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Project Sapphire
Project Sapphire was a successful 1994 covert operation of the United States government in cooperation with the Kazakhstan government to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation by removing nuclear material from Kazakhstan as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was authorized by the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991. A warehouse at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant outside Ust-Kamenogorsk housed of weapons grade enriched uranium to fuel Alfa class submarines (90% U-235). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fuel was poorly documented and secured, and in danger of being sold for use in the construction of nuclear weapons. This mission stands as a successful attempt of a country secretly moving in to another country to protect them from the dangers of nuclear weapons left behind by the Soviet Union. Background Careless nuclear testing in the northeast of Kazakhstan as a result of the Cold War and the arms race between the Soviet Union a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Covert Operation
A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must lead covert operations unless the president finds that another agency should do so and informs Congress. The CIA's authority to conduct covert action comes from the National Security Act of 1947. President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 titled ''United States Intelligence Activities'' in 1984. This order defined covert action as "special activities", both political and military, that the US Government could legally deny. The CIA was also designated as the sole authority under the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act and in Title 50 of the United States Code Section 413(e). The CIA must have a "Presidential Finding" issued by the President in order to conduct these activities under the Hughes-Ryan amendment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakhstani politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan, Security Council from 1991 to 2022. Nazarbayev’s political career began in the Soviet era, where he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1962 while working as a steel factory worker. Rising through the party ranks, he became Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister of the Kazakh SSR in 1984 and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (Soviet Union), Communist Party of Kazakhstan in 1989. In 1990 Kazakh presidential election, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet elected him as the president of Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev played a key role in navigating Kazakhstan through the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leading to the country's independence in 1991. In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Shkolnik
Vladimir Sergeyevich Shkolnik (; born 17 February 1949) is a Kazakhstani politician who served as the Minister of Industry and Trade in the Government of KazakhstanPrincipal Government Officials Travel Document Systems until Galym Orazbakov replaced him on 10 January 2007 in a political shakeup.President of Kazakhstan forming cabinet , AzerTaj He served as the Minister of Ene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dover Air Force Base
Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force (USAF) base under the operational control of Air Mobility Command (AMC), located southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. The 436th Airlift Wing is the host wing, and runs the busiest and largest air freight terminal in the United States Department of Defense, Department of Defense. History 20th century Construction of Municipal Airport, Dover Airdrome began in March 1941 and the facility was opened on December 17, 1941. It was converted to a U.S. Army Air Corps airfield just weeks after the December 7, 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor. It was renamed Dover Army Airbase on April 8, 1943; *Dover Subbase on June 6, 1943, and Dover Army Airfield on February 2, 1944. With the establishment of the United States Air Force (USAF) on September 18, 1947, the facility was renamed Dover Air Force Base on January 13, 1948. World War II In March 1941, Dover Air Force Base was founded during World War II to meet the need of the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy intercontinental-range strategic airlift capability, one that can carry outsize cargo, outsized and oversized loads, including all air-certifiable cargo. The Galaxy has many similarities to the smaller Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and the later Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. The C-5 is among the List of large aircraft#Military, largest military aircraft in the world. All 52 in-service aircraft have been upgraded to the #C-5M, C-5M Super Galaxy with new engines and modernized avionics designed to extend its service life to 2040 and beyond. The C-5 Galaxy's development was complicated, including significant cost overruns, and Lockheed suffered significant financial difficulties. Shortly after entering service, cracks in the wings of many aircraft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. Clinton, whose policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy, became known as a New Democrats (United States), New Democrat. Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton graduated from Georgetown University in 1968, and later from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by Governorships of Bill Clinton, two non-consecutive tenures as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as Chai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a Independent politician, political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with Liberalism in Russia, liberalism. Yeltsin was born in Butka, Russia, Butka, Ural Oblast (1923–1934), Ural Oblast. He would grow up in Kazan and Berezniki. He worked in construction after studying at the Ural State Technical University. After joining the Communist Party, he rose through its ranks, and in 1976, he became First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee. Yeltsin was initially a supporter of the ''perestroika'' reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He later criticized the reforms as being too moderate and called for a transition to a Multi-party system, multi-party repr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (, ; 9 April 19383 November 2010) was a Soviet and Russian politician and businessman. He was the Minister of Gas Industry of the Soviet Union (13 February 1985 – 17 July 1989), after which he became first chairman of Gazprom energy company and the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of Russia (1992–1998) based on consecutive years. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s and a participant in the transition from a Planned economy, planned to a Market economy, market economy. From 2001 to 2009, he was Russia's ambassador to Ukraine. After that, he was designated as a presidential adviser. Chernomyrdin was known in Russia and List of countries where Russian is an official language, Russian-speaking countries for his language style, which contained numerous malapropisms and Syntax, syntactic errors. Many of his sayings became aphorisms and idioms in the Russian language, two examples being the expression "We wanted the best, but it t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Mikhaylov (academic)
Viktor Nikitovich Mikhaylov (; February 12, 1934 – June 25, 2011) was a Soviet and Russian nuclear scientist and government minister. From 1969 to 1988 Mikhaylov directed the Research Institute of Nuclear Impulse Technology. He personally oversaw more than 100 nuclear experiments during his directorship and spent over nine years at the Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya test sites. In 1992, Mikhaylov was selected to head the newly formed Ministry of Atomic Energy, or MinAtom (now Rosatom). Under his tenure Russia maintained its nuclear infrastructure and saw an increase in international cooperation on atomic energy growth. Starting in 1999, Mikhaylov led the Institute of Strategic Stability, and from 1992 to 2007 he was chairman of Rosatom's nuclear consulting division and manager of the Federal center for Nuclear Research. He was also the bearer of many other titles: Academician of RAS (1997) and of RARAN, Doctor of Engineering (1976), professor (1984) and Founder of the Scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enriched Uranium
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U with 99.2732–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235U, 0.7198–0.7210%), and uranium-234 (234U, 0.0049–0.0059%). 235U is the only nuclide existing in nature (in any appreciable amount) that is fissile with thermal neutrons. Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons. Low-enriched uranium (20% 235U, typically >85%) is used for the cores of many nuclear weapons, as well as compact reactors for naval propulsion and research, as well as breeder reactors. There are about 2,000 tonnes of highly enriched uranium in the world. Enrichment methods were first developed on a large scale by the Manhattan Project. Its gaseous diffusion method was used in the 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the ''Non-Proliferation Treaty'' or ''NPT''. Nuclear proliferation occurs through the spread of fissile material, and the technology and capabilities needed to produce it and to Nuclear weapon design, design and manufacture nuclear weapons. In a modern context, it also includes the spread of nuclear weapons to non-state actors. Proliferation has been opposed by many nations with and without nuclear weapons, as governments fear that more countries with nuclear weapons will increase the possibility of nuclear warfare (including the so-called countervalue targeting of civilians), de-stabilize international relations, or infringe upon the principle of Sovereign state, state sovereignty. Conversely, supporters of deterrence theory arg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Nunn
Samuel Augustus Nunn Jr. (born September 8, 1938) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Georgia (1972–1997) as a member of the Democratic Party. After leaving Congress, Nunn co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan global security organization focused on reducing nuclear, biological, and emerging technology threats imperiling humanity, for which he is the co-chair. His political experience and credentials on national defense reportedly earned him consideration as a potential running mate for presidential candidates John Kerry and Barack Obama after they became their party's nominees. Early life Nunn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Mary Elizabeth (née Cannon) and Samuel Augustus Nunn, who was an attorney and mayor of Perry, Georgia. Nunn was raised in Perry. He is a grandnephew of Congressman Carl Vinson. Nunn was an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
