Tag: nuclear weapons

The U.S. government secretly dosed millions with radioactive iodine—and what they’re hiding now

The invisible poison: How I-131 infiltrated America

Unlike natural background radiation, I-131 is a man-made isotope with a sinister affinity for the thyroid gland. Once released, it clung to grass, seeped into cows’ milk, and found its way into the bodies of unsuspecting children—the most vulnerable to its effects. The National Cancer Institute admits that nearly every American alive during the testing era ingested this radioactive poison. Yet, at the time, officials dismissed concerns, assuring the public that fallout was “harmless.”

Historical records reveal a darker truth: the government knew. Internal documents from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) acknowledged the risks but prioritized Cold War dominance over public safety. As Princeton’s research shows, fallout maps paint a damning picture—radioactive particles didn’t stop at state lines. They blanketed the nation, carried by rain into soil, water, and food supplies.

The great betrayal: Lies, lawsuits, and a legacy of suffering

The government’s silence wasn’t just negligence—it was a criminal conspiracy. By the time the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was passed in 1990, generations had already suffered. Thyroid cancer rates spiked in high-fallout zones, yet victims were met with bureaucratic hurdles. “Prove it was our nukes,” officials demanded, knowing full well that decades-old exposures were nearly impossible to trace.

Dr. Helen Caldicott, a renowned anti-nuclear advocate, put it bluntly: “This was a mass poisoning, sanctioned by the state.” Even today, RECA’s payouts are a pittance compared to the suffering inflicted. And what of the unstudied fallout from Soviet tests, Pacific detonations, or Hiroshima’s radioactive blow back? Researchers suspect California and the Pacific Northwest bore the brunt—but without comprehensive studies, the full toll remains hidden.

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US to Spend $1 Trillion on Nuclear Weapons Over Next Decade

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Washington will spend $1 trillion from 2025 to 2034 on modernizing and operating America’s strategic arsenal.

“If carried out, DoD’s and DOE’s plans to operate, sustain, and modernize current nuclear forces and purchase new forces would cost a total of $946 billion over the 2025–2034 period, or an average of about $95 billion a year, CBO estimates,” the report says.

The spending includes $357 billion on operating nuclear weapons and delivery systems, $460 billion on modernization projects, and $130 billion in expected cost overruns. The CBO report notes that Pentagon plans often cost significantly more than projected.

The forecast in this year’s CBO report is $93 billion higher than the estimate produced last year.

“Weapons programs frequently cost more than originally budgeted amounts for a variety of reasons.” It continues, “If nuclear force programs exceeded planned amounts at roughly the same rates that costs for similar programs have grown in the past, they would cost an additional $129 billion over the next decade, $33 billion more over 10 years than CBO estimated in 2023.”

Washington is in the process of a major nuclear weapons upgrade. The US is developing a new bomber, an intercontinental ballistic missile, and a submarine capable of firing nuclear weapons.

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‘Zero enrichment’ fantasies will lead us to war

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that “very good things” are happening in his nuclear diplomacy with Iran, adding, “I think they’re being very reasonable thus far.” His optimistic tone was echoed by Iranian diplomats and Omani mediators, with Iran’s foreign minister describing the talks this weekend as “more serious” and “more detailed” than past meetings. Yet behind the upbeat rhetoric, a more complex and challenging reality is taking shape.

While earlier rounds made progress toward limiting—though not eliminating—Iran’s nuclear enrichment, even prompting parallel technical discussions, the latest round saw a slight reversal. The setback stemmed from the U.S. insistence on the unrealistic demand that Iran abandon domestic enrichment entirely.

Shutting down Iran’s more than 20,600 centrifuges is not required to achieve Trump’s stated goal of preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon. Nonetheless, it remains a long-standing demand of hardliners such as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and John Bolton. Many of them understood that insisting on total Iranian capitulation was the quickest path to derailing diplomacy and laying the groundwork for war.

There are several reasons why Trump should not allow himself to be pushed into pursuing the zero-enrichment fantasy.

