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China's main centers for designing, making and storing nuclear arms lie in the shattered earthquake zone, leading Western experts to look for signs of any damage that might allow radioactivity to escape. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue, said the United States was using spy satellites and other means to try to monitor the sprawling nuclear plants. "There appear to be no immediate concerns," the official said. Nonetheless, "it's potentially a serious issue," Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group...

U.S. President George Bush is in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Washington and Riyadh. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the two leaders are expected to reach agreement on civilian nuclear technology.They will discuss a deal to help the kingdom develop civilian nuclear power for medical and industrial uses as well as generating electricity. The agreement provides access to safe, reliable fuel sources for nuclear reactors and demonstrates what the Bush Administration calls Saudi leadership as a non-proliferation model for the region. [I certainly hope McCain disowns this policy....

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Wednesday on the top UN powers to give Iran security guarantees to help resolve the crisis over Tehran's nuclear programme, Russian news agencies reported. Lavrov said that international powers negotiating with Iran "could put concrete proposals on the table guaranteeing the security of Iran and ensuring Iran a worthy, equal place in talks on resolving all problems in the near and Middle East," the agencies reported. "Unfortunately not all members of the 'six' are prepared for this, but I am convinced that this is an effective way to remove the tension...

With news today that the United States Nuclear Watchdog, Dale Klein, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is set to visit the Turkey Point Nuclear Reactor Power Plant in South Miami-Dade Florida we thought we’d look at just how safe our nuclear reactors are from a surprise terrorist attack. A 1982 study by Sandia National Laboratories found that a core meltdown and radiological release at one of the two operating Indian Point reactors could cause 50,000 near-term deaths from acute radiation syndrome and 14,000 long-term deaths from cancer. When these results were originally disclosed to the press, an NRC official...

With eight power plants on the drawing board, Texas could lead the way in an American renaissance of nuclear power, according to industry leaders and some policymakers. Four power companies -- New Jersey-based NRG Energy, Amarillo Power, Dallas-based Luminant and Chicago-based Exelon -- have proposed building nuclear plants in Texas. That would increase the reactors in the state from four to 12, and more than triple its nuclear output. It's likely that some of the plants will never get built, and the permit process and construction would take about a decade. But whether Texas ends up with two more reactors...

On Israel 60th Birthday, Picnics And A Warning To Iran By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- May 11, 2008 ....... Israel is celebrating her 60th birthday this week. From colorful fireworks, laser shows and Israel flag draped skyscrapers to country picnics, folk dancing and IDF parachute drops. The mood is upbeat. And Israel security forces deserve a loud applause for their Intel and field work in preventing Islamic terror attacks from interrupting this joyous and historic anniversary. But quietly inserted into Israel's 60th birthday celebrations was a highly lethal message for Iran. It was not articulated in the...

Ten years after India crashed the nuclear weapons club, the Bush administration is planning on rewarding it for its bad behavior. When India conducted nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998, the Clinton administration condemned the tests and imposed sanctions. But now the Bush administration is condoning India's actions. By provisionally agreeing to supply fuel, reactors and other technology to India's civilian nuclear sector, the United States is legitimizing a weapons project that India conceived in dishonesty. Back in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, India misused material and know-how provided by countries such as Canada and...

On Monday, Iran’s Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran would not submit to extensive U.N. inspections of its nuclear program while Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, as the global pact is called, and, as such, is not permitted to build or hold nuclear weapons. Israel, which maintains a small arsenal of nukes, has not joined the NPT. Citing “nuclear apartheid,” the Iranian diplomat said The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states.

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules. EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah. But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year...

INDIANAPOLIS, May 6 (Reuters) - John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed. Nuclear power -- controversial in the United States and throughout much of the world -- is on the agenda of all three U.S. presidential candidates as they seek to diversify the country's energy mix and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach to the technology that some observers see as a necessary answer to fighting climate change and others view as expensive and dangerous....

