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That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice. “This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more...

Sunday's Der Spiegel had a massive expose on the continuing efforts of Bashar al-Assad to build a nuclear weapons plant, which included evidence that Iran is constructing such a plant for Syria in Qusayr, less than two kilometers from Syria's border with Lebanon. The issue came up in the State Department's Monday daily briefing. Disturbingly, spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the United States did not plan to raise the issue in the Iranian nuclear talks, claiming that those talks only deal with Iran's nuclear capabilities and not with Syria's. According to findings of Western intelligence agencies, however, the situation...

A North Korean official reaffirmed Pyongyang's commitment to developing a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching "all the way to the East coast of the mainland US," on Monday, telling CNN that the rogue nation is currently not interested in diplomacy with the US until it achieves that goal.

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea is believed to be preparing to launch a ballistic missile ahead of an upcoming joint naval drill by the US and South Korea, a news report said Saturday, citing a government source. The US navy said Friday that a US aircraft carrier will lead the drill in the coming week, a fresh show of force against North Korea as tensions soar over the hermit state's weapons programme. The move will likely rile Pyongyang which has previously responded angrily to joint exercises. The Donga Ilbo daily, quoting a government source, said satellite pictures show ballistic missiles...

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has a vision for developing fully mobile, hot tub-sized nuclear power plants that could become the latest piece in the Energy Department's innovation and grid resiliency push. Perry brought up the idea while addressing a National Clean Energy Week conference late last month. He used it as an example of what the Trump administration means when it talks about energy "innovation" as part of its energy dominance agenda. Perry called them "small modular reactors." But the version of the technology he described would function more like a nuclear battery than a conventional, water-cooled nuclear power plant....

A US military assault on North Korea could prompt a last gasp retaliatory nuclear attack by Pyongyang on Seoul and Japan killing as many as 3.8 million people, according to a new analysis of the destructive potential of Kim Jong-un arsenal. Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that all options remain on the table – including the use of force – in dealing with the North Korean threat. However, analysts say the US is hamstrung by Pyongyang’s growing weapons stockpile and the fact that major population centres lie well within its range. A detailed analysis by 38 North, a programme at...

A campaign group seeking a global ban on nuclear arms won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, given the award by a Nobel Committee that cited the spread of weapons to North Korea and said the risk was growing of nuclear war. The award to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was unexpected, particularly in a year when the architects of the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran had been seen as favorites for achieving the sort of diplomatic breakthrough that has won the prize in the past.

President Trump plans to “decertify” the Iran nuclear deal next week and announce that it is not in the United States' national interest, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Such an announcement would leave the next move up to Congress, which would have 60 days to use a fast-track process to reimpose sanctions and deliver a potentially fatal blow to the deal, which Tehran agreed to in 2015 with the U.S. and five other nations. Trump faces an Oct. 15 deadline to tell Congress whether Iran remains in compliance with the Obama-era nuclear accord, which gave Tehran billions of dollars of sanctions relief in exchange for limits...

The Trump administration is pushing for changes in the way electricity is priced to better reward coal and nuclear power, which face growing competition from natural gas and renewables. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Friday called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act within 60 days to adopt rules raising payments to power plants that are considered more resilient. He maintained that a diverse mix of energy sources would strengthen the power grid, especially during natural disasters, by ensuring an adequate supply of backup power. The decline of traditional sources of power, on the other hand, would undermine reliability....

HIGHLIGHTS o The short-range weapons meant to be used early in a conventional conflict with India are at a risk of landing up with terrorists. o According to the report, Pakistan has stored its nuclear forces at nine different locations across the country. o The report adds that Pakistan has a rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal of 130-140 warheads. o Pakistani military personnel stand beside a Shaheen III surface-to-surface ballistic missile. (Representative image/Reuters) NEW DELHI: Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi last week yet again flaunted+ his country's tactical or nonstrategic nuclear weapons, saying they were meant to deter the Indian Army's...

Lockheed Martin has successfully tested a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air-missile against a tactical ballistic missile from a remote launcher. Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has successfully tested a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air-missile against a tactical ballistic missile from a remote launcher. The test was conducted by the U.S. Army at Reagan Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The PAC-3 Missile Enhancement Segment ballistic missile defense system was launched from a remotely controlled launcher, as opposed to a manned system. "PAC-3 continues to be successful against today's evolving threats, and it remains the only combat proven...

