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THE suspected shutdown of a reactor at North Korea's main nuclear weapons complex has raised concern at the White House that the country could be preparing to harvest a new load of nuclear fuel, The New York Times reported on its website today. The newspaper said that while there was no way to know with certainty why the reactor had been shut down, it has been North Korea's main means of obtaining plutonium for weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency has told Congress it estimates that in the last two years the country turned a stockpile of spent fuel from the...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran and Russia suddenly postponed on Saturday the signing of a key deal to supply Iran with fuel for its first nuclear reactor, and officials from the two countries were holding new talks, apparently to resolve last-minute differences. The agreement had been scheduled to be signed Saturday morning. But after hours of delay, Yacoub Jabbarian, an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that talks had been prolonged and it was not clear when the signing would take place. He did not say why the talks had been reopened on the agreement, which had been...

VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog has offered to guarantee Iran a supply of fuel for its nuclear power plants so that Tehran would not need to enrich its own uranium, Western diplomats said yesterday. Diplomats said that the head of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed Al Baradei, made this offer to help France, Britain and Germany in their talks with Iran aimed at persuading the Islamic republic to abandon its controversial uranium enrichment programme. “Al Baradei and the IAEA have offered to guarantee Iran’s fuel supply,” a Western diplomat familiar with the European Union’s negotiations with the...

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been given to Kerry from the pro-Iranian lobby, possibly influencing the presidential candidate's startling call to provide Tehran with the nuclear fuel it seeks, according to Iran's Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy chairman Aryo Pirouznia. With top Iranian officials openly calling for the development of nuclear weapons within the next four months and overwhelming intelligence indicating Iran is seeking to create a nuclear arsenal, Kerry has been insisting as president he would provide Tehran with nuclear fuel as long as it is used for peaceful purposes only, a position that has many Middle...

Tehran would welcome John Kerry's proposal to supply nuclear fuel, Hossein Musavian, the head Iran's Supreme National Security Council's foreign policy committee, announced today. First outlined in a June speech, Kerry's plan to provide Iran with nuclear fuel in exchange for a pledge to use it for peaceful purposes only was unveiled to the American public during the first presidential debate. "I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes," Kerry said in a critique of the Bush administration's...

Since Kerry is for giving the Iranian regime Nuclear fuel, then what is his position on Nuclear reactors providing American cities and towns with electricity?

In a little noticed remark during the first presidential debate, Sen. John Kerry said he believed the United States should have provided Iran's hardline, cleric-led Islamic regime with nuclear fuel even as intelligence reports indicate Tehran is on the verge of producing a bomb. "I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes," Kerry said in a critique of the Bush administration's handling of Tehran's nuclear program, which the Iranians claim is only for civilian purposes. The comments came...

SAGHAND, Iran - Iran's campaign to control the nuclear fuel cycle starts deep under this barren patch of desert, in a mine that engineers expect to start yielding uranium ore in less than two years. Elsewhere in central Iran, the ore will be processed into yellowcake powder and then into uranium hexaflouride gas, and the gas injected into centrifuges to be enriched into fuel. Enriched uranium can be used to generate electricity, which is all the Iranians say they want, or to make nuclear warheads, as Washington accuses Tehran of plotting to do. Iranians say their nuclear program is a...

MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - Alexander Rumyantsev, head of the Federal Nuclear Energy Agency, and the United States Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will ink an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of wasted nuclear fuel from research reactors, RIA Novosti learnt from the Agency on Wednesday. "It will be a cooperation agreement as regards the taking fuel from Russian-made research reactors into Russia. It targets prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons and cutting the threat of international terrorism by reducing the number of zones of keeping nuclear materials fit for the production of nuclear weapons", said the...

Moscow, 6 September 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Talks between Russia and Iran have still failed to resolve the question of the return of spent fuel to Russia from Iran's nuclear power plant at Bushehr. Russia is helping Iran build the nuclear power plant at Bushehr. But, under strong international pressure -- particularly from the U.S. -- Russia has demanded that Iran return spent fuel from the plant. The U.S. has accused Tehran of seeking to develop its nuclear weapons program. Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry said today it would not start delivering fuel for the Bushehr plant until an agreement is reached...

Iran, Russia to Set Timing For Delivery of Fuel to Bushehr Plant MOSCOW -- Russia and Iran will fix a date for the delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran shortly, the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy announced on Monday. An unidentified spokesman with the ministry said the Russian and Iranian working groups in their debates on Tuesday and Wednesday will set the timing of the delivery which is meant for the Unit 1 of Iran's Bushehr Power Plant. The debates come in the course of the visit by the President of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh who arrived...

South Korea believes that North Korea has not started reprocessing fuel rods that could produce nuclear weapons, Defence Minister Cho Young-Kil said on Tuesday. "We suspect that North Korea has completed preparations for reprocessing the fuel rods but it has not yet started doing so," Cho told parliament, according to Yonhap news agency. "It seems that by talking tough, the North wanted to get the upper hand in negotiations with the United States, but there is downside risk of this brinksmanship escalating the situation," Cho said. Pyongyang put out conflicting statements on the status of its nuclear activities last week,...

A Russian delegation is due to fly out soon to Iran to discuss the delivery of nuclear fuel to the Russian-built Bushehr power station in southern Iran, which is a major point of disaccord in the new US-Russian alliance. Minister for Atomic Energy Alexander Rumiantsev, quoted by Interfax news agency, said late Saturday Moscow was also negotiating the construction of further nuclear reactors for the plant. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday his government remained concerned that Russian support for Iranian civil nuclear projects could be seen as helping Iran towards nuclear weapons technology. "There is a disagreement...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is investigating the relationship between the nation's leading nuclear fuel supplier and a Pittsburgh consulting business that was established by a top Russian nuclear official. Under an agreement with the U.S., Russia provides most of the uranium purchased by U.S. Enrichment Corp. of Bethesda, Md. The uranium, which supplies fuel to about 70 percent of the nation's nuclear power plants, is taken from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons, processed to be used in power plants and sent to the United States. Recent stories by the Tribune and...