The US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 when Donald Trump was in office, and imposed sanctions on Iran…reports Asian Lite News
Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, said that the Vienna nuclear talks for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will resume on November 29.
Iran Vienna nuke talks to resume on Nov 29
“In a phone call with Enrique Mora, we agreed to start the negotiations aiming at the removal of unlawful and inhumane sanctions on Nov. 29 in Vienna,” Bagheri Kani tweeted late Wednesday.
After meetings between Bagheri Kani and Mora, deputy secretary-general of the European External Action Service, in Tehran and Brussels, Iran and the European Union had agreed on the resumption of talks in November, reports Xinhua news agency.
Iran has said the issue of lifting sanctions and the related parties’ full implementation of obligations to the JCPOA will be the main agenda of the talks which has been suspended since June following a shift in Iran’s administration.
US and Iranian officials began indirect talks in Vienna this April to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement, but their disagreements remained significant after six rounds of negotiations, which have been interrupted due to Iran’s government transition.
To pressure Tehran, US President Joe Biden’s administration has recently reiterated the window for negotiations on a return to the JCPOA will not be open forever and warned of turning to other options if diplomacy fails.
The US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 when Donald Trump was in office, and imposed sanctions on Iran.
In response, Iran has gradually stopped implementing parts of its commitments to the deal since May 2019.
Iran has agreed to resume talks aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear agreement by the end of November…reports Aian Lite News
ran has agreed to resume talks aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear agreement by the end of November, Iran’s nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani tweeted on Wednesday, after his meeting with EU mediators in Brussels.
“We had a very serious and constructive dialogue with Enrique Mora on the essential elements for successful negotiations,” wrote Bagheri Kani, also Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Xinhua news agency reported.
BREAKTHROUGH Iran to resume Nuke Talks
“We agreed to start negotiations before the end of November. The exact date would be announced next week,” he added.
Enrique Mora, deputy secretary-general of the European External Action Service, visited Tehran earlier this month and held “good and constructive” talks with Bagheri Kani, as the Iranian Foreign Ministry commented.
Six rounds of talks aimed at reviving the 2015 international agreement, formally known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with regard to a strict monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions on Iran, were held in Austria’s capital Vienna between April and July this year, but were interrupted by Iran’s presidential election.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran under former President Donald Trump.
During recent weeks, Western governments have demanded Iran to resume the Vienna talks, while Iran responded that President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, which took office in August, needed some time to prepare its approach to the negotiations.
One year after Trump terminated the US participation in JCPOA and reimposed sanctions, Iran started gradually reducing its observation of the 2015 commitments and upgrading its nuclear program.
Singh informed the delegation that in the next 10 years, India will produce more than three times the nuclear power and it is expected to reach 22,480 MW by the year 2031…reports Asian Lite News
Calling for greater Indo-US cooperation in the field of clean and green energy, India on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to promote atomic/nuclear programme for providing not only a major source of clean energy, but also as a major tool of application in areas like healthcare and agriculture sector.
A high level US delegation led by Deputy Secretary of Energy, David M. Turk, called on Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, on Tuesday.
Singh informed the delegation that in the next 10 years, India will produce more than three times the nuclear power and it is expected to reach 22,480 MW by the year 2031, from the current 6,780 MW as more nuclear power plants are planned for the future.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea for joint ventures in the nuclear energy sector, the minister pointed out that Gamma irradiation technology for food preservation has already been shared with the private players and presently 26 Gamma radiation processing plants are operational in the country in private, semi-government and government sectors for irradiation of various products, a release from the Science and Technology Ministry said.
Pic credits @DrJitendraSingh
The minister also underlined the proposal for establishing a research reactor in PPP mode for production of medical isotopes to promote welfare of humanity through affordable treatment for cancer and other diseases.
Turk assured Singh that the US will deepen its collaboration with India in nuclear energy as there is a lot of complementarity there. Turk also promised deeper engagement with India in the green hydrogen sector as recently announced by Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech.
The two countries have also signed up for the transformation of the US-India gas task force.
“This will entail emphasis on the intersectionality between bioenergy, hydrogen and renewable fuels with natural gas,” the release said.
