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Discovery of Iran's secret uranium enrichment facility near Qom several months ago is a "warning sign" for anyone who thinks that the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Tuesday. Speaking at a conference on security challenges in the 21st century at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Yadlin said that Iran is extremely close to mastering the necessary nuclear technology and will wait on the threshold until it feels that the international community is too weak to stop them to move forward towards the bomb. Iran, he...

Terror State: A dithering world has for years underestimated the costs of appeasement toward Iran. Tehran's aggressive plans for 10 new nuclear plants show they want dominance, not just a bomb or two. To any informed observer, it's no surprise that Iran is now collecting its 10-to-1 winnings in the high-stakes game Tehran's Islamofascist government has been playing with the free world for years now. There's been a United Nations censure, demands to halt the building of the newly revealed enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom, and multiple rounds of economic sanctions. The U.S., Britain, France and Germany...

Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions Highlight Kazakhstan’s Uranium Potential One bonus of the global recession is that it wiped a lot of incompetent hedge fund managers and energy speculators from the canyons of Wall Street. As the Gordon Gecko sycophants regroup and look for the next Big Thing, maximizing profit while minimizing risk, the landscape looks very different than it did a year ago. In such a climate, it is uranium, not oil and natural gas that would seem to have the brightest future for one simple, overriding capitalist principle – supply and demand. Whatever agreements are reached at December’s global climate...

YERINGTON, Nev. (Nov. 21) -- Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time. But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: "Danger: Uranium Mine." For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in...

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the Islamic Republic is considering to exchange its enriched uranium with nuclear fuel inside the country. "Iran will not send its 3.5-percent-enriched uranium out of the country," ISNA quoted Mottaki as saying on Wednesday. "That means we are considering to exchange the enriched uranium inside Iran," he went on to explain. Under a mid-October proposal discussed in Vienna, Iran is asked to send most of its domestically produced low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be converted into more highly enriched fuel rods for the Tehran reactor, which produces medical isotopes.

Iranian construction of a previously secret uranium enrichment site is at an advanced stage, with high-tech equipment already in place at the fortified facility ahead of its 2011 startup, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Monday. The revelation of the existence of the underground plant known as Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, has heightened concerns of other possible undeclared Iranian facilities that are not subject to IAEA oversight and therefore could be used for military purposes. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the IAEA report "underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully...

How China gifted 50kg uranium for two bombs to Pakistan Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN 13 November 2009, WASHINGTON: China’s dirty little secret of nuclear proliferation to Pakistan, including virtually giving Islamabad two nuclear weapons on a platter while the US remained oblivious and smug, has exploded in Washington. Embarrassingly for President Barack Obama, the disclosures come on the eve of his much-anticipated visit to Beijing. The broad story is known to every Tom, Dinesh, and Hamid in strategic circles — that sometime in the early 1980s, China provided Pakistan with nuclear know-how and materials to enable it to make the bomb,...

A senior Iranian politician said Saturday the country would not ship low-enriched uranium out of the country, which is a major part of a pending nuclear deal between Iran and international powers, according to semiofficial state media. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chief of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the proposed deal to send uranium out of the country is "called off," Iran's semiofficial news agency ISNA reported. Boroujerdi, an influential member of the parliament, said he does not see the uranium shipment happening. ""Iran is not to give any of its 1,200 kilograms fuel to the other party...

TEHRAN, Iran – Senior Iranian lawmakers rejected on Saturday any possibility of Tehran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to reject the U.N.-backed plan altogether. Prominent conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran won't ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments, a compromise suggested by some government officials, under any circumstances.

Iran Refuses To Send Enriched Uranium Abroad by Jay Deshmukh TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran is refusing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing, the influential head of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee was quoted as saying on Saturday. "We do not want to give part of our 1,200 kilos of enriched uranium in order to receive fuel of 20 percent enrichment," Alaeddin Borujerdi told the ISNA news agency. "This option of giving our enriched uranium gradually or in one go is over now. We are studying how to procure fuel and (Ali Asghar) Soltanieh is negotiating...

