The U.S. President Should Practice for a Nuclear Crisis 

Christopher David LaRoche | Foreign Policy 

Real-world presidents are probably unprepared for the burden imposed by their sole authority to order a nuclear strike. This is especially true in a situation called “launch under attack”—when the president faces pressure to act quickly because an incoming attack is significant enough that it might impair the United States’ ability to retaliate. To address this, the White House should better familiarize the chief executive with nuclear crises through regular exercises and briefings aimed at making crisis specifics concrete. 

IAEA passes resolution demanding nuclear access from Iran; Tehran rejects 

Al Jazeera  

The International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution that called on Iran to provide it with access and information regarding its nuclear programme, as required under UN resolutions. ... “Iran must … provide the Agency without delay with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran, and grant the Agency all access it requires to verify this information,” the draft resolution text said. ... “I’m afraid the resolution will have its own consequences,” Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, told reporters after the vote. Asked what those were, he said, “We will announce the consequences later.”  

U.S.-Saudi Bonhomie Masks Divide Over Nuclear Technology 

Rachel Oswald | Foreign Policy  

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s display of bonhomie at the White House this week, a formal U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperation deal remains out of reach, with the two sides at odds over Riyadh’s continued insistence that it be allowed to domestically enrich uranium. Though the White House and U.S. Energy Department touted the signing of a “Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations” for a bilateral nuclear trade deal, the reality is that a formal  “123” agreement, which Congress is statutorily required to review, has not been formalized, and neither side has offered a timeline for when it might be reached. 

Europe needs tactical nukes to counter Putin, says Airbus chief 

Chris Lunday | Politico  

European nations should develop a joint tactical nuclear deterrent to counter Russia’s expanding arsenal, Airbus board chair René Obermann said Wednesday, breaking one of Europe’s biggest defense taboos. Speaking at the Berlin Security Conference, Obermann said Europe’s current posture leaves a dangerous gap below the strategic threshold, pointing to what he described as “500-plus tactical nuclear warheads” deployed by Russia along NATO’s eastern flank and in Belarus. 

Trump officials give $1 billion loan to restart Three Mile Island 

Evan Halper | The Washington Post 

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant has been awarded a $1 billion federal loan guarantee that will enable it to shift onto taxpayers some of the risk of its plan to restart the Pennsylvania facility and sell the electricity to Microsoft for its data centers. Amid rising energy demands, the taxpayer-backed loan will go toward the unprecedented effort to reopen a mothballed U.S. nuclear plant that suffered a partial meltdown decades ago. 

Iranian nuclear experts held second covert meeting with Russian weapons institute   

Miles Johnson and Max Seddon | Financial Times 

Iranian scientists and nuclear experts made a second covert visit to Russia last year, in what the US claims has been a push to obtain sensitive technologies with potential nuclear weapons applications. The previously undisclosed trip was part of a series of exchanges between Russian military research institutes and the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), an Iranian military-linked unit that the US accuses of leading Iran’s nuclear weapons research.