Free Republic

Tehran, 25 August (AKI) - News agencies in Iran are predicting a new announcement from outspoken president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his country's nuclear progress. There is intense speculation that it may come next Tuesday on the first anniversary of the formation of the government after last year's elections. In the Iranian capital there are reports that Ahmadinejad, who several months ago announced the entry of Iran into the 'nuclear club' will provide details on progress in the field of heavy water reactors. It has a heavy water reactor under construction at the Arak plant in central Iran, 360 kilometres...

Pakistan's Khushab nuclear research complex is likely to come under intense international scrutiny following a report that included satellite imagery indicating construction of a 1000 MW heavy water reactor that could generate enough plutonium to produce 40 to 50 nuclear warheads per year. This second reactor, that could begin operating in 5 years, would be in addition to the 50 MW reactor commissioned in 1988. It could substantially boost the number of plutonium-based weapons in the Pakistani arsenal that currently is predominantly comprised of enriched uranium based bombs. The report will revive demands for speeding-up the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty,...

Plant Underway Could Generate Plutonium for 40 to 50 Bombs a Year, Analysts Say Pakistan has begun building what independent analysts say is a powerful new reactor for producing plutonium, a move that, if verified, would signal a major expansion of the country's nuclear weapons capabilities and a potential new escalation in the region's arms race. Satellite photos of Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site show what appears to be a partially completed heavy-water reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year, a 20-fold increase from Pakistan's current capabilities, according to a technical assessment by Washington-based...

A program of clandestine action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week's missile tests by the Pyongyang regime. Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a secret war against Pyongyang and Tehran. It has so far involved interceptions of North Korean ships at sea, US agents prowling the waterfronts in Taiwan, multinational naval and air surveillance missions out of Singapore, investigators poring over the books of dubious banks in the former Portuguese colony of Macau and a fleet of planes and...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON – As President Bush seeks to ensure that other countries wanting to use nuclear energy do so without creating weapons-grade material, the United States' plan to reduce its own stock of bomb-quality plutonium is behind schedule and has more than tripled in cost. The program, referred to as MOX for the mixed oxide blend that would be converted into energy, has been slowed for a host of reasons, including partner Russia's unwillingness to agree to U.S. terms on liability as well as delays and cost overruns in the design phase...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is making plans to revive nuclear fuel reprocessing, including a long-term proposal to provide reactor fuel to foreign countries if they return it to the United States to be recycled. President Bush will include a request for $250 million in his budget to be released next week as a first step toward reversing a decades long U.S. policy against nuclear reprocessing, congressional and administration officials said Thursday. The plan is part of an effort to take a fresh look at how to deal with the thousands of tons of used reactor fuel piling...

‘Hill Said U.S., N.Korea Ties Depend on Human Rights’ Washington’s chief negotiator in six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Christopher Hill, reportedly said the Stalinist country must discuss its human rights record, plans to develop biochemical weapons, support for terrorism and other illegitimate activities before the U.S. is ready to normalize ties. Reports on Sunday said Hill made the remark in a closed-door address right after signing a statement of principles that ended the fourth round of the talks on Sept. 19. He said other parties in the talks must take a clear stance in the next round slated...

QUESTION: What's your reaction to the protests in Iran around the British Embassy? This is a reaction to the IAEA vote, I presume, were there to be a U.S. embassy, they would be protesting there. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, I'll leave it to those on the ground to describe the protests there and who might be organizing those protests. The position where Iran finds itself right now, I think, is one that is probably a surprise to them after the IAEA Board of Governors vote. And where they find themselves is more isolated from the international community than when they...

Canada has reversed a long-standing policy and will supply material for India's atomic energy program. Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew agreed Monday to allow the supply of nuclear-related "dual-use items," which can be used for both civilian and military applications. Canada had stopped providing nuclear materials to India three decades ago after that country started testing nuclear bombs. Pettigrew said Monday that the situation had changed because of India's commitments to keep its military and civilian nuclear programs separate, and because of its moratorium on nuclear testing. "We have to acknowledge the substantial progress that has been made in India," said...

