Trump Gives Legs to South Korea’s Dream for Nuclear-Powered Subs   

Choe Sang-Hun | The New York Times 

South Korean officials pleased President Trump last month by presenting him with their nation’s highest honor and a replica of a gold crown. The next day he had a surprise for his hosts. He gave the green light to South Korea’s long-cherished dream of deploying nuclear-powered attack submarines. But the two nations have yet to sort out thorny issues such as where to build the subs, in the United States or in South Korea. It is also unclear how their enriched uranium fuel will be supplied. 

China rapidly expands nuclear test site as Trump revives Cold War tension 

Cate Cadell | The Washington Post 

President Donald Trump’s announcement this month that the United States would restart nuclear weapons testing on an “equal basis” with other nations — alluding to unverified claims that Moscow and Beijing are conducting secret tests and suggesting the U.S. will revive programs abandoned in the early 1990s — has sowed confusion among the world’s nuclear powers and revived echoes of the Cold War arms race. ... In far western Xinjiang, satellite imagery and expert analysis show that China is rapidly expanding a historic nuclear test site, where it conducted its first atomic bomb test in 1964.  

North Korea Denounces South Korea-US Joint Fact Sheet 

Mitch Shin | The Diplomat 

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of North Korea’s main state-controlled media outlets, denounced the recently made agreement and joint fact sheet between the leaders of the United States and South Korea. The roughly 3,800-word statement was issued on November 18 – five days after the U.S. and South Korea jointly published a fact sheet elaborating the agreements made between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung during their summit meetings in the past months. The highlight of the joint fact sheet was the both sides’ confirmation that the U.S. had approved the South building nuclear-powered attack submarines. 

Nuclear Output Cut in Ukraine After Critical Substation Hit by Russian Attack, IAEA Confirms 

Liubava Petriv | United24 Media 

Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants have reduced their output after a key electrical substation was damaged during a Russian airstrike on the night of November 7, according to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on November 17. The substation is considered a crucial component of Ukraine’s power grid, responsible for transforming and regulating voltage to ensure reliable electricity transmission. For nuclear facilities, such infrastructure is essential to maintain external power supplies needed for critical safety and cooling systems. 

Cost-conscious utilities resist Trump’s push for nuclear revival 

Brian Dabbs and Francisco "A.J." Camacho | E&E News 

The Trump administration wants to churn dirt on a bevy of new nuclear power plants. Electric utilities that power America have different plans. Despite forecasts for spiking electricity use and pledges from the Department of Energy to bolster nuclear power, utilities aren’t inking contracts to build new plants with the large-scale, light-water reactors that have fueled American homes and businesses for decades. 

State Department erases 15 pages of nuclear history — with no warning 

Nate Jones | The Washington Post 

Since 1991, the department has been required by law to publish “a thorough, accurate, and reliable” history of U.S. foreign policy within 30 years of the events. It does this in the Foreign Relations of the United States series, curated collections of primary source documents abbreviated as FRUS. This January, the State Department ... republished on its website a volume about the Reagan administration — without 15 pages on the risk of inadvertent nuclear war sparked by a 1983 NATO exercise.