ABSTRACT
Niels Bohr, a grandfather of the atomic age, captured the dilemma of the nonproliferation analyst in his comment on the nature of life. Since the mid-1970s Congress has led the way on nonproliferation policy. Most of the nonproliferation efforts in Congress are meant to further correct the perceived mistakes of the US effort in Atoms for Peace, which in too many instances turned a dream into an obsession. To reformers and to nuclear critics generally, a dangerous mindset holds the international nuclear industry in thrall: The plutonium economy is seen as predominating the thinking of nuclear suppliers and users. Science, ingenuity, and, in some cases, self-defeating behavior have moved the world too far away from that time when fissionable material and nuclear technology could be tightly restricted and kept secret. For a plethora of reasons opposition to one form of technology continues to encompass, in the minds of many, opposition to all things nuclear.