Iran reports having thousands of centrifuges spinning away to make fuel for their upcoming power reactors. Others think that Iran has it in mind to make weapons material using those same centrifuges. In fact, Iran could divert just 1% of its centrifuge production and have enough weapons-grade material to make a few bombs per year. The arithmetic is provided here below. Note: I was with Westinghouse civilian nuclear power for 30 years as a registered professional engineer with nuclear specialization. I hold a doctorate in engineering. All information here is unclassified." Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/uranium_centrifuges_and_uraniu.php

North Korea has completed reprocessing of some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyong nuclear facility and weaponized the plutonium extracted from the material, the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - State television says Iran will agree to the “general framework” of a U.N.-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing, but will seek “important changes” in the deal. The report Tuesday on the state-run channel Al-Alam does not specify the amendments Iran will seek. It says Iran will officially reply within 48 hours. The plan calls for Iran to ship 70 percent of its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment.

Iran's nuclear programme Deadline missed Oct 24th 2009 From Economist.com Iran misses a deadline for responding to an offer for others to enrich its uranium IRAN has again failed to do deadlines. It has been evading them in the seven years since an opposition group first outed its extensive covert nuclear programme, despite five UN Security Council resolutions that have told it to halt its suspect nuclear work. After talks that ended in Vienna on October 21st, Iran and the three countries trying to strike a side-deal over new fuel for a Tehran-based nuclear reactor were told by Mohamed ElBaradei,...

Iran, Russia and America met in Vienna under the supervision of the IAEA.The meeting is to discuss the shipment of nuclear fuel with about %20 of enrichment to Tehran's research reactor which produces radioactive medicine for hospitals.IRI's representative in the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh is leading Iran's delegation. IAEA's director-general Mohammad Elbaradei is also attending the meeting.The Islamic Republic of Iran demands that up to %5 of enrichment for Tehran's research reactor to be done in Iran and then be sent to Russia, France or America for more enrichment.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration expressed mild disappointment Friday that Iran withheld a decision on whether to accept a U.N.-coordinated plan that could ease fears about Iran's potential for making a nuclear weapon. The U.S., along with Russia and France, officially endorsed the plan Friday. The State Department said it was unhappy that Iran was not ready to embrace the plan, which calls for Iran to ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and eventual use as fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that makes medical isotopes and is under regular monitoring by a U.N....

Kingdom’s uranium prospects ‘promising’ By Taylor Luck AMMAN - After less than a year of exploration, the Jordanian-French Uranium Mining Company (JFUMC) is reporting promising results for the potential location of the Kingdom’s first uranium mine, company officials said on Tuesday. Over the last nine months, drilling and geological mapping carried out by the firm, a joint venture between French mining company AREVA and Jordan Energy Resources Inc., has revealed large amounts of high-grade uranium close to surface levels. Operating within a 1,469-square-kilometre concession area, the JFUMC has focused on a 100-square-kilometre fertile zone in Swaqa as well as the...

"Iranian Supreme National Security Council Advisor: 'Circumstances May Arise Under Which Iran Will Require Uranium Enriched to 63%'" SNIPPET: "Talks began today, October 19, 2009, in Vienna between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency about the proposal made a few weeks ago by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in advance of the October 1, 2009 talks between Iran and the 5+1 in Geneva."

Representatives from Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and three western states have convened in two-day talks in Vienna on October 19-20 to discuss supply of nuclear fuel for Tehran reactor. Informed sources close to the talks in Vienna said that the US has in a series of secret meetings informed its European partners of Washington's decision on acceptance of uranium enrichment in Iran. The sources reiterated that a number of Washington's EU allies have voiced strong protest against the decision, calling it a too big concession to Iran and a second blow to their stance by the US...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Defense: As the failure of engagement with Iran grows more apparent, the administration that has talked very softly may be getting the mother of all sticks ready. Guess we need high-tech Cold War weapons after all.Western intelligence sources have told London's Times that Iran has perfected the means to develop and detonate a nuclear bomb and is merely awaiting word from its supreme leader to produce its first one. Should the order be given, it would take just six months to enrich enough uranium and another six months to assemble the warhead. Time's up. Recently, and perhaps not coincidentally, Defense...

