Italian Stallions & Plutonium
Oh, you just can’t wait to figure out what the hell that means, can you? I noticed a fun fact about plutonium pits while reading the AAAS report on the Reliable Replacement Warhead: During the Cold War workers at Rocky…
May 2007
35 posts
Raiders of the Lost HEU
That was just cooler than the original title of the post, “Nuclear Archeology and Highly Enriched Uranium”—a subject that Frank Von Hippel mentioned during a really interesting meeting organized by Stephen Schwartz and the The Nonproliferation Review. Frank discussed his…
DF-31: Initial Threat Availability
The 2007 Chinese Military Power is out. The most interesting development is that OSD describes the status of the DF-31 as “initial threat availability.” That’s not quite deployment, but the biggest news for DF-31 watchers since the first (apparently unsuccessful)…
Still Working it Out on the India deal
If you haven’t been paying the closest attention to developments on the India nuclear deal, don’t worry, it’s still almost not quite but closer kind of getting there. Reuters reports on the latest unspecified disputes in negotiations over the 123…
Iran Underfeeding The Cascades
As we thought! Iran, according to “knowledgeable officials” paraphrased by Albright, Shire and Brannan, is underfeeding the cascades: Based on interviews with knowledgeable officials, however, the feed rate [of 70 grams per hour] may be higher than the optimal value…
Tech, Politics and Perspective On Iran
Paul has done a stellar job keeping up on the most recent IAEA report, making Total Wonkerr a go-to resource on Iran’s centrifuges. The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung has an excellent, balanced article on the technical and diplomatic implications of…
First Thoughts on IAEA Iran Report
I posted them here. My preliminary take is that the Iranians’ most notable progress has been to enrich uranium in the centrifuges they have installed. Update: More thoughts here.
Iran Making Progress
ISIS has published the full text of the new DG Report on Implementation of Safeguards in Iran. Eight cascades were operating and being fed on May 13, but don’t seem to be linked into a single unit: Since the Director…
Iraqi Scientists In Iran?
Rob Stein at Mother Jones has this crazy idea that “missing [Iraqi] nuclear scientists made their way to Tehran, where they would have been welcomed with open arms and fat paychecks.” But as recently as February of this year, Iran…
Larijani tries to resign, for the 5th time
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has apparently tried to resign five times in the last few months. As in his earlier attempts, the resignation was rejected by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Why does Larijani want out? Asharq Al Awsat, a…