An agreement between Russia and the United States to cooperate more closely on civilian nuclear power took effect Tuesday and was hailed by both sides as a sign that a recent thaw in relations was bearing fruit. The deal, called the 123 Agreement, is intended to ease cross-border investment in nuclear power by resolving issues like liability for accidents.
(AFP) Dec 31, 2010 The United States has helped Ukraine remove 50 kilos (111 pounds) of highly enriched uranium from three Ukrainian sites to be disposed of in Russia, US officials announced Friday. The move was made as part of a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at a nuclear security summit in Washington in April to remove all his country's highly enriched uranium -- which can be used to make atomic weapons -- by 2012.
"This action brings us all one step closer to securing all vulnerable nuclear materials," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
"These actions represent continued Ukrainian leadership in making sure that nuclear weapons never fall into the hands of a terrorist, and working toward a world without nuclear weapons."
In April 2009, Obama promised in a landmark speech in Prague to work towards a world without nuclear weapons. But he has admitted he does not expect to see that goal reached in his lifetime.
"The removal of this highly enriched uranium from Ukraine is a major milestone that brings us one step closer to US President Obama's goal of securing all nuclear material around the world within four years," said Thomas D'Agostino, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Five flights in the last half of December were made to remove the highly enriched uranium, fly it to Russia in specially designed caskets, and replace it with low enriched uranium for Ukraine, the NNSA said in its statement.
"NNSA worked closely with Ukrainian authorities, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom to complete this very complicated operation," it added.
As part of the deal, NNSA flew two air shipments of low enriched uranium -- which cannot be used to make a bomb -- to replace the highly enriched uranium located at the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research and the Kharkiv Institute for Physics and Technology.
"The remaining three flights removed fresh HEU from the facilities in Kiev and Kharkiv as well as the Sevastopol National University of Nuclear Industry and Energy," the NNSA statement added.
The United States also provided Ukraine with new safety equipment and agreed to work with Kiev and Moscow to build a state-of-the-art neutron source facility at the Kharkiv Institute, it added.
"The low enriched uranium and nuclear safety equipment provided to Ukraine in connection with this shipment will support Ukraine's development of safe and secure nuclear energy," Obama added in his statement.
In May, the NNSA working with Ukrainian authorities also successfully removed 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of Russian-origin highly-enriched uranium spent fuel which was taken to Russia by train for storage and disposal.
The US nuclear administration said it had now removed or helped to dispose of 3,085 kilograms (6,700 pounds) of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, adding that represented "enough material to make more than 120 nuclear weapons."
Fueling America’s nuclear renaissance by reprocessing nuclear fuel
By Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein - 12/21/10 11:43 AM ET
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama did an about-face and started voicing support for a revival of America’s nuclear power industry. To that end, he proposed a sizeable increase in federal loan guarantees to stimulate the construction of new commercial reactors. Then a few weeks ago, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu stated that Congress should include nuclear power as part of any renewable energy mandates.
But at the same time, the president continues to insist that Yucca Mountain in Nevada — the intended repository for spent nuclear fuel — be abandoned as a disposal site even before it opens. Should this happen, some 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel will remain in temporary on-site storage at 65 plants, and the power industry’s interest in building new nuclear plants could quickly evaporate.
Since 1982, utilities have paid almost $17 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account administered by the DOE that continues to grow by $800 million annually, to cover the costs of permanent disposal. Even after spending $10 billion at Yucca Mountain, with accumulated interest the fund balance is currently around $20 billion. Not surprisingly, 16 utilities, along with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, have sued the DOE to halt further collection of fees, arguing that the country no longer has a disposal plan after ruling out Yucca Mountain.