When Venezuela's mining minister, Rodolfo Sanz, walked into a televised cabinet meeting this week, President Hugo Chávez impishly asked, "So how's the uranium for Iran going? For the atomic bomb." Chávez was joking, but few were laughing outside of Caracas or Tehran. Ever since Chávez announced last month that he was seeking Russia's help to develop nuclear energy in Venezuela — and especially since Sanz turned heads a couple weeks ago by disclosing that Iran is helping Venezuela locate its own uranium reserves — the South American nation and its socialist, anti-U.S. government have become a new focus of anxiety...

Despite the encouraging outcome of yesterday's talks in Geneva, the nuclear standoff with Iran is far from over. It will not end for the U.S. until there is full, ongoing compliance with all protocols of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) inspection regime. And so long as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Iran's president, it very likely will not end for Iran until breakout capability has been achieved. It should not be surprising that yesterday in Geneva, Ahmadinejad's recalcitrant regime appeared to make major concessions to the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany...

In Iran's main Friday sermon today, Hujjat Al-Eslam Kazem Sadeqi said that Saeed Jalili, the Iranian representative at the Geneva talks, had presented Iran's package of proposals and that it had been discussed at the meeting. He said that the arrogance (i.e. the U.S.) had now found a new subject (that is, the Qom enrichment facility) to lock horns with Iran over. While this matter was nothing new, he added, the Americans want to use it to raise a furor. He called the new Qom enrichment facility a facility of Iran's nuclear pride. Sadeqi said that Iran had always declared...

On Friday, President Obama, President Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown revealed a covert Iranian uranium enrichment facility near Qom. Obama announced that “the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear program.” In a briefing , Senior White House Administration Officials clarified that the facility is designed to hold about 3,000 centrifuges. Although, this number is not large enough to “make sense from any commercial standpoint, […] enough for a bomb or two a year, it’s the right size.” It is too early to independently verify the US statement that Iran is planning on setting up...

Iran warns West against "past mistakes" Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:02am EDT By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb cooperation further if they repeated "past mistakes." An Iranian MP suggested that parliament might advocate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Thursday's Geneva talks with major powers fail and "if the Zionists (Israel) and America continue their pressure on Iran" -- a reference to policies including economic sanctions. Washington has suggested possible...

The revelation of an Iranian uranium-enrichment facility buried in a mountain at an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base near the religious city of Qom might seem ominous. If, that is, the Iranians were determined to develop a nuclear weapon. Fortunately, we are advised that they are not. In November 2007, US intelligence agencies wrote a National Intelligence Estimate concluding, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” The intelligence community appears to be sticking by its judgment, which means — cue the sighs of relief — that the Qom facility may be only...

A week ahead of crunch talks on Iran's nuclear program, the leaders of the U.S., France and the U.K. on Friday accused Tehran of building a covert uranium enrichment facility, a development they said directly challenges the world's non-proliferation rules. Later in the day, Iran publicly confirmed and strongly defended the nuclear fuel facility. Speaking at an overflowing news conference in New York Friday afternoon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country has complied with rules of the U.N. nuclear agency that requires Tehran inform it of any new enrichment facility six months before any such facility becomes operational, the...

Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said recently that U.S. officials also have "concerns" about a possible transfer of nuclear materials between Iran and Venezuela. But analysts say Iran, which has significant uranium deposits, currently has no need to import uranium, although those deposits may not be enough to sustain its future enrichment goals. Sanz dismissed...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant in his country does not violate international rules and that Western powers were trying to stack the deck against Iran before negotiations next week. On the defensive at home in the aftermath of a disputed June 12 presidential election, the Iranian leader faced a new international challenge Friday after President Obama revealed that U.S., British and French intelligence found a secret nuclear facility tunneled into a mountain on a military base near the Iranian theological center of Qom. Iran, which apparently realized that the facility had been...

. Venezuela – Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez's government said Friday. Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state. "We could have important reserves of uranium," Sanz told reporters upon arrival on Venezuela's Margarita Island for a weekend Africa-South America summit. He added that efforts to certify the reserves could...

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela — Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez's government said Friday.</p> <p>Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state.</p>

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Kim Jong Il Reportedly Calls for Third Nuclear Test Saturday , September 12, 2009 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, during his most recent meeting with party and military leaders, reportedly gave instructions that the reclusive regime prepare for a third nuclear test, this time using enriched uranium, according to reports from Free Radio of North Korea, based in South Korea. Kim "emphasized the importance of improvement of nuclear technologies with the aim of attracting the U.S. to direct bilateral talks," according to the radio station's source. The meeting during which this order was reportedly given took place on Aug....

The U.S. said on Wednesday that Iran was moving closer to being able to produce a nuclear bomb by stockpiling enriched uranium. "We have serious concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option," U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Glyn Davies, told a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation governing board. "Iran is now either very near or in possession already of sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon if the decision were made to further enrich it to weapons-grade," Davies said. "(This) moves Iran closer to a dangerous...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Friday that it is in the final stages of enriching uraninum, a process that could give the nation a second way to make nuclear bombs. The official Korean Central News Agency said in a report early Friday that North Korea informed the U.N. Security Council it is forging ahead with its nuclear program in defiance of international calls to abandon its atomic ambitions. The dispatch said plutonium "is being weaponized," and that uranium enrichment—a program North Korea revealed in recent months—was entering the "completion phase."

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday that it has entered a final phase of uranium enrichment, and is also building more nuclear weapons with spent fuel rods extracted from its only operating plutonium-producing reactor.

SNIPPET: "BERLIN - Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency believes Iran is capable of producing and testing an atomic bomb within six months, much sooner than most analysts estimate, according to a report in German weekly Stern. The report, which quotes BND experts, says the agency has information supporting the view that Iran has mastered the enrichment technology necessary to make a bomb and has enough centrifuges to make weaponised uranium. “If they wanted to, they could detonate an atomic bomb in half a year’s time,” the story quoted a BND expert as saying. The BND did not return two calls...

N. Korea enriching uranium as leader's health may be relapsing: S. Korea SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to be "definitely" pressing ahead with uranium enrichment that would give it another means to build nuclear arms, South Korea's defense chief said Tuesday. Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee also said in a parliamentary hearing that recent outside observations concerning North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could suggest he is experiencing a relapse in his health. Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke in August last year but has since recovered enough to reassert control over his secretive regime. Health experts say the...

After repudiating negotiations on dismantling its plutonium-based nuclear program, North Korea admitted this month to having an even more worrying way to make bombs. Following nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced it can enrich uranium—a simpler method of building nuclear weapons than reprocessing plutonium. Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous factories that can better evade spy-satellite detection, and uranium bombs may work without test explosions. The admission—made in a threatening response to a June 12 U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Pyongyang for an underground plutonium bomb test last month—poses a new challenge to the U.S., China,...

January 26, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-nsd-064.html Former Oak Ridge Complex Employee Pleads Guilty to Unlawful Disclosure of Restricted Atomic Energy Data WASHINGTON – Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, to count one of an indictment charging him with unlawful disclosure of Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act, in violation of 42 U.S.C., Section 2274(b). The guilty plea was announced today by Matthew G. Olsen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and James R. Dedrick, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of...