First, this goal has not only proven unattainable but also counterproductive, gifting Iran more time to advance its program while delaying the constraints a realistic, verification-based agreement would impose.

In 2003, Iran proposed to the U.S. a comprehensive deal aimed at resolving all major disputes, including limits on its enrichment program. At the time, Tehran had just 164 centrifuges, no stockpile of low-enriched uranium, and no capability to enrich above 3.67 percent—sufficient for civilian fuel but far below the 90 percent required for nuclear weapons.

As I describe in Treacherous Alliance, the Bush administration not only ignored the proposal but also punished the Swiss ambassador in Tehran for delivering Iran’s diplomatic overture to Washington. For Bush, nothing short of zero enrichment and regime change in Iran was acceptable.

In the absence of a deal, Iran’s nuclear program steadily expanded. By 2006, it was operating over 3,000 centrifuges. The Bush administration reluctantly agreed to support European-led talks but imposed a fatal precondition: Iran had to halt enrichment before negotiations could begin. Predictably, diplomacy stalled—and Iran’s program advanced unchecked.

By the time Barack Obama took office in 2009, Iran was operating 8,000 centrifuges and had stockpiled 1,500 kg of low-enriched uranium—enough for one nuclear weapon if further enriched. Obama’s early diplomatic efforts faltered, but by 2012, secret talks in Oman produced a breakthrough since, for the first time, the U.S. signaled it would accept enrichment in Iran in exchange for strict limits and intrusive inspections.

This breakthrough paved the way for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. By the time it was implemented, Iran had expanded its program to 19,000 centrifuges and amassed over 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium.

Over the past two decades, the persistent demand for zero enrichment—an unachievable goal—has only resulted in a larger and more advanced Iranian nuclear program by postponing realistic, enforceable limits on enrichment.

While these delays were damaging in the past, they pose an even greater risk today amid the looming crisis over potential UN snapback sanctions. This is yet another reason why Trump should avoid falling into the zero-enrichment trap.

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The Nuclear Missile Launch Sites Buried Under Greenland’s Ice Revealed

Camp Century, part of a secret Pentagon plan called Project Iceworm, was designed in the late 1950s as a hidden network of nuclear missile launch sites beneath Greenland’s ice. Built in 1959 and abandoned by 1967 due to unstable ice, the facility was meant to store 600 medium-range ballistic missiles.

Today, it lies buried under at least 100 feet of ice, according to the Wall Street Journal, who wrote a lengthy piece on the sites this week.

Although presented as a research station, its real military purpose remained classified until 1996. Nina Erofeeva explained: “The first [licenses] have been received for the creation of oil storage facilities, in the Krasnoyarsk territory. This was also an unusual case. Russia has never had oil storage facilities. Oil has always been pumped through pipelines. Given recent events and the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic zone, oil storage facilities are needed in several regions. Accordingly, oil will be placed in these oil storage facilities so as not to burn it during pilot development.”

With 21 tunnels stretching nearly two miles under the ice, the base housed around 200 personnel and operated on nuclear power. Robert Weiss, a physician stationed there in the early 1960s, recalled: “We did realize that it was important; that the Russians could come over the top of the Pole.”

Life at Camp Century was harsh but bearable. “When I got there, it was blowing snow and minus 50 degrees,” Weiss said, remembering how he spent weeks underground. “It wasn’t very hard living from that standpoint.” Joking about the isolation, he added: “We used to say that there was a pretty girl behind every tree. Of course, there was one problem: There were no trees.”

The Journal writes that the base’s full scale wasn’t revealed until April last year, when NASA’s cryospheric scientist, Greene, captured the first complete images using advanced ice-penetrating radar. “You see how the buildings and tunnels were connected, how people had to move about in their day-to-day life, and think what a wild experience it must have been to be stationed there,” Greene said.