The Obama administration now says it supports the temporary storage of spent fuel at power plants while technology paves the way for an alternative solution. In fact, that technology already exists — nuclear fuel reprocessing. Given the uncertainty over the future of Yucca Mountain, and the potential explosion of litigation that will only increase taxpayer exposure, why not rethink the decades-old ban on this technology? The ban was first imposed by President Jimmy Carter in the mid-1970s on the grounds it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But that hasn’t stopped France, Britain, Russia, China and South Korea from pursuing fuel reprocessing; and no plutonium has ever been diverted from recycling facilities for weapons production in these countries.
With reprocessing, a technology that was developed in the United States, valuable plutonium and uranium in spent fuel are removed and then chemically processed into a mixed-oxide fuel that can be used again in a reactor to generate additional electricity. Up to 95 percent of the spent fuel volume can be reprocessed, leaving only about 5 percent to decay in a few centuries. Importantly, reducing the volume of spent fuel through reprocessing would simplify the challenge of storage and disposal. What’s more, squeezing more energy out of spent fuel would be beneficial both to the nation’s economy and the environment. By using reprocessed fuel, we generate more electricity for American homes and businesses while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
One reprocessing facility is already being constructed in South Carolina to recycle surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into a mixed-oxide fuel for use in nuclear power plants. Some of the funds that have accumulated in the Nuclear Waste Fund could be used to build a similar plant for recycling used fuel from commercial nuclear facilities.
About a year ago the DOE appointed a blue ribbon commission to evaluate policy options for a safe, long-term solution to nuclear waste disposal. The 15-member Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and including scientists, industry representatives, and heads of environmental research organizations, will issue its final report by January 2012.
Recycling of spent nuclear fuel should be at the top of the Commission’s agenda. Reprocessing, along with centralized interim storage, makes a lot more sense than banking used fuel at nuclear plants indefinitely. At the same time, we should be doing everything we reasonably can to advance America’s nuclear renaissance, a task made more difficult by the ongoing uncertainty regarding the final disposition of spent fuel.
Dr. Weinstein is associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Between 1985 and 1995, he was with the speakers’ bureau of the Nuclear Energy Institute. His email address is bweinstein@smu.edu
New approaches needed to support new nuclear projects The drive for new nuclear plants can be maximized if the financial and regulatory risks are minimized, writes L. Preston Bryant Jr., a former secretary of natural resources in Virginia. Lawmakers need to reshape the terms of loan guarantees to shield companies from economic uncertainties, he argues. State and federal regulators should also curtail their processes to lessen the upfront funding necessary for building, he adds. The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Jerusalem (AFP) Dec 24, 2010 Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in an air raid just weeks before it went online in 2007, said a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks and published on Friday in an Israeli daily. "On September 6, 2007, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor built by Syria secretly, apparently with North Korea's help," then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote in the cable published in Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"Our intelligence experts are convinced that the attack targeted by the Israelis is in fact an atomic reactor of the same type built by North Korea in Yongbyon," she wrote in the message dated April 2008.
"We have good reason to believe that the reactor was not built for peaceful purposes," she said, adding the attack came only weeks before the reactor was to become operational.
Rice also noted the secrecy surrounding the construction of the nuclear facility, with the Syrian authorities refusing to invite the International Atomic Energy Agency or any media to inspect the site.
Syria has always denied that the structure targeted by Israeli warplanes was a nuclear reactor, although it has admitted it was a "military site under construction."
Israel has for its part never denied that its air force attacked a target in Syria, without ever officially claiming responsibility for the action.
Former US president George W. Bush recounted in his memoirs that he resisted Israeli pressure to bomb the site.
In 2008, current US President Barack Obama said when he was a Democratic hopeful for the White House that Israel was right to bomb the suspected nuclear facility in Syria.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Senate_to_open_START_debate_999.htmlWashington (AFP) Dec 14, 2010 President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the US Senate said Tuesday they would kick off formal debate on a landmark nuclear arms control pact with Russia and predicted its ratification this year. Obama has made the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) a lynchpin of his drive to "reset" relations with Moscow, and called for passage this year in what would be a signal diplomatic victory two months after an elections rout.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters he could bring up START late in the day or on Wednesday despite stiff objections from Republicans who say there is not enough time for a full debate.