TOKYO, Aug. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea began operating its nuclear reactor just before the fourth round of six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons ambitions started in late July, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday. In a dispatch from Washington, Asahi said North Korea resumed operations at its 5,000-kilowatt nuclear plant in Yongbyon in July, merely months after it announced that activities at the plant had been suspended in order to remove spent fuel rods out of it for reprocessing. Asahi quoted U.S. officials as saying that intelligence satellites had detected water vapor being released from the plant's...

Washington DC—According to a 2 August 2005 Washington Post article, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) projects that Iran is a decade away from manufacturing a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years, according to government sources with first-hand knowledge of the new analysis. The intelligence estimate is contradictory—reflecting disagreement within the community. On one hand, the estimate is reassuring: Iran is alleged to be about ten years away from getting the bomb. On the other hand, the estimate is worrisome: “It is the judgment of the intelligence community that, left to its own...

Sixty years ago the Manhattan Project carried out its first test of a secret weapon, forged from a metal first detected in sub-microgram amounts fewer than five years before. By David FishlockOn Thursday 12 July 1945 a US Army sedan drove Philip Morrison the 210 miles from Los Alamos to Alamagordo with the plutonium core of the world’s first nuclear weapon on his lap. At dawn four days later the priceless hemispheres the physicist had helped forge, then assembled, vanished in the highly successful Trinity nuclear test. The scientists who witnessed the test estimated the energy released equivalent to 18,600t...

TGV stands for “Two guys and a van” and got their start trying to figure out how to reduce the cost of spaceflight operations. They have discovered a very interesting market: suborbital imagery. The Bush Administration announced plans last week to restart plutonium 238 production. For $1.5 billion over 30 years, they get about 5 kilograms a year of plutonium whose main use is for thermoelectric generation to power classified military applications. $1.5 billion is a lot of money. If you add in the $9.5 billion here and the $25 billion there we are talking a pretty good chunk of...

North Korea has resumed the construction of two nuclear reactors suspended under a 1994 agreement with the United States, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday. North Korea restarted building a 50,000-kilowatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200,000-kilowatt reactor in Thaechon _ both are plutonium-producing graphite-based _ Japanese economic daily Nihon Keizai said, quoting unidentified U.S. government and other sources. Japan's Foreign Ministry said it couldn't confirm the report. North Korea had suspended the construction of the two reactors under the 1994 deal in exchange for energy aid and two light-water reactors that are less likely to be used in nuclear...

The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 - a highly radioactive substance valued as a power source - since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. It is hot enough to melt plastic and so dangerous that a speck can cause cancer. Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds, or 150 kilograms, over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in...

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Teheran 'lied' over plutonium production By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 17/06/2005) Iran falsely reported the timing of experiments to produce plutonium, a fissile material used in nuclear weapons, a report by the United Nations watchdog said yesterday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Teheran had earlier admitted that it had produced plutonium in breach of the international rules, but claimed that the work had ended in 1993. But IAEA inspectors have now forced Teheran to admit that the work continued until 1998. The quantities involved are small, but in a statement, the American representative to the IAEA,...

Iran admits having treated plutonium in 1998 VIENNA - Iran admitted having treated plutonium, a material which can be used for the nuclear bomb, in 1998, that is to say earlier than it had up to now admitted it, according to a report/ratio having to be communicated Thursday in the States of the IAEA and whose AFP obtained a copy. When International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requested from Iran the dates its experiments on the separation of plutonium, Teheran admitted to have purified plutonium in 1998. That represents a change compared to the Iranian preceding declarations, according to which...

US might find Pyongyang strike 'tempting' By Hamish McDonaldBeijingMay 21, 2005   South Korean electronics giant Samsung has launched a unilateral initiative to improve relations with the North. It has signed North Korean dancer Cho Myong-ae to promote its mobile phones. Cho will be the first North Korean to appear in an advertisement in the South.Photo: Reuters A nuclear arms control expert has warned that the United States might be tempted to carry out a strike on the reactor that is North Korea's source of bomb-making plutonium.The warning comes as North Korean moves suggest it may soon carry out a nuclear...