While dark memories of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have virtually frozen nuclear-power development in the West, energy-hungry Asia is increasingly embracing the nuclear option.
Analysts say that a combination of US military efforts - including missile defense, plans for new low-yield nuclear weapons, and expansion up to Russia's western doorstep - are chilling relations with Moscow and spurring a new, higher-tech arms race.
The risk of a Russian accidental nuclear launch is increasing due to their deteriorating early warning network. A U.S.-Russian program to improve joint early warning capabilities has stalled due to financial and legal issues.
Russian and US experts meet this month to assess terror tactics, from hacking into systems to seizing a weapon.
The US and Russia have agreed to collaborate in returning weapons-grade uranium to Russia from vulnerable nuclear reactors throughout the former USSR. Analysts say the deal, signed Friday, could be the first step in a new multilateral strategy for handling the global spread of nuclear technology and material, and deterring terrorist threats.
After years of defending Iran's nuclear program as peaceful, Russia appears to be undergoing an change in official thinking. A 'worst-case scenario' says Iran could be capable of building nuclear weapons by 2006.
A civilian power reactor being built in Bushehr triggers fears that Russian scientists are secretly sharing nuclear technology.
Surrounded by hostile neighbors, Iran is a nation under constant diplomatic - and miliary - pressure. But while its quest for regional security may have led it to quietly explore weapons of mass destruction, that exploration has led it into the jaws of US criticism. Now that the US has declared war on terrorism and pronounced Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an "axis of evil," such a threat perception in Washington could yield serious consequences.