North Korea Aims to Adopt Solid-fuel Missiles for Faster Launches
Joyce Lee and Josh Smith | Reuters
North Korea successfully test-fired a new hypersonic missile, state news agency KCNA said on Wednesday, the latest step in a plan its leader Kim Jong Un described as aimed at using solid fuel to power missiles of all ranges…North Korea may heavily favour solid-fuel systems where possible, but actually phasing out liquid-fuel weapons would likely only play out over years, said Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace…North Korea would need to have high confidence in its production capabilities to allow solid-fuel missiles to sit for a number of years, during which they may develop imperfections that lead to in-flight failures, Panda added.
Lawsuit Challenges $1 Billion in Federal Funding to Sustain California's Last Nuclear Power Plant
MICHAEL R. BLOOD | Associated Press
An environmental group has sued the U.S. Energy Department over its decision to award over $1 billion to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant running beyond a planned closure that was set for 2025. The move opens another battlefront in the fight over the future of Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors. Friends of the Earth, in a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, argued that the award to plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric last year was based on an outdated, flawed analysis that failed to recognize the risk of earthquakes or other serious events.
Senior US Diplomat Links AUKUS Submarine Pact to Taiwan
Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom | Reuters
The State Department's No. 2 diplomat suggested on Wednesday that the AUKUS submarine project between Australia, Britain and the U.S. could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan…But the three countries have been reluctant to publicly tie AUKUS to growing tensions over Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China as its territory, with Australia saying it did not promise to support the U.S. in any Taiwan military conflict. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell made a rare linkage between Taiwan and AUKUS, telling Washington's Center for a New American Security think tank that new submarine capabilities would enhance peace and stability, including in the strait that separates China and Taiwan.
Russia Says Backup Power Line to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant has Gone Down
Reuters
A backup power line supplying the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has gone down, the Russian-controlled management of the plant said on Thursday.
Ukraine's state-run nuclear power company, Energoatom, said the main 750 kilovolt (kV) power line, recently restored by Ukrainian engineers, was still running. The six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, held by Russia and located close to the front line of the war in Ukraine, are not in operation but it relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident.
Non-Proliferation Experts Urge US to Not Support Nuclear Fuel Project
Timothy Gardner | Reuters
Nuclear proliferation experts who served under four U.S. presidents told President Joe Biden and his administration on Thursday that a pilot project to recycle spent nuclear fuel would violate U.S. nuclear security policy. SHINE Technologies and Orano signed a memorandum of understanding in February to develop a U.S. plant to recycle, or reprocess, nuclear waste. It would have a capacity of 100 tonnes a year beginning in the early 2030s.
To Secure Kazakhstan’s Uranium, Chinese Players Were Compelled to Accommodate Local Partners
Yanliang Pan | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
China’s economic relationship with Kazakhstan is often framed in clichéd narratives associated with Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, in which Kazakhstan represents the “buckle” of the land-based economic belt connecting China and Europe. As the largest country in Central Asia, Kazakhstan is unquestionably critical to Beijing’s vision of westward connectivity, but reducing Kazakhstan to no more than a node in Beijing’s transregional geoeconomic strategy obscures Chinese actors’ adaptive approach to Kazakhstani local interests while overlooking the gains that Kazakhstani actors themselves have skillfully extracted in key sectors of engagement with China.