Nuear Policy News - February 8, 2010

FISSILE MATERIAL

Kim Jong-il meets Chinese delegates amid hopes for 6-way talks
Yonhap News

Iran’s President Moves Ahead on Uranium Processing
NY Times by Michael Slackman and David Sanger

Gates says it's not too late for Iran sanctions
Yahoo! News by Anne Flaherty (AP)

India offers to revive talks with Pakistan
LA Times by AP

Russia and U.S. Lead Calls to Reduce Nuclear Arsenals
NY Times by Judy Dempsey

EAST ASIA
Envoys expected to press N.Korea on nuclear talks
AFP by Jun Kwanwoo
SEOUL — A senior Chinese official trying to restart stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations held more talks in North Korea Monday, as Pyongyang accused Seoul of plotting to topple its regime.

Kim Jong-il meets Chinese delegates amid hopes for 6-way talks
Yonhap News
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Monday met with a senior Chinese official in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday.

MIDDLE EAST
Iran’s President Moves Ahead on Uranium Processing
NY Times by Michael Slackman and David Sanger
CAIRO — Iran’s president ordered his atomic scientists on Sunday to begin enriching their stockpile of uranium in order to power a medical reactor, a move that accelerated Iran’s brinkmanship over its nuclear program by moving the country closer to producing weapons-grade fuel.

Moscow warns Tehran over uranium enrichment plans
RIA Novosti
Tehran could face tougher economic sanctions if it goes ahead with its uranium enrichment plans, a senior Russian MP said on Monday.
 
Iran plans 10 new enrichment plants in 2010/11
WP by Reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities during the next Iranian year, its atomic energy chief was quoted as saying, in comments likely to further raise tension with the West.

Gates says it's not too late for Iran sanctions
Yahoo! News by Anne Flaherty (AP)
ROME – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday it was time for the international community to rally together to put significant pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program and expressed optimism that, given time, tougher sanctions would work.

A search for allies in a hostile world
The Economist
ARRIVING at the airport in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, you have a fair chance that the newish-looking taxi taking you into town will not be the usual French or Japanese model, but Iranian. And it will not have been imported, as most cars in Africa are, but assembled in nearby Thiès. From here, the first few hundred taxis have just come off the production line at an Iranian-built Khodro plant. They are tangible symbols of a new power in sub-Saharan Africa that has, for some, begun to cause ripples of concern.

SOUTH ASIA
India offers to revive talks with Pakistan
LA Times by AP
February New Delhi - India offered on Thursday to resume high-level peace talks with Pakistan, an overture that reflected a significant warming between the nuclear-armed countries more than a year after the deadly siege in Mumbai.
 
Indian government hails test of nuclear-capable missile
Channel News Asia by AFP
BHUBHANESWAR, India : India successfully tested a nuclear-capable missile on Sunday, a defence ministry spokesman said, days after the government proposed a resumption of talks with Pakistan.

RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE
Russia Cool to U.S. Plan for Missiles in Romania
NY Times by Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015, with a top envoy saying that the announcement could directly affect Moscow’s position as negotiations to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, reach their conclusion.

Ex-navy chief denies Russia dumped nuclear waste in Baltic Sea
AFP
MOSCOW — The former commander of the Russian navy's Baltic fleet on Friday denied Swedish media reports that Russia dumped radioactive and chemical waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s.

MULTILATERAL ARMS CONTROL AND NONPROLIFERATION
Russia and U.S. Lead Calls to Reduce Nuclear Arsenals
NY Times by Judy Dempsey
MUNICH — For many years, the Munich Security Conference has been dominated by rivalry and suspicion between Russia and the United States. The suspicion continues to be fueled by Russian hatred of the idea of NATO expansion even further eastward, eventually admitting Ukraine.

U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS STRATEGY AND POLICY
DOE Seeks to Produce Tritium at Additional Site
GSN
The Obama administration has called for a second Tennessee nuclear plant to begin producing tritium for use in U.S. nuclear weapons, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Wednesday (see GSN, Jan. 27).

OPINIONS
The Dream of Zero
NY Times by Ross Douthat
In many ways, Barack Obama has taken a more cold-eyed approach to foreign affairs than George W. Bush. He’s emphasized realism over human rights, negotiation over regime change, the national interest over the promotion of democracy. But there’s been one great exception to this realpolitik revival: the realm of nuclear strategy.

Q+A - Will North Korea resume nuclear talks? If so, so what?
Reuters by Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - A senior Chinese envoy is visiting North Korea and was expected to meet leader Kim Jong-il in a visit aimed at prodding the reclusive neighbour back to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

Obama's Wise Nuclear Power Plan
Korea Times by Jay Ambrose (Scripps Howard News Service)
Initially it won't be cheap, but the Obama administration's plans to revive construction of nuclear plants after more than three decades of dormancy is good news for anyone who wants to maintain a thriving, modern, industrial economy, if not for some of those who have a different future in mind.

A modest nuclear revival is just as well
The Globe and Mail by Louise Fréchette
There has been much talk in recent years of a major increase in nuclear energy use to meet growing power demand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although many countries have expressed an interest in going nuclear, how many have the financial backbone and technical/administrative wherewithal to take on such a challenge?

Fissile material puzzle
The Nation by Khalid Iqbal
Once again the fissile material management issue has come to light. After hibernating for about 12 years, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) has become active on this subject. Indeed, the intent is noble but the requisite mechanics are not readily available.