Reference Sources for Background Information

Concise encyclopedia of the ethics of new technologies. Science Ref q TP248.23 .C664 2001.
Has chapters on nuclear power and nuclear testing.

Energy glossary [U.S. Energy Information Administration]

The peace and nuclear war dictionary. Clapp Ref U263 .A434 1989.

Tracking nuclear proliferation : a guide in maps and charts, 1998. Clapp Ref U 264 .S635 1998.

The Future of Nuclear Power. An interdisciplinary study from MIT.

Finding Books

Wellesley Library Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic then, when you find something useful, see what subject headings are listed for that title. You can click on these subject headings to find more similar items. Try the following subject headings:

• nuclear nonproliferation
• nuclear weapons
• nuclear arms control
• arms control
• nuclear disarmament
• atom bomb united states history
• atom bomb
• manhattan project
• nuclear warfare moral and ethical aspects

WorldCat ^WC- Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Journal Articles

Articles from American Scientist - choose the year, volume, and issue that you need. Remember that full text begins with 1994.

Articles from Scientific American - search for the article you need by putting keywords from the title in the search box. You can limit by date. Remember that full text begins with 1993. Please email me if you have trouble.

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Social Sciences Full Text ^WC- despite its name, there is only selected full text. Indexing from 1983+. Once in the database, click in the Social Sciences Full Text box.

PAIS ^WC- Articles about political, social & economic issues, public affairs. Also searches government documents. Abstracts only from 1937+.

Expanded Academic ASAP ^WC- great starting point for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline; mostly full text from 1980+

Sociological Abstracts ^WC- articles on all aspects of sociology; selected full text from 1963+.

Historical Abstracts ^WC- articles on world history since 1450, excluding US & Canada and America Hisotry and Life ^WC- U.S. & Canadian history articles, prehistory to present.

CIAO (Columbia International affairs Online) ^WC- full-text and abstracts from working papers, policy briefs, books, journals dealing with international affairs.

For articles in the science literature, try searching General Sciences Full-Text ^WC. 1984+. Note: you can search General Sciences Full-Text and Social Sciences Full-Text at the same time by choosing each database.

Monitoring Current News

NucNet - the nuclear communications network. Use this for daily nuclear news. You must subscribe to access the backfile. Note links!

World Nuclear Association's nuclear Blog. Contributors seem to be employees of the World Nuclear Association.

Latest news and announcements from the IAEA.

Nuclear Review, Atomic Energy News, and Nuclear Guide from the World News Network. Stories may be duplicated.

For more general news sources, use LexisNexis Environmental ^WC (choose News journals and commentary) and LexisNexis Academic News ^WC. You must add several keywords, restrict your dates, or search in the headline to get meaningful results.

U.S. Government Web Sites

• U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency - created as an independent agency in 1961 and integrated into the Department of State in 1997. View the archived Web site
• U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - an independent agency formed to regulate civilian use of nuclear materials. Look at the history of the NRC to see how the Atomic Energy Commission was the precursor of the NRC. For a more in-depth history, see A Short History of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1999. Also note the Electronic Reading Room.
• U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology.
• National Nuclear Security Administration - " Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear energy".
• U.S Energy Information Agency: Nuclear - features World Nuclear Reactors (links to nuclear industry reports of various countries), nuclear energy data, and other useful topics.

International Organizations and NGOs

• Center for Nonproliferation Studies [Monterey Institute of International Studies] "strives to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by training the next generation of nonproliferation specialists and disseminating timely information and analysis".
• International Atomic Energy Agency - "world's center of cooperation in the nuclear field".
• Nuclear Control Institute - a non-profit and nonpartisan research and advocacy center for preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism
• OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
• Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization - established by the States Signatories to the Treaty, it carries out the necessary preparations for the effective implementation of the Treaty
• United Nations and Disarmament - a wealth of information, including women and disarmament.

Primary Sources

• The Atomic Archive - part of the National Science Digital Library funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation. Divided into science, history, library (contains historical documents), media, and almanac.
• Nuclear History - part of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
• Public Papers of the Presidents - use this for presidential statements and speeches, news conferences and press releases. Online searches are keyword searchable.
  • from Yale University's Avalon Project, full-text of the presidential papers of selected presidents for Truman, Eisenhower, Clinton, and Bush.
  • from LexisNexis Academic News; choose News, Newsletters, and put Public Papers of the Presidents in the "Search this Publication Title" box. From 1979 onward; should include Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.
  • See also public papers from George H.W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush from GPO Access.
  • See also Clapp Docs J 80 A283 for Hoover onward.
• Foreign Relations of the United States - historical record of U.S. foreign policy. Includes statements of government officials and correspondence from U.S. embassies.
  • from the U.S. Department of State. Includes Nixon-Ford, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Truman. browsable only.
  • Wellesley owns the paper volumes from before 1945 to 1976. There is a significant delay in publishing, so 1976 is the last year available.

