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FISSILE MATERIAL
ElBaradei urges Iran to agree fuel deal by year end
Reuters by Dave Graham

Outlook for tough Iran sanctions is dim
AP by Robert Burns

IAEA inspectors revisit disputed Iran nuclear site
Reuters by Mark Heinrich

Panel Sees No Need for A-Bomb Upgrade
NYT by William J. Broad

Earlier this week Carnegie hosted an event earlier this week as part of the roll-out for Deepti Choubey's new report Restoring the NPT: Essential Steps for 2010.  At the event, Carnegie’s George Perkovich moderated a discussion between Choubey and Egypt’s Ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shoukry that covered the report and the prospects for success at the 2010 RevCon.

While emphasizing the importance of next year's meeting, Choubey worried that the expectations might be too high.  President Obama's talk of disarmament and a world without nuclear weapons has raised the bar.  However, realistically the U.S. will have little tangible gains in disarmament by next May.

The U.S. and Russia will likely agree to modest reductions in a new START treaty that will hopefully be ratified, but there is almost no chance that the U.S. will have ratified the CTBT by that time.  During the discussion at the event, Choubey said START wouldn't be enough.  She explained:

FISSILE MATERIAL
North Korea Arms Trade Funds Nuclear-Bomb Work, UN Panel Says
Bloomberg by Bill Varner

Minister Says Iran Won’t Ship Uranium Abroad
NYT by Michael Slackman

Iran Imperils Western Nuclear Deal
WSJ by Chip Cummins and Jay Solomon

The Conventional Arms Control Challenge
Foreign Policy in Focus by Frida Berrigan

FISSILE MATERIAL

North Korea's nuclear plans cloud Obama in Seoul
WP by Jon Herskovitz and Patricia Zengerle

Iran rejects sending uranium abroad, considers swaps
Reuters

Secrecy shrouds Iran's contingency centers
Asia Times by Gareth Porter

Why China Isn't Willing to Get Too Tough on Iran
Time by Bill Powell

There’s been an exchange over the past few days between us and NOH about an op-ed published on CTBT ratification (the original article, the initial response, th

FISSILE MATERIAL
Inspectors Fear Iran Is Hiding Nuclear Plants
NYT by David E. Sanger and William J. Broad

Iran wants nuclear fuel swap to take place on its own soil
The Hindu by Siddharth Varadarajan

IAEA deepens Syria atom probe over uranium traces
The Star by Reuters

New Russian-U.S. arms reduction treaty hampered by differences
RIA Novosti by Ilya Kramnik

Courtesy of ISIS, the IAEA today released new safeguards reports on Syria and the Iranian nuclear program.

On the Qom facility, now known as the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), Iran explained to the IAEA that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had been allocated the site in the latter half of 2007 and that “that was when the construction of the FFEP had started.” Iran reiterated that explanation in an October 28 letter:

“As a result of the augmentation of the threats of military attacks against Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to establish contingency centers for various organizations and activities . . .  

There has been quite a news deluge out of the nuclear world lately, which, while beneficial for blogs dedicated to the analysis of things-nuclear, is certainly rather problematic for the United States and the nonproliferation world. Although the stories concerning North Korea and Iran appear to be running on repeat, with little apparent progress in either direction, the nonproliferation regime as a whole seems to be inching ever closer to the brink. This, of course, is not an attempt to write the post-to-end-all-posts, but the nuclear developments (or lack thereof) during these latter months of 2009 are troublesome and merit consideration as part of the bigger picture – that is, examining the larger spectrum of nuclear issues and not just the isolated ones.