IAEA Chief Says Nuclear Security Risks Increased Under Trump, Urges Biden to Re-Engage
Pamela Falk | CBS News
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, told CBS News that the world has become a more dangerous place partly due to President Donald Trump's policies, and he urged Mr. Trump's successor to return to nuclear negotiations with adversaries. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi discussed the risks of both Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs to the world, and said Mr. Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Tehran had intensified the danger. “From that moment, Iran, as a response to this [U.S. exit], decided to gradually start diminishing its compliance” with the nuclear pact, Grossi said in a wide-ranging interview, urging President-elect Joe Biden to reopen negotiations with Tehran.
Iran Nuclear Deal Participants Hold Virtual Talks Amid Tensions
Al-Jazeera
Senior diplomats from Iran and major powers have met online to discuss the state of a nuclear deal that is eroding despite conciliatory signals from United States President-elect Joe Biden. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCP0A), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, was agreed upon in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – China, France, Russia, the UK and US – plus Germany, together with the European Union. But on May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the landmark pact and revived punishing sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran. One year later, Iran started abandoning key provisions of the JCPOA.
NATO Rejects New UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons, Defends Deterrent
Brendan Cole | Newsweek
NATO has said it must remain a nuclear-armed alliance and has opposed a United Nations treaty coming into effect next month that aims to eliminate nuclear weapons. The Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) also known as the Ban Treaty, was approved by 122 countries in July 2017 and starts from January 22 2021 but no nuclear-armed state has backed it. Countries that have ratified it are prohibited from developing and testing nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. But the alliance says the agreement would weaken the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) struck five decades ago, which it considers to be the benchmark global framework on nuclear arms control.
Biden to Name Granholm as Energy Secretary
Will Englund, Juliet Eilperin, and Dino Grandoni | Washington Post
President-elect Joe Biden is nominating Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan who has been a strong voice for zero-emissions vehicles, as secretary of energy, two people familiar with the process said Tuesday. Granholm, 61 and currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, has argued that the United States risks being left behind by other countries if it doesn’t develop alternate energy technologies. Her pick is a clear sign that Biden wants the department to play an important role in combating climate change.
‘Highly Skeptical’: House Armed Services Chairman Concerned About SRS Pit Production
Colin Demarest | Aiken Standard
In blunt, if not damning, remarks at a Friday event, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee expressed serious reservations about plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site and questioned the competency of the National Nuclear Security Administration, overall. Likening the conversion of the failed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility to flipping a bowling alley into a restaurant, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith said he was “highly skeptical that they’re going to be able to turn that building into an effective pit production facility. Highly skeptical.” And that’s concerning, he further suggested, because failure risks the health of the nation’s nuclear arsenal – however big or small one might want it to be. “They’ve been around for a long time,” the Washington Democrat said of U.S. nuclear weapons. “We have to make sure they work.”
Space Force Official: Russian Missile Tests Expose Vulnerability of Low-Orbiting Satellites
Sandra Erwin | Space News
Russia on Dec. 15 conducted a ballistic missile test that U.S. Space Command condemned as a threat to satellites in orbit. “The nation must do something about this,” said Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno, director of staff of the Office of the Chief of Space Operations of the U.S. Space Force. Speaking Dec. 16 at a Washington Space Business Roundtable virtual event, Armagno said the recent Russian missile test shows how vulnerable satellites are, and validates the decision to establish a military space service focused on defending U.S. space systems. “Our mission is to protect the interests of the U.S. in space and deter aggression,” said Armagno.