The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "nuclear weapons" ...
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Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking
Using confidential documents from government sources and dozens of interviews with key players, the authors revealed how for more than a quarter of a century, while the Central Intelligence Agency turned a dismissive eye, a globe-straddling network run by Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan sold the equipment and expertise to make nuclear weapons to a rogues' gallery of nations.
Tags: government sources; Central Intelligence Agency; Pakistan; CIA; Tehran; nuclear weapon
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"Iran's Manhattan Project"
This investigative report reveals how Iran has "been able to launder billions" of dollars, with assistance from New York banks, to improve their nuclear weapons program. The U.S. has relied on "unenforceable sanctions" that have allowed Iran to easily bypass the measures in place. After their permission to film was "revoked," the investigative team posed as tourists to get the rest of the story.
Tags: Dubai; Emirate; UAE; nuclear weapons; Islamic Republic; Tehran; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Manhattan District Attorney; Robert Morgenthau; Alavi Foundation
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Assault on Pelindaba
"Assault on Pelindaba is a story about global nuclear weapons proliferation and the very real threat of nuclear terrorism post 9/11. Experts agree that acquiring plutonium or highly enriched uranium, the material to actually make a nuclear weapon, is not easy."
Tags: nukes; atomic weapon; radiation; Hiroshima; September 11, 2001; Manhattan Project; Interpol;
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America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise
The book "chronicles the role the United States and its allies played in allowing Pakistan to first develop and then peddle nuclear weapons technology."
Tags: Pakistan; terrorism; Middle East; nuclear; nuclear weapons; plutonium; War on Terror; Cold War; United Kingdom; Britain; smuggling
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Nuclear Threat Made in U.S.
This story revealed how the U.S. government scattered tons of highly enriched uranium around the globe and then failed to get the material back. The Tribune documented how a misguided Cold War program called Atoms for Peace provided bomb0grade uranium fuel to dozens of nations in an attempt to win allies and curry favor. Today, 40 tons of this same uranium remain outside of U.S. control.
Tags: nuclear weapons; federal government; international relations; nuclear smuggling; open records
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Ill Rocky Flats nuclear workers
The reporters found that the federal government was limiting compensation for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers. The story focused on workers from Rocky Flats nuclear site near Denver, where hundreds of workers were denied medical and financial compensation. The reporters also revealed the full known human cost of the nation's nuclear weapons complex: radiation sickened 36,500 and killed at least 4,000 of those who built bombs, mined uranium, and breathed test fallout.
Tags: nuclear weapons; uranium; radiation; OSHA; federal government; insurance; illness
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Out in the Cold
The story details the Department of Labor's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, a "worker's-comp program for former nuclear-weapons workers that acknowledges the link between long-term radiation exposure and several types of cancer, and promises compensation for cancer victims." While the department maintains that the program is "claimant-friendly," the program puts the "burden of proof of radiation exposure on sick and dying claimants who have no means to do so."
Tags: EEOICPA; nuclear weapons; radiation exposure; cancer; compensation; worker-comp; claimants
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Imaginary Weapons
"Imaginary Weapons describes the rise of 'fringe science' in the Pentagon. It focuses on how the Pentagon sank millions of dollars into an exotic weapon - the "hafnium bomb"- that would rival the power of a nuclear weapon… Imaginary Weapons has three major findings: Pentagon officials systematically ignore scientific advice that contradicts their beliefs; the military is easily seduced by the promise of exotic new weapons unconstrained by arms control treaties; and declining technical expertise has made national security institutions vulnerable to outlandish claims and bogus science."
Tags: Pentagon; military; weapons; experiments; development
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Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War
"Hubris is a narrative that tells the behind the scenes of story of events inside the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department and Congress as President Bush sold the country on the need to go to war against Iraq. It reveals how the Bush administration distorted, twisted, and embellished intelligence to present a thoroughly false picture that Iraq was a storehouse of weapons of mass destruction, was reconstituting its nuclear program, and had relationships with al Qaeda terrorists- despite significant doubts and dissents from numerous intelligence analysts and government experts." It also delves into the role of the news organizations in selling the idea and how White House officials undermined Iraq critics.
Tags: Iraq War; al Qaeda; George W. Bush; Bush; weapons of mass destruction; CIA; Pentagon; White House; Congress; Saddam Hussein; Karl Rove; Dick Cheney;
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What the atomic age left behind
This series described a 10.5-million-ton pile of nuclear waste polluting the Colorado River. The waste was left over from decades of milling uranium ore, first for atomic weapons and later for nuclear fuel. For decades, the pile of toxic and radioactive waste leaked into the river, which provides the drinking water for more than 20 million people in three western states. It was the largest of the dozens of piles of tailings and the only one that hadn't been moved away from major rivers in the United States. And for a while, it appeared it would stay put, contaminating the river for centuries.
Tags: water pollution; Colorado River; nuclear waste; atomic weapon; nuclear fuel; radioactive waste; drinking water; water contamination