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Report: In Devastating Blow, Israel Sets Back Iran's Nuke Program Two YearsThe last couple of weeks have seen a string of apparent sabotage incidents in Iran. Questions about them abound. Possible answers are intriguing to say the least. Probably the most significant attack came early Thursday morning at Natanz, when, as the New York Times reported:...A Middle Eastern intelligence official…said the blast was caused by an explosive device planted inside the facility. The explosion, he said, destroyed much of the aboveground parts of the facility where new centrifuges…are balanced before they are put into operation…. ... ... Instead, Iran appears...

My, but Iran must have a lot of defective “industrial gas tanks” lying around. A week after Iranian officials tried to explain away a massive explosion at Parchin as a civilian-area accident, a large fire at Natanz might prove more difficult to dismiss. Natanz, like Parchin, is a site where the US alleges that Iran has performed work on their nuclear-weapons program, and experts believe that uranium-enriching centrifuge work might have been the target this time: Iran says there has been an “incident” at one of its nuclear facilities.Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi did not...

France’s oldest nuclear power plant was finally closed on Tuesday (30 June) — after four decades in operation and a long-standing campaign by anti-nuclear activists. The process to remove the fuel used by the reactors of Fessenheim power plant, which was connected to the grid in 1977, should be completed by 2023 — although the plant is not expected to be fully dismantled before 2040. Following the disaster of Fukushima in 2011, then French president François Hollande pledged to close Fessenheim power plant, after complaints about safety from both the German and Swiss governments. However, his successor Emmanuel Macron only...

By Hassan Mahmoudi A resolution presented at the International Atomic Agency (IAA) by Germany, France, and England was eventually passed on June 19, 2020, enjoying a good majority of the votes. (25 countries, aye; 7 abstentions; Russia and China, nay; and Paraguay was absent). The resolution calls on the Iranian regime to give access to two of its atomic sites to IAA’s inspectors. Iran is suspected of having been carrying out nuclear activities at these two sites in the 2000s in order to obtain nuclear weapons. Tehran horrified by the thought of the outcome of such a resolution tried to...

Radiation sensors in Stockholm have detected higher-than-usual but still harmless levels of isotopes produced by nuclear fission, probably from somewhere on or near the Baltic Sea, a body running a worldwide network of the sensors said on Friday. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) oversees a network of hundreds of monitoring stations that use seismic, hydroacoustic and other technology to check for a nuclear weapon test anywhere in the world. That technology can, however, be put to other uses as well. One of its stations scanning the air for radionuclides - telltale radioactive particles that can be carried long distances...

With NASA planning its next human mission to the moon in 2024, researchers are looking for options to power settlements on the lunar surface. According to a new article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, nuclear fission reactors have emerged as top candidates to generate electricity in space. When it comes to powering an astronauts’ settlement, there are many factors to consider, writes correspondent Tien Nguyen in collaboration with ACS Central Science. The power source must be capable of being transported safely from Earth and of withstanding the harsh conditions of other worlds....

it’s appropriate to mourn the passing of one notable longtime New Yorker .. Unit 2 reactor at the Indian Point Energy Center. The workhorse, Westchester-based nuclear-power generator, which could have run for several more decades, is scheduled to be unplugged Thursday. Cause of death: political expediency .... the 1,028-megawatt Westinghouse machine delivered about 8,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year from a site on the Hudson River that covers less than a half square mile. Unit 2’s prodigious output left its more politically popular rivals — solar and wind energy — in the shade. Ivanpah, the biggest thermal-solar project in America,...

Reports that Kim is either dead or is in very poor health are increasing, but what comes after his demise is far from certain and could be horrific. Regardless, there is a lot of sentiment that seems to celebrate his demise. Be careful what you wish for in this regard, here's why. He also presides over a nuclear arsenal and a massive conventional military force that could lay waste to large portions of South Korea and bombard American interests and its allies in the region with ballistic missiles. If Kim goes, it is far from clear what we will get...

After the Second World War, Sweden initiated a clandestine nuclear program — and had plans for a supersonic nuclear bomber. After World War II, the Soviet specter lay heavily across Europe. Like other post-war countries, Sweden wanted to protect itself from a Soviet invasion — and decided to manufacture nuclear weapons to ensure its security. Initially, Sweden tried to get nuclear weapons expertise from outside the country. The United States, as the world’s first nuclear power and a guarantor of European security, was a logical partner.

