See “Al Jazeera” article for image description and photo credits . . . ~llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
Following in the “Al Jazeera” article is the apparent last-minute Trump-imposed confusing and contradictory second thought stymy that thus far most likely makes these USA/Iran nuclear talks impossible to reach an agreement.
The problem stems from Trump contradicting himself from one day to the next — forcing his friend and Real Estate magnate spokesman to likewise renege on what he had previously informed Iran during talks that limited nuclear production would be allowed. (The old Obama agreement, by the way that Trump dumped.)
That “mistake” demonstrates, along with other inconsistencies, that Trump absolutely has no intention of negotiating with decency nor honest debate relative to anything like “The Art of the Deal”, his ghost-written book from several years ago:
Trump’s Realtor/Negotiator Witkoff (a day after being corrected by Trump):
“Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponisation program,” Witkoff wrote on the social platform X. “It is imperative for the world that we create a tough, fair deal that will endure, and that is what President Trump has asked me to do.”
In response, Araghchi issued a warning to the US.
“Enrichment is a real and accepted issue, and we are ready for trust-building about possible concerns,” Araghchi noted. “But losing the right to enrich at all “is non-negotiable”, he said.
Iran confirms next round of nuclear talks with US set for Rome on Saturday
The announcement comes as chief of nuclear watchdog IAEA arrives in Tehran for talks that may revolve around accessibility for inspectors.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi meets with Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi upon Grossi’s arrival in Tehran, Iran [WANA via Reuters]
Published On 16 Apr 202516 Apr 2025
Iran has confirmed that its next round of nuclear talks with the United States this weekend will be held in Rome after earlier confusion over where the negotiations would be conducted.
Wednesday’s announcement on Iranian state television came as Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian formally approved the resignation of one of his vice presidents, who had served as Tehran’s key negotiator in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, also arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks that could include negotiations over what access his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors can get under any proposed deal.
The state TV announcement said Oman will again mediate the talks on Saturday in Rome. Oman’s foreign minister served as an interlocutor between the two sides during negotiations last weekend in Muscat, the Omani capital.
On Monday, some officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early on Tuesday that its team would return to Oman. US officials so far have not said publicly where the talks will be held, though US President Donald Trump did call Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Tuesday while the ruler was on a trip to the Netherlands.
Advertisement
The negotiations come amid soaring tensions between the US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear development.
Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash air strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly have warned that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
‘Like a puzzle’
Grossi arrived in Tehran for meetings with Pezeshkian and others, which will likely be held on Thursday.
Shortly before his arrival, Grossi warned that Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.
“It’s like a puzzle. They have the pieces, and one day they could eventually put them together,” Grossi told French newspaper Le Monde in an interview published on Wednesday.
Attacks in Sudan’s Darfur kill at least 300 as grim anniversary passes: UN
Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its programme, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity – near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Surveillance cameras installed by the IAEA have been disrupted, while Iran has barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors. Iranian officials have also increasingly threatened that they could pursue atomic weapons, something that Western countries and the IAEA have been worried about for years.
Any possible deal between Iran and the US likely would need to rely on the IAEA’s expertise to ensure Tehran’s compliance. And despite tensions between Iran and the agency, its access has not been entirely revoked.
‘Non-negotiable’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday warned the US about taking contradictory stances in the talks.
His remarks came after comments from US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who this week initially suggested a deal could see Iran go back to 3.67 percent uranium enrichment – like in the 2015 deal reached by the administration of former US President Barack Obama. Witkoff then followed up by saying, “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal.”
“Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponisation program,” Witkoff wrote on the social platform X. “It is imperative for the world that we create a tough, fair deal that will endure, and that is what President Trump has asked me to do.”
In response, Araghchi issued a warning to the US.
“Enrichment is a real and accepted issue, and we are ready for trust-building about possible concerns,” Araghchi noted. But losing the right to enrich at all “is non-negotiable”, he said.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Asked about Trump’s threats to attack Iran, Grossi urged people to “concentrate on our objective.” “Once we get to our objective, all of these things …
Oconee’s three reactors produce over 2,500 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 1.9 million homes. Last year, Baltimore-based Constellation ..
