Politico
Ukraine's government is fighting off growing opposition to a multimillion-dollar scheme to buy mothballed nuclear reactors, facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption just as they push to clean up the country’s energy sector. The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. The quickest and fastest way to do so, they argue, is to buy Russian-made reactors currently sitting in storage in Bulgaria at an estimated cost of $600 million.
AMIR VAHDAT | Associated Press
Iran’s newly-elected president reappointed a U.S.-educated official who came under United Nations sanctions 16 years ago as head of the country’s nuclear department, state TV reported Saturday. Mohammad Eslami, 67, will continue his work as chief of Iran’s civilian nuclear program and serve as one of several vice presidents. Eslami’s reappointment by President Masoud Pezeshkian comes as Iran remains under heavy sanctions by the West following the collapse of the 2015 deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Associated Press
Georgia’s largest nuclear plant declared an emergency alert Tuesday after an electrical transformer caught fire. The fire, described as small by Georgia Power Co. spokesperson John Kraft, broke out about noon and could have threatened the electrical supply to the heating and cooling system for the control room of one of the complex’s two older nuclear reactors, Vogtle Unit 2. The fire was put out by plant employees, Georgia Power officials said, and the alert ended just after 2:30 p.m. The cause of the fire hasn’t yet been determined, Kraft said.
The Economist
The nuclear de-escalation that followed the cold war is over, the Pentagon warned this month. In its place is a new rivalry among nuclear and almost-nuclear powers, some of them paranoid. It is more complex and less predictable than the old, bipolar contest between America and the Soviet Union. That makes it more dangerous. Facing new nuclear threats will be a test for America, even as its resources are strained and its politics have grown more isolationist. It must reassure allies that its nuclear umbrella still protects them. And, unfortunately, it will have to expand its nuclear arsenal. Falter on either count and this will fuel proliferation among enemies and friends alike, making America and the world less secure.
Jennifer Knox | Union of Concerned Scientists
There is no indication of what programs will be cut—or even if the Department of Defense made concrete assessments about such trade-offs in the first place. While the overall budget for the program has exploded, the Associated Press reports that, “The majority of the cost increases to the Sentinel program will take place outside of the next five fiscal years of budget planning, meaning no difficult choices on program cuts will need to be made immediately.”