French Nuclear Power Plant Explosion: Blast at EDF's Flamanville Station 'Does Not Cause Radioactive Leak'
Lizzie Dearden | Independent
Several people are being treated for smoke inhalation after an explosion and fire at a nuclear power plant in France.Authorities said there was "no nuclear risk" following the blast in Flamanville shortly before 10am local time (9am GMT) on Thursday. "It is a significant technical issue but does not constitute a nuclear accident," Olivier Marmion, director of the prefect's office, told AFP, adding that the explosion occurred outside the nuclear zone.
Concerns Iran May Pull Out of Nuclear Deal, Would Be Failure for Intl Community – Russian Diplomat
RT
There are concerns that hostile rhetoric from Washington may lead to a collapse of the nuclear deal with Iran, a scenario that Russia considers a failure for the entire world community, a senior Russian non-proliferation diplomat has said.
Allies to Hold Drill as Though THAAD Already Deployed
Yonhap News
South Korea and the United States are expected to conduct a joint military exercise next month, as though a U.S. missile defense system that will be installed here sometime this year is already in operation, military officials said Wednesday. In the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises, each a command post-based and field training war game, the allies may carry out a command post-based exercise on the basis that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is operational, a defense ministry official told Yonhap News Agency.
US, Japan Successfully Test New Ballistic Missile Killer
Franz-Stefan Gady | Diplomat
The United States and Japan successfully concluded a flight test of a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA off the west coast of Hawaii on February 3, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced in a February 3 press release. According to the MDA, a next-generation SM-3, launched from a U.S. warship, destroyed an incoming ballistic missile target.
Poland Wants Nuclear Weapons for Europe
Deutsche Welle
The strongman of Poland’s ruling national-conservative party has stoked a debate that was previously held in only a very limited capacity. In an interview with the daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Europe should be a superpowerwith a nuclear arsenal to rival that of Russia. He conceded that such a program would, however, be very costly and that he did not anticipate such investment.
Iran Scraps Missile From Launchpad: Report
Nikita Vladimirov | Hill
Iran has pulled one of its missiles from its launchpad after preparing it for launch, Fox News reported on Tuesday. Satellite images confirmed by U.S. officials show that the Safir missile reached and then left the pad, but it is currently unclear why Iran chose to remove the missile.