This would pave the way for Israeli fighters to directly strike nuclear sites. Such an attack would have likely prompted Iran to launch a retaliatory …
The good news is that these findings indicate the long-dormant Yellowstone Volcano is in no immediate danger of eruption. This is because much of the …
Yellowstone is located beneath a national park spanning three states – Idaho, Wyoming and Montana · Yellowstone’s magma chamber spans an area 55 miles …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
This professed to be high-level-conference- between the United States and Iran has become an absolutely ridiculous fiasco. It is now virtually impossible for Iran to comply with Trump’s own inconsistent demands, and the confused mess he and his administration in preparation by Trump for his Real Estate spokesman doing the early negotiations in Onan, makes America, as it deserves, look like utter fools who have no idea what they are doing, and Trump is leading the confusion, turning the entire conference into chaos even before it gets started. And it only took 12 hours to completely make Iran’s side of the agreement impossible unless they abandon their nuclear power plans altogether, which was not the original purpose of the meeting at all.
Does this mean that Trump simply goes ahead and acts on his constant threats to “bomb” Iran? He has said over and over again that if an agreement, a “deal” in his words, is not reached, he will “bomb” Iran. At this point one has to ask himself which nation is the peaceful, honest, negotiator.
In addition to this latest SNAFU, the previous location scheduled for Rome, has been changed to remain in Onan. There is so much wrong with Trump’s contradictions and the sudden denying of possible use of low-grade refined uranium fuel, now being turned into “none”, that, to me at least, the U.S. side of the meetings was based totally on Trump’s typical pathological lying, which I have suspected all-along. This kind of “deal-making” cannot stand, and his two-faced methods of making dishonesty a function of “diplomacy” is absolute insanity.
The entire world, including what’s left of the “free world”, have lost faith and no longer trust America to be a fair-dealing International State. Many have already begun the planning for building their own nuclear weapons of mass destruction inventories because they can’t rely on America to continue to support NATO — that the U.S. originated, by the way, as the “Washington Treaty” — and other responsible peaceful nations. Trump is creating fear, chaos, and pandemonium around the entire world . . . This cannot stand! ~llaw
Trump envoy demands Iran eliminate nuclear programme in apparent U-turn
Steve Witkoff’s switch from saying low-level production could continue seen as example of chaotic US foreign policy
Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has announced Iran must totally eliminate its nuclear programme, seeming to reverse the policy he had articulated on Fox News only 12 hours earlier that would have allowed Iran to enrich uranium at a low level for civilian use.
The switch to a more hardline policy is likely to make it much harder for the US to reach a negotiated agreement with Tehran, bringing back the threat of an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
In a further switch, it was agreed that the next round of indirect US-Iran talks, due to start on Saturday, will continue to be in Oman and the venue would not switch to Italy as proposed by the US.
In a statement posted to social media on Tuesday Witkoff said: “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal. Any final arrangement must set in place a framework for peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East – meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponisation program. It is imperative for the world that we create a tough fair deal that will endure, and that is what President Trump has asked me to do.”
The previous day on Fox News, the special envoy had said “the conversation with the Iranians” would concern uranium enrichment at 3.67 % for civil nuclear purposes.
“In some circumstances they are enriching at 60% and at others at 20%. That cannot be,” he said. “You do not need to run, as they claim, a civil nuclear programme where you are enriching past 3.67%. This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment programme and then ultimately verification on weaponisation – that includes the type of missiles they have stockpiled there and the trigger for a bomb.”
Witkoff’s two positions are hard to reconcile – unless he is trying to distinguish between an interim deal that reduces Iranian uranium enrichment to civilian levels and a final agreement that eliminates its nuclear programme entirely.
It also possible Trump has faced a backlash from Iran hawks who warned that Witkoff’s negotiating stance was largely re-establishing the nuclear deal Barack Obama had agreed with Iran in 2015, from which Trump withdrew the US in 2018 saying it was unenforceable.
Witkoff’s apparent volte face may also be seen as another example of chaotic foreign policymaking, in which the administration battles behind the president’s back and he either does not focus on the policy details or does not understand the choices he is allowing to be made on his behalf.
Witkoff, a man with no diplomatic experience and charged with producing diplomatic breakthroughs in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran, has never tried to portray himself as anything than Trump’s messenger. He would have thought the proposals he aired in the weekend talks in Oman and on Fox News were those of the president.
Iran has repeatedly demanded the right to maintain a civil nuclear programme, meaning the latest iteration of US thinking will cause consternation in Tehran and could strengthen hardliners, who maintain the US cannot be trusted.
