Huffington Post: Arab nuclear ambitions embolden spurs nuclear renaissance

The most volatile region in the world is going nuclear. In the Arab world, at least thirteen nations, both oil-rich and oil-thirsty, are collaborating with world powers to build nuclear energy programmes with unprecedented determination. As energy and water needs grow, they are confronting the inevitable depletion of oil and natural gas. The nuclear option has trumped renewables as a means to generate electricity while guaranteeing long term security. While no Arab leader will readily admit that Iran's nuclear capabilities have spurred, at least in part, their nuclear ambitions, Richard Falk, chair of the board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, says the perceived threat from Iran must be a factor. "Most of the rationale for these expanded nuclear energy programs is almost always related to domestic factors, increasing electricity demand and the expense of importing energy," Falk said. "But now that Iran is at least a latent nuclear weapon state, it doesn't make any sense [for Arab states] to proceed in [the non-nuclear] direction anymore. It seems they think they need to have their own long-term security in mind," he said.

Huffington Post: Joe Cirincione, President of Ploughshares Fund: North Korea Will Not Be Ignored

Like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, North Korea is a little unbalanced and relentless. Obama's strategy of ignoring the country has failed. The first thing to know about the apparently successful nuclear test is this: Don't Panic. Though the country seems to have corrected the mistakes that led to the failure of its October 2006 test (a "fizzle" that exploded at about 1 kiloton, far lower than the intended yield), all available evidence indicates that North Korea is still years away from a deliverable nuclear weapon. It is time to shift gears. We need a coordinated effort with China that combines pressure with incentives. Not just promises to talk, but a clear description of what North Korea could gain from stopping and then rolling back its program, coupled with sustained engagement that carries through on the commitments we make and gives the North Korean government the attention it thinks it deserves--however repugnant that may be.

Total Trader: Forte Energy NL - Excellent high grade U3O8 potential in Mauritania

FTE is focused on exploring for uranium mineralisation at its two West African projects in Mauritania and Guinea. Areva NC, the world’s leading nuclear fuel cycle company, backed FTE with a $2.7M placement @ $0.135/share. Areva now has a 14.4% stake in FTE. The Bir En Nar project in Mauritania is the most prospective, where drilling in late 2007 returned a number of high grade intersections.

Arms Control Wonk: North Korea’s Design Choices

The DPRK apparently told China before its 2006 test that they were aiming for a yield of about 4 KT but they only acheived a yield around ½ KT. This implies that there was a significant problem with that design. If this time they had gone with a test of a 20 KT design, as the Russians are apparently saying, it means that they were changing designs to ensure they got a big bang and avoided the publicity problems they went through after the 2006 test: of having their first test a failure. If they had gone with the “fail safe” WWII design, it would probably mean it was too heavy to mount on a missile. The 4 KT bomb, however, might very well fit on a DPRK missile. If they have stayed with this design, it probably indicates that weaponizing it is even more important than ensuring a successful test.

Reuters: France eyes UAE base, big military, nuclear deals

France prepared on Monday to open its first military base in the Gulf Arab region as it eyed multi-billion-dollar deals to supply the United Arab Emirates with nuclear power plants and advanced military aircraft. French officials said the naval base in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, the world's third-largest petroleum exporter, would deepen ties to the Gulf Arab state and fortify efforts to battle piracy and defend trade. "We look at this cooperation as an important pillar of our foreign policy because it helps the stability in the Gulf region," UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in comments read at a maritime security conference.

New York Times: Russian Uranium Sale to U.S. Is Planned

Russia, already a large supplier of nuclear-reactor fuel to Europe and Asia, is expected on Tuesday to sign its first purely commercial contract to supply low-enriched uranium to United States utilities. With the signing, Russia’s nuclear-fuel trade with the United States will shift to a commercial footing, similar to Russia’s dealings with other consumers of fuel, like France and the Netherlands, both longtime buyers of Russian uranium. For the United States, the change is a sign that Washington is acquiescing to the idea of a major Russian role not only in the international nuclear power market, but also in the domestic market. Russia’s outsize role in supplying uranium to American utilities had previously been justified because the fuel was a byproduct of a program to eliminate nuclear weapons. Now the Russians will be selling nuclear fuel from virgin uranium.

Examiner: Nuclear waste reprocessing plan melting down?

The Obama administration may be melting down a program that would have shipped deadly radioactive wastes from around the world to a reprocessing facility eyed for Chicago’s Southwest suburbs. “The program has been terminated,” Department of Energy spokesman Brian Quirke told Chicago Page One Examiner last week about the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. That happened in late March, when GNEP was chopped from the new budget, he said. The controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership [GNEP] was a pet project of the DOE during the Bush years. It called for transporting radioactive waste from the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors and from 25 foreign countries signed on as “GNEP Partners.” The DOE for two years was mulling a contract with Argonne National Labs that had tentative plans to site a nuclear reprocessing plant near Morris. Highly radioactive weapons-useable plutonium from nuclear reactors across the nation and around the world would have been shipped by truck, rail, and barge for research, development, reprocessing, and long-term storage.