Japan plans to start producing plutonium—intended for use in its nuclear energy reactors—as soon as possible. However, in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011, all but one of Japan’s reactors still remain offline, and the process to restart the others will be long, slow, and controversial. As a result, it is likely that plutonium production will soon exceed demand, causing a risky and potentially destabilizing plutonium build-up in Japan.

Solving Japan's Plutonium Problem

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a unique global network of policy research centers in Russia, China, Europe, the Middle East, India, and the United States. Our mission, dating back more than a century, is to advance the cause of peace through analysis and development of fresh policy ideas and direct engagement and collaboration with decisionmakers in government, business, and civil society.

Carnegie Moscow Center organized a panel discussion on the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Asian Geopolitics In Flux: Traditional and Non-Traditional Challenges for Russia and Japan

Carnegie's Tong Zhao, Fellow based at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, discusses the growth of China's nuclear ballistic missile submarine program and its implications for US-China strategic stability.

China's Ballistic Missile Submarines and Strategic Stability

Drawing on the history of conflict between India and Pakistan, in his new book Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments, Moeed Yusuf describes and evaluates how the process of third-party intervention affects deterrence strategies and prospects for peace, and applies lessons to other regional nuclear rivalries

Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments

Preventing Escalation in the Baltics: A NATO Playbook by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Preventing Escalation in the Baltics: A NATO Playbook

In his new book, "Navigation by Judgment: Why and When Top-Down Control of Foreign Aid Doesn’t Work," Dan Honig presents an empirically grounded argument for the value of implementation led by the judgment of field staff, particularly when tasks are difficult to measure and country environments are unpredictable. In this roundtable discussion, Honig will present his key findings and their implications for major aid organizations. Nilmini Rubin and Larry Garber, experienced development practitioners, will respond with comments and reflections.

Solving Japan's Plutonium Problem

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