Asked whether the accord would net the 67 votes needed for ratification and whether he would bring the agreement to a vote this year, as Obama has requested, Reid replied: "Yes. The answer is yes on both."
Obama's Democratic allies currently control 58 Senate seats, and need nine of the 42 Republicans to reach the 67 votes needed for approval -- but that number rises to 14 when a new Congress arrives in January.
The agreement -- which has the support of virtually every present and former US foreign policy or national security heavyweight -- restricts each nation to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002, and 800 launchers and bombers.
The agreement, which has broad American public support, would also return US inspectors who have been unable to monitor Russia's arsenal since the agreement's predecessor lapsed in December 2009.
"I believe we can pass the START treaty if we get a chance to (vote), the key is to get it going," Democratic Senator John Kerry, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and the accord's lead champion, told reporters.
"It's on the agenda, we want to get it done but the key is sort of when we wrap up what," Kerry said, citing ongoing battles over tax cuts, government spending bills, and other matters with the 2010 legislative clock ticking.
Just three Republicans have publicly said they will back the treaty, but others have broadly signalled that they will support the accord as long as Democrats allow suitable time for debate.
The Republican point-man on the treaty, Senator Jon Kyl, has publicly said that he has not yet made up his mind, but his office has bombarded journalists with news articles critical of the accord and opinion pieces urging its defeat.
While Republicans were highly unlikely to muster the 51 votes needed to amend the treaty -- effectively killing it by forcing new talks with Moscow -- a source said they planned a series of politically difficult amendment votes.
Two Republican sources said they would try to strike language in the accord's non-binding preamble that declares there is a relationship between offensive nuclear weapons and missile defenses.
Republicans have charged that the accord may handcuff US missile defense plans fiercely opposed by Russia, though the Pentagon and arms experts of both parties have flatly denied any such impact.
And the White House has responded to worries from Kyl and others about funding the upkeep of the US nuclear arsenal by budgeting some 84.1 billion dollars over ten years for modernization and maintence.
The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has indicated it will ratify the treaty only after its ratification by the US Senate.
WASHINGTON -- The House has passed legislation that would provide $7 billion in new loan guarantees for nuclear power plant construction.
The money was approved as part of a $1.2 trillion spending bill that passed the House Wednesday night.
The $7 billion in loan guarantees is just a fraction of the $36 billion that President Barack Obama requested earlier this year. But Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute trade group, says the $7 billion "works in the short term."
In February, the Obama administration awarded $8 billion in loan guarantees for Southern Co. to build a pair of reactors in Burke County, Ga.
The joint statement issued between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offers insight into the future relationship -- and mutual understandings -- between the two nations.
India signed the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, which assuaged the fears for US suppliers that India's nuclear damages act would harm future business deals.
The nuclear deal between the US and India leave questions as to whether this is a relationship to promote nuclear disarmament or one to legitimize India's nuclear weapons program.
WASHINGTON -- Nevada Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval on Friday wrapped up three days of meetings with federal leaders, with the most notable episode of the week taking place during an audience with President Barack Obama.
While Obama was taking questions Thursday during a meeting with 23 new governors in the official White House guest house, incoming South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley challenged him on Yucca Mountain.
Haley, whose state is suing to revive the terminated project, asked whether Obama would reconsider his decision to shut down the proposed Nevada nuclear waste site.
"You might want to ask the Nevada governor about that," Obama quipped. At which point Sandoval jumped in. "I think I can answer that question for you, Mr. President," he piped up.
Like other elected Nevadans, Sandoval opposes the Yucca project. Obama turned to Haley and defended his decision before the new governors, saying his administration was looking for alternatives to the Nevada storage site.
"It was a fast exchange," Sandoval said afterward, but one that was welcomed by Nevada's new chief executive.
