Silencing the bomb : one scientist's quest to halt nuclear testing / Lynn R. Sykes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sykes, L. R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (1996 September 10).

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Sykes, L. R.

Nuclear weapons--Testing.

Nuclear weapons.

Nuclear arms control.

Physical Description:

xv, 284 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]

Summary:

In December 2016, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved their iconic "Doomsday Clock" thirty seconds forward to two and a half minutes to midnight, the latest it has been set since 1952, the year of the first United States hydrogen bomb test. But a group of scientists-geologists, engineers, and physicists-has been fighting to turn back the clock. Since the dawn of the Cold War, they have advocated a halt to nuclear testing, their work culminating in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which still awaits ratification from China, Iran, North Korea-and the United States. The backbone of the treaty is every nation's ability to independently monitor the nuclear activity of the others. The noted seismologist Lynn R. Sykes, one of the central figures in the development of the science and technology used in monitoring, has dedicated his career to halting nuclear testing. In Silencing the Bomb, he tells the inside story behind scientists' quest for disarmament. Called upon time and again to testify before Congress and to inform the public, Sykes and his colleagues were, for much of the Cold War, among the only people on earth able to say with certainty when and where a bomb was tested and how large it was. Methods of measuring earthquakes, researchers realized, could also detect underground nuclear explosions. When politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain attempted to sidestep disarmament or test ban treaties, Sykes was able to deploy the nascent science of plate tectonics to reveal the truth.

Contents:

1 A Hurried Trip To Moscow In 1974 To Negotiate The Threshold Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 1

2 Development And Testing of Nuclear Weapons 7

3 From The Early Negotiations To Halt Nuclear Testing To The Limited Test Ban Treaty Of 1963 17

4 Attempts To Hide Nuclear Tests: The Big-Hole Evasion Scheme 40

5 U.S. Overestimate of Sizes of Soviet Underground Explosions: 1961-1974 55

6 New Methods To Identify Underground Tests: 1963-1973 62

7 Congressional Hearings On A Comprehensive Test Ban 75

8 Peaceful Nuclear Explosions 83

9 Heated Controversies Over Yields of Soviet Tests And An Unsuccessful Attempt At A CTBT 91

10 Continued Debate About Yields, Accusations Of Soviet Cheating On The Threshold Treaty, And Its Entry Into Force 103

11 Renewed Interest In A CTBT, The OTA Report, And The Group Of Scientific Experts: 1979-1996 127

12 Dealing With "Problem" Or "Anomalous" Events In The Ussr and Russian Republic: 1972-2009 143

13 Negotiating The Comprehensive Test Ban: Global Monitoring, 1993-2016 159

14 Monitoring Nuclear Tests Sites and Countries of Special Concern To The United States 174

15 Senate Rejection of The CTBT In 1999 195

16 The CTBT Task Force And The 2002 And 2012 Reports Of The National Academies 211

17 Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Soviet And U.S. Parity 232

18 Nuclear War, False Alarms, Accidents, Arms Control, And Ways Forward 242.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Sykes, L.R. Silencing the bomb.

ISBN:

9780231182485

0231182481

OCLC:

987738406