A non-profit global science and security group says in a new report that Iran has built a plant to produce nuclear weapons despite its insistence that all its atomic endeavors are wholly peaceful. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security said the 30-page report is based on documents from the Iran Nuclear Archive that were seized by Israel two years ago. The analysis, posted Wednesday, said Tehran has "clearly" been dishonest with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which relies on government cooperation and onsite inspections. "Iran should declare this site to the International Atomic Energy Agency and allow...

During a 45-minute speech, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed that in 2010 a former Obama administration official asked Argentina to “provide the Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear fuel” under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to Kirchner, Gary Samone, who was the White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction at the time, visited Argentina in the hopes of convincing them to provide reactor fuel. When the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs asked for the request in writing, they never heard from Samone again.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium over the last three months in violation of its deal with world powers, and is refusing to answer questions about three possible undeclared nuclear sites. VIENNA -- Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium over the last three months in violation of its deal with world powers and is refusing to answer questions about three possible undeclared nuclear sites, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency made the statement in a confidential report distributed to member countries that was...

The US conducted a military exercise last week which simulated a “limited” nuclear exchange with Russia, a senior Pentagon official has confirmed. The war game is notable because of the defence department’s highly unusual decision to brief journalists about the details and because it embodied the controversial notion that it might be possible to fight, and win, a battle with nuclear weapons, without the exchange leading to an all-out world-ending conflict.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. energy firm Westinghouse is expected to sign a new agreement with state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India for the supply of six nuclear reactors during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit next week, officials said, aiming to kickstart a long-running project.

Can you buy a nuclear fusion reactor for less than $5K? It turns out you can! If you have a few thousand dollars spare, his homemade nuclear fusion reactor could be yours today. Or perhaps you could just spend the money on something you actually need? A former student at Marlborough Boys College in New Zealand recently made the news after attempting to sell a homemade nuclear fusion reactor. The inventor, Samuel Lee, even offered the reactor with a vial of 20 grams of deuterium oxide. The listing includes details of what is included and reassures potential buyers that the...

A photo surfaced Sunday (Jan. 19) on Weibo showing People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers sitting next to a map of Taiwan that appears to indicate a southerly route for China's invasion of Taiwan, first going through Kinmen and Penghu, before landing troops in southern Taiwan. After President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) enjoyed a landslide victory in Taiwan's elections on Jan. 11, Communist China has been doubling down on its rhetoric about the tattered "one country, two systems" framework and adhering to the "1992 Consensus" — expressing its opposition to "Taiwan independence" despite the fact that Taiwan has never been a part...

Despite its cool Green parties and ambitious wind and solar agendas, Europe remains by far the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas. Oil output in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway is declining, and the European Union is quietly looking for fossil fuel energy anywhere it can find it. Europe itself is naturally rich in fossil fuels. It likely has more reserves of shale gas than the United States, currently the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas. Yet in most European countries, horizontal drilling and fracking to extract gas and oil are...

The death of employees is a bitter loss for the entire nuclear center. The victims of the explosion developed special hardware and software; a leading electronic engineer, the head of the research and testing group a category 1 test engineer, and the deputy head of the research and testing department. It took the centre a year to arrange preparations for the tests in the water area of the White Sea. We put up appropriate stands, conducted the certifications. We conducted serious instruction works, prepared equipment, programs, techniques and discussed everything. It seemed that everything was prepared accordingly, adding that "the...

An emergency alert sent to residents of Canada’s Ontario province that warned about an “incident” at a nuclear power plant was sent in error, the Ontario Power Generation said. On Sunday morning at about 7:20 a.m., an “incident” was reported at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station near Toronto, triggering the government to send an emergency alert to local residents. The bulletin, sent to people within 10 kilometers of the nuclear plant, did not offer details about the incident. The alert was sent during during a routine training exercise conducted by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre, Ontario Power Generation said. The...

The Ontario government erroneously sent out a mass alert telling of an “incident” at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the local fire chief says, sending people across the region into a panic as they sent a retraction notice approximately 106 minutes later. At about 7:25 a.m. Sunday, the province said an incident was reported at the station, located off of Montgomery Park Road in Pickering, “There has been NO abnormal release of radioactivity from the station,” the alert read. “People near the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station DO NOT need to take any protective actions at this time.”