About the
Nuclear Information Project
The
Nuclear
Information Project is a
public education project with the
Federation of American Scientists that works to provide the public
with access to declassified documents and analysis about nuclear weapons
policy and operations.
Of particular focus is the role of nuclear
weapons in the post-Cold War era, and how concern about weapons of mass
destruction proliferation and terrorism is affecting nuclear planning of
existing nuclear weapon states.
Although
important information about nuclear weapons
policy and operations is rightly protected from
public disclosure under the law, government
agencies routinely withhold information that does
not need to be withheld simply because it
concerns nuclear issues. This happens because of
poor document administration and excessive
secrecy by declassification officers.
As such, a central
objective of the project is to challenge excessive nuclear secrecy. As
such the project seeks to narrow the gap between prudent classification
and excessive secrecy, empower the public with factual information about
nuclear weapons policy and operations in order to challenge assumptions
underlying the policy, and improve accountability in nuclear policy
making. The project uses open sources and declassification of government
documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to research,
analyze, and disseminate factual information about nuclear weapons
policy and operations.
The
project is directed by
Hans M. Kristensen, who also co-authors the World Nuclear Forces for the
SIPRI Yearbook (Sweden) and the
Nuclear Notebook in the
Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists. Kristensen
has more than 15 years experience in using the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) as a tool to obtain declassified information about nuclear
policy and operations.
Kristensen's CV is
available in the right-hand bar.
The
Project does not attempt to be comprehensive. Rather than
copying what other organizations and project already do, the
Nuclear Information Project works to provide focused, hard-to-get, overlooked, or
ignored information.
Since the Project web site was launched in March 2004, users of
the information have included the military, major
defense contractors, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, governments from around the world, universities,
schools, libraries, institutes, non-governmental organization, the news media and individuals.
To contact the project,
write to:
The work
that made this project possible was funded by the
Ploughshares Fund,
the
Ford Foundation, the
John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, and
the
Danish Institute of
International Affairs.
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