104 Nuclear Power Plants, 104 Nuclear Reactors:  The people of Georgia may soon be neighbors to the first two new U.S. nuclear plants approved in decades, thanks to billions in loan guarantees just proposed by the Obama administration. But discontent in state legislatures is signaling that those new nuclear plants may not be warmly welcomed in every neighborhood.
Around the country, a problem-plagued nuclear industry is being met by public mistrust. Just last month, the Vermont senate voted 26–4 to block a license extension for Vermont Yankee, the state’s only nuclear power plant, when it reaches the end of its original 40-year license in 2012.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday highlighted the importance of a successful review conference of the landmark Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered into force 40 years ago.
I would like to underscore the importance of a successful review conference, next May, the UN secretary general said in a statement. Ban, who was on a tour of earthquake-hit Chile, noted that the NPT has remained the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, and a framework for promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Review conferences have been held every five years since the treaty was ratified in 1970. There are currently 189 signatory countries. The previous review conference in May 2005 ended in disarray, with no agreement from the participants. Israel, widely believed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal, has refused to sign the NPT, as have both India and Pakistan, two regional powers which gate-crashed the nuclear club in 1998 by conducting tit-for-tat underground tests and which have fought wars against one another in the past. North Korea, which has conducted two nuclear tests since 2006, withdrew from the NPT in 2003. Also marking the NPT’s 40th anniversary, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington would use the May review conference to recommit itself, to reversing the spread of nuclear weapons and to building momentum for their eventual elimination. Ban, noting that the NPT also commits nuclear-weapon states to nuclear disarmament, hailed efforts by the United States and Russia to conclude a successor agreement to their START strategic arms reduction pact.

President Barack Obama said that a forthcoming review of the US nuclear posture would reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in Washington’s national security strategy.
In addition, we will seek to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and negotiate a treaty to end the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons, Obama said in a statement marking the 40th anniversary of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. A 1999 vote on US ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty fell 19 votes short of the 67 needed for approval by the Senate, which at the time was controlled by Republicans. Ratification now is expected to be similarly difficult under a Democratic majority. Our forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review will move beyond outdated Cold War thinking and reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, even as we maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent, Obama added. Obama will host a summit on April 12-13 bringing together representatives from as many as 43 countries to help secure the world’s loose nuclear material. He called last year in Prague for a world without nuclear weapons and has made nonproliferation a priority.

Haiti: Affectees unleash looting spree, The affectees unleashed a looting spree in wake of the quake disaster with police busy in rescue efforts.
They are stealing edibles, clothes and other valuables. Police maintained that the foreign aid is insufficient, and added that it was difficult for them to stop the affectees from looting. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the international community to send another 3,000 cops to maintain peace in Haiti. Mobile hospitals have been formed to meet emergency, while many being treated at the foot paths. According to doctors, the toll might reach 0.2million, while the total number of injured has not been known so far. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton inquired after the injured during a visit to a hospital, and vowed all-out support in the hour of need and expressed grief over the tragedy. Haiti President René Préval said that it would take almost 5 years for the country to rehabilitate, which would cost around $10billion. An Inter-American Bank has written-off a loan of $480million.

TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday that world powers involved in UN-backed talks on Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme were showing “traces of realism” after they failed to decide on new sanctions.

“Some Western countries should correct their approach and be realistic about our nuclear rights. And we feel there are traces of realism to be seen,” he added.

TEHRAN:Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday again rejected a year-end deadline set by the United States to accept a UN-brokered deal aimed at allaying fears over its nuclear programme.
“They say we have given Iran until the end of the Christian year. Who are they anyway? It is we who have given them an opportunity,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the city of Shiraz carried live on state television. “If they don’t change their attitude and language we will demand Iranians’ historic rights from them. “Some demons have reported to them that the Iranian government is weakened and it is time to apply pressure,” he said, alluding to the ongoing crisis in Iran sparked by charges that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was massively rigged. “We don’t like conflicts but they should know that today Iranian government and nation are ten-fold stronger than last year,” he said. Several Iranian officials had already dismissed such a deadline to reach a way out of the nuclear crisis.
Ahmadinejad told a foreign news agency on Friday that Iran is ready to strike a uranium enrichment deal if the United States and the West respect the Islamic Republic and stop making threats. With a year-end deadline, President Barack Obama’s administration has signaled that time is running out for Iran to seize its offer of diplomatic engagement for resolving nuclear and other issues. It has raised the specter of a fourth round of UN sanctions, but will need to persuade Russia and China to drop their traditional reluctance to consider tougher measures.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes and rejects Western suspicions that it is covertly trying to develop a bomb. Tehran has also rejected a US-backed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposal to ship abroad low-grade nuclear fuel so it can be further enriched and returned to refuel a Tehran medical research reactor.

PORT OF SPAIN: Ending months of complex negotiations, India and Canada on Saturday announced the conclusion of a civil nuclear deal that will enable New Delhi to access Canadian nuclear technology and uranium after a gap of 34 years.

The breakthrough was announced after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain.

