Edition

In Reprieve to Obama, Senate Democrats Agree to Wait on Iran Sanctions

IN THIS ISSUE: Senate Dems to wait on Iran sanctions, Pakistan criticizes India's inclusion in NSG, restart of Yongbyon reactor?, Trident 'could quit Scotland for Wales,' USAF seeks Minuteman replacement, US nuclear scientist offered to help Venezuela build nuclear bombs, gets 60 months.

Published on January 29, 2015

In Reprieve to Obama, Senate Democrats Agree to Wait on Iran Sanctions

David E. Sanger | New York Times

The concession came in a letter to Mr. Obama from Senator Robert Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who has been increasingly at odds with the White House for his strong advocacy of a bill intended to squeeze Iran’s oil revenues even harder if the nuclear negotiations do not result in an agreement. 

Pakistan Criticizes India's Inclusion in Nuclear Suppliers Group

Salman Masood | New York Times

In an unusually critical statement, a senior Pakistani official said that Pakistan remained opposed to India’s inclusion in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and feared that the country’s growing nuclear cooperation with the United States could harm deterrence efforts in South Asia.

North Korea's Yongbyon Nuclear Facility: Restart of the 5 MWe Reactor?

Nick Hansen | 38 North

Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates new activity at the 5 MWe Plutonium Production Reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center after an almost five-month hiatus in operations from late August until mid-December 2014. One possibility is that the North is in the early stages of an effort to restart the reactor. 

Trident 'Could Quit Scotland for Wales'

James Chapman | Daily Mail

Defence officials have secretly started examining plans to move Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines from Scotland to Wales, the Daily Mail can reveal. The Scottish Nationalists insist they want the Trident fleet removed from its base on the west coast of Scotland.

Strategic Cruise Missile Defined As USAF Seeks Minuteman Replacement

Bill Sweetman | Aviation Week

The Pentagon has finished a secret analysis of alternatives (AoA) for the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) project, a cruise missile to replace today’s AGM-86 Air-Launched Cruise Missile, Global Strike Command leader Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said Tuesday.

U.S. Nuclear Scientist Who Offered to Help Venezuela Build Nuclear Bombs Gets 60 Months

Terrence McCoy | Washington Post

"You're a member of the Venezuelan government, right?" scientist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni of Los Alamos National Lab asked the man beside him, sliding something across the table. "This is a nuclear warhead," Mascheroni said, according to video released on Wednesday. "I know how to design this."

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