China should not be supplying nuclear reactors to Pakistan – says India
India red flags fresh nuclear reactors in Pakistan with China’s help By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, ET Bureau | 18 Dec, 2015 NEW DELHI: India has red flagged fresh nuclear reactors that are being set up in Pakistan with Chinese assistance and asserted that it is taking adequate steps to safeguard any challenge to the country’s security due to these developments.
“The government remains committed to taking all necessary steps to safeguard India’s national security interests,” he said.
Earlier this year a Chinese official publicly confirmed that Beijing is involved in at least six nuclear power projects in Pakistan and is likely to export more to the country. …….
Revelations about the growing Sino-Pakistan nuclear partnership comes amid continuing concerns in some quarters that ongoing cooperation is happening without the sanction of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which helps supervise the export of global civilian nuclear technology. China is a member of the NSG and existing regulations prohibit members from exporting such technology to nations such as Pakistan which does not have full-fledged safeguard mechanism……
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/50227479.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
IAEA concludes its probe in Iran’s history of nuclear weapons research
The IAEA concluded that Iran conducted nuclear weapons-related research until 2003 and to a lesser extent until 2009, but found no evidence of this since.
The lifting of sanctions, agreed in a July deal with world powers, hinged on the IAEA’s findings on the issue.
Iran has strongly denied pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif welcomed Tuesday’s announcement by the Vienna-based IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), saying it showed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.
“This resolution goes far beyond closing the issue of so-called PMD (Possible Military Dimension) and cancels the 12 previous resolutions of the council of governors of the IAEA which seriously restricted our country’s nuclear programme,” Mr Zarif was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
The BBC’s Bethany Bell in Vienna says sanctions against Iran could be lifted as early as the middle of January……………..
Key areas of the nuclear deal:
Uranium enrichment: Iran can operate 5,060 first generation centrifuges, configured to enrich uranium to 3.67%, a level well below that needed to make an atomic weapon. It can also operate up to 1,000 centrifuges at its mountain facility at Fordow – but these cannot be used to enrich uranium.
Plutonium production: Iran has agreed to reconfigure its heavy water reactor at Arak, so that it will only produce a tiny amount of plutonium as a by-product of power generation, and will not build any more heavy water reactors for 15 years.
Inspections: International monitors will be able to carry out a comprehensive programme of inspection of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Sanctions: All EU and US energy, economic and financial sanctions, and most UN sanctions, will be lifted on the day Iran shows it has complied with the main parts of the deal. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35104715
Russia suspends work on Turkish Nuclear Station
Russia ‘Halts Work’ At Turkish Nuclear Plant, Radio Free Europe, December 09, 2015 Turkish officials say Russia has stopped construction work at Turkey’s first planned nuclear power plant, amid a bitter row between Moscow and Ankara.
Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border on November 24, prompting Moscow to impose economic sanctions on Ankara.
Unientified Turkish energy officials were quoted as saying on December 9 that Russia’s state nuclear company, Rosatom, had not terminated the contract for the building of the plant in the southern Turkish town of Akkuyu, and is reluctant to do so because of the heavy compensation clauses.
However, the officials said Turkey was assessing other potential candidates for the $20 billion project…….http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-turkey-nuclear-plant-work-halted/27417247.html
166 nations vote to abolish nuclear weapons, but not Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States
U.N. passes Japan-led motion to abolish nuclear arms that includes invitation to 
visit A-bomb cities, Japan Times, KYODO DEC 8, 2015
The majority endorsement in the plenary vote Monday followed approval of the nonbinding motion by the assembly’s First Committee on disarmament and security issues last month.
Japan has introduced resolutions on the same subject for 22 consecutive years, with all of them being adopted by the General Assembly.
However, this was the first time it included the invitation to visit “the cities devastated by nuclear weapons.”
This year’s version, which expresses “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and urges all member states to work toward “a world free of nuclear weapons,” received backing from 166 countries, with 16 abstaining and three voting against it.
None of the five nuclear powers —
— endorsed the document.
Britain, France and the U.S. abstained after having supported the Japan-led initiative last year.
China and Russia, both of which abstained last year, voted against it this year, as did North Korea.
Noting that 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the resolution encourages “every effort to raise awareness of the humanitarian impact of the use of nuclear weapons, including through, among others, visits by leaders, youth and others, to the cities devastated by the use of nuclear weapons, and testimonies of the atomic bomb survivors.”…..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/12/08/national/politics-diplomacy/u-n-passes-japan-led-motion-to-abolish-nuclear-arms-that-includes-invitation-to-visit-a-bomb-cities/#.VmdLINJ97Gh
Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima
The world nuclear victims forum was held at Hiroshima.
