India's Unresolvable Nuclear Debate
Toby Dalton and George Perkovich
When news emerges that Pakistan has tested another short-range missile or increased its stockpile of nuclear weapons, debate resumes in New Delhi over whether India should revise its nuclear doctrine and forces. If Indian leaders do not actually intend to put army boots on Pakistani soil, then nuclear escalation is unlikely and India’s nuclear doctrine need not be concerned with Pakistan’s battlefield nuclear weapons. But if they do intend to send Indian armed forces across the border, India’s current nuclear doctrine has a credibility problem.
Treasury Imposes Sanctions on North Korea, Cutting Access to Banks
David E. Sanger and Michael Corkery | New York Times
With private cybersecurity firms linking North Korea to recent computer attacks that absconded with at least $81 million, the Treasury Department moved on Wednesday to choke off Pyongyang’s remaining access to the global financial system, designating the country a “primary” money launderer. The Treasury, employing sanctions techniques that helped pressure Iran to give up much of its nuclear program, said it would seek to impose what are known as secondary sanctions against the reclusive communist country.
The Iranian Nuclear Deal: Prelude to Proliferation in the Middle East?
Robert Einhorn and Richard Nephew | Brookings
The global nuclear nonproliferation regime has been remarkably resilient, with no new entrants to the nuclear club in the last 25 years. But observers believe that could change and that we may be heading toward a “cascade of proliferation,” especially in the Middle East. The presumed trigger for a possible Middle East nuclear weapons competition is Iran, which has violated nonproliferation obligations, conducted activities relevant to the development of nuclear weapons, and pursued sensitive dual-use nuclear technologies without a persuasive peaceful justification. Tehran’s nuclear program—combined with provocative behavior widely believed to support a goal of establishing regional hegemony—has raised acute concerns among Iran’s neighbors and could prompt some of them to respond by seeking nuclear weapons capabilities of their own.
New Evidence of Probable Plutonium Production at the Yongbyon Nuclear Facility
38 North
Recent commercial satellite imagery shows new evidence that North Korea is preparing to commence or has already begun conducting a reprocessing campaign to separate more plutonium for nuclear weapons at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. This activity consists of the presence of two loaded railroad flatcars at the Radiochemical Laboratory loaded with casks or tanks that may be associated with chemicals used in a preprocessing campaign, a small exhaust plume at the facility’s thermal plant, the replenishing of the coal stockpile for that plant and the likelihood that the 5 MWe reactor is operating at a low level of power or not at all.
India, Westinghouse in "Advanced" Talks to Close Nuclear Deal: Ambassador
India Today
Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric and India are in "advanced discussion" for the company to build six nuclear there, the country's ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday, ahead of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to Washington next week. A deal with Westinghouse would be the first such contract reached under the 2008 U.S.-India civil nuclear accord.
Next Stop America for Russia's Nuclear Sales Drive
Svetlana Burmistrova and Jack Stubbs | Reuters
Russia's Rosatom, already challenging French and other rivals for nuclear plant sales around the world, is now targeting entry into the U.S. fuel rod market, a top executive with the company has told Reuters. Despite U.S. sanctions over Moscow's treatment of Ukraine that have hurt some Russian firms and individuals, state-owned Rosatom still holds an almost 20 percent share of the U.S. enriched uranium market.