Russia Places Explosive Mines Near Occupied Nuclear Reactor, Watchdog Says
VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA AND NICOLAS CAMUT | Politico
Russian forces occupying Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have placed explosive mines near the facility, warned the chief of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The mines were located in a buffer zone between the plant's internal and external barriers and were facing away from the facility; they were spotted during a Sunday walk-around by IAEA inspectors. "Having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff," the agency's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement issued Monday.
North Korea Warns US Nuke Deployment to South Could Trigger Preemptive Strike
Colin Zwirko | NK News
North Korea warned the U.S. that deployments of nuclear assets to South Korea “could meet conditions” for the DPRK to carry out a preemptive strike in the future, according to state media Thursday night. It comes after a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the USS Kentucky, arrived at a South Korean port for the first time in over 40 years this week, which ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol toured Wednesday. “We remind you that increasing the visibility of strategic U.S. assets like the nuclear missile submarine could meet conditions for using nuclear weapons laid out in the state nuclear forces policy law we disclosed,” defense minister Kang Sun Nam said in a statement released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “The nuclear use doctrine allows proceeding with necessary actions if it is judged that a nuclear attack on our state has been carried out or is imminent,” Kang said.
North Korea Fires Two Missiles After U.S. Submarine Arrives in South
Reuters
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast late on Monday, South Korea's military said, hours after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrived in a naval base in the South. Japan's defence ministry also reported the launch of what it said were two ballistic missiles by North Korea, both of which fell outside its exclusive economic zone. The launches come amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula as South Korea and the United States take steps to increase their military readiness against North Korea's weapons programme with the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets.
AEOI Chief: Iran to Run 6 More Uranium Mines
Fars News Agency
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami announced that his country’s uranium reserves are much larger than previous estimates, and said that the country plans to operate six more uranium mines by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (which will end on March 20, 2024). "Currently eight uranium mines are operating in the country," Eslami said. “Our uranium reserves in the country now exceed the previous estimates. We are currently operating eight mines, and six more mines are planned to come on stream by the end of the [Iranian calendar] year," he added.
Blinken on Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal: ‘We’re Now in a Place Where We’re Not Talking about a Nuclear Agreement’
OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN | The Hill
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when asked Sunday about reviving the Iran nuclear deal, said that U.S. officials are currently not talking about an agreement with their counterparts in Tehran…“There have been some developments and some changes since the time we got out of the deal and the time we were trying to get back in it. But fundamentally what we tried to do was to get back into the existing agreement with some modest modifications,” Blinken said. “An agreement was on the table. Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t say yes. We’re not about to take any deal. Of course, it has to meet our security objectives. It has to meet our interests.” “So, we made a very good faith effort to get back into compliance with them. They couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
Trinity Nuclear Test’s Fallout Reached 46 States, Canada and Mexico, Study Finds
Lesley M. M. Blume | The New York Times
A new study, released on Thursday ahead of submission to a scientific journal for peer review, shows that the cloud and its fallout went farther than anyone in the Manhattan Project had imagined in 1945. Using state-of-the-art modeling software and recently uncovered historical weather data, the study’s authors say that radioactive fallout from the Trinity test reached 46 states, Canada and Mexico within 10 days of detonation.