IRAN
Iran shows UN advanced nuke equipment
George Jahn, Forbes — August 24, 2011
Diplomats say Iran has allowed a top U.N. official access to a site where it is developing advanced centrifuges that can be used to make nuclear fuel or to arm warheads.
Iran shows U.N. official all nuclear sites: envoy
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters — August 24, 2011
Iran allowed a senior U.N. nuclear inspector rare access to a facility for developing advanced uranium enrichment machines during a tour of all of the country’s main atomic sites, an Iranian envoy said on Tuesday.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea Is Said to Consider Nuclear Weapons Test Moratorium
Seth Mydans and Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times — August 24, 2011
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has agreed to consider a moratorium on nuclear weapons tests and production and to return to stalled six-party talks on the nation’s nuclear program, the Russian presidential press secretary told Russian news media on Wednesday.
North Korea supplied nuclear software to Iran: German report
Madeline Chambers, Reuters — August 24, 2011
North Korea has intensified its cooperation with Iran this year and supplied it with a computer program that could help the Islamic Republic build nuclear weapons, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing western intelligence sources.
CUBA
Cuba takes over rotating chair of global disarmament body
Washington Post — August 23, 2011
Nearly a half-century after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba is head of the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament. Cuba succeeded North Korea on Tuesday as chair of the world’s main forum against nuclear arms that has been stalemated since it wrote the nuclear test ban treaty in 1996.
LIBYA
Rebels battle Libyan forces near Gadhafi compound
USA Today — August 24, 2011
Intense clashes erupted Wednesday between Libyan rebels and regime loyalists in a neighborhood next to Moammar Gadhafi’s compound that was stormed by opposition forces a day earlier.
Ex-IAEA official warns of Libya “dirty bomb” material
Reuters — August 24, 2011
A research center near Tripoli stocks uranium and other material that could be used to make a nuclear “dirty bomb” and Libya’s rebels will need to secure it, a former senior U.N. inspector said on Wednesday.
SYRIA
Syria Unrest: U.S. and Europe push for UN sanctions
BBC News — August 24, 2011
The US and several European nations have called for the UN to impose sanctions against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling circle.
UNITED STATES
Engineers to check Washington Monument after strong earthquake
CNN — August 24, 2011
No major injuries or extensive damage were reported, but the quake prompted evacuations of office buildings, the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation’s capital and affected a nuclear power plant in Virginia.
What the east coast earthquake means for U.S. nuclear plants
Michael D. Lemonick, The Guardian — August 24, 2011
Tuesday’s earthquake on the US east coast shut down two nuclear reactors. Seismic activity in the US is unlikely to cause a meltdown, but it poses serious engineering challenges.