US stresses Iran's 'continued failure' to comply with IAEA

US sanctions have failed: top Ahmadinejad aideWashington (AFP) Nov 24, 2010 - Despite Western nations tightening the screws on Iran, a top aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said increasingly tough sanctions had failed, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. On the eve of fresh negotiations with Western powers tentatively set for December 5, Ahmadinejad confidant Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi said it was time for them to "stop fooling themselves" over the effectiveness of measures designed to pressure Iran into abandoning its uranium enrichment program. Banning Iranians ships from European ports, a fuel blockade against Iran Air, growing financial restrictions and other punitive measures have had "no noticeable effect," he added in an interview with the Post. "The delay in the negotiations has been a good opportunity for the other side to realize the effects of its political decisions." He also claimed the failure of sanctions had prompted the West to relaunch the long-stalled talks, a direct contradiction of the US position. Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which is at the center of fears about Tehran's atomic ambitions. It has also faced military threats and alleged technological attacks on its controversial nuclear program. Tehran and the so-called P5+1 that groups the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have agreed to return to the negotiating table for the first time since October 2009 for a meeting tentatively scheduled to take place next month in Geneva. If Western powers do not respond to Iran's request to broaden discussions beyond its nuclear program to also discuss Israel's alleged nuclear weapons stockpile and declare they are committed to nuclear disarmament, Iran would be forced to take a harder position, Samareh Hashemi said. It would mean "they have not chosen the path of friendship," he added. "Not answering these questions will mean they have decided not to commit to nuclear disarmament and support the Zionist regime being armed with nuclear weapons." But the 52-year-old foreign policy expert also said Iranian negotiators will consider proposed changes to a nuclear fuel swap proposal that failed at the talks last year.

Washington (AFP) Nov 23, 2010 The United States Tuesday criticized Iran for its "continued failure" to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, after a new report by the agency said Iran was still refusing to halt uranium enrichment. "We're obviously studying the report, but the key point is that it underscores Iran's continued failure to comply with its international nuclear obligations and also a sustained lack of cooperation with the IAEA," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The IAEA's restricted report, a copy of which was obtained in Vienna by AFP, said Iran was still uncooperative after nearly eight years of attempting to determine if its nuclear program is military or, as Tehran insists, peaceful in its objectives.
The report demands full access to Iran's nuclear facilities, equipment and related documents, and said its uranium enrichment activities inexplicably came to a halt at least one day earlier this month, amid rumors it encountered technical problems.
The nine-page document has been circulated to IAEA member states and will be discussed by the agency's 35-member board of governors at the beginning of December.
Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which is at the center of fears about Tehran's atomic ambitions.
Iran and the six world powers involved in nuclear negotiations -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- have agreed to return to the negotiating table for the first time since the talks stalled in October 2009.
The negotiations will likely resume on December 5 in Geneva, the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Monday.

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Top US officials urged START treaty ratification

Two top officials from the administration of President Barack Obama urged members of the US Senate to ratify the START treaty with Russia, saying US national security depended on it. "The New START Treaty also deserves prompt ratification. Our national security depends on it," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in The Washington Post.
The treaty -- signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama at an elaborate ceremony in Prague in April -- restricts each nation to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002.
The agreement, a top Obama foreign policy initiative, replaces a previous accord that lapsed in December 2009 and also requires ratification by Russia's lower house, the Duma.
Republicans have said they need to be sure that the US nuclear arsenal will be modernized and that the treaty will not hamper US missile defense efforts -- but some acknowledged privately that they did not want to hand Obama a major diplomatic victory before the elections.
Clinton and Gates said the treaty would create a more stable, predictable and cooperative relationship between the world's two leading nuclear powers.
"We will be able to count the number of deployed strategic weapons more accurately, because we will exchange more data on weapons and their movement than in the past," Clinton and Gates wrote.
"New START will also set the stage for future arms reductions, including negotiations on tactical nuclear weapons," they argued.
"It will help solidify the 'reset' of U.S. relations with Russia, which has allowed us to cooperate in pursuit of our strategic interests."http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Top_US_officiald_urged_START_treaty_ratification_999.html

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North Korean Uranium Enrichment Progresses, Analysts Say

Friday, Oct. 8, 2010

South Korean activists demonstrate at a rally in Seoul last week against plans for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to pass power to his youngest son. Pyongyang appears to be acquiring new uranium enrichment capabilities, says an independent analysis released today (Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images).

