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Zimbabwe is to defy United Nations sanctions in a deal to sell uranium to Iran Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's foreign minister, said the sanctions – which prohibit member states from providing Iran with raw materials that it could use to make a nuclear weapon – were unfair and hypocritical. He said that Zimbabwe, which is also the subject of sanctions over human rights abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe's supporters, would benefit economically from the agreement. A leaked intelligence report suggests Iran will be awarded with exclusive access to Zimbabwe's uranium in return for providing the country with fuel. The report...

VIENNA – Iran is expanding its covert global search for the uranium it needs for its nuclear activities and a key focus is Zimbabwe, says a new intelligence report acquired Tuesday by The Associated Press.

China blocks report on North Korea's new nuclear facility, UN diplomats say China is blocking the release of a report by a UN expert panel on the revelations of a new and highly sophisticated uranium enrichment plant in North Korea, according to Security Council diplomats. Many council members pushed for the publication of the report, arguing that all 192 UN member states should have access to its findings, according diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity. The report which found that Pyongyang is ignoring UN sanctions and continuing its nuclear enrichment program contains recommendations on how to improve Pyongyang’s compliance with...

LA PAZ, Dec 6 (Reuters) - In a violent show of anti-Venezuela sentiment, a crowd of about 200 Bolivians hurled stones at a Venezuelan military plane and prevented it from refueling after it landed on Thursday, local radio reported. After hearing the incoming plane, the mob seized control of the airport in the Amazonian city of Riberalta and attacked the aircraft. Regional leaders had said they suspected it was carrying arms and not humanitarian supplies, according to the radio reports. "We won't put up with these Venezuelans who come to the country and do whatever they want. We won't let...

VIENNA — Egypt fears being grouped with the likes of Iran and Syria if a UN investigation into traces of highly enriched uranium found in the country isn't brought to a swift end, according to what officials describe as a confidential report from the country's nuclear agency. The particles — enriched close to the levels required to arm nuclear missiles — have been under investigation since being detected by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2007 and 2008. Egypt, a US ally in the Middle East, has said the particles originated from abroad and were inadvertently imported, but the agency...

How did the world champion chess players take over prime mining land in Wyoming and Texas in a brilliant tactical maneuver? Well, who would’ve thought it? Broad daylight and without a shot being fired, Russians have taken possession of rich American uranium assets. How they managed to do this might require the skills of a Sherlock Holmes in unraveling a labyrinthian maze. A description of the end game follows: About a year ago, the directors of Uranium One listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as UUU and on the Nasdaq as SXRZF were abruptly informed by the Kazakhstan government that...

NATURITA, Colo. — The future of nuclear power in America is back on the table, with all its vast implications, as global warming revives the search for energy sources that produce less greenhouse gas. But in this depressed corner of western Colorado — one of the first places in the world that uranium, nuclear energy’s primary fuel, was ever dug from the ground in industrial scale — the debate is both simpler and more complicated. A proposal for a new mill to process uranium ore, which would lead to the opening of long-shuttered mines in Colorado and Utah, has brought...

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a secret operation to secure nuclear material, the United States has helped Ukraine send to Russia enough uranium to build two atomic bombs. This week's removal of more than 110 pounds of highly enriched uranium followed a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to get rid of all of his country's highly enriched uranium by April 2012. The material will be blended down in Russia, rendering it useless for bomb making. Details of the operation were provided to The Associated Press by the National Nuclear Safety Administration.

The United States has helped Ukraine sent to Russia enough uranium to build two atomic bombs in a secret operation aimed at securing nuclear material. The removal of more than 110 pounds of highly enriched uranium this week followed a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (yah-noo-KOH'-vich) to get rid of all of his country's highly enriched uranium by April 2012. The material will be blended down in Russia, rendering it useless for bomb making. (snip) Yanukovych agreed to give up the uranium in a deal announced at a nuclear security summit hosted by President Barack Obama in April.

But the modernization isn't likely to be carried out in anything like a rational, cost-effective way..... It will likely include more than $6 billion dollars for a uranium processing facility, to be built at the Y-12 weapons compound in Oak Ridge, Tennessee..... Indeed, the states' two GOP senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, both said that money for modernization -- and therefore, in all likelihood, pork for their district -- was a key condition of their support.

