principally from the US and Soviet Union. 

Electrical items used in uranium enrichment centrifuges. 

A town in Pakistan that also hosts a nuclear facility of the same name (sometimes called the Khan Research Laboratory)

A nuclear facility in Pakistan

A euphemism for replacing or rebuilding old nuclear weapons and delivery systems with new ones.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

A nuclear doctrine in which nuclear armed states declare that they will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against potential adversaries. 

A difficult to define class of nuclear weapons (i.e. tactical nuclear weapons) whose main characteristic is that they are not strategic nuclear weapons (i.e. weapons that are mounted on international continental ballistic missiles)

The political decision making body of NATO. 

A concept and practice associated with ensuring nuclear facilities and material cannot be accessed by malicious actors (and particularly terrorists and other non-state actors). 

Generally the possibility that a terrorist could steal and deliberately set off a nuclear weapon. Could also apply to terrorism at a nuclear facility. Generally does not cover radiological terrorism or dirty bombs. 

Operation Candor was the name of a US initiative that ultimately resulted in the Atoms for Peace speech. 

A concept in which a nuclear explosive device is used for non weapon purposes such as mining. 

Post-War Controls refers to efforts to agree controls in the 1945-1950 period including through the work of the UN Atomic Energy Commission.

Former President of the United States. Has a dedicated repository on this site. 

President of the Russian Federation

Former President of the United States.

An agreement between the US and UK in the early nuclear age. 

A nuclear fuel cycle step in which plutonium (and potentially uranium) is separated from nuclear waste. A key step in most nuclear weapons programs. 

A concept and doctrine in which a nuclear weapons state strikes back against a nuclear strike on its territory with its own nuclear weapons. Implies the ability to sustain a nuclear attack while maintaining sufficent nuclear forces for a retaliation strike.

Sessions of the UN focused on nonproliferation and disarmament. 

City in Russia

A nuclear reactor complex in India.

Sometimes known as the hydrogen bomb, thermonuclear weapons are typically more powerful than conventional nuclear weapons (or single stage devices). 

Uranium is the naturally occurring (non-fissile) isotope used as the basis of all fissile nuclear fuel cycle activity. Content tagged uranium is likely related to the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle. 

A key US official from the early nuclear age who was instrumental in the Manhattan project and who was particularly important in relation to US/UK/Canadian cooperation.

Vera refers to a sensor on satellites. The Vera incident refers to a possible nuclear test in 1979. 

An export control regime formed in the 1990s to coordinate the control of military and military-relevant dual-use technologies. 

Weapons of Mass Destruction is a shorthand for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The term became burdened as a result of the US invasion of Iraq based partly on flawed intelligence about Iraq's WMD. 

US official who was on the policy planning staff in the 1970s.