North Korea seems to be making progress in its military uranium enrichment program, which would give the nation another pathway to building nuclear weapons and a valuable technology to sell on the black market, a U.S. think tank said in a report today (see GSN, Oct. 7).
The Institute for Science and International Security report, "Taking Stock: North Korea's Uranium Enrichment Program," asserts that the North "has moved beyond laboratory-scale work" and is equipped to erect a centrifuge "pilot plant" for uranium enrichment. The report relies on information from news reports, the intelligence community and government officials, according to the Washington Post.
Drawing on information about North Korean equipment acquisitions abroad, report co-author and ISIS President David Albright said the Stalinist state might have between 500 and 1,000 centrifuges. Most specialists think the North would require 3,000 centrifuges to enrich enough uranium for one weapon (see GSN, Jan. 6).

See Full Article...

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U.S. power plants at risk of attack by computer worm like Stuxnet

Computer Worm Stuxnet Copies Could Shut Down U.S. Power Plants

The Stuxnet computer worm, whose origin is still unknown, could serve as a blueprint for malware that would sabotage infrastructure critical to running U.S. power plants and electric grids, according to experts, the Washington Post reported. Michael J. Assante, former chief security officer at NERC, was quoted as saying: "A copycat may decide to emulate it, maybe to cause a pressure valve to open or close at the wrong time. You could cause damage, and the damage could be catastrophic." Joe Weiss, an industrial control system security specialist and managing partner at Applied Control Solutions, was quoted as saying: "What this is, is essentially a cyber weapon."

Symantec analyzed the worm and guessed that its target could have been Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities. Wrote the Post: "The United States has a covert program to sabotage the systems that undergird Iran's nuclear facilities. Some experts have also suggested that other countries, including Israel, could be behind Stuxnet." Joel F. Brenner, an ex-national counterintelligence executive and former senior counsel at the National Security Agency, said he thought the U.S. probably did not create the worm. He warned against assuming it was created by any nation state.

The worm exploited four Microsoft "zero-day" vulnerabilities and targeted a specific kind of Siemens software, according to the Post. NERC issued recommendations to power companies about how they could protect their facilities, but said companies were not required to follow them

.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/01/AR2010100104245.html

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U.S., Partners Prepare New Posture on North Korea

The United States, South Korea and Japan are working to develop a new strategy for engaging with North Korea amid worries that the present program of strong military posturing and economic pressure could result in military conflict with the aspiring nuclear power, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 16).

Washington and its allies are concerned that a policy of "strategic patience" -- waiting for heightened international sanctions to force the North to return to multilateral nuclear negotiations -- could lead to fresh attacks on South Korea or the ratcheting up of Pyongyang's efforts to spread weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. and Asian officials said the basic aspects of a new posture toward the North were coming together with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo in agreement on wanting Pyongyang to issue condolences over the deaths of 46 sailors killed in a March sinking of a South Korean warship. The South had originally demanded that North Korea admit it was behind the sinking of the Cheonan and apologize for the attack.
"This has to be done in a way that addresses the grievances of the South Koreans," a high-level Obama administration official said.
Less certain is whether there will be an allied demand that North Korea take concrete steps to disable its nuclear program prior to returning to the six-party talks which also include China and Russia.
"There are two legs of the stool so far," an informed source said. "Sanctions and military exercises. But [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] views talking with the North as the indispensable third. If you just continue sanctions and exercises, that's a road to war."
More at link.

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Miniature nuclear reactors might be a safe, efficient source of power By Brian Palmer

Opinion: Smaller reactors offer more flexibility
The Department of Energy has a program that is developing smaller-sized reactors capable of producing 300 megawatts, which are better suited for smaller communities or workplaces, according to Dan Ingersoll of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Small reactors could be built closer to their customers, reducing construction and transmission costs, or they could be operated as a group to serve more users. The Washington Post

Miniature nuclear reactors might be a safe, efficient source of power

 

By Brian Palmer

Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Take a mental stroll through the streets of Anytown, U.S.A. City hall is on your left, the movie theater on your right. Smell the delights from the bakery. And in the distance, there's the gentle steam plume billowing from the cooling tower of the miniature nuclear reactor that powers the quaint little burg. Not your idea of Americana? Wait a decade or two. The government and its private partners are developing reactors that one day might power your home town.