Nuclear Energy - Nuclear Weapons

INDIA/US: Racing to Clear Last Lap of Nuke Deal

By IPS Correspondents
As the Bush administration pushes the outer limits of the political timeline for the passage of the controversial nuclear cooperation deal with India in the United States Congress, two potential stumbling blocks have become apparent in securing exemptions for the agreement from the tough export rules of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG).
Dr. Daisaku Ikeda Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

Q&A: Nuclear Arms Are No Longer "Necessary Evils"

By Daisaku Ikeda
As citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are painfully reminded of the horrors of atomic bombings that devastated the two Japanese cities in August 1945, one of the country's most influential peace organisations is intensifying its longstanding efforts for nuclear disarmament.

ENERGY: Accidents Make N-Questions Bigger

By Julio Godoy
The recent proliferation of accidents at nuclear power plants in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe has made calls for greater reliance on nuclear energy questionable, experts say.
A UGM-96 Trident missile clears the water during an October 1984 demonstration launch from the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine USS Mariano G. Vallejo. Credit: U.S. Navy

POLITICS: Will U.S. Soften Stance on Nuclear Arsenal?

By Paul Weinberg
A rollercoaster ride of spurned treaties, efforts to fund new weapons and the expansion of potential targets for nuclear strikes under the George W. Bush administration to include Iran and North Korea may be drawing to a close after eight years.

POLITICS-INDIA: Costly Vote of Confidence

By IPS Correspondents
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has won a bitterly contested motion of confidence in his government by 275 to 256 votes in Parliament, securing his government's survival for several months.

US/IRAN: Scowcroft, Brzezinski Urge Bush to Drop Precondition

By Jim Lobe
Two of Washington's most prominent foreign policy greybeards praised Saturday's direct participation in multinational talks with Iran by a senior U.S. diplomat but called on the administration of President George W. Bush to drop his demands that Tehran freeze its uranium enrichment programme as a precondition for broader negotiations.

POLITICS-INDIA: Nuking Democracy

By IPS Correspondents
As the parliamentary floor test for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal approaches, the domestic political odds seem to be turning against India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

POLITICS: Seismic Shift or Non-Decision by Bush on Iran?

By Gareth Porter
The U.S. decision to send the State Department's third-ranking official to sit in on the meeting between European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana and Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili Saturday has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough, but it is too soon to pop the champagne cork.

POLITICS-US: Realists Rack Up Another Win

By Jim Lobe
In the seemingly never-ending internal battle between hawks and realists in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for control of foreign policy, the realists appear to have chalked up another win over their once-dominant foes.

INDIA/US: Deceptions Surface in Nuclear Deal

By IPS Correspondents
The Indian government has taken a major step towards completing its controversial nuclear cooperation deal with the United States by moving the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for approving an inspections (safeguards) agreement it signed last year with the IAEA secretariat pertaining to civilian nuclear reactors.

US/IRAN: Despite Fireworks, War Clouds Recede

By Jim Lobe
While Wednesday's test-firing by Iran of nine medium- and long-range missiles was strongly denounced by Israel and the United States, there appears to be a growing consensus here that the chances for war, at least between now and the U.S. elections in November, have actually receded in recent days.

IRAN: Did IAEA Revive Uranium Paper Issue Under Pressure?

By Gareth Porter
A 15-page paper on the process requirements for casting and machining of uranium metal into hemispherical forms - said to be useful only for making the core of a nuclear weapon - has been raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in recent months as evidence of an alleged Iranian intention to built nuclear weapons.

ENVIRONMENT: German Leaks Raise More Nuclear Fears

By Julio Godoy
Confirmation that radioactive brine has been leaking for two decades from a German underground deposit for nuclear waste is yet another blow to the idea that nuclear power can safely increase electricity generation and simultaneously reduce emissions.

POLITICS: Reading Solana in Tehran

By IPS Correspondents
Conciliatory noises from Tehran over the nuclear issue have left Washington and Brussels baffled, and unconvinced of Iran's intentions. Having grown accustomed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's uncompromising language, Tehran's new tone has raised more suspicion than hope among cynics in Western capitals.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (left) and French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert. Credit: UN Photo

POLITICS: Iranian Envoy Calls New Offer “Constructive”

By Omid Memarian
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Wednesday that Tehran is finalising its response to the European Union's latest offer to suspend uranium enrichment, as European officials called for more pressure by the U.N. Security Council if Iran rejects the incentives package.

POLITICS: Official Says Iran Accepts P5+1 Talks Proposal

By Gareth Porter
A senior Iranian official reportedly told members of the Iranian parliament Monday that Iran has agreed to freeze its enrichment programme for six weeks and begin negotiations with the P5+1 group of states as early as next week, according to reports of that decision by the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) and by a Farsi-language website in Iran.

INDIA/US: Singh Pushes For Nuclear Deal

By IPS Correspondents
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has plunged his Congress party and the country’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government into a grave crisis by staking his personal reputation on pushing through a U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation deal.

POLITICS-US: Hawks Belie Iran's "Existential Threat" to Israel

By Gareth Porter
New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favour of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all.

POLITICS-US: Even the Rare Bush Success Leaves a Sour Taste

By Jim Lobe
While, in his dreams, U.S. President George W. Bush might have seen a "Mission Accomplished" banner unfurled as the cooling tower at North Korea's plutonium-producing plant was blown up, Friday's internationally televised fireworks at Yongbyon offered merely a glimmer of possible success in a foreign policy legacy that seems to be getting darker by the day.

POLITICS: U.S. and China Go Bump in the Middle East

By IPS Correspondents
For China these days it seems that nothing - not rising energy prices; not sanctions aimed at its more unsavoury business partners, Burma and Sudan; not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran - can curb its thirst for oil.

DISARMAMENT: 2020 Vision Aimed at Dismantling Nukes

By Thalif Deen
Jun 26 (IPS) - When leaders of the world's eight most industrialised nations - the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, known as the G8 - hold their annual summit meeting in Hokkaido next month, they are likely to reject a seemingly backhanded invitation: a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum in the city of Hiroshima.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*