AREVA, a French-based company, has chosen Bonneville County, Idaho, as the site for its first U.S. uranium enrichment facility. "While we had several attractive sites to choose from, we opted for Idaho Falls, which has strong ties to nuclear energy, and which welcomed AREVA and its proposed enrichment facility to become a new member of its community," said Michael McMurphy, President of Areva Inc. "We look forward to a productive and long-term partnership that will deliver diversity and strength to the regional economy." The $2 billion plant will be built 18 miles west of Idaho Falls, close to the Idaho...

NEW DELHI: In a move to somewhat bridge the stark strategic imbalance with China in terms of nuclear and missile arsenals, India is all set to test its most ambitious missile Agni-III on Wednesday. The countdown for the launch of Agni-III, designed to hit high-value targets deep inside China with a strike range of 3,500-km, has begun at the integrated test range on Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa. "The test will be conducted on Wednesday morning if there are no last-minute hitches. The final checks for all the sub-systems in the complex 16.7-metre tall missile, with a lift-off...

LONDON (AFP) - Never mind the radiation: British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, recently declassified documents showed Monday.

In order to understand the steep rise in world food prices that set off food riots in Haiti last week and toppled the government, you need to travel to Iowa. Right now, we're trying to run our cars on corn ethanol instead of gasoline. As a result, we suddenly find ourselves taking food out of the mouths of children in developing nations. That may sound harsh, but it also happens to be true.Environmentalists and farm state senators--the great biofuels coalition--of course object. After U.N. officials called for a biofuels moratorium last week, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, called...

Iran told Britain not to cross any "red lines" when preparing incentives for the Islamic Republic aimed at ending a row with the West over Tehran's nuclear program, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday. World powers met in London on Friday and said they would offer new incentives to encourage Iran to halt nuclear work which the West fears is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran refused the last such offer made in 2006 and officials have in the past described a demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program as a "red line". They say it is Iran's...

In case you haven't noticed, gas prices are soaring, hiking the cost of food and just about everything else. If you believe Hillary Clinton, the blame for all this lies on the shoulders of those greedy oil companies and their bloated profit margins, a notion that like just about every other snake-oil remedy she tries to peddle is simply not the case. We're in the mess in which we find ourselves because of a small handful of people with the money and the power to inflict grievous harm on their fellow humans, whom they just happen to despise. It's about...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Chinese nuclear submarines prompt 'new Cold War' warning By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 5:30PM BST 02/05/2008 Tensions in the Far East could reach "Cold War levels" defence analysts warned, following evidence that China had secretly developed a major nuclear submarine base. Satellite photographs passed to The Daily Telegraph this week showed that the secret base at Sanya on Hainan island will house up to 20 of the latest 094 Jin-class nuclear ballistic submarines that could be capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The construction showed that China was “ramping up its operational capability” and developing...

Bringing juice to both Carolinas, but at what cost? The plan to build a duke nuclear power plant in Cherokee County is gaining steam. And questions over the plan and its impact are heating up Many turned out in Gaffney thursday night to say what they think of the plan, as did officials close to the project. Mike Cherin, a local resident concerned about the impact said, " We need to organize the community a lot more now..to make sure they are aware..the costs of this plant..what damage its going to do to our water sources..specifically the broad river."...

Summary: Nuclear power is “clean” inexpensive energy that doesn’t emit the greenhouse gases that environmental groups say are responsible for global warming. So why are Greenpeace and other environmental groups so determined to stop it? And what explains the unlikely coalition of environmentalists and statesmen who support nuclear energy? ...... Word is out: Nuclear power is efficient and cost-effective, and it has both strong supporters and opponents in the environmental movement. British scientist James Lovelock supports nuclear energy. The proponent of the “Gaia hypothesis” that the living and non-living parts of the Earth are a single organism says, “I am...

While a growing number of countries have announced their civilian nuclear energy ambitions over the past twelve months, no other country is likely to have more of a psychological impact on the nuclear energy picture than Saudi Arabia. We believe the Kingdom’s natural gas and water problems will lead them to nuclear, sooner rather than later, probably as early as this year. After our interview with Kevin Bambrough, which resulted in the widely read article, ‘Explosion in Nuclear Energy Demand Coming,” we began more deeply researching Bambrough’s conclusion. He believes the overwhelming growth in nuclear energy will continue to drive...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. intelligence community, in an about-face from an assessment of less than a year ago, has concluded that Syria was close to becoming a nuclear power. "In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," CIA director Michael Hayden said. The new assessment was that Syria was weeks away from operating a North Korean-built plutonium production plant near the Turkish border. That facility, the intelligence community assessed, could have procuced up to two bombs in the first year of operation...

