U.N. Atomic Chief Warns of Growing Nuclear Risks
Laurence Norman | Wall Street Journal
The head of the United Nations nuclear agency gave a sharp warning Tuesday about growing nuclear risks, saying that Iran’s activities risked a regional nuclear arms race and that Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian nuclear sites threatened to imperil the agency’s ability to ensure nuclear material wasn’t being misused. In a wide-ranging speech at the Australian National University in Canberra, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that “we are reaching a defining moment for global nuclear nonproliferation,” in which the risks of the spread of nuclear weapons “pose a problem for everyone.”
Why Has North Korea Stopped Boasting About Its Missile Tests?
Michelle Ye Hee Lee | Washington Post
North Korea has tested an unprecedented number of missiles this year as it expands its weapons program. Until recently, it usually boasted about each test in state media — sometimes with dramatic flair. But since April, that information has dried up. North Korea has stopped sharing details, photos and videos of the half-dozen missile tests it has conducted since then, including that of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, as it develops long-range weapons that could reach the East Coast of the United States.
Congress Poised to Shoot Down Biden’s Nuclear Rollback
Lawrence Ukenye and Connor O’Brien | POLITICO
Progressives were already disappointed with President Joe Biden’s plans for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Now they’re poised to lose one of the few things about the White House’s blueprint that they liked. In recent weeks, Democrats have joined Republicans in adding money back into the Pentagon budget to continue developing a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile that former President Donald Trump initiated in 2018. Biden proposed canceling the missile, which arms control advocates say is redundant, costly and potentially destabilizing.
IAEA Initiative to Accelerate Deployment of SMRs
World Nuclear News
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a new initiative aimed at accelerating the safe and secure deployment of advanced nuclear reactors, with a particular focus on small modular reactors (SMRs). At a kick-off meeting last month, participants discussed roadmaps for enhancing harmonisation of regulatory activities and the standardisation of industrial approaches. Speaking at the opening of the first Nuclear Harmonisation Standardisation Initiative (NHSI) meeting - held on 23-24 June in Vienna - IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: “In nuclear, we must have the highest standards of nuclear safety and security - they are indispensable for the public, governments and investors. Nuclear safety, security and safeguards will be the litmus test for deployable reactors at the scale needed. The NHSI is not about cutting corners - it is about getting it right and getting there fast.”
Russian Army Turns Ukraine’s Largest Nuclear Plant Into a Military Base
Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson | Wall Street Journal
The Russian army is transforming Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a military base overlooking an active front, intensifying a monthslong safety crisis for the vast facility and its thousands of staff. At the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, more than 500 Russian soldiers who seized the facility in March recently have deployed heavy artillery batteries, and laid anti-personnel mines along the shores of the reservoir whose water cools its six reactors, according to workers, residents, Ukrainian officials, and diplomats. The Ukrainian army holds the towns dotted on the opposite shore, some 3 miles away, but sees no easy way to attack the plant, given the inherent danger of artillery battles around active nuclear reactors.
Amid Energy Crisis, E.U. Says Gas, Nuclear Can Sometimes Be ‘Green’
Emily Rauhala and Quentin Ariès | Washington Post
European lawmakers voted Wednesday to move ahead with a plan to label some nuclear and natural gas power as “green” energy, a closely watched decision that could shape climate policy for years to come. At issue is a European Union framework known as the “E.U. taxonomy” that is intended to guide investment toward projects that are in line with the bloc’s goal to be climate neutral by 2050. In February, weeks before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, the E.U.’s executive arm presented a plan to classify some natural gas and nuclear power as “transitional” green investments in some circumstances, spurring a furious backlash. Five months later, as Russia wields natural gas as a weapon and the global energy crisis intensifies, legislators at the European Parliament rejected an objection to the proposal in a 328-to-278 vote.