Iran Averts Big Rise in Sensitive Nuclear Stockpile

Iran appears to have moved quickly to prevent a large increase in its most disputed nuclear stockpile, a new U.N. watchdog report indicates, in what may be an attempt not to undermine talks on a nuclear deal with six world powers next week. "Iran does not want to provoke Israel to attack Iran. Especially now," said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.

 

Claims by Israel that Iran is developing ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States have little evidence to support them. And even if it were engaged in such a project, Iran would be unlikely to have such a weapon before the end of the decade.

 

The final shipment of civilian nuclear reactor fuel made from Soviet atomic bombs left port for the United States on Thursday, ending a post-Cold War program that has been a long-running boon for the American nuclear power industry.

 

The United States will keep two Patriot missile batteries in Turkey for another year to help bolster the country’s air defenses against threats from Syria’s civil war, the Pentagon said Monday.

 

Australia will back India's full membership into the exclusive Nuclear Suppliers' Group - a non-proliferation watchdog set up specifically in response to India's first nuclear test in 1974, foreign minister Julie Bishop said in New Delhi last night. 

 

Tokyo Electric Power Co. started removing nuclear fuel from a damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant for the first time, marking a new stage in the decades-long decommissioning process.