According to new information leaked by western intelligence sources, a special ground forces unit reached the Syrian reactor from Iraq. In the weeks that preceded the bombing of the site, the force stayed in Iraqi territory with the knowledge of the U.S. military, and with its assistance. The details are reported by www.sigint.co.il, which does not name the unit because of censorship but says it is "an operational unit which works alongside a well-known intelligence organization." The unit reportedly stayed near the Iraqi-Syrian border during August and September of 2007, documented the site's construction and "marked" it before its destruction....

Iran has taken command of its nuclear technology and could have an atomic bomb in a year, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as saying Wednesday, citing Israeli intelligence. According to Channel 10, Mofaz made the comments during talks with US officials in Washington where he leading an Israeli delegation holding meetings within the framework of the Israel-US Strategic Dialogue. In the past, the general consensus in the intelligence community has been that Iran had hit some technical difficulties with enrichment and that its attainment of nuclear capability was much further off. Late Sunday night, as Mofaz headed to Washington,...

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday there was no "magic wand" to bring down record-high fuel prices but would consider a proposal to suspend federal gasoline taxes this summer -- an idea that has divided the 2008 presidential candidates... Bush again prodded Congress to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling and allow construction of more nuclear and coal plants... "I've repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems, yet time after time Congress chose to block them." Crude oil prices have surged more than five-fold since 2002... Oil prices are up nearly 25 percent since the...

While attention is focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, the real threat to the world, Iran, has been ignored. It seems impossible that in this day and age people do not realize the multiple threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Even our politicians demonstrate their ignorance of the true nature of the Iranian threat when they propose negotiating with this country. Remember, Iran has declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, denies the Holocaust, continues their pursuit of nuclear weapons despite UN resolutions, attacked U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, houses senior Al-Qa'ida leaders, uses...

Iran has demanded that Azerbaijan deliver a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment that it blocked at its border with Iran almost three weeks ago. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini says his country has asked the Azerbaijani ambassador in Iran to get his government to deliver the shipment as soon as possible. He spoke Sunday at his weekly press briefing. The shipment is headed to a nuclear reactor the Russians have helped build in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr. Azerbaijan has said it was seeking more information about the shipment due to fears that it might violate...

At the moment America has disclosed to the world Israel's success in ending a North Korea-aided nuclear weapons project in the Syrian desert, the Syrians are saying Prime Minister Olmert will relinquish the Golan Heights. The Israelis are offering no public comment. But Syria's expatriates minister, Buthaina Shaaban, told Al-Jazeera that the Israeli premier had instructed Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to deliver the message. "Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria," she told the Arab satellite network. The interview aired before the White House...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Syria's ambassador to the United States said Friday that the CIA fabricated pictures allegedly taken inside a secret Syrian nuclear reactor and predicted that in the coming weeks the U.S. story about the site would "implode from within.""The photos presented to me yesterday were ludicrous, laughable," Ambassador Imad Moustapha told reporters at his Washington residence.However, he refused to say what the building in the remote eastern desert of Syria was used for before Israeli jets bombed it in September 2007.Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday they believe it was a secret nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium,...

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2008 – Syria’s building of a secret nuclear facility with North Korean help reinforces the need to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today. “It should serve as a reminder to us all of the very real dangers of proliferation and need to rededicate ourselves to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, particularly into the hands of a state or a group with terrorist connections,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon briefing. The reactor, destroyed by Israel in September before it...

Syria 'had covert nuclear scheme' The US says there were similarities between the Syrian and North Korean reactors The United States has accused North Korea of helping Syria build a nuclear reactor that "was not intended for peaceful purposes". The site, said to be like one in North Korea, was bombed by Israel in 2007. Syria must "come clean" about its secret nuclear programme, the White House said in a statement after CIA officials briefed members of Congress. Syria has repeated denials that it has any nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea. Syrian officials have...

When Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore first began second-guessing his opposition to nuclear power, he did what any good environmentalist would do: He buried it. The activist had already helped spearhead Greenpeace’s fight against nuclear testing and had gained international recognition after being arrested for shielding a baby seal from a hunter’s club. “I had always been afraid of nuclear waste,” he said in an interview. “I thought if I got anywhere near it, it would kill me. But deep down, intellectually, I knew it could work.” As global warming grew from scientific theory to public concern in the late 1980s,...

The Bush administration released detailed photographic images on Thursday to support its assertion that the building in Syria that Israel destroyed in an airstrike last year was a nuclear reactor constructed with years of help from North Korea. The administration said it withheld the pictures for seven months out of fear that Syria could retaliate against Israel and start a broader war in the Middle East. The photographs taken inside the reactor before it was destroyed in an air raid on Sept. 6 clearly show the rods that control the heat in a nuclear reactor, one of many close engineering...

Was North Korea helping Syria build a plutonium-producing reactor? The emerging consensus in the intelligence world is that it was. Indeed, the evidence, now including videotapes taken inside the facility before it was obliterated by Israeli jets last September 6, appears almost unequivocal. It is therefore fascinating — and disturbing — to recall the alacrity with which Joseph Cirincione, Barack Obama’s top expert on matters nuclear, the author of a book called the Bomb Scare, was so quick back in September to dismiss the report as “nonsense.” To Cirincione, writing on the blog of Foreign Policy Magazine, the Israeli strike...

<p>WASHINGTON — After seven months of near-total secrecy, the White House is preparing to make public on Thursday video evidence of North Koreans working at a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor just before it was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last September.</p>

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Iran has been kicked out of an international defense show in Malaysia for exhibiting missile equipment in violation of U.N. rules, an official said Thursday. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Iranian companies were ordered out of the Defense Services Asia show Tuesday because their exhibition was deemed "offensive."

The next time Islamist terrorists attack us it could be with a nuclear weapon... Graham Allison is a Harvard professor who served with distinction in the Defense Department under Presidents Reagan and Clinton. He wrote a book in 2004 arguing that “on the current course, nuclear terrorism is inevitable.” There has been no change of course since — quite the contrary. Ashton B. Carter, co-director of the Preventive Defense Project at Harvard, said recently that the threat of nuclear terrorism has been increasing due to Iranian and North Korean proliferation and the failure to secure Russia’s nuclear arsenal following the...

The CIA will tell Congress today that the North Koreans had begun to build a nuclear reactor at a site in Syria bombed by the Israelis last year. The timing of the briefing appears related to the expected resolution of the six-nation plan to disarm the DPRK in the next few weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times. It may create new political difficulties for the Bush administration, but more likely it is intended to fulfill a Congressional demand for information to clear hurdles for ratification of the agreement with North Korea: CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that...

The Bush administration will tell Congress tomorrow that a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in September, and that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said. CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials are expected to brief several congressional committees in closed-door sessions, breaking the administration's silence on the issue. The Syrian facility has become a key issue in six-nation negotiations to end the North's nuclear programs. “The belief is that the reactor was...

In today’s Washington Times, Michael O’Hanlon suggests the U.S. should engage Iran diplomatically, for “hawkish” reasons: U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran, the sooner the better, still makes sense — not because it will likely produce any breakthroughs, but because . . . “hawkish engagement” can set the U.S. up more effectively to galvanize the kind of growing international pressure on Iran that is probably our only long-term hope of producing better behavior from Tehran. By trying to talk, we better position ourselves to get tough and have others join the effort. Through negotiation, we can prove to the world that...

U.S. authorities arrested an American engineer on Tuesday on suspicion of giving secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and air defense missiles to Israel during the 1980s, the Justice Department said. Ben-Ami Kadish, 84, acknowledged his spying in FBI interviews and said he acted out of a belief that he was helping Israel, court papers said. He was accused of reporting to an Israeli government handler who also dealt with Jonathan Jay Pollard, an American citizen serving a life term on a 1985 charge of spying for Israel. Kadish's arrest is a sign the Pollard scandal, which remains an irritant...