"It reaffirmed to me the president will not be supporting the long-term storage of nuclear waste in Nevada," Sandoval said. "I have the understanding the administration has not changed its position."
Beyond his comment on Yucca Mountain, Sandoval did not ask Obama questions. But he said it was clear that Nevada's concerns about the cost of Obama's signature health care reform was shared by others in the session that was held at Blair House.
Again, it was Haley who challenged Obama to repeal the health care legislation. He rejected the idea, but reportedly offered the possibility the states could opt out of some requirements under certain conditions.
During three days in Washington, Sandoval met with various Cabinet secretaries, Republican leaders in Congress and members of Nevada's delegation.
The newly elected Republican said the sessions were good first steps to establish relationships with federal leaders. He said Obama promised governors his administration would reciprocate.
"He said we can be very confident they will return our calls," Sandoval said.
In a meeting last month with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sandoval asked the Senate majority leader about chances the government could pick up $215 million of Nevada's costs to run Medicaid, the free health care program for the poor.
Nevada has been hit hard by the recession and major cuts are expected in Sandoval's budget, which he will present to the Legislature in 2011. The state will be hit with a 17 percent drop in tax revenues over the next two years, according to this week's projection by the state Economic Forum.
Sandoval also expressed concern to Reid about Nevada owing the government $105 million in interest charges over the next two years on loans that have enabled the state to pay unemployment benefits.
Sandoval said Friday that he did not get into detail on those issues in meetings this week, including one with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But he said he is scheduling a follow-up with her chief of staff that will get into the numbers.
"They said there may be ways that they can assist Nevada," Sandoval said. "We haven't gotten into the specifics but that was the objective of my trip, to meet with the respective Cabinet secretaries and talk about Nevada issues and to be able to follow up from there."
Sandoval also planned a follow-up meeting Friday with the chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood after meeting with the Cabinet member on Thursday. The topic was to be high-speed rail, one of the issues Obama discussed with new governors on Thursday.
Sandoval said he wanted the government's view of competing proposals to serve the Las Vegas-Southern California corridor with magnetic levitation trains or conventional high-speed rail before deciding which plan his administration will support.
"What I want to do .... is sit down and see what there is to offer," Sandoval said. "I want to try to understand what the respective position of the Department of Transportation is in regard to the two projects.
"I think it's important we have high-speed rail in the state of Nevada but I am not going to pick one project over the other," Sandoval said. "It's a fact finding mission .... in seeing exactly where the Department of Transportation is. I did not realize how big a priority it is for the administration, and there are a lot of resources available to the states that will be participating."
http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Sarkozy_pushes_nuclear_deals_in_India_999.htmlBangalore, India (AFP) Dec 4, 2010 French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a four-day trip to India on Saturday, pitching for new nuclear energy contracts while stressing his hosts' increased power in world affairs. Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni, is the latest in a long line of world leaders beating a path to India, the world's second-fastest growing major economy.
His visit comes after those by British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama in recent months, and will be followed in swift succession by China's Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Sarkozy, accompanied by a bevy of ministers and a large delegation of business leaders, will lobby for multibillion-dollar contracts for fighter jets and nuclear technology, an industry in which France has a leading position.
"We all know how critical it is for India to ensure its energy security," Sarkozy said in a speech at the Indian Space Research Organisation in the southern Indian technology and IT hub Bangalore.
Stressing that he welcomed a US-led deal in 2008 to free up trade in nuclear technology with India, Sarkozy said France was "proud" to be accompanying the country in its quest for greater atomic power.
India's environment ministry last weekend gave clearance for a project worth an estimated one trillion rupees (22 billion dollars) which will see French state nuclear company Areva supply six third-generation pressurised water reactors.
Like Cameron and Obama before him, Sarkozy emphasised India's increased influence in the world, which analysts say stems from its fast-growing economy and its resistance to the global financial crisis.