Internet Links

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?
• For more information on how to evaluate web pages or for specific search engines see our search the web page.

Nuclear Programs in Other Countries

Country Profiles [Nuclear Threat Initiative]

Weapons of Mass Destruction in other Countries [from globalsecurity.org]

Country information from the Uranium Information Centre in Australia.

Country resources [Arms Control Association]

Country Nuclear Power Profiles [IAEA] Note links to country agencies and organizations.

• China
  • Congressional Research Service Reports
  • nuclear news from the China Internet Information Center, the authorized government portal site to China.
  • China's Nuclear Industry [EIA}
• France
  • French Nuclear Energy Society
• India
  • Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy and Atomic Energy Commission
  • India and Pakistan: On the Nuclear Threshold - a National Security Archives briefing book.
  • Nuclear Issues in India and Pakistan: Selected Internet Resources [from UC Berkeley Library]
• Iran
  • Congressional Research Service Reports
• Japan
  • Japan's Nuclear Power Program
• North Korea
  • Congressional Research Service Reports

Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy

• World Nuclear Association - "global organisation that seeks to promote the peaceful worldwide use of nuclear power as a sustainable energy resource for the coming centuries". Note issue briefs and applications in medicine
• statement by IAEA Director on peaceful uses of nuclear energy (Nov. 15, 2004)
• Atoms for Peace - Pres. Dwight Eisenhower's speech fefore the United Nations in 1953.

Arms Control Agreements

• from the Bureau of Arms Control, U.S. Department of State.
• from the Federation of American Scientists
• from the Los Alamos National Laboratories
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (preparatory Commission) and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (UN).
• Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty - a Congressional Research Service Report from 1/05.
• from the Arms Control Association

Nuclear Ethics

• Robertson, J.A.L. Decide the Nuclear Issue for Yourself: NUclear need not be UNclear. John Robertson is a physics scholar, has consulted to various nuclear boards in Canada, and was a member of the Canadian Academy of Science. Although this book focuses on Canada, the principles discussed provide food for thought.

Nuclear Science - How it Works

• NRC Students Corner - a fun way to learn about nuclear energy and nuclear reactors.
• Nuclear Energy Made Simple [World Nuclear Association]

Nuclear Terrorism

• Nuclear terrorism from the Nuclear Control Institute
• Nuclear Threat Initiative - founded by Ted Turner and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, this organization is working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Has links to country profiles, issue briefs, nonproliferation databases, and NGO source documents.
• America's War on Terrorism from the Federation of American Scientists.

Nuclear Waste Disposal

• Yucca Mountain Project (from the U.S. DOE) and Yucca Mountain (from Eureka County, NV)
• Public Citizen's (a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization) criticism of the Yucca Mountain report
• Congressional Research Service Reports on civilian nuclear waste disposal from 2001 and 2005.

Nuclear Data

• from the Nuclear Energy Institute
• from the Energy Information Administration
• nuclear power plants operating in the U.S.
• status of nuclear powers and their nuclear capability as of January 2005 [from globalsecurity.org]
• Maps of Nuclear Power Reactors [International Nuclear Safety Center, U.S. DOE]
• Nuclear weapons data from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Other

• Acronym Institute - "works with policy makers and non-governmental organisations to promote non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament by disseminating information and maximising negotiating opportunities in all available fora. When arms control measures become blocked, as at present on treaty ratification and the proposed ban on the production of fissile materials, the Acronym Institute will work to promote constructive dialogue and alternative approaches."
• Arms Control Association - founded in 1971, is a national nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies". Links to country profiles, subject resources, treaties, and interviews with policymakers.
• Congressional Research Service Reports on Nuclear Weapons. Great source of current, unbaised information
• Federation of American Scientists - "formed in 1945 by atomic scientists from the Manhattan Project. Endorsed by nearly 60 Nobel Laureates in biology, chemistry, economics, medicine and physics as sponsors, the Federation has addressed a broad spectrum of national security issues of the nuclear age in carrying out its mission to promote humanitarian uses of science and technology".
• National Library for the Environment
• Non-proliferation from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -
• Nuclear Energy Institute - purpose is to "foster and encourage the continued safe utilization and development of nuclear energy to meet the nation's energy, environmental and economic goals".
• Nuclear Suppliers Group - "a group of nuclear supplier countries which seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear related exports".
• Uranium Information Centre [Australia] - note their briefing papers.

Return to top

Research Resources for Peace and Justice

Return to Resources by Subject

Betty Febo
Wellesley College Library
Date created: November 1, 2005
Date Modified: August 18, 2006
Expires: September 1 , 2006