| Fuel Loaded Into Iranian Nuclear Power Plant |
Fuel Loaded Into Iranian Nuclear Power PlantNTI Newswire 23 Aug 2010| Link to the original article Iran's sole atomic energy plant on Saturday began receiving nuclear fuel, a major step in bringing the long-delayed facility online, Reuters reported."Despite all the pressures, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the startup of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," said Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi. The United States and other nations suspect Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at developing a weapons capability, a charge vehemently denied in Iran A total of 163 fuel assemblies are to be installed within the facility's reactor core in the next two weeks, the Associated Press reported. Electricity production would begin two months later. “Not a single professional in the world has any questions about the chance that the Bushehr nuclear power plant could be used for nonpeaceful purposes,” said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian state-run atomic energy firm Rosatom, who was on hand for the fueling. The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday said it "regularly inspects the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran," AFP reported. "The agency is taking the appropriate verification measures in line with its established safeguards procedures," which are intended to prevent civilian atomic sites from supporting proliferation, said IAEA spokesman Ayhan Evrensel. Meanwhile, Tehran also rolled out what was said to be its first drone bomber, Reuters reported. The Karrar system can fly as far as 620 miles at speeds reaching 560 mph, according to state television. It reportedly could carry four cruise missiles, or a load-out of either two 250-pound bombs or a single 500-pound bomb. "If there is an ignorant person or an egoist or a tyrant who just wanted to make an aggression then our Defense Ministry should reach a point where it could cut off the hand of the aggressor before it decided to make an aggression," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the unveiling ceremony. "We should reach a point when Iran would serve as a defense umbrella for all freedom-loving nations in the face of world aggressors," he added. "We don't want to attack anywhere, Iran will never decide to attack anywhere, but our revolution cannot sit idle in the face of tyranny, we can't remain indifferent." Iran regularly warns Israel and the United States against attacking its nuclear facilities. Such a strike would be "suicidal," Ahmadinejad said. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi also said Friday the nation had conducted a test launch of a new ground-to-ground missile, AFP reported. He did not offer details on when the test had occurred or how far the Qiam missile could fly. "The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity," Vahidi said of the "new class" weapon. "Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has [a] lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted," he added. Issue specialists are generally skeptical of Iran's claims regarding its military capabilities, the Los Angeles Times reported. The nation's annual military spending barely exceeds $10 billion, an amount dwarfed by the U.S. defense budget. Tehran, though, could use friendly militant groups to carry out strikes aimed at causing a significant number of deaths and injuries and at pulling the United States into an unwanted armed engagement. |
![In February, Khamenei signed a decree highlighting 23 new benefits to Iran's private sector - all pertaining to an improved investment and production environment, none related to Tehran's nuclear strategy [AP]](/eng/images/stories/ayatollah khamenei.jpg)
Second Preparatory Committee for the 2015 NPT Review Conference
NPSGlobal, 9 May 2013.
During the period between 22 April and 3 May 2013 is being held, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, the Second Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Review Conference of the Nonproliferation Treaty – NPT.
France Affirms Nuclear Arms Despite Military Cuts
By Jamey Keaten, abc NEWS, 9 Jan 2013.
France's president says the country will maintain its costly nuclear arsenal despite looming military budget cuts, saying the weapons are essential for national defense.
Construction Complete at Pueblo Chemical Arms Disposal Facility
Global Security Newswire, 1 Feb 2013.
A chemical weapons disposal plant in Colorado has been fully built and is now undergoing an extended check of its technology.
"The government officially declared completion of the facility on Dec. 12," according to Sandra Romero, spokeswoman for contractor Bechtel, which is charged with building and operating the facility at the Pueblo Chemical Depot that will eliminate 780,000 munitions and 2,611 tons of mustard blister agent.
N. Korea internally promoting latest long-range rocket as ballistic missile
Yonhap News, 4 Feb 2013.
North Korea exhibited the fuselage of what is presumed to be the long-range rocket it launched in December, and explicitly called it a ballistic missile, despite its claims to the outside world that the Unha-3 was part of its peaceful space development program, a report said Monday.
Guns don't kill dictatorships, people do
By Joshua Keating, Foreign Policy, 9 Jan 2013.
As he's wont to do, Matt Drudge has kicked up a fuss today by plastering photos of Hitler and Stalin above the headline "White House Threatens 'Executive Orders' on Guns." FP contributor Michael Moynihan has a good piece at Tablet looking into what's accurate and inaccurate in the commonly cited narrative that Nazi laws curtailing Jewish gun ownership were a prelude to the Holocaust.
Paris court convicts 9 mostly Turkish-speaking defendants in terror trial linked to Uzbekistan
The Washington Post, 8 Jan 2013.
PARIS — A Paris court has convicted nine people for links to a militant group that the U.N. Security Council has described as an al-Qaida affiliate.
Are Mini-Reactors The Future Of Nuclear Power?
By Ben Bradford, NPR, 1 Feb 2013.
The U.S. government is investing millions of dollars in what it considers a promising new industry for American manufacturing: nuclear reactors. The plan is to build hundreds of mini-reactors, dot them around the U.S. and export them overseas.
Developments of these reactors are already in the works, and at one office park in Lynchburg, Va., where one of these reactors is being assembled, the traditional signs of nuclear reactors are nowhere to be found. There are no cooling towers that look like smoke stacks, no clouds of steam over the buildings — just a research building and a tower about nine stories tall.
Syrian uranium worrying nations, IAEA
UPI, 8 Jan 2013.
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Nuclear experts said they are worried about a potential stockpile of as much as 50 tons of unenriched uranium the Assad government has in Syria.
Russia to Buy 7 AW139 Helicopters
Ria Novosti, 28 Jan 2013.
MOSCOW - Russia’s Defense Ministry is planning to buy seven multirole AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters for 630 million rubles (about $20 million) this year, the Federal Agency for Arms Procurements said Monday.
Second cover assembly underway at Fukushima
World Nuclear News, 9 Jan 2013.
The installation of steel columns next to Fukushima Daiichi unit 4 marks the start of construction of a cover that will aid in the removal of fuel. This is the second cover to get underway at the site.
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Regional Postgraduate Course in International Security, Disarmament and Non-proliferation
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"Our vision: A World Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction"
