The Quad Needs More Than Bilateral Agreements to Achieve Its Space Goals
Benjamin Silverstein | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Last year, the Quad—consisting of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia—committed to convene a working group on space issues to foster efficient satellite data exchanges and manage space-related risks. The working group was also charged to “consult on norms, guidelines, principles, and rules for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the outer space environment.” Bilateral agreements between Quad members demonstrate that they are beginning to live up to their pledge, but the Quad must do more to achieve its lofty goals. These partnerships build trust and confidence among participants but do not go far enough in characterizing principles or demonstrating norms that safeguard the long-term sustainability of space.
Chinese and Russian Nuclear Bombers Fly Over Sea of Japan as Biden Visits Tokyo
Demetri Sevastopulo, Kathrin Hille, and Kana Inagaki | Financial Times
Chinese and Russian strategic bombers flew over the Sea of Japan as Joe Biden attended a Quad summit in Tokyo, in a joint exercise the Japanese government denounced as “unacceptable”. The nuclear-capable bombers conducted a joint flight on Tuesday that began over the Sea of Japan as the US president was meeting his counterparts from Japan, Australia and India, Japanese and US officials said. Moscow said the 13-hour flight was carried out “strictly in accordance with the provisions of international law” and was not directed against third countries. But Nobuo Kishi, Japan’s defence minister, condemned the exercise as “provocative” and “unacceptable”.
South Korea’s New Leader Says Age of Appeasing North Korea Is Over
Jessie Yeung, Paula Hancocks, and Yoonjung Seo | CNN
The age of appeasing North Korea is over and any new talks between Seoul and Pyongyang must be initiated by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s new conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Monday. Speaking exclusively to CNN in his first media interview since taking office two weeks ago, Yoon said: “I think the ball is in Chairman Kim’s court -- it is his choice to start a dialogue with us.” North Korea has launched 15 missile tests so far this year -- more than in the past two years combined -- and last month Kim vowed to “strengthen and develop” its nuclear forces at the “highest possible” speed.
U.S. Moves Toward Supplying Romania With a New Style of Nuclear Plant
Stanley Reed | New York Times
The United States said on Monday that it would supply Romania with a training simulator in preparation for building a new type of nuclear power generating plant in the country. If an agreement on moving ahead with a power station is reached, Romania could become the first country in Europe, and perhaps in the world, to have such a plant, known as a small modular reactor. Designed to be less expensive and easier to build than traditional nuclear reactors, modular reactors have been proposed by several manufacturers. The one in Romania would be built by NuScale Power, a start-up company based in Portland, Ore. The government announced that the plant would be built in Doicesti, at the site of a shuttered coal-fired power plant about 55 miles northwest of Bucharest.
‘Just Getting Started’: Too Early to Say When Hypersonic Interceptor Will Go Live
Andrew Eversden | Breaking Defense
It’s still too early to say when the Glide Phase Interceptor, designed to knock out hypersonic glide vehicles, will actually join operational missile defenses, according to Vice Adm. Jon Hill, who said today, “We’re just getting started.” Hill, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said the program is so nascent that he couldn’t say if it would mature in the 2020s or 2030s. But he said his agency plans by the end of the summer to decide which of three defense contracting vendors will go ahead with the program — if not all of them. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Missiles and Defense are currently under contract for the concept design phase of the hypersonic missile defeat program.
Climate Worries Galvanize a New Pro-Nuclear Movement in the U.S.
Evan Halper | Washington Post
Charles Komanoff was for decades an expert witness for groups working against nuclear plants, delivering blistering critiques so effective that he earned a spot at the podium when tens of thousands of protesters descended on Washington in 1979 over the Three Mile Island meltdown. . . . But his last letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in February, was one Komanoff never expected to write. He implored Newsom to scrap state plans to close the coastal plant. . . . Komanoff’s conversion is emblematic of the rapidly shifting politics of nuclear energy. The long controversial power source is gaining backers amid worries that shutting U.S. plants, which emit almost no emissions, makes little sense as governments race to end their dependence on fossil fuels and the war in Ukraine heightens worries about energy security and costs. The momentum is driven in large part by longtime nuclear skeptics who remain unsettled by the technology but are now pushing to keep existing reactors running as they face increasingly alarming news about the climate.