Iran Nuclear Deal: IAEA Finds Uranium Particles at Undeclared Site
BBC
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found uranium particles at a site in Iran that had not been declared by the Iranian authorities. A confidential report, seen by the BBC, did not say exactly where the site was. But inspectors are believed to have taken samples from a location in Tehran's Turquzabad district. The IAEA report said its inspectors had “detected natural uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at a location in Iran not declared to the agency”. “It is essential for Iran to continue interactions with the agency to resolve the matter as soon as possible,” the report added. The report did not say where the particles were found, but three senior Israeli security and intelligence officials told a briefing last Thursday that inspectors had visited the site in Turquzabad earlier this year and taken environmental samples.
United States ‘Very Actively’ Asking North Korea to Return to Talks: South Korea
Reuters
The United States is “very actively” trying to persuade North Korea to come back to negotiations, South Korea’s national security adviser said on Sunday, as a year-end North Korean deadline for U.S. flexibility approaches. South Korea was taking North Korea’s deadline “very seriously”, the adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters, at a time when efforts to improve inter-Korean relations have stalled. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April gave the United States a year-end deadline to show more flexibility in their denuclearisation talks, and North Korean officials have warned the United States not to ignore that date. The window of opportunity for progress in dialogue with the United States was getting smaller, a senior North Korean diplomat said on Friday, adding that Pyongyang expects reciprocal steps from Washington by the end of the year. South Korea has set up various contingency plans if the deadline passes without any positive outcome, Chung said, without elaborating.
Opinion: Don’t Let the New START Treaty Lapse
Rose Gottemoeller | New York Times
The New START Treaty, the last and most important nuclear arms limitation agreement still in force between Russia and the United States, expires early in 2021. Perhaps it can be extended. But it has long been criticized by the Trump administration, on two points: The treaty does not limit new nuclear weapons systems that the Russians are threatening to use against us; and it does not include the Chinese, who are busily modernizing their nuclear arsenal. Those concerns are valid and cannot be ignored in any effort to renew the 10-year pact. The administration’s attention to these issues is welcome, and we should be looking for ways to resolve them. At the same time, we should recognize the benefits the New START Treaty brings to American national security.
Kudankulam Nuclear Plant Systems Not Affected: India Confirms IAEA
SV Krishna Chaitanya | New Indian Express
The Union government has informed Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is a nuclear watchdog, that Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu is safe and the recent espionage attempt allegedly perpetrated by North Korean group did not affect the plant systems. In an e-mail confirmation to Express, IAEA spokesperson Sinead Harvey said: “IAEA contacted relevant authorities in India who confirmed that the plant systems are not affected. Nuclear security is a Member State responsibility.” To a query, the spokesperson indicated that the agency would extend its technical assistance, if need arises. This comes amidst multiple reports claiming hackers gained domain controller-level access at the KKNPP.
How the U.S. Betrayed the Marshall Islands, Kindling the Next Nuclear Disaster
Susanne Rust | LA Times
Here in the Marshall Islands, Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands — vaporizing whole islands, carving craters into its shallow lagoons and exiling hundreds of people from their homes. A Times review of thousands of documents, and interviews with U.S. and Marshallese officials, found that the American government withheld key pieces of information about the dome’s contents and its weapons testing program before the two countries signed a compact in 1986 releasing the U.S. government from further liability. One example: The United States did not tell the Marshallese that in 1958, it shipped 130 tons of soil from its atomic testing grounds in Nevada to the Marshall Islands.
Department of Energy Not Studying Nuclear-Armed Hypersonic Weapons
Connie Lee | National Defense Magazine
Although hypersonic missiles are a top modernization priority for the Pentagon, there are no efforts underway to arm such weapons with nuclear warheads, according to a Department of Energy leader. “We are currently not undertaking a nuclear hypersonic [project], unlike other nations,” Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, undersecretary of energy for nuclear security, told reporters Nov. 7 in Washington, D.C. Gordon-Hagerty also serves as the administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for maintaining and overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Gordon-Hagerty said the National Nuclear Security Administration has no current studies underway to examine the possibility of adding nuclear payloads to U.S. hypersonics. “We were studying it in the ‘80s and in the past,” she said. “There's not a current study.” Beijing and Moscow have publicly stated their intentions to field these types of weapons and are ramping up their R&D efforts. But unlike the United States, both governments have acknowledged that they are pursuing hypersonic missiles that are nuclear-capable.