Lowell H. Schwartz | Just Security
President Donald Trump proclaimed recently that, based on the strength of the military alliance between the United States and South Korea, he had “given them approval to build a Nuclear-Powered Submarine,” which would be built at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, a commercial yard in Philadelphia purchased by a South Korean company in 2024… But Trump does not unilaterally have the power to approve U.S. nuclear cooperation with South Korea.
Amir Ettinger | ynet Global
Iran has resumed large-scale production of ballistic missiles roughly six months after its 12-day conflict with Israel, a senior IDF representative told lawmakers in a closed meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. According to several participants in the briefing, the IDF official said Iran is restoring its missile capabilities at a rapid pace. Lawmakers also asked whether the military has a ready plan to defeat and dismantle Hamas should U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal collapse. The official replied that the IDF is drafting such a plan, which is currently in “design stages.”
Kim Barker | The New York Times
Radiation levels have not increased outside the Chernobyl power plant, the Ukrainian site of the world’s worst-ever nuclear disaster, even though the authorities have been unable to fix the damage from a Russian drone that punctured the protective shield at the complex in February, officials said on Sunday. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the steel shell was still not functioning as designed… This means the shield can no longer prevent radiation from escaping, particularly radioactive dust.
Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sudhi Ranjan Sen | Bloomberg
India’s planned overhaul of its energy laws will effectively open its atomic power sector for new investment, according to a government minister, joining a global nuclear renaissance with a buildout worth as much as 19.3 trillion rupees ($214 billion)… Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs private investment to install 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2047, which is also his target to make India a developed economy.
David E. Sanger | The New York Times
The last time President Trump issued a national security strategy, eight years ago, it heralded a return to superpower competition, describing China and Russia as “revisionist” powers seeking to upend American dominance around the world… Yet a reader of Mr. Trump’s 2025 strategy would barely know any of that… The move away from discussion of the immediate and long-lasting competition among the world’s two largest economies and three largest nuclear powers is jarring. There is no discussion of superpower struggle or strategies of containment.
Siegfried Hecker | Foreign Affairs
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump rekindled a decades-old debate about nuclear testing. “Because of other countries testing programs,” he wrote on social media, “I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis…” A return to testing at this time would likely benefit U.S. adversaries more than it would the United States. Worse still, it might rekindle an even greater and broader arms race than in the first few decades of the Cold War.