Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 4th, 2025

Posted: 4th December 2025

December 4, 2025

Artist’s impression of the new generation long-range precision strike missile (PrSM). If deployed to and launched from bases in northern Finland or Norway, Russia would have hardly any protective measures to employ and no time to launch retaliatory strikes from targeted missile carriers and at-pier submarines in the region. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)

The looming missile crisis in the Arctic

Defense cooperation agreements between the US and Northern European countries pose a direct threat to Russia’s Northern strategic forces, writes Vladimir Marakhonov. If the US deploys advanced short-range ballistic missile systems to Norway’s Finnmark or Finland’s Lapland regions, and Russia detects them, a crisis similar to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis will ensue. Read more.

Shifting storms, sweltering summers: Tehran faces future ‘Day Zero’ when the taps run dry

The water crisis in Tehran reflects not only this summer’s extreme heat but also several consecutive years of reduced precipitation and ongoing drought conditions across Iran, write Yeon-Woo Choi and Elfatih A. B. Eltahir. Read more.

Ukraine’s Energoatom, Holtec International, and the US retreat from fighting corruption abroad

A Ukrainian agency the US helped create is investigating an alleged $100 million corruption scheme inside Energoatom, the body that oversees Ukrainian nuclear power plants. So, why is the US not subpoenaing records from Holtec International, a Florida company that became a prime contractor for Energoatom more than a decade ago? Matt Smith provides context. Read more.

How Holtec International became an expanding (and controversial) nuclear power

This Bulletin investigation from late November is worth revisiting as a US-established, anti-corruption bureau in Ukraine investigates an alleged $100 million corruption scheme inside Energoatom. Matt Smith explains how Holtec International—a Florida company that seems to be evading the investigation—has built its nuclear empire. Read more.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Calling rising experts! Write for the Bulletin

With the Voices of Tomorrow program, the Bulletin invites rising experts to submit essays, opinion pieces, and multimedia presentations addressing nuclear risk, climate change, or disruptive technologies. Voices of Tomorrow submissions are eligible for the Leonard M. Rieser Award, which includes a $1,000 prize. Submit a piece.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“All those hurricanes could have just as easily hit the southeast United States. The answer to what they would have looked like with FEMA as it is right now is that … we have no idea. We have no idea because no one knows what is happening at FEMA right now.”

—Wesley Cheek, assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, “A hurricane season that surprised with record storms and notable lulls,“ Inside Climate News

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