A rare consensus had broken out in Tehran that the talks between Witkoff and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, could result in some US sanctions being lifted as part of the most positive development in relations between Iran and the US in a decade.
The head of the UN nuclear inspectorate, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit Iran this week to see if progress can be made on improving his inspectors’ access to Iran’s nuclear sites.
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… nuclear reactor vessel to provide emergency power for coastal communities. A workboat, then – but LR’s Mark Tipping told The Loadstar that a nuclear …
… war threat. It comes after the US and Iran finished their first round of … IRAN is believed to have accelerated its nuclear weapons development and is …
(See “Axios” article below for description and photo credits ~llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
First of all you might be wondering: Who is Steve Witkoff? He is a “friend” of Trump’s who is now somehow the chief U.S. representative in the so-called Iran/USA nuclear talks. In case you don’t know, here is a brief background excerpt from “Wikipedia”: OMG!
Steven Charles Witkoff is an American real estate investor, lawyer, and diplomat who serves as the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East. He is the founder and chairman of the Witkoff Group. He began his career as a real estate attorney, before transitioning to property investment and development. ~Wikipedia
Does the left hand have any idea what the right hand is doing in Trump’s White House? We have a Real Estate lawyer negotiating with Iran over the strength of Uranium fuel — whether it’s far enough below military grade or not, but Trump says they can’t be producing nuclear fuel at all to satisfy the proposed nuclear agreement. Evidently the next meeting/talks are supposed to be in Rome this coming Saturday, but maybe somewhere else. llolloll!
And so the confusion, stupidity, and ignorance continues on . . . I do know it’s not funny, but it is ridiculous. ~llaw
Trump delivers remarks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Apr. 10, 2025. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Trump held a meeting on Tuesday morning in the White House situation room about the ongoing nuclear deal negotiations with Iran, two sources with direct knowledge told Axios.
Why it matters: The high-level meeting with all of the Trump administration’s top national security and foreign policy officials present was focused on discussing the U.S. position in the next round of talks planned for Saturday, the sources said.
Ahead of the meeting Trump spoke on the phone with the Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq and discussed the Omani mediation between the U.S. and Iran.
“The two leaders discussed ways to back these negotiations to achieve the desired outcomes,” the Omani state news agency said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “emphasized to the Omani Sultan the need for Iran to end its nuclear program through negotiations.”
Behind the scenes: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe and other top officials participated in the situation room meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting took place amid intense debate within the administration over the way forward in the negotiations and the compromises the U.S. should or shouldn’t make.
Vance and Witkoff think diplomacy could lead to a nuclear deal and think the U.S. should be ready to make some compromises in order to get it.
Other senior members of the administration, including Rubio and Waltz, are highly skeptical and support a maximalist approach to the negotiations.
Trump himself is sending mixed messages. He has said he wants a deal and thinks the nuclear crisis is solvable through diplomacy but has alsothreatened Iran with a military strike.
The White House declined to comment on the meeting. Leavitt told reporters that “the maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues but the president made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran while making clear Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Driving the news: On Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran has to move fast in the negotiations and stressed that Iran “might be tapping us along” in the nuclear talks.
Trump threatened again to use military power against Iran. “If we have to do something very harsh we will do it,” he said.
On Monday evening, Witkoff said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News that the first round of talks with Iran last Saturday in Oman was positive.
Zoom in: Witkoff said the U.S. position is Iran would have to stop enriching uranium to the level of 20% and to the near weapons-grade level of 60%, but didn’t rule out that the Iranians would be able to continue enriching uranium to the level of 3.67% that is needed for a civilian nuclear energyprogram.
Witkoff added that any nuclear deal would have to verify Iran’s enrichment levels and that it doesn’t build ballistic missiles that can deliver a nuclear weapon or build triggers that can detonate nuclear bombs.
Witkoff’s remarks were very different from what Waltz said in recent weeks about the need to dismantle the entire nuclear program.
His remarks also contradicted what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his meeting with Trump last week about the need to fully dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, like what he claimed happened in Libya in 2003.
On Tuesday morning, Witkoff clarified his remarks and wrote on X that “any final arrangement must set a framework for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East — meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
The other side: Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday during a meeting with top government officials in Tehran that the first round of talks with the U.S. was “satisfactory.”
Khamenei said he is “neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic” about the negotiations and stressed he is “very skeptical of the other party, but confident in our own capabilities.”
What to watch: The next round of talks between the U.S. and Iran on Saturday was supposed to take place in Rome.
