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Eunice, NM The URENCO USA uranium enrichment plant located outside Eunice, NM achieved a capacity milestone today by introducing uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) into its newest centrifuge cascade. The activation of this cascade brings the enrichment plant to slightly over 3 million separative work units (SWU) of production capacity.

UN ALERT AS NUCLEAR PLANS GO MISSING Blueprints disclosing key steps to build a bomb feared up for sale Ian Traynor in Vienna Thursday June 9, 2005 Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear...

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes...

The European consortium Uranium Enrichment Company (Urenco) appears to be the origin of the international nuclear network recently exposed by the reported confession of top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 17). Urenco was established in 1970 by Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to ensure that their nuclear power industries would have a fuel source independent of the United States. According to documents and experts, though, security at the firm was poor. For example, Khan, who worked for a Urenco subcontractor in the early and mid-1970s, was given access...

<p>United Nations inspectors have found sophisticated uranium-enrichment machinery at an air force base outside Iran's capital, Tehran, U.S. and foreign sources with knowledge of the discovery say.</p> <p>The find at Doshen-Tappen air base appears to undermine Iran's claim it is not pursuing a nuclear bomb. The discovery may strengthen calls for action by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.</p>

US wakes up to Osama's nuke dreams CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA TIMES NEWS NETWORK ASHINGTON: Alarm bells are clanging in the US and other western establishments over reports that Osama Bin Laden may have acquired or developed crude atom bombs with help from renegade Pakistani nuclear scientists. Accounts of Bin Laden's pursuit of nuclear weapons has been in the air for some time, but they acquired an added urgency this week following the arrest in Islamabad of two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists whose activities in Afghanistan were being scrutinised by western intelligence agencies. The scientists were reportedly taken into custody for questioning ...

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday it appeared Pakistani scientists had sold nuclear secrets abroad, but reiterated Islamabad's position that there had been no official involvement. Pakistan says it began questioning its nuclear scientists, including the father of its atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, after the U.N. nuclear agency began investigating possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs. Musharraf told CNN while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the investigation, launched in November, would be finished in "a few weeks." Asked the likely outcome, he replied: "Well, I would not...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Two government ministers in the Netherlands acknowledged Monday that highly sensitive nuclear technology developed by a Dutch company may have been transferred to Libya and North Korea along with Iran and Pakistan. The disclosure in Parliament in Amsterdam marked the first public confirmation of assertions that centrifuge technology for enriching uranium apparently found its way to Libya and North Korea. It was already known that Pakistan and Iran had the technology. The Dutch officials, Foreign Minister Bernard Bot and Economic Affairs Minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, said it was not clear how the potentially arms-related technology had been transferred....

Urenco Releases Statement on Iranian Centrifuge Technology 11/28/03 9:37:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and International desk Contact: Mr. A J Moore of Urenco Limited, 44 (0) 16-28-40-22-65 or ajm@urenco.com MARLOW, United Kingdom., Nov. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a statement of Urenco on Iranian Centrifuge Technology: In a recent US publication, reference has been made to enrichment technology from Urenco. Urenco has never carried out business with any government, business or other entity in Iran. Urenco would like to strongly affirm that they have never supplied any technology or components to Iran at any time. Urenco's technology...

MOSCOW, April 22 (AFP) - Russia is concerned that Iran may be enriching uranium with a view to developing nuclear weapons, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said on Tuesday, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Rumyantsev referred to US press reports that Tehran had equipped a nuclear complex with the capacity to enrich its recently-disclosed uranium deposits, sparking fears that the country may be stepping up a covert weapons program. "Such centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium to a high enough concentration for developing weapons," he said. "If the media reports are accurate, the situation is alarming." "Iran must acknowledge...

Russia Defends Self on Iraq Allegations By JUDITH INGRAM .c The Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) - Russia went on a media offensive Tuesday to repeat denials of American allegations that it is selling anti-tank guided missiles, jamming devices and night-vision goggles to Iraq. It hinted that Washington also had sold sensitive equipment to other nations. The Kremlin, which usually issues its statements by fax or through the main Russian news agencies, took the unusual step of calling news organizations and dictating a statement publicizing its version of a conversation Monday between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White...