Kim Jong-un 'Loves Nukes, Computer Games and Johnny Walker' Kim Jong-un, the third son and heir of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, showed a strong affection for nuclear weapons since he was a child, according to Kim senior's former personal chef. Kenji Fujimoto quoted Kim Jong-un as saying uranium mines are the North's "sole assets." Fujimoto was Kim's chef for 13 years until he fled the communist county in 2001 and knew both his second son Jong-chol and Jong-un since they were small. Having recently published the Korean edition of a book entitled "North Korea's Heir, Why Kim Jong-un?," Fujimoto...

PERTH-based Mantra Resources has received a $1.16 billion all-cash offer from Russia’s ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. “The cash offer enables Mantra shareholders to realise immediate value for their Mantra shares and reflects the size, strategic nature and near-term development potential of the Mkuju River Project uranium deposit.

US approval a step toward Russian company control of Wyoming uranium mines Published on November 30th, 2010 Topics : Nuclear Regulatory Commission , Uranium One , Wyoming , U.S. CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Two uranium mines in Wyoming are on their way to control by a Russian company now that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved transferring the mines' licenses. The NRC last week approved the license transfer to a Russian company known as ARMZ which expects to obtain a controlling interest in Canadian-owned Uranium One by year's end. Uranium One holds the licenses for a proposed uranium mine and an...

ARMZ, the uranium mining arm of Russia's state-owned atomic energy monopoly, Rosatom, is taking a 51 percent interest in Canada's Uranium One. The acquisition will make ARMZ the world's fourth largest uranium mining company, according to a report in the Financial Times, and is part of the company's program of aggressive international expansion. It already has deals or is in serious discussion of deals with France, India, and South Korea, and hopes to be the world's second largest producer within a decade, trailing only Kazakhstan. Evidently the deal is structured financially in a way that will enable the paired companies...

Two uranium mines in Wyoming are on their way to control by a Russian company now that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved transferring the mines' licenses The commission last week approved the license transfer involving a Russian company, JSC Atomoredzoloto, or ARMZ, which expects to obtain a controlling interest in Canadian-owned Uranium One by year's end. Uranium One holds the licenses for a proposed in-situ uranium mine and an existing in-situ uranium mine in northeast Wyoming.

North Korea is nothing if not predictable. It has unveiled a new nuclear enrichment plant. The U.S. and its allies are now scrambling to respond. Surely the latest development in the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea surprises no one. If the issue weren't so serious, it would be a comedy routine. The Obama administration came into office hoping to put the North on the back policy burner. Last year Pyongyang staged another nuclear test to remind America that it was still around.

Review U.S. policy toward North Korea By Robert Carlin and John W. Lewis Monday, November 22, 2010; While the United States has stood aside, hoping time and circumstances would force North Korea to accede to demands for denuclearization, the North has forged ahead with its own plans. Near-universal skepticism greeted Pyongyang's announcement last year that it intended to build a light-water reactor and perfect enrichment technology to fuel it. Not two weeks ago, while visiting the nuclear center at Yongbyon during a four-day trip to North Korea, we saw that the North had begun construction of a light-water reactor that...

Satellite Image Shows Building Containing Centrifuges in North Korea by David Albright and Paul Brannan November 21, 2010 Dr. Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University released a report on November 21, 2010 detailing his recent visit to the Yongbyon nuclear site in North Korea. Hecker describes his visit to a building containing 2,000 gas centrifuges located on the site of the fuel fabrication facility at Yongbyon dedicated, according to his hosts, to producing low enriched uranium (LEU). He notes that the building is approximately 120 meters long and has a blue roof. ISIS assesses that this building can be seen in...

Scientist: NKorea has built new nuclear facility By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press 2 hrs 23 mins ago SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has secretly and quickly built a new, highly sophisticated facility to enrich uranium, according to an American nuclear scientist, raising fears that it is ramping up its atomic program despite international pressure.

... the title is drawn from how Karl Rove told Matthews that the CIA agent Valerie Plame was fair game for critics of her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. Wilson, you’ll recall, was dispatched by the CIA in 2002 at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office to investigate whether Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. Wilson came back with the answer no, and he was outraged when President Bush nevertheless stuck with the claim in his 2003 State of the Union address, which made the case for war with Iraq. Just three...