The U.S., Iran and the Italian government confirmed it and visas have been issued for the Iranian delegation.
But on Monday evening the Iranian foreign ministry said the venue for the next round of talks has been moved back to Muscat. U.S. officials haven’t confirmed the change in location.
Sources with knowledge of the issue said one of the reasons for moving the talks from Rome was that Vance is expected to be there over the weekend and the White House wanted to avoid the overlap.
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The meeting included a Sixth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-6) topical session on the long-term recovery phase following 26 countries …
… nuclear weapon or face a possible military strike on Tehran’s atomic facilities … Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia …
… Yellowstone region. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
See Al Jazeera article below for description and photo credits ~llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
To me, it appears that Donald Trump is the obstructionist in these talks, which are still not direct talks as continually sad these discussions would be. It is his constant and continuing “war” threats that seem to keep other nations deeply involved — such as Russia — to referee Trump’s threatening and obnoxious game.
So, if the truth were known, is it not Trump who is the agitator, aggressor, and the prevaricator rather than Iran? All four of these articles — three linked — are pointed directly at Trump and his premature obstruction and he is even reported to be “angry” with Putin, not to mention that Trump’s threats continue to include his mythical “nuclear bomb” accusation. This is no way to conduct America’s role in this situation. ~llaw
Iran to consult Russia on US nuclear talks, Rome may host next meeting
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to visit Moscow as US allies seek to avoid being sidelined by Trump.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later this week for consultations over nuclear talks with the US [File: AFP]
Published On 14 Apr 202514 Apr 2025
Tehran’s foreign minister will travel to Moscow this week for consultations over Iran’s nuclear talks with the United States, Iran and Russia have announced.
Abbas Araghchi will visit the Iranian ally later this week, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The announcement of the trip – during which Araghchi will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Moscow said – came as details emerged regarding a second set of talks between Iran and the United States to follow up on an initial meeting over the weekend in Oman.
Araghchi’s visit to Russia “was planned in advance, but there will be consultations regarding the talks with the US”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.
Iran and the US said over the weekend that they had held “positive” and “constructive” talks although the negotiations remain indirect with Oman acting as mediator.
The two nations have agreed to reconvene on Saturday with reports on Monday suggesting that Rome will play host, though Iran reportedly prefers Geneva.
The US and its Western allies accuse Iran of seeking to use its nuclear programme to develop weapons. Tehran says the work has only civilian purposes.
Iran’s diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute and lift sanctions on its struggling economy have accelerated amid demands from US President Donald Trump, which have come with threats of military action.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has played a role in recent years in nuclear negotiations between the West and Iran.
As an ally of Tehran, it was a signatory to a 2015 nuclear agreement that saw international inspections agreed and sanctions eased, but Trump abandoned the deal during his first term as president in 2018.
Amid the renewed negotiations between Iran and the US, Moscow has called for a focus on diplomatic contacts instead of actions that it said may lead to an escalation.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Monday that Foreign Minister Lavrov will meet Araghchi.
“We are expecting Iranian colleagues, talks with Sergey Lavrov as well as meetings with Russian officials are planned,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .
If you are not familiar with the daily blog posts, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Sunday Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS: Trump brings a ‘different set of rules’ to foreign policy … Val Kilmer & Mel Gibson Tell You What We All Thought Was True About …
The U.S. and Iran have launched negotiations to strike a new deal that would scale back Iran’s nuclear program … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 …
Nuclear power plants were historically modelled on coal power plants (Radkau, 1983). Such plants rely on boilers that turn water into steam. The steam …
… atomic power station, the department said. Close. Nuclear Disaster Training. Buy Now. Volunteers showing contamination are scanned during a training …
… War Excuse’; ‘Not Interested In Your Outdated Nuclear Submarines’ | Watch … Explained: Why Iran May Not Be Worried About Trump’s Attack Threats, Has …
Nuclear News Alert: This Saturday’s nuclear media news is all about the Trump threats of “WAR” as the Iran/U.S. talks begin today! The scenarios are nearly all of a negative nature! . . .
In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .
If you are not familiar with the daily blog posts, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The Aalo Pod: A groundbreaking modular nuclear reactor by Aalo Atomics, poised to transform energy solutions for data centers worldwide. IN A NUTSHELL.