BEIJING: China has added a new nuclear-powered submarine to its fast expanding fleet but experts believe that it is not the most advanced version as speculated earlier, official media reported today. The new submarine is stated to be 69th conventional and nuclear submarines, according to unofficial estimates by global defence think-tanks. A new nuclear submarine has been turned over to the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), state-run Global Times today quoted an official with the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation or CSIC as saying. However, experts believe that this submarine is not the most advanced Type 096, which is China's next...

A former Soviet military officer credited with averting a possible nuclear disaster at the peak of the Cold War has died at the age of 77. Stanislav Petrov was on duty at a Russian nuclear early warning centre in 1983 when computers wrongly detected incoming missiles from the US. He took the decision that they were a false alarm and did not report them to his superiors. His actions, which came to light years later, possibly prevented nuclear war. Petrov died at his home in Moscow in May but his death has only now been made public. In an interview...

U.S. public health and first responders in California and throughout the West Coast have begun preparing for the impact of a potential nuclear war after North Korea fired a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) over Japan last week in the anniversary of America’s triumphant Inchon Landing in the Korean War. In 1950, with U.S. forces barely hanging on to Pusan Peninsula as 100,000 North Korean troops had overrun 90 percent of South Kore, General Douglas MacArthur between audaciously used 261 vessels to land 75,000 American troops far behind enemy lines between September 15 and 23 to cut off the North...

Hal Kempfer, a noted international security expert, is getting a roomful of California public health officials and emergency responders to think about the unthinkable – a nuclear bomb exploding at the port of Long Beach, about four miles away...News out of North Korea has created a mini-bonanza for local manufacturers of nuclear fallout shelters. But more important to the vast bulk of the population, Kempfer says, is having some rudimentary knowledge of what it means to “shelter in place"...Sandy Wedgeworth, the public health emergency management coordinator, said she and her staff felt energized, not depressed, by what they learned from...

North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sunday released 140 kilotons of TNT equivalent, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment. The margin of error on the early U.S. assessment is not known and the specific explosive yield figure may be revised, but the U.S. intelligence community assesses this device to have been several times more powerful than North Korea’s previously most powerful nuclear test in September 2016.

Big Upstate manufacturers stand ready to challenge Duke Energy if the Charlotte-based power company asks South Carolina regulators for permission to raise rates on its Upstate customers. Duke announced Aug. 25 that it planned to cancel decade-old plans to build the two-reactor Gaffney plant. Scott Elliott, a Columbia lawyer who specializes in utility regulation, has already picked out arguments he intends to make on behalf of manufacturing clients in opposition to the expected rate hike request. Elliott represents the S.C. Energy Users Committee, a group of manufacturers that buy a lot of electricity. The group includes big Upstate employers such...

By setting off a 100-kiloton bomb, after firing a missile over Japan, Kim Jong Un has gotten the world's attention. What else does he want? Almost surely not war with America. For no matter what damage Kim could visit on U.S. troops and bases in South Korea, Okinawa and Guam, his country would be destroyed and the regime his grandfather built annihilated. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting," wrote Sun Tzu. Kim likely has something like this in mind. His nuclear and missile tests have already called the bluff of George W. Bush who,...

Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles are believed to carry a total of approximately 1,000 strategic nuclear warheads that can hit the US less than 30 minutes after being launched. Of this total, about 700 warheads are rated at 800 kilotons; that is, each has the explosive power of 800,000 tons of TNT. What follows is a description of the consequences of the detonation of a single such warhead over midtown Manhattan, in the heart of New York City. The initial fireball. The warhead would probably be detonated slightly more than a mile above the city, to maximize the damage created by...

North Korea openly threatens EMP attack for the first time, changing the game BY ANTHONY FUREY, POSTMEDIA NETWORK The news Sunday morning that North Korea had launched what appeared to be its sixth nuclear test and most powerful one to date is troubling enough. But a statement from the rogue regime took things to a whole new level. The North said it had tested an H-bomb that was “a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack according to strategic goals.” This is the first time it has...