Western democracies are also seen as embracing India as a natural ally to counterbalance the influence in Asia of authoritarian China.
"India is probably far greater and stronger than even it probably realises," Sarkozy said, adding that he expected the rupee to emerge one day as a world currency.
Sarkozy reiterated France's support for India to gain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which was also backed by Obama during his trip to New Delhi last month.
He also said he welcomed cooperation in space that will lead the two countries to jointly launch satellites to monitor the climate and oceans next year, and expressed a desire for more Indians to study in French universities.
The president, who faces low approval ratings at home, heads a high-powered delegation of seven ministers and around 60 chief executives, including the heads of aircraft
-makers Dassault Aviation and EADS, and Areva.
Dassault is hoping to pick up a 1.2-billion dollar contract to revamp 56 Mirage-2000 aircraft that France sold India nearly two decades ago, though Indian officials have said no defence deals will be signed during the visit.
India's ambitious military spending plans, spread across all three wings of its armed forces, are a source of intense competition among foreign arms manufacturers.
Dassault and EADS are both in the running, together with US and Swedish rivals, for an 11-billion-dollar tender by the Indian Air Force to purchase 126 warplanes.
Sarkozy and Bruni, who wore a classic peach-coloured combination as she stepped off the presidential plane in Bangalore, will visit the Taj Mahal on Sunday.
Sarkozy's visit to India is his first to a G20 state since France took the presidency of the group of developed and major developing economic powers.
During talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday in New Delhi, he is expected to push his plans for overhauling the global monetary system and combating commodity price volatility.
The two leaders are also expected to focus their discussions on Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.
The ex-Soviet state of Belarus announced Wednesday it would eliminate its stocks of highly-enriched uranium by 2012, following talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton won the pledge from Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov after talks on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in the Kazakhstan capital Astana.
"Foreign Minister Martynov announced that Belarus has decided to eliminate all of its stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and intends to do so by the next nuclear security summit in 2012," said a joint statement.
"The United States intends to provide technical and financial assistance to support the completion of this effort as expeditiously as possible."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the move "a significant step forward" and Clinton praised "a sign of progress in efforts to advance nuclear security and non-proliferation."
"This removal represents a significant, as I said, step for President (Barack) Obama's worldwide effort to secure nuclear material," Gibbs said More at: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Belarus_to_eliminate_highly-enriched_uranium_stocks_999.html
Putin's remarks also come amid uncertainty about the fate of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed this year by US President Barack Obama and Medvedev.
Moscow (AFP) Dec 1, 2010 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Moscow will build up its "striking forces" including nuclear weapons to ensure security if a joint decision on missile defence fails. Putin's remarks came shortly after President Dmitry Medvedev warned in his annual address of a possible new round of the arms race if the sides do not agree on the European missile defence shield.
If Russia's proposals on the European system "are met with negative answers only" while additional threats appear, "Russia will have to ensure her own security," Putin said, according to previewed excerpts of an interview with CNN's Larry King released Wednesday.
"Striking forces" would include "new missile, nuclear technology," he said. "This is not our choice, we do not want that to happen," but this is what will happen "if we do not agree on a joint effort there," Putin said.
The full interview will air at 9:00 pm Eastern Time in the United States, or 0500 GMT.
Russia and NATO agreed to deepen missile defence cooperation at last month's summit in Lisbon.
Medvedev warned at the time that the positive response of Russia to a missile defence shield in Europe depended on the quality of cooperation between Moscow and the Alliance.
The Wall Street Journal reported that NATO leaders late last month rejected a proposal from Medvedev to unite Russia's missile defenses with a shield being built by the West.
A few hours before Putin's interview, the Russian defence ministry said its new RS-24 ballistic missile would allow Russia to bypass missile defence systems.
"The entry into service of the RS-24 will reinforce the strategic capacity of striking forces in the matter of bypassing anti-missile defence systems, therefore consolidating the nuclear deterrent," spokesman Igor Shevchenko was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
Putin's remarks also come amid uncertainty about the fate of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed this year by US President Barack Obama and Medvedev.
