Nuclear submarine to get new core after test reactor problem

Low levels of radioactivity have been discovered in the cooling waters of a nuclear submarine test reactor at Dounreay, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said.

Mr Hammond told MPs that no leak had occurred and said there were no safety implications for staff working on the site, or risks to the environment.

But, as a result, HMS Vanguard is to be refuelled with a new nuclear core at a cost of £120m.

The problem was discovered in 2012.

Labour criticised the government for not announcing the information earlier, calling it a matter of "national importance".

'Below scale'

Although the news is only being made public now, the Ministry of Defence says the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the defence nuclear inspectorate were kept informed.

Mr Hammond said the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment ran at higher levels of intensity than those on Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines and was designed to pre-empt any similar problems with the reactors on board those vessels.

The defence secretary said: "These low levels of radioactivity are a normal product of a nuclear reaction that takes place within the fuel but they would not normally enter the cooling water.

"This water is contained within the sealed reactor circuit and I can reassure the House there has been no detectable radiation leak from that sealed circuit.

"Indeed, against the International Atomic Energy Agency's measurement scale for nuclear-related events this issue is classed Level 0, described as 'below scale - no safety significance'."

The refuelling of HMS Vanguard - the UK's oldest nuclear submarine - will take place during its next scheduled "deep maintenance period", due to last three and a half years from 2015.

'National security'

Mr Hammond said: "This is the responsible option: replacing the core on a precautionary basis at the next opportunity, rather than waiting to see if the core needs to be replaced at a later date which would mean returning Vanguard for a period of unscheduled deep maintenance, potentially putting at risk the resilience of our ballistic missile submarine operations."

Mr Hammond said a decision on refuelling the next-oldest submarine, HMS Victorious, would not need to be taken until 2018.

New submarines for the Trident replacement programme, known as the Successor submarines, will not be affected by the problem, he added.

For Labour, shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker said the government should have told the Commons earlier about the fault.

He added: "There must be public confidence in the government to be open and transparent on these matters.

"A fault, however small, that develops in a nuclear reactor is something that the British people and this House should have been told about. This is an issue of national security and national importance."

 

Technical Iran nuke talks start in Istanbul

The reactor building at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran is seen in this photo. 

Talks over Iran’s nuclear program continue in Istanbul.

The negotiations between Iran and the world powers are to continue today in Istanbul at the level of technical experts.

The so-called world powers “P5+1” - Britain, China, France, Russia, United States, plus Germany - are attempting to take the process further with small steps, a senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

The meeting is not officially hosted by Turkey and it has simply provided logistical help for the meeting, such as in security. Both sides will speak about technical issues on an expert level, the official added.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said his country wants there to be a “win-win” outcome in talks with world powers over its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported. Salehi said Iran would always pursue its nuclear rights, in reference to uranium enrichment.

The negotiations between Iran and world powers seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Tehran’s nuclear program remained deadlocked in the latest meeting held in Moscow on June 19.

‘Choice is Iran’s’

Iran and the P5+1 countries have decided on an early follow-up technical-level meeting in Istanbul to provide a further clarification about the proposals of the world powers, increase P5+1 understanding of the Iranian response, and study the issues raised by Iran during the sessions.

This will be followed by contact at the deputy-level between Helga Schmid, deputy to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian diplomat Ali Bagheri.

“The choice is Iran’s. We expect Iran to decide on whether it is willing to make diplomacy work, to focus on reaching agreement on concrete confidence building steps, and to address the concerns of the international community,” EU High Representative Catherine Ashton’s Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic said.

Sweden on nuclear facility alert as explosives found at plant

Sweden has raised the alert at all its nuclear facilities after bomb sniffer dogs discovered an explosive device in the back of a truck near Stockholm’s Ringhals atomic power station. Police are investigating the incident.

Although the device lacked a detonator, officers have evacuated the area around the truck and are questioning the driver. Initial reports point to sabotage, with no immediate suspects.

Police spokesman Tommy Nyman said the driver was unaware of the explosives.

“An outsider has obviously placed them on the truck…we're talking to the truck driver and are trying to map out her movements within the premises throughout the day,” Nyman said.

Swedish bomb technicians noted that due to the lack of a detonator, there was no immediate risk of explosion. Furthermore, officials from the Ringhals power plant say that even had the explosives gone off, they would not have posed any threat to the reactor.

“Under the first step onto the truck there is a fire extinguisher and that is where the explosive had been placed,” Gosta Larsen, Head of Communication at the Ringhals plant, told the Swedish news source TT, adding that the discovery was “worrying”.

Officials say the device was like "the size of a small fist, shaped like a plastic explosive". It was discovered during a routine check.

Former Iran negotiator: Islamic Republic unlikely to accept West's offer in upcoming round of nuclear talks

Hossein Mousavian, who was a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team between 2003 and 2005, dismisses West's proposal as 'diamonds for peanuts.'

Iran's heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak

A former Iranian negotiator on Friday dismissed as "diamonds for peanuts" a proposal by world powers that Tehran halt higher-grade uranium enrichment and close an underground nuclear site in exchange for reactor fuel and civil aviation parts.