Anthony Cordesman, a strategist at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, has estimated the consequences if Tehran gets the bomb and a nuclear exchange with Israel ensues. He expects, writes Martin Walker of United Press International, "some 16 million to 28 million Iranians dead within 21 days, and between 200,000 and 800,000 Israelis dead within the same time frame. The total of deaths beyond 21 days could rise very much higher, depending on civil defense and public health facilities, where Israel has a major advantage..."

N. Korea produced 30 kg plutonium: report TOKYO - NORTH Korea told the United States in December it has produced a total of around 30 kg of plutonium, about 20 kg less than what the United States estimates, a Japanese newspaper reported on Monday. The daily Tokyo Shimbun reported that North Korea's chief envoy to the talks, Kim Kye Gwan, told his US counterpart, Christopher Hill in North Korea last December the North had used about 18 kg of its plutonium stockpile for nuclear development and around 6 kg for its first and only underground nuclear test in October 2006....

Imagery confirms underground nuclear sub base in China Imagery confirms underground nuclear sub base in China Richard D Fisher Jr Analyst - Virginia Key Points Exclusive access to Digital Globe satellite imagery has allowed Jane's to document China's nuclear naval build-up on Hainan Island The Sanya base may be used to house the new Type 094 nuclear submarine High-resolution satellite imagery from Digital Globe has enabled Jane's to confirm the construction of a major underground nuclear submarine base at Sanya, on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China. Although Asian military sources first suggested the existence of the base...

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Vermont's love-hate relationship with its lone nuclear power plant is coming to a head: Lawmakers have to decide next year whether to shut down the reactor in 2012 as scheduled or keep it humming for another two decades. Vermont is as known for its green living as its green landscapes, and some environmentalists in the state have come to appreciate nuclear power for its low greenhouse gas emissions, said Steve Terry, a former journalist who covered the construction of the Vermont Yankee plant in the late 1960s. But the plant's benefit "comes in a clash with a...

Corzine Eyes New Nuclear Energy PlantWNYC Newsroom NEW YORK, NY April 18, 2008 — Governor Corzine continues his efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey. But his latest proposal to help reach that goal is sparking much debate. Corzine's office has released a proposal that calls for a review of the siting, permitting, financing, and waste disposal issues involved with bringing a new nuclear power plant to the state. The administration will also look at other technologies with minimal or no carbon dioxide emissions. But environmentalists pan the governor's plan, saying nuclear power is dangerous and creates hazardous...

<p>The era of nonproliferation is over. During the first half-century of the nuclear age, safety lay in restricting the weaponry to major powers and keeping it out of the hands of rogue states. This strategy was inevitably going to break down. The inevitable has arrived.</p>

PHILADELPHIA - The United States should offer to protect countries in the Middle East from Iran if those countries forgo nuclear weapons of their own, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Clinton, a senator from New York, and rival Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, reaffirmed their commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and held out the possibility of military action if Tehran attacked Israel. The two candidates, vying to become the Democratic presidential nominee to take on Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in the November election, made their comments in a debate before next week's...

Indecision is the path to war. The world is about to repeat errors that led to WWII: talking peace while a dictator prepares for war. Iran’s President again showed his contempt for the UN by announcing Iran is installing 6,000 more centrifuges that spin at thousands of revolutions per minute. Ahmadinejad fails to say if they are the second generation P-2s or the older P-1s centrifuges. The type doesn’t matter, Iran is on its way to establishing a production line for fissile material—the fuel for nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei conducts an endless series of meetings with...

DOHA (AFP) - Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi told leaders of the Gulf Arab state of Qatar on Wednesday that his country was willing to put its controversial nuclear expertise at the service of all Muslim states. (Advertisement) "Iran is determined to make the best use of this technology not only for Iran but also for all Muslim states," Shahroudi told a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha. His comments came after talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country hosts the headquarters of US Central Command which runs military operations in Iraq and...