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LUXEMBOURG - The head of the U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday he agreed with CIA estimates that Iran was three to eight years from being able to make nuclear weapons and he urged the U.S. and other powers to pursue talks with the Islamic country. The best way to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear arms is "through a comprehensive dialogue," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told a news conference in Luxembourg. "One way to do that, rather than to continue the rhetoric, is to ... sit down together." On Wednesday, the IAEA reported that Iran's uranium enrichment program...

£60k atomic authority chief has 30 other jobs By Andrew Pierce Last Updated: 1:12am BST 23/04/2007 The nuclear industry was embroiled in a potential new crisis yesterday with the businesswoman running the body responsible for the clean-up of the Sellafield site facing ministerial questions over the number of other jobs she holds. Ministers have been urged to intervene after it emerged that Lady Judge, who is paid £60,000 by the Government for a two-day week as chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), has 30 other directorships. Last week the authority announced checks on the medical records of...

Ahmadinejad tries to calm Saudi atomic fears By Michael Hirst in Beirut, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:48am GMT 04/03/2007 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew into Saudi Arabia yesterday for his first official meeting with King Abdullah, in an attempt to alleviate growing Saudi fears over Teheran's nuclear ambitions. The Iranian president smiled as he was greeted by the Saudi monarch and other officials at a red-carpet airport ceremony in Riyadh at the start of a 24-hour visit to the Arab state most closely allied to America. The king was expected to seek Iran's support in easing sectarian tensions in Iraq, and to...

February 25, 2007Iran's atomic work has no reverse gear - president By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has no reverse gear in its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, while a deputy foreign minister vowed Tehran was prepared for any eventuality, "even for war". "Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran's move is like a train ... which has no brake and no reverse gear," Ahmadinejad said, ISNA news agency reported. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) reads a message from the King of Bahrain during his meeting with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid bin...

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear watchdog introduced on Thursday a new radiation warning symbol showing emanating waves, a skull and crossbones, and a running person. It will supplement the existing three-cornered trefoil symbol which "has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. The new symbol was designed after a five-year study involving 1,650 people of varying ages and backgrounds in 11 countries to "ensure that its message of 'danger, stay away' was crystal clear and understood by all." The IAEA said the new symbol would help...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An adviser to Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggested in remarks published on Wednesday that Tehran might consider suspending sensitive atomic work. The comments are the latest in a series of conflicting signals from Iranian officials on whether Iran would halt uranium enrichment, which the West fears Tehran is using to build nuclear bombs. Iran insists its plans are peaceful. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he believed the United States and its allies were making progress toward solving their disputes with Iran over its nuclear program peacefully but direct talks with Tehran...

Iran to rally the people for nuclear celebrations (Reuters) Updated: 2007-02-09 21:50 TEHRAN - Iran will seek to show a nation united behind its nuclear program on Sunday but pressure from the West and voices counselling caution at home have dampened prospects for a grand announcement about atomic progress. Iranian artists perform as they hold up samples of enriched uranium in Mashad, east of Tehran, April 11, 2006. Iran will seek to show a nation united behind its nuclear program on Sunday but pressure from the West and voices counselling caution at home have dampened prospects for a grand announcement...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - A self-described methamphetamine addict said he doesn't know anything about the classified Los Alamos National Laboratory data that authorities found in the mobile home where he was staying. "I was basically at the wrong place at the wrong time," Justin Stone, 20, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from jail.

Thousands of citizens and soldiers rallied Friday in the North Korean capital to cheer the country's recent nuclear test, North Korea's official news agency reported. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, was reported to have told a visiting Chinese delegation that the communist nation wasn't planning more nuclear tests. The state-run Korean Central News Agency said more than 100,000 people gathered in Pyongyang's central Kim Il Sung square to "hail the success of the historic nuclear test." North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on Oct. 9, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions. It was unclear why the celebration...

Previously "classified" documents related to Project Orion, the now-aborted plan to send nuke-propelled spaceships to Mars and other planets. Details in this BoingBoing post and podcast. Prior to this web upload on Flickr, these documents had never before been publicly released. Tech historian George Dyson collected these papers, and he is the author of "Project Orion," a book which chronicles the project and the lives of the scientists behind it -- including his own father, Freeman Dyson. The name "Project Orion" is now being used by NASA for a new project, this one not powered by nuclear bombs. This time...

