Free Republic

American elections are always closely watched by foreign nations. But there may no more interested observers of tonight’s midterm results than the leaders of Iran. The ability of the Obama administration to pursue détente with Iran and to cut a new weak deal that will enable the Islamist regime to become a nuclear threshold state may rest on the ability of President Obama’s party to hold onto control of the Senate. The administration’s zeal for a deal with the Iranians appears undiminished by Tehran’s decision to continue to impede the efforts of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to...

Iran has tentatively agreed to ship much of its huge stockpile of uranium to Russia if it reaches a broader nuclear deal with the West, according to officials and diplomats involved in the negotiations, potentially a major breakthrough in talks that have until now been deadlocked. Under the proposed agreement, the Russians would convert the uranium into specialized fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran’s only commercial reactor. Once the uranium is converted into fuel rods, it is extremely difficult to use them to make a nuclear weapon. That could go a long way toward alleviating Western concerns...

The Obama Administration will face a serious political battle over a potential nuclear deal with Iran should Republicans win control of the Senate in tomorrow’s midterm elections, a leading pro-Israel advocate in Washington, DC told The Algemeiner. Noah Pollak, Executive Director of the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI,) an advocacy group focused on strengthening the bond between American elected officials and Israel, said that in the event of a deal with Iran by the November 24 deadline, “the sanctions regime against Iran will be falling apart as the administration bypasses Congress to grant loopholes and waivers.” Although Congress would not...

Adding to signs of distress in the nuclear force, the Air Force fired two commanders and disciplined a third in response to internal investigations of leadership lapses and misbehavior at two of its three intercontinental ballistic missile bases. The most senior officer to be relieved was Col. Carl Jones, the No. 2 commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the Air Force's 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear ICBMs. He was dismissed "for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities," and has been reassigned as a special assistant...

Thousands of Iranians chanted “Down with America” at a major anti-U.S. rally on Tuesday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just days ahead of a key meeting between the two nations’ top diplomats over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The gathering outside the former embassy compound in Tehran, which has become the annual venue for rallies commemorating the embassy attack and other American-bashing protests, was smaller compared to last year’s event, which drew tens of thousands – a sign of improved Iran-U.S. relations since moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office last year. But...

The US air force has fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered several recent setbacks including the removal of its top commander. The most senior officer to be relieved of command was Colonel Carl Jones, second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at FE Warren air force base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the air force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed on Monday “for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities” and reassigned as a...

Tom Cotton, the Republican candidate for Senate from Arkansas, is calling on President Obama to renounce the "vulgar" attack on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu which was expressed by an anonymous administration official in a recent Atlantic article. "I’m appalled at recent media reports suggesting the Obama administration is seeking ‘détente’ with Iran, while unnamed administration officials disparage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with vulgar ad hominem attacks. I call upon President Obama to renounce these reports and disclose the names of these officials and fire them. Iran remains our worst enemy and Israel our closest ally. The Obama administration’s...

Following a two-year hiatus, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has resumed issuing license renewals for nuclear power plants. On October 20, the NRC renewed the operating licenses for Limerick Generating Station Units 1 and 2, located northwest of Philadelphia, extending their license expiration dates by 20 years, to 2044 and 2049, respectively. With this action, the NRC has granted license renewals providing a 20-year extension to a total of 74 of the 100 operating reactors in the United States. Nuclear power accounted for 20% of total power sector electricity generation in 2013. NRC has the authority to issue initial...

The Obama administration is facing long odds for the president's party to ‎retain control of the U.S. Senate in the elections this Nov. 4. If the Republicans win control of the Senate to ‎add to their House majority, foreign policy issues may become far more ‎contentious in the next two years.‎ Two of the issues on which the two sides may bang heads concern Israel. The ‎more pressing item concerns the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. ‎The current talks between the P5+1 and Iran have already been extended once, ‎and if no deal is reached by Nov. 24,...

One Sunday morning last December, China’s defense ministry summoned military attachés from several embassies to its monolithic Beijing headquarters. To the foreigners’ surprise, the Chinese said that one of their nuclear-powered submarines would soon pass through the Strait of Malacca, a passage between Malaysia and Indonesia that carries much of world trade, say people briefed on the meeting. Two days later, a Chinese attack sub—a so-called hunter-killer, designed to seek out and destroy enemy vessels—slipped through the strait above water and disappeared. It resurfaced near Sri Lanka and then in the Persian Gulf, say people familiar with its movements, before...

