From my email feeds: Sure wish I could have been at this one

[NNadir]

Diplomatic Chain Reactions

Thursday, November 13, 2025 12pm

About this Event

Uris Hall, G08
View map
Add to calendar
Central Campus

Nuclear issues are forever. Whether dealing with the Cold War nuclear arms race, or the legacy of nuclear testing in the Pacific, nuclear challenges persist for decades. This presentation looks at two case studies in nuclear history. First, exploring the intense nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and Russia that began in the 1990s, only to founder on the rocks of new international realities. In all, 50,000 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear weapons, were taken out of Russian stockpiles before the program ended.

The Cold War also ushered in an age of nuclear testing, including the “Bravo Test,” the most powerful hydrogen bomb tested by the United States. The presentation focuses on “Bravo” and the 66 other tests in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the consequences that continue to reverberate.

The presentation highlights some of the Pacific environmental champions who see climate change as existential a threat as the nuclear legacy. Reppy Fellows will recognize the cross currents in diplomacy, conflict, and environment that make today’s global environmental problems so vexing.

Tom Armbruster served as Nuclear Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and Ambassador to the Marshall Islands. Insights into these assignments will give anyone considering a career in diplomacy an inside look at the realities, complexities, and opportunities in a Foreign Service career.

About the speaker

As a Foreign Service Officer, Tom served in Helsinki, Finland; Havana, Cuba; Moscow, Russia; Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Vladivostok, Russia; and Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands. After retiring as Ambassador to the Marshall Islands (2012-2016) Tom served in senior advisor roles at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and U.S. Embassy Nuku`alofa, Tonga. He led Inspector General missions to Colombia, Denmark, Chad, Mauritania, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Foreign Service highlights include leading a counternarcotics delegation to Kabul, serving as lead negotiator for a treaty in force with Russia on emergency response, and attending “Cool School,” an arctic survival course while “Polar Affairs Officer.” He is the only American diplomat to travel to the Soviet Union by kayak, paddling with a group of Finns from Helsinki to Tallinn...

That must have been an interesting talk.

[John ONeill]

1. 50,000 metric tons ??

That would be 50 tons, surely. If it was 50,000 tonnes, no wonder the Soviets went bankrupt!

[NNadir]

2. The number is clearly wrong. After Al Gore negotiated the megatons to megawatts... uni

...from 1993 to 2013 Russia exported 509 HEU but diluted it with 15000 tons of depleted uranium before sending it. This precluded US use in weapons.

The amounted to dismantling about 20,000 warheads.

Russia continued to supply enriched uranium to the US until very recently. Some of it came from enrichment plants, not bombs. It seems that it might have amounted to something like 50,000 tons since 1993, but the error might be in referring to it as "highly enriched" (weapons grade) uranium. It was more likely low .enriched.

It amounts to about 1500 reactor years of fuel, with 100 reactors roughly, about a 15 year supply.

The Russians sold this uranium for about one billion dollars, undercutting prices of almost every other supplier of virgin low enriched fuel.

My understanding is the Russian wanted to sell us plutonium but we declined it.