Nuclear Factoid of the Day

Wed, Jan 21, 2009

I taught Beowulf today, and I think it’s worth noting that the Geatish martial spirit was, contrary to all visible evidence, apparently being preserved in Sweden in the late 60s. This CIA memo mentions that Sweden, along with India, was one of the countries that might conceivably develop nuclear weapons in the next few years.

I found the memo on this National Security Archive exhibit on the Nuclear Emergency Search Team. Someone from Wilmington tried some low-enriched uranium extortion in the 70s, for example. (I worked in the Southport nuclear plant for a few months and was always imagining, in my administrative building, that something like that was going on at any given moment.)