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said the country needs 20 new nuclear power plants like the Bushehr plant. "Bushehr power plant currently produces 7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year," Salehi said, ISNA News Agency reported."Some countries have declared their readiness to construct new nuclear power plants in Iran." Earlier, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said they have been informed that Iran plans to construct 20 new nuclear power plants. Iran announced in June that it has reached an agreement with Russia to construct two more nuclear power plants. The two sides are negotiating...

A leading United States senator has warned that the Obama Administration is heading for confrontation with Congress over its refusal, as reported by the New York Times, to allow congressional approval of a final nuclear deal with Iran. In a statement to The Algemeiner, Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) declared: “By threatening to cut out Congress from the Iran nuclear deal, the Administration is actually uniting Congress. We will not support an Obama-Khamenei deal that condemns our children to a future where the Middle East is full of nuclear weapons.” After the signing of the Geneva Accord with Iran in November 2013,...

Fifty years ago, the world woke up to news the nation - then at odds with Moscow and Washington - had detonated its own atomic bomb China's first atomic test on October 16, 1964, in Xinjiang. Mao wanted to prove the nation was a global power. Photo: SCMP Pictures Fifty years ago yesterday, China detonated its first atomic bomb, joining the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France as the only nuclear powers at the time. The explosion in Lop Nur in eastern Xinjiang paved the way for the nation's further development of nuclear weapons and its emergence as a...

The latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program took place this week, pitting the United States and its European partners against the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. It seems safe to say that if Iran and the United States can’t come to a workable compromise this week, and it certainly appears that way based on what has already transpired, there will be no basis for a final deal on Nov. 24. But there are serious outstanding questions about what a viable compromise would look like. This was made clear last week, when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s...

In case you were too consumed with Ebola news yesterday to notice this, here’s a belated FYI that America’s going to put the Middle East’s oil barons out of business before your grandkids are out of college. Assuming the Ebola doesn’t get us first, I mean. Lockheed has a webpage dedicated to its new breakthrough in compact fusion reactors but this write-up in Aviation Week is the most thorough explanation I’ve seen of how it would actually work. If I understand it correctly, which I probably don’t, the problem with current fusion reactors is that they’re too darned big and...

Iranian Foreign Minister chuckles at 'irony' as fuel-tank problems forced top diplomat to fly home on commercial airliner. Fuel-tank problems on his US Air Force plane forced Secretary of State John Kerry to fly home from Vienna on a commercial airliner. The grounding left Iranian negotiators in Vienna chuckling at what they said was the irony of the situation, reports Washington Wire. “So it is not just our planes,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told a reporter from the Al Monitor news site.

Lockheed Martin has announced that their celebrated engineers in their hi tech Skunk Works technology shop have created a design for a small fusion reactor that could fit in the back of a large truck. The breakthrough could mean that clean, nearly unlimited energy might be just over the horizon. The discovery could virtually reinvent the world in the same way that the telephone, the jet engine, and the silicon chip have done over the years. Or not. They don't expect to have a working commercial reactor for a decade and there's no guarantee of success. Still, the Skunk...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade. Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters. In a statement, the company, the Pentagon's largest supplier, said it would build and test a...

A final deal on Iran’s nuclear program is still possible despite the difficulty of the negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday. "I don't believe it's out of reach, but we have some tough issues to resolve," Kerry told reporters during a press conference in Paris. Representatives from the United States, Iran and five other world powers have set a deadline of Nov. 24 for reaching a deal. The countries extended the talks after missing a self-imposed July 20 deadline. "We need to continue to have some serious discussions, which we will, and we'll see where we are,” Kerry...

Some six weeks before the conclusion of crucial nuclear talks between P5+1 world powers and Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a Twitter feed he is believed to operate, posted a graphic laying out 11 non-negotiable “red lines,” beyond which his country’s negotiators would, presumably, not budge. “During the past year, Ayatollah Khamenei, in line with his support for the Iranian negotiators, has also stressed on the Iranian nation’s rights and has called it necessary to observe the red lines in the course of the nuclear talks,” the infographic, which was posted on Sunday, said. The talks with the P5+1 include...