Plutonium Sampling at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Cost of RECA Chart
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
New & Updated
Stronger Global Governance is the Only Way to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
“We can begin uncovering this route to a safer, saner world when we recognize that a great many people and governments cling to nuclear weapons because of their desire for national security. After all, it has been and remains a dangerous world, and for thousands of years nations (and before the existence of nations, rival territories) have protected themselves from aggression by wielding military might….
But what if global governance were strengthened to the extent that it could provide national security? ”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press) HISTORY NEWS NETWORK | May 21, 2023 historynewsnetwork.org
Some of the 800 members of Women Strike for Peace who marched at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan to demand UN mediation of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
It should come as no surprise that the world is currently facing an existential nuclear danger. In fact, it has been caught up in that danger since 1945, when atomic bombs were used to annihilate the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Today, however, the danger of a nuclear holocaust is probably greater than in the past. There are now nine nuclear powers―the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea―and they are currently engaged in a new nuclear arms race, building ever more efficient weapons of mass destruction. The latest entry in their nuclear scramble, the hypersonic missile, travels at more than five times the speed of sound and is adept at evading missile defense systems.
US bombs unlikely to reach underground Iran nuclear site: Report
New Iranian atomic facility near Natanz may be too deep underground to be destroyed by air raids, AP analysis says.
ALJAZEERA | May 22, 2023 aljazeera.com
Near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of a last-ditch United States weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analysed by The Associated Press news agency.
The photos and videos from Planet Labs PBC show Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site, which has come under repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its atomic programme.
Quiet quarter for US uranium production as momentum builds
All the uranium produced in the USA during the first quarter of this year was from in-situ leach (ISL) operations, according to the latest US government update. But production from conventional mills as well as ISL looks set to ramp up over the coming months.
WORLD NUCLEAR NEWS | May 22, 2023 world-nuclear-news.org
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White Mesa is the only conventional uranium mill currently classed as “operating” by EIA (Image: Energy Fuels)
Total US production of uranium concentrates, at 2511 pounds U3O8 (0.97 tU), was 75% lower year-on-year and 99% down from fourth-quarter 2022 as no material was produced at Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its quarterly report. All of the quarter’s production came from just three ISL facilities in Wyoming: Nichols Ranch, Ross, and Smith Ranch-Highland.
White Mesa is the only conventional mill in the USA to be classed as “operating” by the EIA. EnergyFuels said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month that during the first quarter of this year the mill in Utah has focused on rare-earth carbonate production. “During the three months ended March 31, 2023 the uranium recovered from processing monazite ore was retained in circuit and was not packaged as final U3O8 product,” the company said.
ICAN: G7 Hiroshima summit fails to deliver progress on nuclear disarmament
“This is more than a missed opportunity. With the world facing the acute risk that nuclear weapons could be used for the first time since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, this is a gross failure of global leadership. Simply pointing fingers at Russia and China is insufficient. We need the G7 countries, which all either possess, host or endorse the use of nuclear weapons, to step up and engage the other nuclear powers in disarmament talks if we are to reach their professed goal of a world without nuclear weapons” — ICAN Executive Director Daniel Hogsta
Update 20 May 2023: the G7 leaders have just issued the final communique from their summit in Hiroshima. It claims they have “taken concrete steps to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation efforts, towards the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all” but it doesn’t say what these steps are. That’s because it can’t.
What we got from the leaders’ discussion on nuclear weapons yesterday was a rehash of ideas and proposals that have failed to deliver progress over the past three decades. They did not announce anything new or concrete. They couldn’t even bring themselves to follow the G20 and TPNW member states by condemning all nuclear threats. Instead they reserved their condemnation for Russia’s and North Korea’s threats, which, while justified, fails to acknowledge how the G7’s own nuclear doctrines are based on the threat to use nuclear weapons and so contribute to the acute danger these weapons pose to everyone.
The G7’s detailed statement “G7 Leaders’ Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament”, issued on May 19, falls far short of providing any meaningful outcomes for nuclear disarmament. After months of preparation and amid high expectations, the leaders are missing the moment to make the world safer from nuclear weapons, instead of confronting nuclear threats with a concrete, credible plan for nuclear disarmament – like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons- they are barely even paying lip service to the horrors of Hiroshima, the first city attacked by nuclear weapons.
LANL Records String of Radioactive Glove Box Breaches
“…A nuclear watchdog group decried this series of breaches, arguing they reflect a systemic problem that’s likely to grow worse as plutonium activity increases with pit production.
“‘It’s just indicative of more problems to come,’ said Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico”
BY SCOTT WYLAND, SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN | May 17, 2023 santafenewmexican.com
Los Alamos National Laboratory had five breaches of the glove boxes used to handle radioactive materials in a four-week period, an unusually high number in such a short time.
The lab had three breaches in these sealed compartments at its plutonium facility between late March and mid-April and two more in the following week, according to the most recent reports by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the federal agency that provides recommendations and advice regarding public health and safety issues at Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities.
US releases nuclear warhead data in bid to pressure Russia
“Disclosure under New START Treaty follows Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the nuclear agreement”
ALJAZEERA | May 16, 2023 aljazeera.com
The US Department of State said it was releasing the information publicly as part of its commitments under the New START Treaty, appearing to reverse an earlier decision not to share the data.
