And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isiah 2:4)
On my way to work this morning, I listened to a remarkable story on the radio. In the early 1990's, soon after the former Soviet Union had disintegrated, the United States was looking for ways to collaborate with its former adversary. The US Department of Energy assigned a man named Philip Sewell to understand what was happening to the Russian nuclear industry. He traveled throughout the Russian countryside and discovered that the uranium from thousands of decommissioned nuclear weapons was being stored in decaying buildings with little security. Fearful that the nuclear material would get into the wrong hands, Sewell got the DoE to persuade the Russians to sell their surplus material to the United States. Desparate for money, the Russians agreed. The deal specified that the Russia would convert 500 tons of bomb-grade material to nuclear fuel, and the US would buy it and resell it to commercial power plants back home. It was a win-win scenario. The Russians made $17 billion, and today, roughly 10% of the electricity produced in the United States has come from Russian nuclear warheads.
Think about it, 20,000 bombs' worth of nuclear material has been utilized for peaceful purposes. The nuclear sword has been beaten into a plowshare. A monumental, but little recognized diplomatic achievement.
The last shipment of nuclear material arrived at a US storage facility today. It will be sold to utilities in the coming years. The program is over. Now what?
On my way to work this morning, I listened to a remarkable story on the radio. In the early 1990's, soon after the former Soviet Union had disintegrated, the United States was looking for ways to collaborate with its former adversary. The US Department of Energy assigned a man named Philip Sewell to understand what was happening to the Russian nuclear industry. He traveled throughout the Russian countryside and discovered that the uranium from thousands of decommissioned nuclear weapons was being stored in decaying buildings with little security. Fearful that the nuclear material would get into the wrong hands, Sewell got the DoE to persuade the Russians to sell their surplus material to the United States. Desparate for money, the Russians agreed. The deal specified that the Russia would convert 500 tons of bomb-grade material to nuclear fuel, and the US would buy it and resell it to commercial power plants back home. It was a win-win scenario. The Russians made $17 billion, and today, roughly 10% of the electricity produced in the United States has come from Russian nuclear warheads.
Think about it, 20,000 bombs' worth of nuclear material has been utilized for peaceful purposes. The nuclear sword has been beaten into a plowshare. A monumental, but little recognized diplomatic achievement.
The last shipment of nuclear material arrived at a US storage facility today. It will be sold to utilities in the coming years. The program is over. Now what?
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