Delegations from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, France, Germany and the U.S. were meeting with Iranian officials in Vienna today for a ninth round of talks about salvaging Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal which the U.S. walked away from in 2015. U.S. economic sanctions remain a key hurdle as Iran continues to ramp up developments it says are for peaceful purposes. [node:read-more:link]
A proposed European Commission plan to designate nuclear and natural gas power plants as “green energy” sources if they meet “sustainable investment” targets is proving politically divisive. “I cannot understand the decision,” says Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, supporting a proposed challenge in the European Court of Justice. Luxembourg has said it would join the lawsuit. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. and European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program, but a State Department official said Jan. 31 that it now is up to the new government in Tehran. The cost of relief from international sanctions would be dismantling much of Iran’s nuclear production equipment. [node:read-more:link]
Although the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has not been allowed to inspect all areas of Syria, it has not uncovered any chemical weapons arsenals. Syria denies the accusation but Israeli intelligence alleges that Syria continues to keep a stockpile of different chemical weapons. [node:read-more:link]
A Nuclear Waste Management Organization plan to ship thousands of spent reactor fuel rods in interim storage in four provinces to a proposed permanent storage site in Ontario has rekindled a decades-long debate about safety. With a decision on the location of the $23-billion project expected next year, scientists continue to study bedrock in the region where the deep geologic facility is likely to be located. [node:read-more:link]
Against a global backdrop of increased regional tensions, the five permanent UN Security Council members, all nuclear powers, promised today to prevent further proliferation and ensure a nuclear war is never fought. In a rare joint statement, Britain, France, China, Russia and the U.S. said they “We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented” and that “a nuclear war cannot be won.” [node:read-more:link]
A European Commission plan to designate some natural gas and nuclear generating stations as “green” has drawn immediate criticism from Germany. “It is necessary to recognise that the fossil gas and nuclear energy sectors can contribute to the decarbonisation of the Union's economy,” the EU said Dec. 1. Germany's environment minister, whose government confirmed the day before that it was shutting down half of her country’s nuclear power plants, called the plan “absolutely wrong.” [node:read-more:link]
Three of Germany’s six nuclear power stations were being shut down today, a year earlier than planned by the government two decades ago. The government says the three others will be decommissioned in 2022 and that it would stop the use of coal-fired power generation by 2030 as Germany pushes to become “climate neutral” by 2045. [node:read-more:link]
The Belgian government announced Dec. 23 that it has an agreement in principle with a power utility to permanently shut down seven nuclear reactors at two sites by 2025. There have been regional concerns due to a series of temporary shutdowns in recent years at the reactors, some of which date to the 1970s, and the plan now is to start closing them down in 2022 with decommissioning and demolition by 2045. [node:read-more:link]
A senior official in the current U.S. administration is quoted as saying that Iran has been “rapidly accelerating” its nuclear program since the previous administration withdrew from an international agreement in 2018. The deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S. traded sanctions relief for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and the official reportedly says Iran’s resumption of development “should not have been a surprise to anybody that knows Iranian behavior.” [node:read-more:link]
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has told his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, that when talks to revive a stalled nuclear accord resume Nov. 29, they must pick up where the left off in June. The statement reflects concern about Iran’s public rhetoric about resurrecting a 2015 multinational agreement abandoned by the former U.S. administration. [node:read-more:link]
An Iranian foreign ministry official said Nov. 8 that the U.S. must guarantee that it will not abandon any resurrected nuclear agreement if talks scheduled to begin Nov. 29 restore the 2015 multinational accord the U.S. walked away from in 2018. “The U.S. should show that it has the capability and will to provide guarantees that it will not abandon the deal again if the talks to revive the deal succeed,” the official said. [node:read-more:link]
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, has confirmed his country will attend multilateral talks set to begin Nov. 29 in Vienna in the hope of reviving its nuclear deal with major powers. “We agreed to start the negotiations aiming at removal of unlawful and inhumane sanctions,” he says, referring to U.S.-led sanctions imposed by the previous U.S. administration in 2018. [node:read-more:link]
Some climate scientists and environmental advocates argue that nuclear power is the best hope of addressing climate change because its carbon emissions are limited. On the other hand, critics decry its huge startup costs and the perennial problem of long-term waste management. [node:read-more:link]
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, in Brussels for meetings with EU officials, said today on social media that his country has agreed to resume stalled nuclear talks “before the end of November.” They aim to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action through which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. [node:read-more:link]
