Science and Scientists for a Nuclear‐Weapon‐Free World

NOV 01, 1989

Soviet scientists persuaded the USSR’s political leadership to downplay work on missile defenses during the 1970s and 1980s. Current cooperative research by Soviet and US scientists is laying the foundation for the elimination, with verification, of offensive weaponry.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881209

Evgeny P. Velikhov

The scientific communities of the USSR and the US have been active both in developing new weapons and in attempting to curb the arms race, or at least in trying to prevent it from leading to the ultimate catastrophe. Scientists on the two sides have worked sometimes independently and sometimes with a degree of interaction, direct or indirect.

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References

1. E. Velikhov, R. Sagdeev, A. Kokoshin, eds., Weaponry in Space: The Dilemma of Security, Mir, Moscow (1986).
2. H. K. Given, N. T. Tarasov, V. Zhuravlev, F. L. Vernon, J. Berger, I. L. Nersesov, “High‐Frequency Seismic Observations in Eastern Kazakhstan, USSR, with Emphasis on Chemical Explosion Experiments,” to appear in J. Geophys. Res.
3. R. E. Kidder, “Maintaining the US Stockpile of Nuclear Weapons During a Low‐Threshold or Comprehensive Test Ban,” report no. UCRL‐53820, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. (October 1987).
For a rebuttal, see G. H. Miller, P. S. Brown, C. T. Alonso, “Report to Congress on Stockpile Reliability, Weapon Remanufacture and the Role of Nuclear Testing,” report no. UCRL‐53822, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. (October 1987).

More about the Authors

Evgeny P. Velikhov. USSR Academy of Sciences.