The U.S. presence in Greenland has long been controversial. During the Cold War, the U.S. operated 17 bases there and stationed about 10,000 troops. Today, fewer than 200 remain at Pituffik Space Base.

Tensions rose again when President Trump openly criticized Denmark for not securing Greenland and even suggested taking the island by force for U.S. security. Denmark reminded Washington of the 1951 treaty that already allows U.S. bases there but firmly rejected any takeover.

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Iran Rejects ‘Unacceptable’ US Demand To Dismantle Nuclear Sites

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has thrown cold water on the possibility of dismantling its nuclear facilities, which Tehran maintains are only for peaceful domestic energy purposes.

But top US officials have called for just that. Starting earlier this month Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran has to ‘walk away’ from uranium enrichment and long-range missile development, while Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff just days ago went further, asserting that Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities “have to be dismantled” for Washington to trust that it does not want nuclear arms.

Pezeshkian in the fresh comments blasted the demand as “unacceptable” and framed it as a matter of national sovereignty and independent development.

“The discussion that has been raised about dismantling Iran’s entire nuclear facilities is unacceptable to us,” the Iranian president said, adding that “Iran will not give up its peaceful nuclear rights.“

Still, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi acknowledged Sunday that negotiations with the United States in Oman had become “much more serious and frank” – which suggests positive momentum toward restoring a deal or at least an understanding on which to build a working relationship with Washington.

Araqchi in the comments given to Iran’s state-run IRIB TV characterized “forward-moving” talks with the US over an array of complex nuclear-related issues.

This is despite last Thursday’s provocative comments given to Breitbart wherein bluntly stated, “They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a far-away place.”

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Bringing Back Medium Range Ballistic Missiles Fast Tracked Under Proposed $150B Defense Boost

The U.S. Army could be in line to get nearly $640 million in extra funding for new medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM), including ones capable of hitting ships at sea.

Work on MRBMs, a long-range strike capability the Army has not had since the end of the Cold War, is one of a slew of efforts that would be accelerated by a $150 billion defense spending package recently proposed by members of Congress. The Army is already looking at a medium-range version of its Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missile, but the legislation on the table now may also point to a new design in the works.

The current Republican Party chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees rolled out the proposed multi-billion-dollar defense spending legislation yesterday. If passed and signed into law, it would provide funds to accelerate work on a host of advanced capabilities across the U.S. military, including, but certainly not limited to the Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation stealth fighter programs, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, a new sea-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile, new medium landing ships for the U.S. Marine Corps, and President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Additional funding to help expand the U.S. defense industrial base to meet these and other demands, as well as spur further research and development, is also part of the package.

When it comes to Army MRBMs, the spending plan includes four separate provisions amounting to a combined $639 million:

  • “$175,000,000 for production capacity expansion for next-generation Army medium-range ballistic missiles”
  • “$50,000,000 for the accelerated development of Army next-generation medium-range anti-ship ballistic missiles”
  • “$114,000,000 for the production of Army next-generation medium-range ballistic missiles”
  • “$300,000,000 for the production of Army medium-range ballistic missiles”

The legislation does not name any specific Army MRBM program, and TWZ has reached out for more information.

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The Hidden Alliance: U.S. Presidents and Israel’s Nuclear Power

In his 2006 Senate confirmation hearings for the position of Secretary of Defense, former CIA Director Robert Gates remarked, while he was serving as a university president, that Iran is encircled by “nuclear-armed powers,” specifically mentioning “the Israelis to the west.” Additionally, former President Jimmy Carter has reiterated this point in both 2008 and 2014 during various interviews and speeches, where he estimated Israel’s nuclear arsenal to be between 150 and 300 warheads. According to its own policy, Israel neither officially confirms nor denies that it has nuclear weapons. The Israeli strategy of ambiguity, known as ‘Amimut’, is understood as a means to safeguard both Israel and its nuclear program. According to Israeli sources, Amimut comprises two key components:

“(1) maintaining the confidentiality of its nuclear operations, which involves refraining from testing or publicly declaring the possession of nuclear weapons, and (2) enhancing its nuclear profile through strategic leaks, public statements, and speculation, alongside the dissemination of indirect evidence regarding its nuclear capabilities.”