START restricts the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002.
The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has indicated it will ratify the treaty only after its ratification by the US Senate.
The agreement, a top Obama foreign policy initiative, replaces a previous accord that lapsed in December 2009 but ratification has been held up by opposition Republicans.
http://www.truth-out.org/opposition-new-start-pits-republicans-against-traditional-allies65573 "It's not just the Obama administration against which Republican senators under the guidance of Jon Kyl pit themselves when they oppose New START. In fact, perhaps bewitched by Tea Party-style incoherence, they've also placed themselves in the unlikely position of bucking the national defense establishment, to which traditionally they've been joined at the hip. New START, of course, enjoys the support of Secretary of Defense Gates and the Pentagon." Read the Article
http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/US_China_rise_a_Sputnik_moment_for_clean_energy_999.htmlWashington (AFP) Nov 29, 2010 A senior US official called China's growing innovation a "Sputnik moment" that should spur the United States to ramp up investment in clean energy, despite a shift in Washington on climate change. Energy Secretary Steven Chu likened a series of Chinese milestones -- including the development of the world's fastest supercomputer -- to the Soviet Union's landmark 1957 satellite that led the United States into the Space Race.
"America, I am optimistic, will wake up and see the opportunity. And when it does, it still has the greatest innovation machine in the world," Chu said in a speech entitled "Our New Sputnik Moment."
Chu said the United States still concentrated on research in areas such as computers, defense and pharmaceuticals but that its funding for energy innovation was paltry.
By contrast, China, the world's largest emitter of carbon blamed for global warming, is working to build the world's most expansive high-speed rail network and has developed technology for the highest-efficiency coal plants.
"America still has the opportunity to lead in a world that will need essentially a new industrial revolution to give us the energy we want inexpensively but carbon-free," Chu said.
"But I think time is running out," said Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Chu, however, will enjoy little political leeway when he heads to Cancun, Mexico, where representatives of more than 190 countries on Monday opened two weeks of talks on drafting a new global treaty to stem climate change.
President Barack Obama last year went to the climate summit in Copenhagen where he pledged US action to curb carbon emissions along with assistance for poor countries hardest hit by rising temperatures.
The rival Republican Party, which swept November 2 congressional elections, is strongly opposed to a so-called "cap-and-trade" plan to require industry to cut carbon. Many Republicans argue that it is too costly in uncertain economic times, while some contest the science behind climate change.
Chu countered that climate action would benefit the economy by opening up a new field in green technology.
But Chu also defended potential costs. He likened climate skeptics to homeowners who are repeatedly told to change wiring but keep looking for electricians to tell them they do not need to.
"Do you actually go and you say, well, okay, that's a threat but I think it's more cost-effective -- I just make sure my fire insurance is up-to-date?" he said.
Two recent studies found that China's investment in green technology has outpaced that of the United States. But China has held firm in rejecting a treaty that would legally require it to cut carbon emissions.
The United States, backed by other developed nations, has insisted on a binding treaty, believing it is crucial to ensure global action -- and to win over support in Washington.
The Kyoto Protocol, which the United States rejected, asks only wealthy nations to cut carbon emissions. The requirements run out at the end of 2012.
The dispute has been tense at times. At UN-backed talks in October, China's chief climate negotiator, Su Wei, said the United States was like a "pig looking in a mirror" and finding itself beautiful.
Vaughan Turekian, chief international officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said that the political dynamics have barely changed more than a decade after the Kyoto negotiations.
"The current climate summit process is unlikely to produce a global treaty that includes the United States as a signatory, let alone one that would stand any chance of being ratified by 67 senators," he said.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Key_US_senator_resolute_on_Russia_nuclear_pact_999.htmlWashington (AFP) Nov 28, 2010 A key US senator reiterated Sunday his position that a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia could not be ratified this year, rejecting calls from President Barack Obama for quick action. "It is more a view of reality rather than policy," senator John Kyl told NBC's "Meet the Press," calling for weeks of debate on the details of the new START arms reduction treaty.