N.Korea Admits Uranium Program After 7 Years North Korea consistently denied that it was pursuing a uranium enrichment program since the U.S. first made the allegation in 2002. Yet on Saturday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry announced that it had already begun testing its uranium enrichment technology. The allegation surfaced in October of 2002, during a visit to Pyongyang by James Kelly, then Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Kelly said there were suspicions that North Korea was trying to produce weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, citing evidence gathered by U.S. sources. The U.S. then halted the...

SEOUL, June 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday it will start enriching uranium and weaponize all new plutonium, protesting the U.N. Security Council resolution expanding sanctions on it. The North, which triggered the resolution after its second nuclear test on May 25, also said it will "respond militarily" if the U.S. and other countries attempt what it called a "blockade." The resolution calls on states to conduct inspections of North Korea ships suspected of carrying materials related to weapons of mass destruction.

Uranium Poll: Will the uranium mining study as outlined by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission sufficiently address the safety and enviromental questions associated with the issue? yes no

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Senior Iranian Official: We Did Not Stop Uranium Enrichment during Khatami's Presidency Hassan Rohani, who served as secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council during the Khatami administration, denied Ahmadinejad's accusations that the reformists had suspended Iran's uranium enrichment during Khatami's presidency. He claimed that one of the purposes of the nuclear dossier negotiations during that period was to buy time to complete the construction of the nuclear facilities in Esfahan and Natanz. He added that the Khatami government had not suspended for a single moment either the construction...

IAEA: Iran Has Centrifuges for Two Nuclear Weapons Per Year SNIPPET: "This article in the New York Times, Iran Has Centrifuge Capacity for Nuclear Arms, Report Says, should get your attention. Hopefully the report dispels in the eyes of some the incorrect conclusion that those of us who have been warning of the Iranian race for nuclear weapons are fear mongers and over the top. They now have the capability. It is only the desire which can be seen as debatable, even though arguing 'peaceful nuclear power' intentions requires an unhealthy leap of faith and a disconnect from logic, reason...

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has expanded the number of centrifuges enriching uranium to almost 5,000 and this has made it harder for U.N. inspectors to keep track of the disputed nuclear program, according to an IAEA report seen by Reuters. Friday's restricted International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report also said Iran had increased its rate of production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) material, boosting its stockpile by 500 kg to 1,339 kg in the past six months. Iran's improved efficiency in turning out potential nuclear fuel was sure to fan Western fears of the Islamic Republic nearing the ability make nuclear...

"More undeclared uranium discovered in Syria" SNIPPET: "International Atomic Energy Agency finds traces of processed uranium at second site in Syria, leading to fears of covert nuclear activity" Reuters Published: 06.05.09, 21:56 / Israel News SNIPPET: "The UN nuclear watchdog has discovered traces of processed uranium at a second site in Syria, the agency said on Friday, heightening concern about possible undeclared atomic activity in the Arab state. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examining U.S. intelligence reports that Syria almost built a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield weapons-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it to rubble in...

WASHINGTON — Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program and is impeding United Nations monitoring of its enrichment program, a confidential U.N. report said Friday. The actions suggest that Iran is proceeding full speed ahead despite President Barack Obama's offer of unconditional talks on ending the effort, which is widely suspected to be aimed at developing nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran is now operating 4,920 centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium from uranium hexafluoride gas, in a massive underground facility at Natanz. That represents an increase of some 1,000 devices since February. Another 2,132 devices...

Here's a fascinating politics/energy/international relations story that's flying below the radar now, but feels as though it could get huge. The news starts with Uranium One (UUU), a Toronto-listed uranium miner, whose shares plunged 38% on news that the Kazakhstan government was probing whether certain Kazakh mines it owns were acquired illegally. Specifically, it's looking at potentially illegal asset sales by Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former head of state-owned uranium miner Kazatomprom, who later sought favors from the man who sold the assets to, Frank Giustra, and Bill Clinton. Reuters: [O]ne deal in question was the sale of a 30 percent...