“A charter of world Nuclear Victim’s rights” was adopted. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154396267119937&id=685379936
世界核被害者フォーラム
Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima
(Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights)
November 23, 2015
1. We, participants in the World Nuclear Victims Forum, gathered in Hiroshima from November 21 to 23 in 2015, 70 years after the atomic bombings by the US government.
2. We define the rights of nuclear victims in the narrow sense of not distinguishing between victims of military and industrial nuclear use, including victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of nuclear testing, as well as victims of exposure to radiation and radioactive contamination created by the entire process including uranium mining and milling, and nuclear development, use and waste. In the broad sense, we confirm that until we end the nuclear age, any person anywhere could at any time become a victim=a Hibakusha, and that nuclear weapons, nuclear power and humanity cannot coexist.
3. We recall that the radiation, heat and blast of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sacrificed not only Japanese but also Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese and people from other countries there as a result of Japan’s colonization and invasion, and Allied prisoners of war. Continue reading
Talks between officials of North Korea and South Korea
North Korea, South Korea Hold Rare Talks Following Clashes, IBT, By Aditya Kondalamahanty on November 26 2015 North Korean and South Korean officials met in a demilitarized village on the border Thursday, to hold talks aimed at initiating sustainable communication between the two countries, according to reports. The rare meeting is the first intergovernmental interaction since August when the two sides met to defuse a crisis that had pushed them to the brink of an armed conflict.
Held in the border village of Panmunjom, about 34 miles north of Seoul, the meeting saw the two sides ironing out a framework to resume high-level talks, although they did not arrive at a precise timeline. Both countries signed a joint agreement agreeing on details such as who would represent their respective governments and the issues that would be on the agenda…….
Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, said, according to Yonhap News Agency: “The North will likely call on Seoul to lift its sanctions against the North and to reopen the Kumgang tour program. The South is expected to raise the issue of family reunions.”
In October, the two Koreas conducted reunion of families, separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, as part of a deal signed in August. South Korea seeks to regularize the reunions while the cash-strapped North Korea has demanded that Seoul allow South Korean tour groups to its scenic Mount Kumgang resort.
Earlier in November, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said she was open to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if the latter agreed to give up nuclear weapons and focus sincerely on inter-Korean ties. http://www.ibtimes.com/north-korea-south-korea-hold-rare-talks-following-clashes-2201165
Iran helped by world powers to redesign reactor as part of nuclear deal
World powers to help Iran redesign reactor as part of nuclear deal, REUTERS, 21 Nov 15 DUBAI | BY BOZORGMEHR SHARAFEDIN Six world powers will help Iran redesign its Arak heavy water reactor so that it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium, according to a document released by the state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
The document was signed separately on Nov. 13, 17 and 18 by the foreign ministers of Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany) as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. It became effective on the date it was signed by all states.
The fate of the Arak reactor in central Iran was one of the toughest sticking points in the long nuclear negotiations that led to an agreement in July. Removing the core of the heavy water reactor to produce less plutonium is a crucial step before the relief from sanctions starts…….http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/21/us-iran-nuclear-arak-idUSKCN0TA0IK20151121#REED39oPKDuwmqS4.97
Sale of nuclear reactors to Egypt entails big debt to Russia
Russia to finance Egypt’s nuclear power plant, Utilities, by Baset Asaba on Nov 22, 2015 Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction.
A spokesman for Russia’s state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom said the plant, Egypt’s first, would be built at Dabaa in the north of the country and was expected to be completed by 2022, reported Reuters.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, speaking on state TV, gave few details but said the project would involve the building of a ‘third-generation’ plant with four reactors.
It is not clear how much the deal is worth but Sisi said the loan from Russia would be paid off over 35 years………http://www.utilities-me.com/article-3882-russia-to-finance-egypts-nuclear-power-plant/
Iran hastening process of dismantling uranium-enriching centrifuges
Iran starts dismantling nuclear equipment, SMH November 19, 2015 – Vienna: Iran has disconnected almost a quarter of its uranium-enriching centrifuges in less than a month, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, suggesting the nation is racing to implement an agreement restricting its nuclear activities.
- Under the July deal, sanctions against Iran will be lifted in exchange for measures including slashing the number of centrifuges in operation and reducing its stockpile of uranium.
- Officials have been speculating about the speed at which Iran can dismantle the centrifuges, sensitive machines that spin at supersonic speeds to purify uranium to levels at which it can be used as fuel in power stations or, potentially, weapons.
