Iran Uranium Plant Stalls as Talks on Nuclear Deal Inch Forward
Arsalan Shahla and Golnar Motevalli | Bloomberg
Iran said that a uranium metal factory that was scheduled to become operational this month still isn’t ready, a possible sign that talks over the country’s nuclear deal with world powers are poised for progress. Abolfazl Amouei, spokesman for parliament’s national security commission, said the plant is in the final stages of development and will be launched “when the time comes,” state-run Young Journalists’ Club reported Sunday. Amouei acknowledged the Biden administration wants to revise former President Donald Trump’s tough stance toward Iran, but said his country would press on with its current nuclear program unless it secures “the lifting of sanctions and ensuing verifications.”
South Korean President to Visit US for Five Days, Talk North Korea With Biden
Jeongmin Kim | NK News
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will depart Seoul on Wednesday for a five-day trip to Washington D.C., the Blue House announced on Tuesday. Moon is scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden Friday afternoon local time, followed by a joint press conference. The meeting marks the first U.S.-South Korea summit since Biden took office in January this year. Moon had met Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, on nine separate occasions from June 2017 to Sept. 2019. Seoul and Washington are still coordinating the details of this week’s summit, a Blue House official told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday.
U.S. Says China is Resisting Nuclear Arms Talks
Emma Farge | Reuters
China is resisting bilateral talks with the United States on nuclear weapons, the U.S. disarmament ambassador told a U.N. conference on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to advance efforts to reduce nuclear arms stockpiles. “Despite the PRC’s dramatic build-up of its nuclear arsenal, unfortunately it continues to resist discussing nuclear risk reduction bilaterally with the United States,” said Robert Wood, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Russia’s Northernmost Base Projects its Power Across Arctic
Kostya Manenkov and Vladimir Isachenkov | Associated Press
During the Cold War, Russia’s Nagurskoye airbase was little more than a runway, a weather station and a communications outpost in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. It was a remote and desolate home mostly for polar bears, where temperatures plunge in winter to minus-42 Celsius (43 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) and the snow only disappears from August to mid-September. Now, Russia’s northernmost military base is bristling with missiles and radar and its extended runway can handle all types of aircraft, including nuclear-capable strategic bombers, projecting Moscow’s power and influence across the Arctic amid intensifying international competition for the region’s vast resources.
Xi and Putin to Mark Expansion of China-Russia Nuclear Power Project Ahead of US Talks
Catherine Wong and Amber Wang | South China Morning Post
Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a virtual meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in a show of solidarity ahead of high-level talks between Washington and Moscow. During the talks by video link, Xi and Putin will watch the launch ceremony of an expanded China-Russia nuclear energy project, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday. It will mark the construction of four new reactors at two nuclear plants in China, in Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces, both of which use Russian technology, according to Chinese media reports. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the two countries aimed to further strengthen bilateral relations and Wednesday’s exchange would be “of great significance” to the strategic partnership between the two countries “in a new era.”
The U.S. Government Hides Some of its Darkest Secrets at the Department of Energy
Brett Tingley | The Drive
Over the last few years, allegations of secret, exotic technologies have reinvigorated claims that the DOD may be concealing scientific breakthroughs from the American public. However, if the U.S. government, or some faction within it, hypothetically came across a groundbreaking development in energy production or applied physics, a very strong case could be made that such a revolution would likely be housed deep within the Department of Energy (DOE) rather than DOD.