Iranian hardliners say the time for nuclear weapons has come

Najmeh Bozorgmehr | Financial Times

Amid the devastation of the US-Israeli war on Iran, a growing number of hardline politicians, analysts and MPs are calling for Tehran to drop this stance [against developing nuclear weapons], leave the international Non-Proliferation Treaty and embrace nuclear weapons. “The latest military confrontations showed that achieving nuclear weapons for Iran is not an ambition, but a necessity more important than bread,” Davoud Modarresian, a political activist close to hardline forces, wrote this month.

China Says Advanced Nuclear Sub Was Used to Test-Fire ICBM

Josh Xiao | Bloomberg

China said it used its most advanced nuclear submarines to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific earlier this year, underscoring Beijing’s progress in the key defense technology. “The Changzheng series of nuclear submarines have now reached the third generation and successfully organized the test launch of a submarine-launched strategic missile,” the official Xinhua News Agency said in a post on WeChat on Saturday.

Trump says he’s open to meeting Xi and Putin in China for nuclear talks

Teresa Elena Frontado | South China Morning Post

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was open to a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to China next month, with nuclear weapons on the agenda. “We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearisation,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before travelling to Kansas. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it.” Trump said the proposed meeting was his suggestion and linked it to his November visit to China, but no date or agenda had been agreed.  

State officials offered to store nuclear waste. Then residents found out.

Evan Halper | The Washington Post

The jagged limestone rocks of Old Standard Quarry have weathered many eras of history. The property was the site of a Civil War battle, then a quarry and is now a popular destination for bungee jumping, its dark green water fed by a natural spring. Recently, the state proposed yet another use for the land: as storage for radioactive nuclear waste from around the country. “I thought it was a joke,” said Pasha Majdi, president of the Jefferson County Commission. “It doesn’t make any sense.

Amazon, AEP, X-energy explore SMR feasibility in Indiana

Nuclear Newswire | October 19, 2026

Amazon, American Electric Power, and X-energy are partnering up to potentially bring a 960-MW nuclear power plant to western Indiana as the state’s first commercial nuclear generation. The three announced earlier today a joint development agreement to explore the feasibility of a nuclear power project at the former Breed coal-fired power plant in Sullivan County, Ind., that would involve the deployment of 12 X-energy Xe-100 high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors. Details on the project are minimal outside of the reactor design and site, as it is in the early stages and has yet to reach any final investment decision.

North Korea Wants Security Talks With the US, Not Nuclear Talks

Sangsoo Lee | The Diplomat

For decades, Washington tried to change Pyongyang’s nuclear policy. Now North Korea is trying to do the reverse: use its nuclear weapons to change U.S. policy. Since the start of his second administration, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed renewed talks with North Korea. Pyongyang has said that relations could improve if Washington respected its nuclear status and abandoned what it calls “hostile policy”. But what would North Korea be willing to talk about if discussions resumed?