Washington (AFP) Nov 28, 2010 US intelligence believes Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea capable of striking Europe, according to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks and cited by the New York Times on Sunday. The newspaper, in a diplomatic cable dated February 24, said "secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design."
Iran obtained 19 of the North Korean missiles, an improved version of Russia's R-27, from North Korea, the cable said, and was "taking pains to master the technology in an attempt to build a new generation of missiles."
At the request of US President Barack Obama's administration, the New York Times said it had agreed not to publish the text of that cable.
"The North Korean version of the advanced missile, known as the BM-25, could carry a nuclear warhead," said the newspaper, adding it had a range of up to 2,000 miles (more than 3,000 kilometres).
"If fired from Iran, that range, in theory, would let its warheads reach targets as far away as Western Europe, including Berlin. If fired northwestward, the warheads could reach Moscow," it said, referring to other dispatches.
"The cables say that Iran not only obtained the BM-25, but also saw the advanced technology as a way to learn how to design and build a new class of more powerful engines," said the Times.
http://www.spacewar.com/reportshttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_obtained_missiles_from_North_Korea_leaked_US_documents_999.html/Iran_obtained_missiles_from_North_Korea_leaked_US_documents_999.html
Aspiring to be a global leader in nuclear power generation by mid-century, China is on the verge of investment decisions that could commit the country to fuel its rapidly growing fleet of nuclear power reactors with plutonium. Should China soon take major and possibly irreversible steps to go that route, the domestic, regional, and global impact of its actions will be profound.
Key Chinese nuclear energy organizations aim to build a series of large fast breeder reactors (FBRs) fueled by plutonium that would be supplied by a commercial-scale spent fuel reprocessing complex. If these projects move forward as their advocates intend, China’s nuclear energy ambitions would match those of Japan and major European nuclear energy-generating countries in fueling reactors with both low-enriched uranium and plutonium. The uranium poses few economic, security, and proliferation challenges. The plutonium, however, does.
Four decades ago, Japan and Europe set out on a similar path that eventually failed to demonstrate commercial viability of plutonium fast breeder programs for reasons of cost, technology, proliferation risk, safety challenges, and political acceptance. Thereafter, reprocessing in Japan and Europe was mostly driven by the need for a short-term solution to the lack of storage space for spent fuel from light water reactors (LWRs). Where storage space for spent fuel has not been an issue, including in the United States, commercial nuclear power programs have opted not to reprocess spent fuel and recycle plutonium.
Although China has thus far moved very cautiously in implementing a nuclear fuel cycle strategy, moving too quickly down its forecasted path could have detrimental effects. It’s unwise for China to commit itself to a rapid deployment of plutonium reactors and premature establishment of commercial-scale reprocessing, as that would burden China’s young nuclear power program with additional safety, security, and proliferation challenges and could prove unnecessarily costly to China.
Much more at: http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=41969
US: too early for military action after North Korea assault
N.Korean attack related to succession: analystLondon (AFP) Nov 23, 2010 - North Korea's artillery attack on South Korea is likely linked to the eventual power transfer from leader Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son, a leading analyst said Tuesday. Mark Fitzpatrick, a fellow of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London and formerly a senior official at the US State Department, said however that it was unlikely to lead to full-scale conflict. "It's hard not to draw the conclusion that this, like the Cheonan sinking, was related to the succession," Fitzpatrick told AFP, referring to a South Korean warship in March that Seoul said was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
Both incidents were ways to give North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-Un "some accomplishments," he said. "He has had little time to do anything at age 27, but given a general's title the North would like to gird him with some military victories and this is one that will surely be ascribed to his military leadership," he added. North Korea was, however, also trying to force South Korea back into talks on the disputed Yellow Sea border, said Fitzpatrick, the senior fellow for non-proliferation at IISS and ex-former US deputy assistant secretary of state. "One reason North Korea took this provocative step is to get the South's attention, to say: 'Look, unless you're willing to negotiate on this line of demarcation, you're going to draw military consequences,'" he said.