- Disconnecting and moving the machines is a time-consuming process if it is to be done without damaging the equipment, making it one of the steps most likely to delay implementation of the deal, and therefore the lifting of sanctions.
- “They have been dismantling centrifuges that did not contain hexafluoride,” the senior diplomat said, referring to uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for centrifuges. “Dismantling centrifuges that have or have had hexafluoride is a much more complicated thing than the clean ones.”
- A confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency to its Board of Governors said Iran had moved around 4500 centrifuges from their positions at the Fordow and Natanz enrichment sites between October 18 and November 15.
- The speed at which Iran dismantles the centrifuges is central to the question of whether Tehran can implement the deal reached in July with the US, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China before parliamentary elections in February…….
http://www.smh.com.au/world/iran-starts-dismantling-nuclear-equipment-20151118-gl2jjw.html
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit North Korea – hope of diplomatic progress?
Hopes rise of nuclear breakthrough as UN chief visits North Korea, The Scotsman, 17 Nov 15 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Pyongyang this week for a possible meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.
The trip would come six months after Pyongyang at the last minute cancelled an invitation for Mr Ban to visit an inter-Korean factory park in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Mr Ban has said North Korea gave no reason for the cancellation. He had not planned to visit Pyongyang at that time.
South Korean news agency Yonhap cited an unidentified source in the UN when it reported Mr Ban’s Pyongyang trip. It gave no details on the purpose of the trip or the day it would take place.
If the trip does take place, Mr Ban would be the first UN head to visit North Korea since Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993. Yonhap, quoting a UN source, said Mr Ban is expected to meet Mr Kim because it is unlikely for the secretary-general to visit a UN member state without meeting the country’s leader.
Iran c ontinues to comply with nuclear deal commitments, removing uranium enrichment centrifuges
Iran continues removing centrifuges within nuclear deal commitments 15 NOVEMBER 2015, By Umid Niayesh– Trend: Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi once again emphasized that the Islamic Republic continues removing , in compliance with its commitments, as stated in the recently signed nuclear agreement.
Iran began removing inactive centrifuges at the Nataz nuclear site two weeks ago, Salehi said in statements to IRIB 3 state TV Nov. 14.
Iran has 20,000 centrifuges in Natanz, half of them inactive, Salehi noted, adding that Tehran has not yet begun removing centrifuges from Fordow.
“In line with our commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we have started removing centrifuges in Natanz,” Salehi said, criticizing some hardline politicians who questioned his earlier statements on the removal of centrifuges.
On Nov. 2, Salehi announced that Iran, for the first time, has begun shutting down centrifuges under the terms of the nuclear agreement which triggered disputes in the country.
According to the JCPOA, signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries made up of the UK, US, France, Germany, Russia, and China, Tehran is committed to reducing its number of centrifuges……..http://en.trend.az/iran/nuclearp/2456707.html
India’s PM Modi does a hollow, but quite toxic, nuclear deal with Britain
Modi’s nuclear deal with Britain is hollow, but quite toxic, catch news, KUMAR SUNDARAM, 15 Nov 15
The deal
- Narendra Modi has just inked a nuclear deal with Britain
- He called it symbol of “our resolve to combat climate change’
- The deal comes when the British nuclear industry is in a crisis
The danger
- Britain has little to offer India in terms of nuclear energy
- It reinforces the myth that n-power is green, climate-friendly
- India is missing the shift from n-power to renewable energy
More in the story
- India is among the few nations on a nuclear shopping spree in the post-Fukushima world. Why?
- Nuclear energy isn’t a solution to climate change. Why is the industry peddling this myth?
Keeping to the script, Modi has just announced a civilian nuclear agreement with Britain.
The pact is largely symbolic. But it’s dangerous.
Spent force
Britain has little to offer India when it comes to nuclear energy. Its nuclear industry is facing a terminal crisis. The two power plants planned in Hinkley Point have been plagued by escalating costs, forcing the investors to abandon the project, as well as serious design risks.
Britain’s new nuclear plants in Hinkley Point are plagued by escalating costs, serious design risks
It seems that nobody will be liable for a nuclear disaster in India!
liability for foreign suppliers may now be entirely removed, not just diluted.
In his one and a half year in office, Modi hasn’t demonstrated any particular penchant for consistency, but this would be his most dangerous U-turn, imperilling millions of innocent Indian lives.