“We have now got an agreement which means this is a tremendous opportunity for both countries,” Harper said here while underlining that it was “a tremendous step forward” in bilateral relations.

“Canada is a supplier, obviously an integrated supplier in the nuclear energy field and India is an expanding economy that has great energy needs,” Harper said.

The nuclear agreement promises to transform bilateral relations that turned frosty when Ottawa cut off atomic trade after New Delhi’s 1974 nuclear test and accused the latter of misappropriating Canadian reactor designs in the test.

Harper, however, added that it will take “a little time to complete the normal legal text and the ratification process.”

Lauding Harper for giving a political push to the negotiations, Manmohan Singh said, “This is a tribute to the prime minister’s great leadership and the way the civil service functions in Canada.”

“It augurs extremely well for the development of our relations,” he added.

The deal is likely to be signed when Manmohan Singh goes to Canada to attend the G20 summit in June next year where he will also hold bilateral talks with the Canadian leader on the sidelines.

TEHRAN: Iran said on Saturday it would allow UN inspectors into its newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant, as US President Barack Obama led a global outcry against Tehran for building the facility.

“As the president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) said, we have no problem for inspection within the framework of the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency) regulations,” Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s atomic energy chief, said on state television.

“We will pursue this case with the agency and the date of the visit will be announced after we reach an agreement with the IAEA.”

He said the new plant was 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Tehran on the road to the holy city of Qom — the first official disclosure of its location — and “more details will be given about the site later to the Iranian people.”

On Friday, the IAEA said Tehran wrote to the agency on September 21 disclosing that it is building a new uranium enrichment facility.

“God willing this new plant will become operational soon and make the enemy blind,” Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s chief of staff, was quoted by Fars news agency as saying on Saturday.

He did not give any time frame, but Salehi indicated Iran would put radioactive materials inside the new facility around a year from now.

He said according to IAEA norms, Iran had to announce the existence of the plant “180 days before putting radioactive materials inside it.”

“But we made this announcement more than one year before this date.”

The announcement of the new facility came just days before an October 1 meeting in Geneva between Iran and six world powers to discuss Tehran’s disputed atomic programme.

Ahmadinejad denied Tehran was building the plant in secret, as charged by Western leaders, and told reporters in New York on Friday the facility was “completely legal.”

“We actually informed the agency (IAEA) 18 months ahead of time. Is this the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? I thought we are supposed to be encouraged for taking this action.”

Salehi said the plant was a “guarantee” Tehran’s nuclear work would continue.

“Considering the threats (to existing nuclear sites), our organisation decided to do what is necessary to preserve and continue our nuclear activities,” he told state television.

“So we decided to build new installations which will guarantee the continuation of our nuclear activities which will never stop at any cost.”

On Saturday he said that Tehran was “not asking for permission from anybody” for its nuclear activities.

Obama and other Western leaders have threatened Tehran with new sanctions if it does not come clean during the Geneva talks between Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and representatives of Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and the United States.

The six world powers suspect Tehran is developing atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy programme, a charge Iran vociferously denies.

Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of the nuclear controversy, since the process can be used to make an atomic bomb as well as producing fuel for nuclear reactors.

Obama said Tehran’s new facility “is a serious challenge to the global non-proliferation regime, and continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion.”

“But Iran must now cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions,” he said in his weekly audio and video address on Saturday.

Obama said “the international community is more united than ever before.”

Iran’s leaders “must now choose — they can live up to their responsibilities and achieve integration with the community of nations. Or they will face increased pressure and isolation, and deny opportunity to their own people.”

On Friday he did not rule out a military option to halt Tehran’s galloping nuclear drive, and on Saturday, Iran’s arch-foe Israel called for an “unequivocal” response from the West.

TEHRAN: Iran says it has built a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium, and is testing them.

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency made the announcement but did not say when they would be ready to go into production at the Natanz atomic plant.

Centrifuges can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power and also to make nuclear weapons.

The announcement comes a few days before Iran enters fresh talks on its controversial nuclear programme.

“Our scientists have built a new generation of centrifuges, and cascades with 10 centrifuges each are now being tested,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.

TEHRAN: Iran agreed on Monday to hold talks with six world powers next month on its latest proposals to allay concerns over its nuclear programme, in a move Washington welcomed as an “important first step.”

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke by telephone with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and they agreed that talks would be held on October 1 between Iran and representatives of the six powers.

“Iran is ready for a serious dialogue in October,” Jalili said.

“This morning we reached an agreement with the Iranians to hold a meeting on October 1,” Solana’s spokeswoman said. A European diplomatic source said the talks will probably take place in Europe.

Washington welcomed Tehran’s agreement to have talks with the six governments — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the six will have a chance to present a “united front” and that they would push for more transparency from Iran.

“We are united in this common goal of getting the… the Iranians to introduce more transparency into their nuclear programme,” Kelly told reporters in Washington.

“We have an opportunity here to present a united front… to show that the international community wants them to abandon… any plans they have for a militarization of their nuclear programme,” he said.