Singh said with the rapid introduction of biofuels, renewable energy and green hydrogen, India is well poised to play an important role towards carbon neutrality.
He informed that the government is already encouraging adaptation of hydrogen fuels and technology for the mobility sector and many industries like steel, cement and glass manufacturing industries have already started using hydrogen for heating requirements.
The collaboration is part of ENEC’s commitment towards progressing the UAE’s nuclear energy industry, supporting innovation, clean electricity production and tackling climate change….reports Asian Lite News
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has signed a Letter of Intent with France’s electricity company EDF to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation on research and development (R&D) in the nuclear energy sector.
The collaboration is part of ENEC’s commitment towards progressing the UAE’s nuclear energy industry, supporting innovation, clean electricity production and tackling climate change.
The MoU will elevate the strategic partnership between the two entities through sharing global expertise and the latest advancements in the nuclear energy sector, as well as exploring the production of green hydrogen-powered by carbon-free nuclear energy.
EDF (Électricité de France) is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. As the leading nuclear operator of the largest nuclear fleet worldwide, EDF is supporting the global energy transition movement by exporting its expertise in low-carbon energies, such as nuclear energy, renewable energies, and energy services.
Since November 2018, EDF has provided Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation’s operations and maintenance JV subsidiary Nawah Energy Company with a range of services. These include operational safety, radiation protection, fuel-cycle management and environmental monitoring. Expertise is provided through engineering studies, on-site support, training and benchmarking sessions.
It was a pleasure to host E-Fusion, in partnership with @businessfrance & @_GIFEN, a UAE-France initiative that supports the advancement of the nuclear energy sector. The event underlines our commitment to international collaboration and sharing of best practices. pic.twitter.com/cgLssZOCpf
This year’s signing took place at the annual E-FUSION (Emirati French Industrial Supply Chain Initiative for Nuclear), a two-day event through a partnership between ENEC and Business France, which is an Emirati-French initiative to create a local supply chain for the nuclear sector. Launched by ENEC, EDF and GIFEN (French Nuclear Cluster) in 2019, the event aims to develop new Franco-Emirati commercial relations in the nuclear sector.
ENEC’s Barakah Plant is one of the largest nuclear energy plants in the world, with four APR-1400 Units. Construction of the Plant began in 2012 and has progressed steadily ever since. Unit 1 started the commercial operations in April 2021. Unit 2 has now completed the fuel load process and is working through all the required processes before start-up.
Construction of Units 3 and 4 are in the final stages, with the Units 94 percent and 89 percent complete. Thus, the construction of the Barakah Plant as a whole is now more than 95 percent complete.
Islamabad appears to be diversifying, by enhancing its ability to produce weapon-grade plutonium, according to the findings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), reports Ateet Sharma
Pakistan is increasing its capacity to produce plutonium for use in nuclear weapons in tune with an increase in global stockpiles of atomic weapons, missiles and aircraft delivery systems, led by the United States and Russia who appear locked in competition to modernise their nuclear warheads.
The raw material for nuclear weapons is fissile material, either highly enriched uranium (HEU) or separated plutonium. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA have produced both HEU and plutonium for use in their nuclear weapons. The Indian and Israeli arsenal is mainly plutonium based. So far Pakistan has mainly relied on HEU for its stockpile of around 165 nuclear weapons as per the latest estimates. But Islamabad appears to be diversifying, by enhancing its ability to produce weapon-grade plutonium, according to the findings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Released on Monday, the SIPRI Yearbook 2021 assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security. A key finding is that despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2020, more have been deployed with operational forces.
While the US and Russia continued to reduce their overall nuclear weapon inventories by dismantling retired warheads in 2020, both are estimated to have had around 50 more nuclear warheads in operational deployment at the start of 2021 than a year earlier, says the report.
The report said that at the start of 2021, nine states e the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) e possessed approximately 13,080 nuclear weapons, of which 3825 were deployed with operational forces. Approximately 2000 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert.
