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In the early morning hours of Thursday, Syria’s al-Tala’i military research facility located in Masyaf was reduced to ash and flames. The Jerusalem Post reports that contemporaneous with the strike on al-Tala’I, a Hezbollah weapons convoy in the vicinity was also hit and destroyed. According to Western intelligence sources, al-Tala’i is a center for the production of chemical weapons. Syria blamed Israel and claimed that at least two regime soldiers were killed in the attack. The regime issued a banal and somewhat hypocritical warning of the “dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region.”...

<p>MERCURY, Nev. (AP) — Authorities shot and killed a man who entered a secured federal site north of Las Vegas where the government used to test nuclear bombs.</p> <p>A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration says the man failed to stop at the security gate on Monday at the Nevada National Security Site. Darwin Morgan says the man drove for about 8 miles before he parked, got out of his car and approached security officials.</p>

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities at Arak, a reactor that used heavy water in its operations and which was poised to produce weapons-grade plutonium for Iran’s nuclear program. The IDF said in a statement: Overnight (Thursday), 40 IAF fighter jets, with the precise intelligence direction of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and additional areas throughout Iran, using over 100 munitions. As part of the strikes, and as part of the broad effort to prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the nuclear reactor in the area of Arak...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist', an Israeli minister declared today. Israel Katz, the country's defence minister, accused Khamenei of personally ordering an Iranian attack on a hospital in southern Israel this morning in a salvo targeting several Israeli cities. 'He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.,' said Katz. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have made fresh calls for a 'diplomatic solution' to resolve the conflict between Israel and Iran in...

Vienna (AFP) - The UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran's stock of heavy water for reactors has surpassed the limit set under its agreement with world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that Iran's heavy water production plant was in operation and that its stock of heavy water reserves was 131.5 tonnes, above the 130-tonne limit. In Vienna, an IAEA spokesperson said: "On 17 November, the Agency verified that the Heavy Water Production Plant (HWPP) was in operation and that Iran’s stock of heavy water was 131.5 metric tonnes." Heavy water is not itself radioactive...

Israel’s military warned people Thursday to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor. The warning came in a social media post on X. It included a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like other warnings that proceeded strikes.

Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed on Wednesday that Iran has removed the calandria, or central vessel, of its nuclear reactor at Arak, and it will be filled with concrete within hours. Iranian media reported earlier this week that the Islamic Republic had removed the core of the Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor, the fate of which was one of the sticking points in nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers. "Just yesterday, the foreign minister (of Iran) reported to me that the calandria of the plutonium nuclear reactor is now out and in the next hours it will...

As relations between Russia and the US disintegrate as a result of the escalating proxy war in Syria, which today culminated with Putin halting a Plutonium cleanup effort with the US, shortly before the US State Department announced it would end negotiations with Russia over Syria, tomorrow an unprecedented 40 million Russian citizens, as well as 200,000 specialists from "emergency rescue divisions" and 50,000 units of equipment are set to take part in a four day-long civil defense, emergency evacuation and disaster preparedness drill, the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense reported on its website. According to the ministry, an all-Russian...

Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, today to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries, as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges.“Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security...

Ukraine has enough plutonium to construct hundreds of nuclear warheads for rudimentary bombs akin to the first atomic weapons dropped on Japan by the US in 1945, a new report has revealed. A briefing paper prepared for Ukraine's Defence Ministry said Kyiv could develop small dirty bombs within months if Donald Trump pulls US military aid. Despite giving up its nuclear arsenal in 1996, Kyiv is still in control of nine operational reactors and has significant expertise on how to build the weapons. Ukraine does not have the time or resources to run the facilities required to enrich uranium needed...

IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has revealed. A United Nations report, dated July 18, said there was “no doubt” that a huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was transported from the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo. Tanzanian customs officials told The Sunday Times it was destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and was stopped on October 22 last year during a routine check. The disclosure will heighten western fears about the extent of Iran’s presumed...

