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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRisk of nuclear accidents is rising, says report on near-misses
A report recounting a litany of near-misses in which nuclear weapons came close to being launched by mistake concludes that the risk of potentially catastrophic accidents is higher than previously thought and appears to be rising.
Too Close for Comfort: Cases of Near Nuclear Use and Options for Policy, published by Chatham House, says that "individual decision-making, often in disobedience of protocol and political guidance, has on several occasions saved the day", preventing the launch of nuclear warheads.
The report lists 13 instances since 1962 when nuclear weapons were nearly used. In several cases the large-scale launch of nuclear weapons was nearly triggered by technical malfunctions or breakdowns in communication causing false alarms, in both the US and Russia. Disaster was averted only by cool-headed individuals gambling that the alert was caused by a glitch and not an actual attack.
The Chatham House authors say the risks appear to be rising. Nuclear weapons are spreading most recently to North Korea and disarmament is stalling. Russia and the US still have an estimated 1,800 warheads on high alert, ready to launch between five and 15 minutes after receiving the launch order a fact that becomes all the more significant with rising tensions over Ukraine.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/nuclear-accident-near-misses-report
Too Close for Comfort: Cases of Near Nuclear Use and Options for Policy http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/papers/view/199200?dm_i=1TY5,2EIQH,BHZJ2P,8Q9SA,1
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... 9 November 1979 NORAD: Exercise tape mistaken for reality United States Exercise scenario tape causes nuclear alert
Yet less than a year later early-warning systems again falsely reported a Soviet nuclear strike. At 02:26 on 3 June 1980, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski received a telephone call from General William Odom informing him that the Soviet Union had launched 220 missiles at the United States. Upon receiving confirmation of the attack in a subsequent phone call, with the amendment that it was in fact 2,200 missiles that were headed towards the country, Brzezinski prepared to inform President Carter. With only a minute until Brzezinski was to notify the president, Odom telephoned for a third time to inform Brzezinski that no other early-warning systems had detected these Soviet missiles. The false alarm was later determined to have been caused by a faulty computer chip.
The Button Pusher: A bump of me ass as I go past and we all go up in smoke
Thanks for the post, dipsydoodle.