Who will be liable for an Indian Fukushima? Nobody, it seems, Catch News, KUMAR SUNDARAM@pksundaram|10 November 2015
- India to entirely exempt foreign nuclear suppliers from liability – AEC said last week
- Who will be responsible in case of an accident then?
What breakthrough!
- There was a Indo-US breakthrough on N-liability – Modi last week
- Can a complete exemption from liability be called a breakthrough?
Trans Pacific Partnership will make Paris Climate Agreements irrelevant
The TPP, because of fast track, bypasses the normal legislative process of public discussion and consideration by congressional committees
The “deal is rife with polluter giveaways that would undermine decades of environmental progress, threaten our climate, and fail to adequately protect wildlife because big polluters helped write the deal.”
The agreement, in essence, becomes global law. Any agreements over carbon emissions by countries 
made through the United Nations are effectively rendered null and void by the TPP.
“Trade agreements are binding,” Flowers said. “They supersede any of the nonbinding agreements made by the United Nations Climate Change Conference that might come out of Paris.”
The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History http://www.globalresearch.ca/tpp-wto-nafta-the-most-brazen-corporate-power-grab-in-american-history/5487363 Nov 6, 2015 By Chris Hedges The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared.
“The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me when I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C. “It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections [to be] unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws.” Continue reading
The New START treaty – arms control pact between USA and Russia
Carroll: The enduring nuclear threat, By Vincent Carroll, Denver Post 7 Nov 15 “…Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Rose E. Gottemoeller was the chief negotiator for the New START treaty, an arms control pact with the Russians that went into effect in 2011. Her career in arms control and national security goes back many years and spans government, academia and think tanks.….
The New START treaty will take our nuclear weapons that are deployed down to 1,550 — and the same with the Russians — by February 2018. By contrast, when we signed the first START treaty in 1994, we and the Russians both had approximately 12,000 deployed nuclear warheads.
Even after the Ukraine crisis and their grab of Crimea, they continued to have a businesslike attitude toward the implementation of START. We conduct 18 inspections a year in Russia and they come here, too. Everything is reciprocal. And we exchange on a daily basis the status of our strategic nuclear forces. If the Russians take an ICBM out of its silo to a repair facility, they have to tell us that.
Q:Has the megatonnage come down proportionately with those reductions in warheads?
A: Absolutely. It’s been a real success story. So no matter what the ups and downs of our relationship, this process has been good for U.S. national security, and for predictability and mutual stability for these two great nuclear powers. And I would say especially now, when relations aren’t so hot, it’s good to have a clear idea of what’s going on with their nuclear forces.
The question is what to do about the future. Between 2010 and 2014 under President Obama we did a posture review, and in 2013 the president concluded we could go up to one-third lower in the New START, from 1,550 down even as low as 1,000 and still maintain our security. So in Berlin in June 2013, we put that offer on the table and said to the Russians, “Let’s work on the next nuclear disarmament negotiation.” But so far the Russians haven’t picked that offer up from the table, even though I think it would be good for them, too.
I think their reaction is wrapped up in a lot of things, such as Vladimir Putin’s sense that nuclear weapons mean a lot for Russian security at this moment to concerns, he says, in our national missile defense program. But it’s ridiculous to think that our limited missile defense system can somehow threaten the Russian strategic offensive deterrent.
Q:That system is for a smaller rogue regime?
A: It’s North Korea. And I’m glad we have it available as an insurance policy. ………
Q:Where do you see the major threats to proliferation?
A: The biggest new threat we face today is nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. And not only nuclear weapons, but fissile material, highly enriched plutonium or uranium that could be used to craft a simple nuclear bomb. President Obama was really clear about this in his Prague speech back in 2009.
This threat is undeterrable. Even North Korea, as crazy as they are, knows they will be facing a very intense response if they attack us with a nuclear weapon. Countries hold off on that basis. That’s why the president said we need to push step by step for a world without nuclear weapons. The policy is to minimize the amount of highly enriched uranium and plutonium around the world, and to constantly press toward fewer weapons.
Q:Don’t terrorists need the assistance of a state to develop a nuclear weapon, at least in terms of getting the fuel?
A: The key factor is having enough fissile material, highly enriched uranium or plutonium. Then the designs for simple devices are on the Internet basically. So the concern is that they could get enough fissile material to make a bomb on their own or that they could steal a bomb or the material from somewhere.
In some cases, we do worry about state sponsorship. That’s one of the reasons we’re watching so closely North Korea, because they ship missile parts around the world and might get into this business as well……..http://www.denverpost.com/perspective/ci_29081465/carroll-enduring-nuclear-threat
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of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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