Free Republic

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.”...

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...

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...

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.

Iranian officials are claiming victory over the United States as diplomats gather this week for negotiations over a revamped nuclear deal, discussions that are likely to result in the Biden administration lifting tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said Tuesday that his country's leaders will not sit down for talks with the Americans, including U.S.-Iran envoy Robert Malley. American diplomats, however, expect indirect communications through intermediaries. Rabiei said the negotiations, which will occur in Vienna, represent a victory over the United States and the former Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran, which included...

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of theories about who killed JFK. On a “conspiracy scale” of one to one hundred, where Lee Harvey Oswald, as a deranged loan gunmen, is a simple “1”, and Aliens from the Pleiades star system is a preposterous “100”, there is the “Israellis Killed JFK” assassination theory. The basic premise of the “Israelis Killed JFK” theory is that; Israel wanted nuclear bombs. JFK did not want them to have them. The Israelis killed JFK. Few JFK researchers, authors, etc. seem to make the next natural jump, which is that, Israel got the needed amount...

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...

One of history’s greatest “what ifs” is the question of what would have happened had the Germans been able to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. The Wehrmacht’s effort to do just that, called the Uranverein, or “Uranium Club,” began in 1939 when German Army physicist Kurt Diebner began to research the potential military applications of nuclear fission. By year’s end, the renowned German physicist Werner Heisenberg had expressed his belief that nuclear fission chain reactions, and thus, eventually, nuclear bombs, might be possible, but only if he had access to enough of a singular substance known as...

A Kuwaiti paper reveals another monstrous Obama betrayal. We thought the Obama administration could stoop no lower when it was revealed that the administration transferred $1.7 billion in untraceable cash to the Islamic Republic as ransom for the release of four Americans hostages they were holding. We were wrong. In its twilight weeks, the administration gave its consent to allow the Iranians to receive 116 metric tons of natural uranium from Russia as compensation for its export of tons of reactor coolant. According to experts familiar with the transaction, the uranium could be enriched to weapons-grade sufficient for the production...

The FBI raided the home of a whistleblower who was in possession of documents regarding the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, according to the whistleblower’s lawyer, Michael Socarras. The whistleblower, Dennis Nathan Cain, had turned the documents over to the Department of Justice’s inspector general and both the House and Senate Intelligence committees, according to the lawyer. The FBI rummaged through Cain’s home for six hours, even after the whistleblower handed over the documents, according to Socarras.

Future aircraft could be powered by lasers and nuclear explosions if Boeing has its way. The aerospace firm claims a new-type of engine could produce energy-efficient thrust by firing lasers at radioactive material, such as deuterium and tritium. The technology could mean that planes and spaceships will require only a fraction of the power to operate, according to a recent patent filed by the company.

At the request of two domestic uranium producers, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has launched an investigation into whether “the present quantity and circumstances” of uranium imports threatens national security. However, the US nuclear energy industry has warned that a suggested quota on imports would have a significant financial impact on the country’s reactor operators........ In their petition, Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels noted that US uranium production met just 5% of domestic reactor requirements last year. This year, domestic producers are projected to fulfil about 2% of US reactor demand...... “In 2016, the combined uranium imports from three geopolitically...

ran's nuclear reactors have been a tension point since the nuclear deal was put in place due to the Islamic Republic's production of heavy water—a nuclear enriched byproduct—beyond the amounts allowable under the agreement. In order to ensure Iran was not caught breaching restrictions on heavy water under the deal, the Obama administration 'used taxpayer money to purchase Iran's excess heavy water', a policy that was immediately reversed by the Trump administration. "The Obama administration's purchase of Iranian heavy water gave away the game," said one senior GOP congressional aide who was closely involved in the Iran deal debate. "The...

… Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency referred to last week’s IAEA finding that Iran overstepped limits on the amount of heavy water it is allowed to possess for the second time since the agreement’s implementation in January. Heavy water is a concern because it is used to cool reactors that can produce substantial amounts of plutonium. That, in turn, can be applied to making the fissile core of nuclear warheads. …

Among the exemptions were two that allowed Iran to exceed the deal's limits on how much low-enriched uranium (LEU) it can keep in its nuclear facilities, the report said. WASHINGTON - The United States and its negotiating partners agreed "in secret" to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year's landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a report reviewed by Reuters. The report is to be published on Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the think tank's president David Albright,...

After Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas failed Wednesday in a bid to restrict President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, the White House decided to give the lawmaker a kick in the pants for good measure. Referring to Mr. Cotton’s amendment to stop the U.S. from purchasing heavy water used by Iran in nuclear production, White House press secretary said, “Senator Cotton is certainly no expert when it comes to heavy water. I’m confident that he couldn’t differentiate heavy water from sparkling water.” He said Mr. Cotton is focused “on undermining the effective implementation of this agreement that prevents Iran...

WASHINGTON - When war ends in Iraq, the Bush administration will give "extremely high priority" to halting a secret nuclear weapons program in neighboring Iran, a senior administration official said Monday. John Bolton, the under secretary for arms control, joined National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in warning that the White House sees nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea as imminent threats. "The estimate we have of how close the Iranians are to production of nuclear weapons grows closer each day," said Bolton, a leading hawk within the administration. Both Bolton and Rice, in separate speeches to the...

Column one: Iran, Obama, Boehner and Netanyahu Iran has apparently produced an intercontinental ballistic missile whose range far exceeds the distance between Iran and Israel, and between Iran and Europe. On Wednesday night, Channel 2 showed satellite imagery taken by Israel’s Eros-B satellite that was launched last April. The imagery showed new missile-related sites that Iran recently constructed just outside Tehran. One facility is a missile launch site, capable of sending a rocket into space or of firing an ICBM. On the launch pad was a new 27-meter long missile, never seen before. The missile and the launch pad indicate...

Which terrorist will Obama set loose next from Gitmo? A better question might be is there any terrorist he won’t free? Is there an Al Qaeda or Taliban Jihadist who poses too much of a threat to the United States for Obama to free with a lot of airline miles and Michelle Obama’s recipe for arugula fruitcake? If Obama has a red line when it comes to releasing terrorists, we haven’t seen it yet. There appears to be no threat that a terrorist can pose and no crime he has committed too severe to prevent him from getting a plane...

What could go wrong? Barack Obama released a nuclear terrorist back to Afghanistan this month. Mohammad Zahir was in possession of uranium for use in making an atomic bomb when he was captured. Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage Magazine reported: If Obama has a red line when it comes to releasing terrorists, we haven’t seen it yet. There appears to be no threat that a terrorist can pose and no crime he has committed too severe to prevent him from getting a plane trip out of Gitmo at taxpayer expense. The last releases saw terrorists rated as high risk freed by...