North Korea
The United States appears to have made a major intelligence blunder over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, one that may have exacerbated tensions with Pyongyang over the past four years and goaded Kim Jong-Il into pressing ahead with last October’s live nuclear test, intelligence and Bush administration officials have said. The blunder does not concern the plutonium-based bomb technology that North Korea used in its test and has clearly been developing for decades. Rather it concerns the assessment, in a Central Intelligence Agency report to Congress in November 2002, that North Korea was also pursuing a parallel uranium enrichment programme capable of providing the raw material for two or more nuclear weapons a year, starting “mid-decade”.
Independent 2nd March 2007
New nukes
Britain must not go ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations until it has a “clear and robust” plan in place for dealing with the twin problems of decommissioning and waste treatment, the world’s leading energy body warned yesterday. The International Energy Agency also said that any new nuclear programme must be funded entirely from the private sector, without any government subsidy or market intervention. In its latest review of UK energy policy, the agency said that it supported the building of new nuclear stations as an important part of the country’s future energy mix. However, it added that the Government’s current proposals for dealing with issues such as planning and construction, long-term waste management and guidance for potential financial backers were “too vague to provide the required certainty”.
Independent 2nd March 2007
FT 2nd March 2007
Nuclear War
A regional exchange of relatively small nuclear weapons could plunge the world into a decade-long “nuclear winter”, destroying agriculture and killing millions, according to a new study.
New Scientist 1st March 2007
Iran
Iran wants a negotiated solution to its nuclear standoff with world powers but this must recognise an Iranian right to a peaceful nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday.
Reuters 1st March 2007
Iran’s president has responded to increased international pressure over his country’s nuclear programme by unleashing inflammatory rhetoric about Israel, denouncing Zionists as the “true incarnation of Satan”.
Telegraph 2nd March 2007
China
The Shaw Group Inc. announced Thursday that the Westinghouse/Shaw Consortium has agreed to provide four AP1000 nuclear power plants to China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Co. (SNPTC) to be built at sites in Sanmen and Haiyang.
Manufacturing.net 1st March 2007
