Iran Admits Serious Damage to Natanz Nuclear Site, Setting Back Program
Farnaz Fassihi, Richard Pérez-Peña, Ronen Bergman | New York Times
A fire at Iran’s main nuclear fuel enrichment site caused significant damage, setting back the country’s nuclear program by months, the government acknowledged on Sunday, after initially saying the destruction was minor. A Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the episode said Israel was responsible for the attack on the Natanz nuclear complex on Thursday, using a powerful bomb. A member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was briefed on the matter also said an explosive was used. Suspicion in Iran has focused on Israel and the United States, which have sabotaged the nuclear program in the past and have vowed to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
North Korea Rules Out Talks, as US Diplomat Visits Seoul
William Gallo | Voice of America
North Korea says it still has no interest in talks with the United States, amid efforts by South Korea to arrange another summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. “Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the U.S.,” said Kwon Jong Gun, a North Korean foreign ministry official, in an article in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday. The statement was released hours before Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun, the top U.S. negotiator on North Korea, was set to land in Seoul for meetings focused on how to advance talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Earlier this month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would like to see Trump and Kim hold another meeting before the U.S. presidential election in November.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette Fights to Retain NNSA Budget Reins
Colin Demarest | Aiken Standard
U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette in a Monday letter urged senators to reconsider provisions included in a version of annual defense legislation that would give the Pentagon and other defense officials significant sway over the National Nuclear Security Administration and its nuclear weapons purse. Brouillette, writing to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., said he had “deep concerns about several” things embedded in the panel's fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, including a section that would grant the Nuclear Weapons Council vetting power and influence over NNSA budgeting and priorities. “Since the establishment of DOE in 1977, the Secretary of Energy has been charged with the management of America's nuclear weapon capabilities,” Brouillette wrote. “This authority is the most important responsibility that I hold as the Secretary of Energy.”
Spending Bill Would Block Funding for Nuclear Testing
Rebecca Kheel | Hill
A spending bill released by House Democrats would ban funding from being used to conduct a nuclear test. The House Appropriation Committee’s draft fiscal 2021 appropriations bill for the Energy Department would prohibit funding from being used to “conduct, or prepare to conduct, any explosive nuclear weapons test that produces any yield,” according to text released Monday. The provision was included in the panel’s energy spending bill after reports earlier this year that the Trump administration raised the prospect of resuming nuclear testing as a negotiating tactic against Moscow and Beijing. The United States has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992, checking the efficacy and reliability of its weapons instead with subcritical tests that produce no nuclear yield, computer simulations and other scientific methods.
US Says Leaking Nuclear Waste Dome Is Safe; Marshall Islands Leaders Don't Believe It
Susanne Rust | Los Angeles Times
In response to a directive from Congress, the Department of Energy released a report this week assessing the risks of a 50-year-old cracking and crumbling concrete nuclear waste repository in the Marshall Islands, but the findings did little to ease the concerns of Marshallese leaders in the Central Pacific. The DOE report found that Runit Dome, a repository for atomic waste the United States produced during Cold War weapons testing, is sound and that radioactive leakage into the nearby lagoon is not significant. After Congress grew concerned last year about the leaking dome, it ordered the DOE to produce a report on the dome’s structural integrity amid climate change and rising sea levels. One Marshallese leader was disappointed the DOE again downplayed the risks and declined to take responsibility for Runit Dome and its leaking contents.
Next-gen ICBM Program Survives Defunding Attempt in House Panel
Joe Gould | Defense News
The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday shot down a plan to slash funding for the Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program. The vote was a bipartisan 44-12. The proposal was to transfer $1 billion to a pandemic preparedness fund from the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile effort, for which Northrop Grumman is the sole competitor. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., sponsored it. Though HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., supported it, most of the committee’s Democrats did not. The language would likely have been a sticking point in negotiations with the GOP-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee. The president requested $1.5 billion for the GBSD program for fiscal 2021. For the most part, fights over nuclear weapons reductions were left out by Democratic leaders anxious to avoid last year’s bruising partisan fights.