Declassified US State Department documents show that by the end of the 1960s, Israel was nearing the achievement of its nuclear objectives, prompting the involvement of Kissinger and Nixon. A memorandum from the State Department to Kissinger in 1969 stated:

“Intelligence suggests that Israel is swiftly advancing its ability to manufacture and deploy nuclear weapons, with delivery methods including surface-to-surface missiles or aircraft.”

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Latest US nuclear gravity bomb enters production

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has shown off the United States’ latest nuclear weapon as full production begins seven months ahead of schedule. The B61-13 variable-yield gravity bomb is part of a major program to modernize the American nuclear deterrent.

Nuclear weapons may seem like a relic of the Cold War that isn’t very pleasant to think about, but the are still front and center when it comes to geopolitics.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, cuts to the American and Russian arsenals have drastically reduced the number of combined warheads on alert from a high of between 8,000 and 9,000 to only about 1,800 combined, which includes both strategic and tactical weapons. However, nuclear deterrence has become much more complex as rogue states have striven to acquire atom bombs and China has gone from having an “arsenal in being” with a handful of warheads kept in storage to an estimated 24 weapons on alert as it moves to a more nuclear-centered strategy.

Because of this, the US has embarked on a program to extend the life of and to modernize its nuclear arsenal to make sure it remains safe and reliable as well as being able to counter the threats of the 21st century.

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NAT SEC ARCHIVE: Concerned About Nuclear Weapons, JFK Pushed for Inspection of Israel Nuclear Facilities

President John F Kennedy worried that Israel’s nuclear program was a potentially serious proliferation risk and insisted that Israel permit periodic inspections to mitigate the danger, according to declassified documents published today by the National Security Archive, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.  Kennedy pressured the government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to prevent a military nuclear program, particularly after stage-managed tours of the Dimona facility for U.S. government scientists in 1961 and 1962 raised suspicions within U.S. intelligence that Israel might be concealing its underlying nuclear aims.  Kennedy’s long-run objective, documents show, was to broaden and institutionalize inspections of Dimona by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On 30 May 1961, Kennedy met Ben-Gurion in Manhattan to discuss the bilateral relationship and Middle East issues. However, a central (and indeed the first) issue in their meeting was the Israeli nuclear program, about which President Kennedy was most concerned.   According to a draft record of their discussion, which has never been cited, and is published here for the first time, Ben-Gurion spoke “rapidly and in a low voice” and “some words were missed.”  He emphasized the peaceful, economic development-oriented nature of the Israeli nuclear project. Nevertheless the note taker, Assistant Secretary of State Philips Talbot, believed that he heard Ben-Gurion mention a “pilot” plant to process plutonium for “atomic power” and also say that “there is no intention to develop weapons capacity now.” Ben-Gurion tacitly acknowledged that the Dimona reactor had a military potential, or so Talbot believed he had heard.  The final U.S. version of the memcon retained the sentence about plutonium but did not include the language about a “pilot” plant and  “weapons capacity.”

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US Intelligence Says Iran Is ‘Not Building a Nuclear Weapon’

US intelligence agencies have reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.

“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Gabbard’s comments were based on the annual threat assessment, which is released by the ODNI with input from all US intelligence agencies. The report did note that there have been more calls inside Iran to reverse the ban on nuclear weapons, which have grown in response to Israeli aggression in the region.

“In the past year, there has been an erosion of a decades-long taboo on discussing nuclear weapons in public that has emboldened nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decisionmaking apparatus,” the report reads. “Khamenei remains the final decision maker over Iran’s nuclear program, to include any decision to develop nuclear weapons.”

The threat assessment comes amid increasing US sanctions and threats of military action over Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials have rejected the idea of talks with the US in the face of President Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign,” but have said the door is open for indirect negotiations.

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