Albert Einstein is credited with defining insanity as "doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome." This Einstein is, of course, the Nobel physicist whose 1939 letter on atomic fission to President Franklin Roosevelt resulted in the Manhattan Project -- and the development of the first A-bomb. In the wake of North Korean "product demonstration" and claim to have detonated a nuclear weapon, U.S. decisionmakers should heed the late scientist's pithy observation -- for our policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), certainly seems to fit the definition. It's time to face the facts: None of...

The U.S. government has determined that one scientific test, among many conducted since North Korea's announced nuclear test, was consistent with a nuclear explosion, a senior administration official said Friday night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the administration has not made a definitive conclusion about the nature of the explosion. "The betting is that this was an attempt at a nuclear test that failed," the official said. "We don't think they were trying to fake a nuclear test, but it may have been a nuclear fizzle _ an effort that failed." The official spoke on...

MADRID (Reuters) - The discovery of radioactive snails at a site in southeastern Spain where three U.S. hydrogen bombs fell by accident 40 years ago may trigger a new joint U.S.-Spanish clean-up operation, officials said on Wednesday. The hydrogen bombs fell near the fishing village of Palomares in 1966 after a mid-air collision between a bomber and a refuelling craft, in which seven of 11 crewmen died. Hundreds of tons of soil were removed from the Palomares area and shipped to the United States after high explosive igniters on two bombs detonated on impact, spreading plutonium dust-bearing clouds across nearby...

SEOUL, South Korea - Tensions rose along the Korean Peninsula Wednesday as North Korea warned of physical retaliation for increased U.S. pressure over its reported atomic test, and South Korea discussed preparations for a nuclear attack that could include an expanded conventional arsenal. North Korea said in its first formal statement since the test that it could respond to U.S. pressure with "physical" measures. "If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried...

Top News Story Western military buildup underway in the Middle East. Global Research published a major report on the military build-up of conventional, ground, air, naval, and nuclear forces in and around the Middle East and Central Asia. The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post reported that the clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.   US confident Russia and China will join in sanctions on Iran. The Washington Times reported that the United...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad to shake up his cabinet. Iran Press News reported that a source close to Ahmadinejad's cabinet said that in the coming days vast changes will be taking place within the administration. The first to leave will be the oil minister; Vaziri Hamaneh is expected to be dismissed from the cabinet.   Ahmadinejad fails to deliver his economic miracle. Inter Press Service reported that Iranian citizens are wondering if Ahmadinejad will ever make good on an election promise to crack down on the corrupt and distribute Iran's vast oil revenues more equitably.BBC News reported that Iran's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad plans huge increase in uranium enrichment. ABC News reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they want to install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. Bush pleased with the Iran Freedom and Support Act The White House, Office of the Press Secretary reported that President Bush said "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act." Here are a few other news items you may have missed. The International Herald Tribune reported...

Top News Story Bush signs Iran Freedom and Support Act! The Washington Post reported that President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs.The Associated Press reported that the US Senate finally passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act.The Library of Congress published the full text of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   But does Condi support a change of regime in Iran? The Wall Street Journal reexamined their recent interview with Condi Rice in which he concludes: Her primary method for dealing with the...

Top News Story Photo evidence of the Islamic Republic's coordinating Iraq's insurgency. Roads to Iraq and Iraqi blog reported that after a fierce battle in “Khan Bani Sa’ad” Diyala governorate north of Baghdad with “Mahdi Army”, Iraqi resistance succeeded to capture one of the “Mahdi Army”. They found a complete modern communications system manufacturing in the Ministry of Defense of Iran believed to be used as a direct contact with the Iranians. Photos.CNN News reported that a Shiite Muslim militia involved in the warfare between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq has received "millions of dollars" and an assortment of...

Top News Story Iran wins another round in the nuclear crisis with the West. ISN Security Watch reported that while a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment would boost diplomatic efforts with Iran, the UN and EU seem to have thrown in the towel, offering talks without suspension and betraying their weak position.Reuters reported that president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, said on that Tehran would not suspend nuclear enrichment despite pressure from the West. He said: "Today, Western countries want us to suspend our nuclear technology, but we say to them that we will never give it up."Bill Gertz,...