Reuters, “At least 20 die in accident on Russian nuclear sub”
MOSCOW (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed and another 21 injured in an accident aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the navy said on Sunday, in the worst submarine disaster since the Kursk sank eight years ago.
A Russian naval spokesman said 208 people were on board the submarine when an accident involving the activation of a fire extinguishing system occurred during sea trials. He said the nuclear reactor was intact and radiation levels were normal.
Continue reading ‘At least 20 die in accident on Russian nuclear sub’
Times Online, “Nuclear-powered passenger aircraft ‘to transport millions’ says expert”
Professor Poll said the big challenge would be to demonstrate that passengers and crew could be safely shielded from the reactors.
Nuclear-powered aircraft may sound like a concept from Thunderbirds, but they will be transporting millions of passengers around the world later this century, the leader of a Government-funded project to reduce environmental damage from aviation believes.
The consolation of sitting a few yards from a nuclear reactor will be non-stop flights from London to Australia or New Zealand, because the aircraft will no longer need to land to refuel. The flights will also produce no carbon emissions and therefore make no contribution to global warming.
Continue reading ‘Nuclear-powered passenger aircraft ‘to transport millions’ says expert’
FOXNews, “Mysterious Cargo Aboard Iranian Ship Seized by Pirates Raises WMD Concerns”
As Somali pirates brazenly maintain their standoff with American warships off the coast of Africa, the cargo aboard one Iranian ship they commandeered is raising concerns that it may contain materials that can be used for chemical or biological weapons.
Some local officials suspect that instead of finding riches, the pirates encountered deadly chemical agents aboard the Iranian vessel.
On Aug. 21, the pirates, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, stole onto the decks of the merchant vessel Iran Deyanat.
Continue reading ‘Did Pirates Seize Iranian WMDs?’
FOXNews, “Venezuela Set to Develop Nuclear Power With Russia”
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy — a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.
Chavez said he accepted an offer from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for assistance in building a nuclear reactor.
Continue reading ‘Russia will provide Venezuela with nuclear technology for The Second Cold War’
The Guardian, “Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran”
Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.
The then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, used the occasion of Bush’s trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary of the state’s founding to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on May 14, the sources said. “He took it [the refusal of a US green light] as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office”, they added.
Continue reading ‘Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran’
The New York Times, “N. Korea Bars Inspectors From Nuclear Plant”
PARIS — North Korea has barred international inspectors from a nuclear reprocessing plant that produces weapons-grade material and intends to restart activity there in a week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
The decision by North Korea comes as the Vienna-based nuclear agency also announced it had completed on Wednesday the removal of all seals and surveillance cameras from the reprocessing plant, one of several sites at its vast Yongbyon nuclear complex. The removal was carried out following a formal request to the agency by the North two days ago.
Continue reading ‘North Korea steps back from nuclear disarmament’
Pat Dollard, “Breaking - Gird Your Loins: Two More US Aircraft Carriers Headed For Persian Gulf; Nuke Sub In The Area?”
Written by Adam Gonn - (The Media Line)
Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times.
Kuwait began finalizing its “emergency war plan” on being told the vessels were bound for the region.
The U.S. Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. U.S. Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed “force-protection policy.”
Continue reading ‘Two more aircraft carriers (and recently two nuclear submarines) head to gulf’
FOXNews, “Iran Remains Defiant in Face of Sanctions Threat”
Iran doesn’t seem fazed by the West’s looming threat of sanctions. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that his country wouldn’t retreat “one iota” from its nuclear enrichment program, Reuters reported based on a statement posted on the presidential Web site.
Ahmadinejad’s statement, which echoed prior statements on the impasse, was issued following a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran’s closest allies in the Arab world.
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My Way News, “Report: Iran now has 6,000 centrifuges for uranium”
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran’s president said Saturday his country now possesses 6,000 centrifuges, a significant increase in its nuclear program that is certain to further rankle the United States and others who fear Tehran is intent on developing weapons.
The new figure is double the 3,000 uranium-enriching machines Iran had previously said it was operating.
Continue reading ‘Report: Iran now has 6,000 centrifuges for uranium’
FOXNews, “Obama Pledges to Focus on Eliminating Nuclear Stockpiles”
Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to place new emphasis on ridding the world of nuclear weapons if he is elected president, warning that nuclear terrorism is the “gravest danger” facing the country.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was picking up where he left off during a foreign policy address of a day earlier, when he stressed the need to end the war in Iraq so that the country can devote its resources to fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of rogue regimes.
Continue reading ‘Obama Pledges to Focus on Eliminating Nuclear Stockpiles’
The New York Times, “North Korea Destroys Tower at Nuclear Site”
SEOUL, South Korea — In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday.
The 60-foot cooling tower at the North’s main nuclear power plant collapsed in a heap of shattered concrete and twisted steel, filmed by international and regional television broadcasters invited to witness the event.
The tower is a technically insignificant structure, relatively easy to rebuild. North Korea also has been disabling — but not destroying — more sensitive parts of the nuclear complex, such as the 5-megawatt reactor, a plant that makes its fuel and a laboratory that extracts plutonium from its spent fuel.
Continue reading ‘Is North Korea slowly disarming?’
Breitbart, “Israeli minister says alternatives to attack on Iran running out”
An Israeli deputy prime minister on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons programme.
“If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programme, we will attack it,” said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.
“Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme,” Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.
He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support.
A former defence minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.
