Progress Policy Bite: Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power

Those of us born in the 1970s are still old enough to remember well the nuclear arms race of the Cold War between NATO and The Soviet Bloc Warsaw Pact nations. It was an era defined by Herman Kahn's doctrine of M.A.D., or mutually assured destruction.

There were several close calls. The Cuban missile crisis was one. A less well known incident involving a US silo in Japan was another. NORAD's computers nearly ended us all on at least one other occasion.

It does make one wonder if little green men are somehow intervening. That's a lot of luck to have.

These facts about the magnitude of consequences, plus facts about the frailty of human systems - no matter how technologically advanced - are the basis for my anti-nuclear stance, regardless of my otherwise almost unmitigated scientism and technology positivism.

No matter how good our techology and systems are: it's just too dangerous.

This policy position extends to nuclear power for one very good reason: intercontinental long range missiles and hypersonic weapons systems.

A stray hypersonic missile, or even a targeted one, can turn a nuclear power plant into a radioactive nightmare. Another very good reason is the vulnerability of digital computer control systems to cyber warfare. This was allegedly enough for Great Britain to recently threaten to increase the number of ICBMs in their arsenal.

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