World powers condemned Tuesday's attack on Yeonpyeong island near the Yellow Sea border, which killed two marines
, but nuclear-armed North Korea accused South Korea of firing first. Fitzpatrick said the clash was a "serious escalation" in tensions, especially after North Korea's disclosure at the weekend of an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant. But he added: "I don't think it will turn into a full-scale war, South Korea will be very careful not to escalate its response." Seoul would, though, seek diplomatic responses -- even though they may have no lasting effect on changing Pyongyang's thinking. They would include "responding diplomatically through the United Nations, working with the United States to get China to tighten up implementation of previous Security Council measures," he said.
by Staff WritersWashington (AFP) Nov 23, 2010 The United States said Tuesday it was too early to consider a military response to North Korea's attack on a South Korean island, while President Barack Obama was "outraged" by the deadly assault. Obama was awakened before dawn with news of one of the worst border crises in 60 years and the White House immediately demanded Pyongyang respect an Armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean war.
The US leader, who visited Seoul this month, was expected to speak to South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak shortly.
US envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth, who was in Beijing, meanwhile said the United States and key regional player China agreed on the need for restraint, after he discussed the Yellow Sea incident with Chinese officials.
The Pentagon was closely monitoring the latest flashpoint with the nuclear-armed Stalinist state, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke by phone with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-Young, officials said.
"At this point it's premature to say that we're considering any action," spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.
He said no additional US forces had been deployed to the region as a result of the North Korean artillery barrage.
"We're still monitoring the situation and talking with our allies," Lapan said, adding that Washington was "mindful" of which actions might exacerbate or cool tensions on the peninsula.
Obama, woken by his national security advisor Tom Donilon at 3:55 am (0855 GMT) as the crisis broke, left as planned on a trip with Vice President Joe Biden to a Chrysler auto plant in the state of Indiana.
White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One that though Obama would speak with Lee, there were currently no plans for him to make an on-camera statement.
"The president is outraged by this action. We stand shoulder to shoulder with South Korea," Burton said.
In an early morning statement, White House press spokesman Robert Gibbs said Washington was in close and continuing contact with its ally South Korea after the attack on Yeonpyeong island, which killed two South Korean marines.
"The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement," Gibbs said.
"The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement."
Officials appeared to be taking care not to adopt any actions that could further inflame the situation, or reward Pyongyang's latest provocation, following a long showdown over its nuclear program.
Mindful of difficulties in dealing with North Korea's volatile leadership amid an apparent political succession, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told MSNBC the Pyongyang regime was "extremely unpredictable."
"They do things you could not possibly have predicted in a rational world," Morrell said.
Bosworth meanwhile said the shelling came up "in my conversation with the Chinese and we both share the view that such conflict is very undesirable and expressed firmly the desire that restraint be exercised."
China is seen as the only state which has any influence on Pyongyang, and Washington has in the past exerted behind-the-scenes pressure on Beijing to press North Korea to avoid inflammatory actions.
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A key US senator reiterated Sunday his position that a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia could not be ratified this year, rejecting calls from President Barack Obama for quick action. "It is more a view of reality rather than policy," senator John Kyl told NBC's "Meet the Press," calling for weeks of debate on the details of the new START arms reduction treaty.
Aspiring to be a global leader in nuclear power generation by mid-century, China is on the verge of investment decisions that could commit the country to fuel its rapidly growing fleet of nuclear power reactors with plutonium. Should China soon take major and possibly irreversible steps to go that route, the domestic, regional, and global impact of its actions will be profound.
