Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons (ISBN 0231135106)

Strong on policy; watch the physics:
This book reviews the history of nuclear weapons and nonproliferation agreements and offers some solutions to the threat of nuclear terrorism as well as ideas to address lack of security of the nuclear fuel supply and preventing the development of new nuclear-weapon states. Cirincione clearly knows his policy issues and history. As often happens with policy-trained writers, however, some of the technical details get garbled: a discussion of assembly timing issues in the gun and implosion mechanisms of Little Boy and Fat Man are sufficiently garbled as to indicate that the author is unaware of the crucial role of spontaneous fission, and one also finds the patently incorrect assertion that the Sun will be able to synthesize elements as heavy as sulfur. These are quibbles in comparison to the grand themes of nonproliferation and disarmament, but one would expect an author of this experience to be more careful: policy issues can hang on technicalities. For the physics, read Bernstein, Serber, Garwin & Charpak and Hoddeson, et al. Cirincione proposes a multi-national system of assured nuclear fuel services, a sort of updated Baruch plan minus any requirement or incentive for current nuclear weapon states to decrease their arsenals. He is silent, however, concerning the resistance such a scheme would likely face from likely US suspicion of a UN-administered program and the vested interests of producers and consumers of nuclear materials and weapons. He also does not address what to do with waste fuel, not a gram of which seems likely to see the inside of Yucca Mountain anytime soon. His suggestion that Israel consider abandoning its nuclear capability without proposals for security guarantees from its neighbors seems divorced from reality.

Perfect:
Perfect history of nuclear weapons. I read this short book three times in the span of two months.

Highly recommended & a great read:
Joseph Cirincione has provided us with a wonderful, concise history of nuclear weapons and the diplomacy behind the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the atomic era. At 224 pages it is a quick, well written and very informative read and a fantastic introduction to the world of atomic and thermonuclear weapons in an age when nuclear terrorism is a real threat. Readers who do not remember the cold war or students new to the subject will have to seek other source materials to get a true idea of the destructive power and horrors associated with a nuclear detonation (or full on nuclear exchange; less likely in the post cold war era), but that was not the intention of this book. A thorough understanding of the policy implications of weapons reductions strategies, the securing of loose nuclear material and preventing future nuclear states is provided, and the knowledge contained in Bomb Scare will assist voters decision making when selecting leaders to deal with these complex issues.

Comprehensive, Yet Succinct. Expansive, But Relevant:
Bomb Scare fills in the blank spaces that other books leave. It completes the picture of the history of nuclear weapons and brings into sharper focus their role in the future. It broadened my comprehension of the issues. And, Cirincione provides a balanced assessment of the interplay between policies, politics, and weapons. Bruce A. Roth www.daisyalliance.org Author of No Time To Kill

A useful introduction to the subject:
This slim volume is a good introductory text to the history and politics of Nuclear Proliferation and the challenges that face today's non-proliferation. Cirincione's text is clearly written as an introduction to the subject, but he does the reader the favor of not dumbing down the policy aspects of proliferation any more than is necessary for a 157 page survey of the subject. The opening chapters are an engaging history of "The Bomb" and attempts to control it, including main scientific and political players in the development of the nuclear weapon, sprinkled with just enough physics to carry the reader through the more nitty-gritty aspects of the non-proliferation agreements that are discussed later in the book. The rest of the book discussed the theories behind the motivations of proliferation and non-proliferation as well as the challenges that face the current non-proliferation regime. This section is alternately horrifying and hopeful, and the reader is left with many directions in which to think and research. Well footnoted with a helpful glossary.