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Intelligence

Through the Keyhole:
Conference on
Public Policy Applications of
Declassified Corona Satellite Imagery

In February 1995, at the urging of Vice President Gore, the U.S. declassified the Cold War CORONA spy satellite program. From 1960 to 1972, the CORONA program launched more than 100 spacecraft which acquired over 800,000 high-resolution images, including coverage of the dozens of secret facilities that were the heart of Russia and China's nuclear weapons programs. Since being declassified, almost all of this imagery has remained unexamined, laying undisturbed on the shelves of the National Archives.

Over the past year the Federation of American Scientists Public Eye Initiative has collected the best of the CORONA imagery of the nuclear weapons infrastructure of Russia, China, Israel, and other countries. On February 16 from 9:00 A.M. to 11:45 A.M., the Federation of American Scientists will hold a conference on "Through the Keyhole: Public Policy Applications of Declassified Corona Satellite Imagery" The conference will provide the first extensive look at CORONA imagery of Russia's nuclear weapons complex.

Imagery discussed at the conference will be available online at

http://www.fas.org/eye/

Presentations will discuss how Corona imagery has helped understand the Russian infrastructure needed for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction, as well as how satellite imagery can help public policy analysts evaluate current arms control and non-proliferation problems.

Featured presentions include: Joshua Handler, a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, will display Corona's imagery of Russia's nuclear weapons storage facilities. Dr. Oleg Bukharin, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University, will present CORONA imagery of Russia's nuclear weapons production complex.

Additional presentations by Stan Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Corey Gay of the Institute for Science and International Security, Christopher Simpson of American University, and John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists will focus on the background and future of high resolution imagery applications for the public policy community.

The conference will be held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC in the Choate Room, starting at 9:00 am. Seating is limited, so please respond by Thursday, February 11. For further information contact: Charles Ferguson at: E-mail (preferred): cferg@fas.org ; Fax: 202-675-1010; Tel: 202-675-1007

    Schedule:

    Opening Remarks:

    9:00-9:05 A.M.: Dr. Jeremy J. Stone, President of the Federation of American Scientists

    Panel I: Background and History

    9:05-9:15 A.M.: John Pike, Federation of American Scientists, "Introducing the FAS Public Eye Initiative"

    9:15-9:30: Dr. Robert S. Norris, Director of the Nuclear Weapons Databook Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council --"Understanding Russia's Nuclear Weapons Complex Before the Availability of Overhead Imagery"

    9:30-9:50: Discussion

    Panel II: Russia's Nuclear Secrets Revealed Through CORONA Imagery

    9:50-10:10: Joshua Handler, Ph.D. candidate, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University -- "CORONA and Russia's Nuclear Weapons Storage Infrastructure: Seeing Bunkers from Space and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program."

    10:10-10:30: Dr. Oleg Bukharin, Princeton University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies -- "Satellite Snapshots of Russia's Nuclear Cities: Implications for Transparency and Irreversibility of Nuclear Weapons Reductions"

    10:30-10:50: Discussion

    Panel III: Future Applications of Satellite Imagery

    10:50-11:05: Corey Gay, Institute for Science and International Security -- "Emerging Public Applications of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Non-Proliferation Policy"

    11:05-11:20: Christopher Simpson, Director of the Project on Satellite Imagery and the News Media at the American University School of Communication -- "The Future of High Resolution Satellite Imagery and the News Media "

    11:20-11:45: Discussion

The FAS Public Eye Initiative thanks the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for providing its conference room, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the John Merck Fund, and the Scherman Foundation for financial support, the National Archives in College Park, Maryland for facilitating access to Corona imagery, as well as all the fine folks at the National Reconnaissance Office who acquired the imagery to begin with.





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