North Korea
Talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme stretched into an unexpected fourth day on Thursday, with envoys impatient to break a deadlock over frozen funds and push negotiations back to disarmament plans.
Reuters 21st March 2007
Deadlocked talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme ground to a halt on Thursday, with the North Korean and Russian envoys both leaving for the airport after four days of negotiations that went nowhere.
Reuters 22nd Mar 2007
Submarines
TWO British submariners were killed yesterday and another was injured aboard one of Britain’s flagship nuclear submarines. An oxygen-generating system on board HMS Tireless exploded while it was submerged in the Arctic during a joint British-American exercise, the Ministry of Defence said.
Express 22nd Mar 2007
Reuters 22nd Mar 2007
Telegraph 22nd Mar 2007
Guardian 22nd Mar 2007
Independent 22nd Mar 2007
Emergency Planning
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council are overseeing the distribution of information booklets to 4,300 people in Portland, advising homeowners what they should do in the event of a radiation emergency in Portland Port. The homes concerned are those that lie within a 2km radius of berths to be visited by Royal Navy nuclear submarines.
Dorset Echo 21st March 2007
Pakistan
Pakistan successfully tested on Thursday a nuclear-capable cruise missile with a range of 700 km (435 miles), the military said in a statement.
Reuters 22nd Mar 2007
Terror
A group of nuclear weapons specialists has issued ominous warnings before members of the U.S. Congress that terrorist groups like al-Qaida could launch a massive attack on the United States and currently there is little to deter or defend against such a strike.
Voice of America 21st March 2007
Forsmark nuclear power plant north of Stockholm was partially evacuated because of a bomb threat Wednesday but police later lifted restrictions in the area after no explosives were found.
International Herald Tribune 21st March 2007
Iran
Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that Tehran will pursue nuclear activities outside international regulations if the U.N. Security Council insists it stop uranium enrichment. “Until today, what we have done has been in accordance with international regulations,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. “But if they take illegal actions, we too can take illegal actions and will do so.”
Guardian website 21st March 2007
Trident
ORMSKIRK Lib dem MEP Chris Davies has attacked Parliament’s decision to update Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles.
Ormskirk Advertiser 21st March 2007
Privatisation
There was no sign of any progress in plans to sell part of the government’s stake in British Energy, the nuclear power group, signalled in the 2006 Budget. The Red Book said simply that the government was continuing to explore the “potential” sale of the BE stake. Whitehall insiders have been playing down the prospect of a BE sale in the immediate future. After admitting in August last year that it had found cracks in the boiler tubes of reactors at two of its eight nuclear power stations, the company said in December that the plants were likely to remain out of action until March. The one-third stake in Urenco, a uranium enrichment company, is expected to be sold.
FT 22nd March 2007
Independent 22nd March 2007
New nukes
Report commissioned by Greenpeace shows that four nuclear sites in the South of England are vulnerable to flooding. This could put more pressure on the Scottish Executive.
Scotsman 21st March 2007
