US Would Welcome Any Iranian Steps to Slow Nuclear Program
Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed | Reuters
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he could not confirm a report that Iran slowed its pace of amassing near-weapons-grade enriched uranium but would welcome any Iranian steps to de-escalate its "growing nuclear threat." Blinken also told reporters that Iran moving U.S. detainees into house arrest was not related to any other aspect of U.S. policy toward Iran, which he said reflected a strategy of deterrence, pressure and diplomacy.
China, North Korea Loom as US, Japan, South Korea Leaders Head to First Trilateral Summit
Nike Ching | VoA
Leaders of the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea are strengthening their alliance through an annual trilateral summit amid growing threats from North Korea and China, according to U.S. officials and analysts…The top U.S. diplomat added that “concrete initiatives” can be expected to address regional security such as “nuclear provocations,” economic security, humanitarian assistance, greater people-to-people exchanges as well as the use of emerging technologies amid geopolitical competition.
No Change Seen in Russia's Nuclear Posture, NATO's Stoltenberg Says
Reuters
NATO has not detected any changes to Russia's nuclear forces and the Western alliance has seen no reason to reconsider its own corresponding setup, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told a conference in Norway on Thursday. "We haven't seen any changes in their nuclear forces that trigger us to change our forces and the way those are arranged. So far we haven't seen anything that demands that from our side," Stoltenberg said.'
North Korea Preparing to Launch ICBM Soon, ROK spy Agency Tells Lawmakers
Jeongmin Kim | NK News
North Korea is preparing to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles as early as this week in response to a trilateral summit between the U.S., South Korea and Japan or U.S.-ROK military drills, Seoul’s intelligence agency told lawmakers on Thursday. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) also assessed that there is a high probability North Korea and Russia recently signed agreements on weapons trade and joint military drills.
US Nuclear Submarine Weak Spot in Bubble Trail: Chinese Scientists
Stephen Chen | South China Morning Post
A study published in one of China’s most respected peer-reviewed journals suggests that advanced submarines could be detected by existing technology, a development that would threaten US dominance of the oceans. The US is widely believed to operate some of the most difficult to detect submarines, with sophisticated acoustic and vibration reduction systems to blend them into the background noises of the ocean…But the study, by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, found an ultra-sensitive magnetic detector could pick up traces of the most advanced submarine from long distances away.
Over Budget and Delayed—What’s Next for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Research and Production Projects?
GAO
The United States’ nuclear weapon stockpile depends on facilities that are, on average, about 50 years old. In fact, the processing of enriched uranium used in nuclear weapons is still conducted in an Oppenheimer-era facility built in 1945. These aging facilities pose safety and operational risks and cost taxpayers almost a billion dollars to maintain each year. Over the next two decades, the United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to modernize the research and production infrastructure on which the nuclear stockpile depends. Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report about the status of these efforts, led by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the challenges that have resulted in them being over budget and delayed.