Research Project: Strategic Defense Initiative
“What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security didn’t depend upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter an enemy attack?”
Ronald Reagan; 1983
In his speech of March 23, 1983, President Reagan presented his vision of a future where a Nation’s security did not rest upon the threat of nuclear retaliation, but on the ability to protect and defend against such attacks. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) research program
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But, SDI ultimately seeks a future in which nations can live in peace and freedom, secure in the knowledge that their national security does not rest upon the threat of nuclear relation. Therefore, the SDI research program has placed its emphasis on options that provide the grounds for eliminating the general threat posed by ballistic missiles. So, the goal of the research is not, and cannot be, simply to protect the retaliation forces from …show more content…
But as you can imagine, there is not a way to provide such a power source in space. Do to the lack of a power source, the entire SDI project was dropped.
If a future President elects to move toward a general defense against ballistic missiles, the technological option’s that SDI explored will certainly increase the survival of U.S. retaliatory efforts. This will require a stable concept and process to manage the transition to the future SDI seeks.
“Our Nation and those nations allied with us face a number of challenges to our security. Each of those challenges imposes its own demands and its own opportunities. Preserving peace and freedom is, and always will be, our fundamental goal. The essential purpose of our military forces, and our nuclear forces inparticularly, is to deter aggression based upon the threat of military aggression.”
Ronald Reagan, 1983
Nuclear power has grown to be a big percentage of the world’s energy. As of January 18, 2013 in 31 countries 437 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 372 GW are in operation and 68 plants with an installed capacity of 65 GW are in 15 countries under construction. As of end 2011 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 69,760 billion kWh. The cumulative operating experience amounted to 15, 15,080 years by end of 2012. (European Nuclear Society) The change that nuclear power has brought to the world has led to benefits in today’s energy’s usage.
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
Nuclear power may lead to some extensive breakthroughs in multiple fields for better or for worse in the case of humanity and its survival. It’s a topic that people need to take a bit more seriously as it holds the chance to make or break the future for earth and its inhabitants. Greater risks have greater rewards and as observance of nuclear products and ideas deepen then so do the products yield, perhaps into infinity. While nuclear power is accompanied by several risks, it can also be the solution for various global strains and difficulties. Sufficient energy for the world is a huge goal to tackle and requires the use of any efficient resource we have, especially when the source has so much potential.
Folke, L., & Burnette, H.S. (2005, March 28). Burning bright:nuclear energy's futute. Retrieved from http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba511/
When Ronald Reagan was in the Presidency, he and his staff came up with the idea for a missile defense system that would defend the country in the event of a nuclear missile attack. This system was named "Star Wars" and the basic principal behind it was that it would be a shield that covered all fifty states. However, government officials soon realized that Reagan's defense system was impossible to build, so the program was dropped, but the idea to defend the country against a missile attack stuck around. Today, the U. S. Government is trying to build a new, more realistic missile defense system. However, not all the problems have been worked out, and the U. S. Government should not deploy their missile defense system without conducting further tests.
The main parties who is associated with the debate are governments, experts, and the country people. These people have given out their opinions regarding the effects of nuclear ene...
Moniz, Ernest J. "MIT Energy Initiative." Why We Still Need Nuclear Power. MIT.edu, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Nuclear power is generated by using electricity created during a controlled fission or fusion reaction (“Nuclear Energy.” Global Issues in Context Online Collection). Nuclear fission is a process that releases energy when a nucleus in one atom is separated into two nuclei. Nuclear fusion occurs when the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms are fused together producing a larger nuclei along with energy (“Nuclear Energy.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection). In the 1950s, the use of nuclear power became a realistic idea for countries with nuclear capabilities and nuclear power programs (“Nuclear Energy.” Global Issues in Context Online Collection). The international nuclear program grew rapidly and by 1999 there were 436 nuclear power plants in 32 different counties. The United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, India and France remain the largest users of nuclear energy since the 1990s; however, the dependency on nuclear power varies greatly around the world because of differences in the individual nuclear power programs availability of needed resources (“Nuclear Energy.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection).
Stanculescu, Alexander. "Overview Of Nuclear Energy: Present And Projected Use." AIP Conference Proceedings 1442.1 (2012): 112-123.Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Environmental Goals."IAEA BULLETIN. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. "Fusion Energy." Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
Although it is the irresistible trend to put an end to nuclear power, we could not achieve the nuke-free dream through an immediate action. There are a few essential reasons.
Nuclear fission is going to become more and more useful in worldwide power production for the foreseeable future. The reasons are numerous, but can be summarized by the relative ease of reliable power production that is provided. This does not go without having many disadvantages. But it is the fact that nuclear fission provides a massive amount of reliable electrical energy at a relatively low cost that has many countries investigating the possibilities of nuclear power generation. To understand why nuclear power would be the only option (at this time) for an alternative to fossil fuel burning for energy production is to understand its history, the world’s current power production from nuclear power, and where it is going in the foreseeable future.
...s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) or "Star Wars" plan that finally broke the economically weaker USSR. Currently, the US Army's is driving toward the development of a Strategic Anti-missile System; resent successful tests of this new technology raise the specter of a return to the winnable war scenario.
The state of the United States today is in many ways similar to what it was following the Vietnam War. Then as is now, there are concerns over the misuse and overreaching of military force. As well, today’s economic dispair mimics that of the inflation that gripped the nation in the 1970’s and 1980’s (Snow, 2014, p. 5). Left unidentified is a comprehensive strategy for United States national security. What are the priorities for American national security today, and how can they effectively be met? What are the overarching goals of the United States going and how can they be achieved? Answers to these questions are too often divided along partisan lines, making it difficult to construct a strategy that most policy-makers can support. Yet like a rudder on a ship, the U.S. needs a central strategy that has bipartisan support and wide public appeal to decisively move forward into the 21st century. What is needed is a“strategic narrative” (Y, 2011).
Comparing with other sciences, nuclear science is still generally young and new, in fact, scientist only began to delve into nuclear physics during the World War II era(“Atomic Physics”). Nuclear power can come from two sources, nuclear fission, which is the splitting of atoms and nuclear fusion which is the uni...