Leveling Up the Nuclear Trade Playing Field
Ariel (Eli) Levite and Toby Dalton | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The last six years have been profoundly difficult for the global nuclear industry. Overall demand for nuclear power plants is modest at best, particularly in countries that have serious difficulty financing such megaprojects. The economics of nuclear power have also soured, not only because of the large upfront capital costs and serious cost overruns related to manufacturing and construction in most nuclear power plant projects but also because of diminishing costs for gas-powered and renewable alternatives. These trends exacerbated financial troubles that pushed two major Western nuclear vendors, Westinghouse and Areva, into bankruptcy and dissolution, respectively.
There Is No Precedent for What America Wants From North Korea
Uri Friedman | Atlantic
“In any way I can think about it, [the North Korean case] is unique,” said George Perkovich, a nuclear-weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Numerous countries have pursued nuclear weapons but stopped short of procuring them, abandoning the effort either of their own accord or under duress. But it’s much riskier to apply pressure on a state that has already acquired nuclear bombs, especially when that state is just a nuclear-tipped missile away from its chief adversaries (South Korea, Japan, and so on) and has staked its survival (specifically the endurance of the Kim regime) on those weapons.
North Korea’s Sixth Nuclear Test: A First Look
Frank V. Pabian, Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., and Jack Liu | 38 North
Commercial satellite imagery from Planet, obtained the day after North Korea conducted its largest test to date (currently estimated in the 100+ kiloton range), appears to show numerous landslides throughout the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site and beyond. The area of these surface disturbances, which include numerous areas of pre-existing gravel and scree fields that have apparently been lofted in place from the tremors, is centered about Mt. Mantap (elevation 2205 meters). These disturbances are more numerous and widespread than what we have seen from any of the five tests North Korea previously conducted.
South Korea Expects North to Launch ICBM on Saturday, Prime Minister Says
Taehoon Lee and James Griffiths | CNN
South Korea says it expects another North Korea intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch “on September 9,” according to the country’s Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon. “The situation is very grave. It doesn’t seem much time is left before North Korea achieves its complete nuclear armament,” the prime minister told a meeting of defense ministers in Seoul Thursday. “Some believe North Korea may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on the 9th; this time at an ordinary angle.”
THAAD Battery Fully Deployed in Seongju
Ser Myo-Ja | Korea Joongang Daily
The Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that four launchers for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile system were moved to a U.S. base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, completing the deployment of the American antimissile battery. The ministry made an official announcement that the four launchers were temporarily installed based on an agreement with the United States to use the system to protect the people from threats by North Korea.
Has the U.S. Actually Succeeded With North Korea? A Top Admiral Says So.
Anna Fifield and Michelle Ye Hee Lee | Washington Post
The international, sanctions-focused approach to dealing with North Korea has been a success, according to the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, because it has staved off a war in Asia. Speaking just three days after North Korea detonated a huge nuclear device that was or was close to being a hydrogen bomb, Adm. Scott Swift said that the only alternative to diplomacy and pressure was military action.