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Last Updated: Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 21:29 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Radioactive traces on BA planes Mr Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin Traces of a radioactive substance have been found on two British Airways planes at Heathrow Airport, says BA.The planes, plus a third in Moscow, are being tested as part of the probe into the death from radiation poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. BA is trying to make contact with up to 33,000 passengers who travelled on the 221 European flights affected, including the London to Moscow route....

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VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors have found traces of plutonium, of possible use in atom bombs, at an Iranian nuclear waste site as Tehran pursues a nuclear program despite the risk of sanctions, an IAEA report said on Tuesday.

VIENNA, Austria -- More than two tons of radioactive material stored in a rundown research facility in Serbia offer an easy target for terrorists seeking to build a "dirty bomb," according to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. Nuclear inspectors have branded the lightly guarded storage facility at a communist-era reactor, which closed 22 years ago, the world's most dangerous disused nuclear site -- because of the potency of the material and the risk of leakage. The outdated facility is on a 48-acre site at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Vinca, 10 miles outside the capital, Belgrade, surrounded by a...

WASHINGTON - The United States and Russia have resolved a major hurdle in their negotiations to dispose of tons of excess plutonium, announcing an accord Friday on a liability issue that has long stymied the program. The two countries signed a protocol that provides a framework for dealing with the liability problem, the Energy Department announced. However, there are other issues still to be worked out, including details on how Russia is going to dispose of its 34 metric tons of plutonium from its weapons stockpile under the agreement. At the same time, the future of the U.S. disposal program...

[Male announcer] As you might have heard, Arak's Heavy Water Facility was inaugurated by President Ahmadinezhad earlier today. This is one of the major nuclear projects. We have established live video link with our colleague Ms Mehrafar in Arak. Hello Ms Mehrafar. [Mehrafar] In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate. Hello to our dear viewers. As you indicated, President Ahmadinezhad and Mr [Reza] Aqazadeh, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), inaugurated Arak's complex. We have with us the AEOI's Deputy for international affairs Mohammad Sa'idi. Mr Sa'idi, would you please tell our...

Iran has announced that a heavy water reactor plant south-west of Tehran has been put into operation. The plutonium by-product of the plant could be used to make atomic war-heads but Iran insists it only intends to build nuclear power plants. The move comes days before a UN deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, the part of Tehran's atomic programme that most worries the West. ...................... A Reuters witness said on Saturday the president inaugurated the project and toured the site at Khondab, which is near Arak, 190 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of the capital Tehran. The plant's plutonium...

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...