North Korea
United Nations inspectors have verified the shutdown of North Korea’s key reactor, the head of the UN nuclear agency has confirmed.
BBC 16th July 2007 more >>
North Korea says it has shut down its main nuclear reactor, stepping back from confrontation with the United States in a first concrete move towards disarmament. If the closure is confirmed by UN inspectors who returned to the reclusive totalitarian state on Saturday for the first time in four and a half years, it will be a major step towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Independent 16th July 2007 more >>
Guardian 16th July 2007 more >>
FT 16th July 2007 more >>
Scotsman 16th July 2007 more >>
Telegraph 16th July 2007 more >>
Times 16th July 2007 more >>
In February, North Korea agreed to close down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in return for economic aid. Few at the time, especially in the United States, would have dared wager that, six months later, with a few hitches along the way, the secretive regime in Pyongyang would honour its pledge to the letter. Even fewer would have foreseen the spirit in which North Korea made the announcement, seeming almost to relish the sense of delivering on an international undertaking.
Independent 16th July 2007 more >>
South Korea sent a second shipment of heavy fuel oil to the North on Monday under a nuclear disarmament deal as international efforts to disable Pyongyang’s atomic arms programme picked up speed.
Mirror 16th July 2007 more >>
Japan
A powerful earthquake rattled Japan Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 260 as it toppled houses, triggered mudslides and set off a blaze at a nuclear power plant, various officials said.
Interactive Investor 16th July 2007 more >>
Forbes 16th July 2007 more >>
Reuters 16th July 2007 more >>
Telegraph website 16th July 2007 more >>
Times website 16th July 2007 more >>
Nuclear Convoys
CONVOYS of nuclear material have suffered a total of 67 safety incidents over the past seven years in the UK, it emerged yesterday. The Ministry of Defence revealed dozens of mechanical faults and equipment failures to the specialised transports since 2000, as well as delays and diversions caused by anti-nuclear protests.
Scotsman 16th July 2007 more >>
ICScotland 15th July 2007 more >>
Germany
E.ON AG has declined to comment on a report in Spiegel magazine which stated the German utility is in talks to acquire the license to operate the troubled Kruemmel nuclear power plant from Vattenfall.
Forbes 15th July 2007 more >>
Vattenfall AB chief executive Lars Goeran Josefsson told Berliner Zeitung that his company’s German unit did not communicate properly with the public during the recent fire at its Kruemmel nuclear power plant. “We were incompetent in our efforts to communicate properly,” Josefsson said in an interview to be published in tomorrow’s edition.
Interactive Investor 15th July 2007 more >>
