S.C. Utilities Stop Building $16B V.C. Summer Nuclear Expansion
John Downey | Charlotte Business Journal
S.C.Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper have decided to stop construction at the proposed V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion, but customers could remain on the hook for up to $9 billion already spent on the project. Santee Cooper’s board acted first, announcing it would proceed with neither of the two nuclear reactors under construction at the site at this time. SCE&G, a subsidiary of SCANA Corp. (NYSE:SCG) reacted shortly thereafter, acceding to that decision.
Congress Readies Round 2 With Trump on Russia
Bryan Bender | Politico
Congress is moving to force the Pentagon to violate a nuclear arms treaty with Russia — in yet another effort to box in President Donald Trump on relations with Moscow. Language in key defense bills in both the House and Senate would require the military to begin developing medium-range missiles banned by a 1987 treaty that Ronald Reagan negotiated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during the twilight years of the Cold War.
Iran Accuses United States of Breaching Nuclear Deal
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin | Reuters
Iran believes new sanctions that the United States has imposed on it breach the nuclear deal it agreed in 2015 and has complained to a body that oversees the pact's implementation, a senior politician said on Tuesday. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed by the United States, Russia, China and three European powers, Iran curbed its nuclear work in return for the lifting of most sanctions.
Tillerson Says He and Trump Disagree Over Iran Nuclear Deal
Yeganeh Torbati | Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged on Tuesday that he and President Donald Trump disagree over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and said the two men discuss how to use the international agreement to advance administration policies. Trump at times vowed during the 2016 presidential election campaign to withdraw from the agreement, which was signed by the United States, Russia, China and three European powers to curb Iran's nuclear program in return for lifting most Western sanctions.
U.S. Detects 'Highly Unusual' North Korean Submarine Activity
Zachary Cohen and Ryan Browne | CNN
The U.S. military has detected "highly unusual and unprecedented levels" of North Korean submarine activity and evidence of an "ejection test" in the days following Pyongyang's second intercontinental ballistic missile launch this month, a defense official told CNN on Monday. An ejection test examines a missile's "cold-launch system," which uses high pressure steam to propel a missile out of the launch canister into the air before its engines ignite. That helps prevent flames and heat from the engine from damaging either the submarine, submersible barge or any nearby equipment used to launch the missile.
Let’s Face It: North Korean Nuclear Weapons Can Hit the U.S.
Jeffrey Lewis | New York Times
It seems impossible to imagine the most impoverished, backward communist regime in Asia, run by a madman and recovering from a crippling famine, should set out to build a long-range missile that could deliver a nuclear weapon all the way to the United States. And yet Mao Zedong’s China did it. In 1964, as today, Americans had trouble accepting the new reality of their vulnerability. United States officials were slow to realize that China was on the verge of testing a nuclear weapon that year, and later were surprised to learn that Beijing was not willing to settle for only short-range missiles that could strike neighbors like Japan. The scope of Mao’s ambition — to develop a thermonuclear weapon that could hit the United States — did not match American preconceptions of China. And so, collectively, we did not believe it.