Hossein Mousavian, now a visiting scholar at Princeton University in the United States, said he did not believe Iran would accept the offer when the two sides hold a new round of discussions in Moscow on June 18-19.

It will be the third meeting since diplomacy restarted in April after a 15-month hiatus.

"I do not expect too much, said Mousavian, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team in 2003-05. If the major powers are not ready to move on the critical issues of gradually removing sanctions on Iran and recognizing its right to refine uranium, "I'm afraid the Moscow talks also would fail," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Mousavian held his post before conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over from his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami in 2005. Western envoys who know Mousavian say that at the time he appeared to be genuinely interested in reaching a deal with the West.

The six powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia - want to make sure Iran does not develop nuclear bombs. The Islamic Republic wants a lifting of sanctions and recognition of what it says are its rights to peaceful nuclear energy, including enriching uranium.

European Union officials said on Monday that Iran had agreed to discuss a proposal to curb its production of higher-grade uranium at the meeting in the Russian capital, an apparent attempt to reduce tensions ahead of the talks.

The development followed more than two weeks of wrangling between Iranian diplomats and Western negotiators over preparations for the closely watched round of negotiations.

Mousavian said Iran was ready for a "big deal" on the decade-old nuclear dispute, but political constraints in the United States ahead of November's presidential election and other factors meant the other side was not.

"President Obama has very limited room to maneuver in an election year," Mousavian said. Barack Obama's Republican opponents have attempted to paint him as soft on enemies of the U.S.

In the immediate term, the powers want Tehran to cease enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile concentration, because such production represents a major technological advance en route to making weapons-grade material.

They put forward a proposal on how to achieve this at a round of talks in Baghdad in May, in which Tehran would stop production, close the Fordow underground facility where such work is done, and ship its stockpile out of the country.

In return, they offered to supply the Islamic state with fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran, which requires 20-percent uranium, and to ease sanctions against the sale of commercial aircraft parts to Iran.

No agreement was reached in Baghdad but the seven countries agreed to continue discussions in Moscow.

"I believe this is diamonds for peanuts," Mousavian said, adding that Iran already had fuel rods. "Therefore this is not something great to offer Iran."

The International Crisis Group think-tank said the powers' offer "was deliberately ungenerous" and likely to have been meant as an opening bid in what they regarded as a longer process of negotiations.

But a U.S. nuclear expert, David Albright, said Mousavian's comments showed the "difficulty of negotiating" with Iran.

The agreement sought by the powers in Moscow would be a small but important step which does not solve the Iran nuclear issue, said Albright, of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) think tank. "Iran should expect only a small incentive in return - the fact of the matter is that these actions are equivalent to peanuts for peanuts," Albright said in an email.

Mousavian said, however, that Iran was ready for confidence-building measures regarding its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, which it started in 2010 and has since expanded.

He said his own proposal was that Iran would agree to eliminate such material from its stockpile, either by converting it to fuel, exporting it or lowering its enrichment concentration to 3.5 percent - the level usually required for power plants.

Israel 'super-ready' to attack Iran – Defense Chief

Israel is fully prepared to attack Iran if needed, declared Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, saying the military threat is one convincing method of forcing Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

­According to the military chief, “the vectors of international diplomatic isolation, economic pressure and sanctions, disturbances to the [nuclear] project… and a credible military threat” make the list of factors that can influence the direction of Iran's nuclear program.

“In order to be a credible military threat, we must be super-ready, and as far as I’m concerned, we’re super-ready,” Gantz was cited by Israeli media as saying to the country’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The military official also explained that Tehran has yet to determine whether to use its nuclear capabilities for weapons, but the IDF is prepared for either scenario.

Israel has repeatedly declared that it does not rule out the military option as a tool to curb the Iranian nuclear program.

A close ally of Israel, the US has also assured Tel Aviv that it will do everything to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Tehran insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, and despite a lack of any evidence pointing to weapons development, the West is reluctant to believe the assurances.

In the recent rounds of nuclear talks in Baghdad on May 23-24 Tehran refused to suspend its 20 per cent uranium enrichment program, raising more controversy regarding its eventual goals.

The next round of talks will take place this month in Moscow.

Japanese Boost Nuclear Submarine Reactor Disposal

Seventy reactors from decommissioned nuclear submarines are scheduled for disposal in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye Territory by 2020, the regional Legislative Assembly has reported.

Fifty four reactors are already located in Primorye Territory and another 19 will be delivered from Kamchatka. Disposal of reactors will be carried out with equipment donated by Japan in May 2012.

According to the Legislative Assembly, a long-term storage for reactor compartments from decommissioned submarines has already been created. The disposal will be carried out as part of a program of industrial utilization of weapons and military hardware planned for 2011-2015 and 2020.

On May 18, 2012 Japan gave the Far Eastern Center for Radioactive Waste Management the sea tugboat Sumire, two portal cranes and the floating dock Sakura with a displacement of 3.5 thousand tonnes. The cost of the supplied equipment is about two billion rubles. The transfer of the equipment was carried out as a part of a government level agreement between Russia and Japan on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Previously the construction cost of a storage facility for decommissioned submarine reactors was estimated at 80 million dollars. Japan has been involved in international programs for disposal of nuclear submarines in the Pacific for the past 20 years.