While it marked a decrease from the 13,400 that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2020, the estimated number of nuclear weapons currently deployed with operational forces increased to 3825, from 3720 last year. Around 2000 of these e nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the US ewere kept in a state of high operational alert, the report mentions.
Pakistani Missiles on display at the IDEAS 2008 defence exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan.(WIKIPEDIA)
The institute said that three emerging trends in the Asia and Oceania region remained a cause for concern – the growing ChineseeUnited States rivalry combined with an increasingly assertive Chinese foreign policy; the growing violence related to identity politics, based on ethnic or religious polarization (or both); and, the increase in transnational violent jihadist groups, some of the most organized groups of which are active in South East Asia, most notably in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“The overall number of warheads in global military stockpiles now appears to be increasing, a worrisome sign that the declining trend that has characterized global nuclear arsenals since the end of the cold war has stalled,” the report quotes Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI’s Nuclear Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), as saying.
Pakistan nuclear stockpile growing
According to the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), an independent group of arms-control and non-proliferation experts from both nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states, Pakistan – a nuclear weapon state outside of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty – continues production of fissile materials for weapons.
The Princeton-based panel said that, as of the beginning of 2020, Pakistan had an accumulated stockpile estimated as about 410 kg of plutonium which has been produced at four production reactors in Khushab in the Sargodha Division of the Punjab province.
It further mentions that, as of the beginning of 2020, Pakistan is estimated to have a stockpile of 3.9e0.4 tons of HEU and continues to produce HEU for its nuclear weapon programme.
“Uncertainty about Pakistan’s uranium resources, and the operating history and enrichment capacity of its centrifuge plant at Kahuta and a possible second plant at Gadwal (which may be dedicated to HEU production) limits the reliability of the estimate,” the panel says in its country report on Pakistan.
Last year, in a detailed research done on the basis of recent and historic public domain satellite imagery, Washington’s Institute for Science and International Security identified a significant and previously undocumented extension to the Chashma reprocessing plant and considerable development of co-located infrastructure over the last decade.
“At a minimum, the extension to the plutonium separation plant and associated facilities at Chashma demonstrates an on-going commitment to invest in and operate plutonium separation technology at industrial scale,” the institute revealed in a detailed report.
(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (K-2) in southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. (StrXinhuaIANS)
The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (K-2), established with the cooperation between Pakistan and China, is a coal-fired power production unit…reports Hamza Ameer
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated the largest Chinese-built nuclear power plant, as the country tried to stretch itself away from dependency of fossil fuels for its energy needs.
The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (K-2), established with the cooperation between Pakistan and China, is a coal-fired power production unit, which would be the country’s sixth nuclear power plant and is expected to bring dramatic increase the nuclear energy capacity.
Prime Minister Khan, who virtually inaugurated the K-2 nuclear power plant on Friday, said the unit would generate at least 1,100 MW of clear energy.
“This is important for us because Pakistan is among the top 10 countries at risk due to climate change,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we have not focused on producing energy from water and despite the country having potential to do so,” the premier said lamenting the previous governments for ignoring the serious issue of the country’s energy needs.
Pakistan has been struggling with fulfilling its rising energy needs, which have triggered due to energy shortage and the rising power prices, putting immense pressure on the people, who question the country’s policies.
The Prime Minister said that the country would not pursue any more power based on coal, as their construction would come with an environmental cost.
However, with the rising energy shortage, large-scale construction of new power plants, most of which are coal-fired, have boosted the country’s energy capacity.
The China National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) has designed the K-2 nuclear power plant.
Its construction started in 2015 and is planned to begin operation by the year 2022.
“The project will help to train manpower and facilitate technology transfer from China. 40,000 experts visited the country over an extended period of time. This is another area of cooperation with China,” said Khan.
He added that Pakistan was fortunate to have strong ties with an emerging power like China, who he said has stood by Islamabad during difficult times.
“We are confident that China will stand with us during difficult times. It is fortunate for us that Pakistan has strong ties with an emerging power and a developed country such a China. “
The K-2 plant will be a major addition to facilitate the country’s energy needs.
It has a 60-year life expectancy, extendable to 20 more years and is designed with higher plant availability and capacity factors, and extended refueling cycle.
