Project Sapphire: How to Keep 600 Kilograms of Kazakh Highly Enriched Uranium Safe
Togzhan Kassenova | War on the Rocks
It was 3 a.m. on a freezing November night in 1994. Trucks carrying almost 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium had just left a nuclear facility in an industrial town in eastern Kazakhstan. They were headed to the Ust-Kamenogorsk airport, where U.S. military planes were waiting to carry their dangerous cargo to the United States. As the weather worsened, the trucks began to slide on black ice. . . . This treacherous ride was a culmination of a secret U.S.-Kazakh operation codenamed Project Sapphire. Looking back three decades later, the story of its success reveals that trust between countries can make the most challenging and high-stake cooperative security initiatives a reality.
In South Korea, Ukraine War Revives the Nuclear Question
Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times
When Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the 1990s, experts debated whether the decision would make the country safer or more vulnerable to an invasion from Moscow, its nuclear-armed neighbor. Now, as Russia pounds Ukrainian cities while being accused of committing atrocities against civilians, many in South Korea say there is no more room for debate. Since the conflict began, South Koreans have flooded online chat rooms with discussions about their country’s need to have nuclear weapons to prevent an invasion from North Korea, their own nuclear-armed neighbor. On Tuesday, North Korea warned that it would use its nuclear weapons “at the outset of war,” should one with the South ever start.
Iran Says It Gave Long-Sought Answers to UN Atomic Watchdog
Nasser Karimi | Associated Press
Iran on Wednesday said it supplied the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog with documents explaining the discovery of suspect enriched uranium traces, state media reported, the first acknowledgement from Tehran that it had answered the agency’s long-standing demands. The head of Iran’s civilian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, said Iran sent the requested explanations on March 20 about several former undeclared sites in Iran where there was evidence of past nuclear activity. The deadline came as part of an agreement announced last month to resolve the problem of undeclared uranium particles in Iran by June — long a source of tension between Tehran and the U.N. atomic watchdog.
Australia, UK, US Alliance to Develop Hypersonic Missiles
Aamer Madhani | Associated Press
The United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced Tuesday they will work together via the recently created security alliance known as AUKUS to develop hypersonic missiles. The move comes amid growing concern by the U.S. and allies about China’s growing military assertiveness in the Pacific. U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the plan after holding a check-in on the progress of AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific alliance that was launched by the three countries in September. The leaders said in a joint statement they are “committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defense innovation.”
Here’s the New Name of the US Air Force’s Next-Gen Nuke
Stephen Losey | Defense News
The U.S. Air Force has dubbed its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile the LGM-35A Sentinel. The official name for the United States’ next nuclear missile, which until now has been referred to as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, was announced by the service Tuesday. The Sentinel is to succeed the 5-decade-old Minuteman III beginning in 2029, and it would represent a major upgrade — and a costly one, at $100 billion — to the ICBM portion of the U.S. nuclear triad. Nuclear-armed bombers, such as the B-52 Stratofortress and the in-development B-21 Raider, as well as submarines make up the other two portions of the nuclear triad.
Europe’s Other Energy Problem: Relying on Russian Nuclear Fuel
Jonathan Tirone, Kati Pohjanpalo, and Jesper Starn | Bloomberg
A day before Russia invaded Ukraine, it sent four highly-trained armed guards across the border on a special mission to deliver fuel to an aging nuclear power facility. Reactors based on Soviet designs generate power across the former Cold War bloc, accounting for more than half of all electricity in Ukraine and around two-fifths in a swath of territory arching from Finland to Bulgaria. So the fuel shipment was routine enough -- until President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to war.