The UN’s IAEA has reported that Iran has 55.6 kilograms (122.6 pounds) of 60% enriched uranium. The body says this means Iran is able to produce up to 25 kg (55 lbs) of 90% enriched uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb. The real story could be even more concerning. Consider the hoary phrase, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Similarly, there’s more than one way to make a nuclear bomb. The Union of Concerned Scientists has said that it might be possible to produce a fission-type nuclear weapon with as little as 15kg (33 lbs) of highly...

Energoatom, the operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, has denied a report from IAEA head Rafael Grossi that there are stocks of 30,000 kg of plutonium and 40,000 kg of enriched uranium at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is controlled by Russian forces. At a discussion on nuclear safety at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Grossi voiced concerns about the Zaporizhzhia NPP having such nuclear materials and said this was grounds for a visit to the plant by IAEA officials as soon as possible. Grossi said the IAEA is seeking to visit the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear...

Plutonium is generally thought of as an artificial element created by humans, primarily to make the pits of nuclear weapons, but naturally occurring plutonium can be found in ancient rocks. Plutonium 244 is the longest lived isotope of Plutonium, but it's not easy to make, and finding this specific isotope in interstellar dust grains laid down on the ocean floors tells us important things about the formation of the elements that make up the Earth.Based on this paper:60Fe and 244Pu deposited on Earth constrain the r-process yields of recent nearby supernovae A. Wallner et al

A cave ancient Romans believed to be a gate to the underworld was so deadly that it killed all animals who entered its proximity, while not harming the human priests who led them. Millennia later, scientists believe they have figured out why - a concentrated cloud of carbon dioxide that suffocated those who breathed it. Dating back 2,200 years, the cave was rediscovered by archaeologists from the University of Salento back in 2011. It was located in a city called Hierapolis in ancient Phrygia, now Turkey, and it was used for animal sacrifices of bulls led through the Plutonium -...

Scientists have discovered a new type of uranium that is the lightest ever known. The discovery could reveal more about a weird alpha particle that gets ejected from certain radioactive elements as they decay. The newfound uranium, called uranium-214, is an isotope, or a variant of the element, with 30 more neutrons than protons, one fewer neutron than the next-lightest known uranium isotope. Because neutrons have mass, uranium-214 is much lighter than more common uranium isotopes, including uranium-235, which is used in nuclear reactors and has 51 extra neutrons. This newfound isotope isn't just lighter than others, but it also...

AIKEN, SC (WFXG) - According to Savannah River Site officials, a potential security event is in progress that has triggered emergency response activities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. Site barricades are currently closed to incoming traffic. There is no indication of a consequence beyond the Savannah River Site boundaries. WFXG has a reporter on the way and will update you as we learn

COLUMBIA, SC (WSPA) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Monday that the State of South Carolina and the United States have reached a settlement to end litigation related to weapons-grade plutonium that was relocated to the Savannah River Site in the early 2000s. According to the settlement, the U.S. will pay South Carolina $600 million immediately and the Department of Energy says they will remove the plutonium by 2037 The settlement ends six years of litigation related to the remaining 9.5 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. According to the release, South Carolina will allow the Department of Energy 16.5 years...

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the first detonation of an atomic bomb. Now famous as the Trinity Test, the giant explosion was the culmination of the ultra-secret Manhattan project and would within weeks lead to the end of the Second World War and usher in the Atomic Age. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29 AM, the predawn darkness on what was then the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, was suddenly lit up with the light of a thousand suns....

The U.S Department of Energy has disclosed it shipped a large amount of weapon-grade plutonium to Nevada without the state’s knowledge. used to be test site still has craters Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons In November, Nevada filed a request in a Reno federal court for an injunction to block a shipment of plutonium from South Carolina to the Nevada National Security Site, which is often referred to by its former name, the Nevada Test Site. Turns out, the shipment had already happened.