US-Iran Talks: Nukes, sanctions & war threats — Can Trump seal the nuclear deal? … Report Warns Iran’s Nuclear Threat Has “Worsened Significantly” | ..
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
The question is Trump Fears Nuclear Weapons. So Why Is He Making Them More Popular ~ Politico.
This is a more than a legitimate question and needs some serious answers. Perhaps he is unable to evaluate reality, or maybe he is suffering from dementia (as many of us have surmised), or is he just egotistical and believes that no one understands such important situations than he does. Whatever the reasons for his often ignorant and/or wrong decisions is a huge worry to the entire planet. So we are seeing many European countries and others making plans to build their own nuclear arsenals because America is walking away from helping to protect them (and us) with our own nuclear arsenal that we have formerly agreed to share if necessary. Today there just 9 nuclear armed countries. If America doesn’t continue to support other NATO, The Middle East, and other countries, the nuclear armed countries could easily double or even triple. So that is just one more of our dangerous dilemmas with the attitude and thinking of Donald Trump.
Tomorrow begins a very important conference with perhaps negative results concerning a possible agreement between the USA and Iran regarding control of Iran’s nuclear future. Iran doesn’t want to be “bombed”, of course, as Trump has loudly threatened, if they fail to accept the stipulations of America’s demands. Their leaders have said as of yesterday and today that they will do their best to pacify Trump and sign on to his so-called “deal”.
To my way of thinking, Trump’s way of thinking and his constant braggadocio attitude of superiority is100% wrong because polite political discussion of such international meetings should be professionally courteous — amicable but serious — showing respect for both party’s issues, wishes, reasoning, and hopes rather than a boisterous threat of war for days before the two countries even have a chance to sit down at the conference table. The cool, calm, and collected party at this conference seems to be Iran: Iran says it will give U.S. talks about nuclear plans a “genuine chance”.
The threat of U.S. withdrawal has prompted countries around the world — from Germany to South Korea — to talk about building their own nuclear arsenals.
By Michael Hirsh
04/11/2025 10:00 AM EDT
Michael Hirsh is the former foreign editor and chief diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek, and the former national editor for POLITICO Magazine.
Donald Trump has been obsessed with preventing a nuclear holocaust since he was a bumptious boy builder back in the 1980s. Back then Trump reportedly proposed, with typical grandiosity, that if President Ronald Reagan appointed him “plenipotentiary ambassador” he would end the Cold War “within one hour.”
Since then, Trump has rarely stopped talking about mitigating the danger of nuclear weapons. In his first presidential term, shortly before heading off to what would become an infamous 2018 summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump called nukes “the biggest problem in the world” and summed up for reporters what he hoped to accomplish: “No more nuclear weapons anywhere in the world.” Trump has repeatedly sounded the theme in his second term as well, warning over and over of “World War III.” In mid-February he declared: “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many.”
So it’s more than a little curious to consider that, in less than three months as president, Trump has already set in motion the opposite trend: potentially the fastest and most dangerous acceleration of nuclear arms proliferation around the world since the early Cold War.
The new nuclear powers aren’t just the rogue nations that have long been the focus of U.S. concern, countries like Iran and North Korea. Increasingly, the nations considering going nuclear are longtime U.S. allies, from Germany to South Korea, Japan to Saudi Arabia. Faced with the threat of U.S. withdrawal from its defense commitments, more and more countries are now openly talking about embracing the bomb — and just as worrisome, actually deploying nukes if hostilities break out.
Nor is there any evidence that in the flurry of activity marking what Trump has called “the most successful” start of any presidency in U.S. history, his administration has even begun reckoning with the implications of these seemingly contradictory policies.
A National Security Council spokesperson, James Hewitt, did not respond directly to questions about whether Trump means to open the way for allies to obtain nuclear weapons as they assume more of the defense burden in their regions. But Hewitt said: “President Trump has repeatedly warned that nuclear destruction is the biggest threat to humanity and is committed to a policy that promotes nuclear nonproliferation around the world.”
Nuclear experts, however, note that the administration has few personnel in place to address nuclear proliferation. Several nominees from the Defense and State Departments to the Nuclear National Security Administration are awaiting confirmation. At the National Security Council, the post of senior director for arms control hasn’t yet been named.
“I’ve heard it’s a pure ghost town,” said Matt Costlow, who worked in the Pentagon’s Office of Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy in Trump’s first term. “There’s just no one there. And the staff that is there is spread so thin it’s causing this paralysis.” As a result, he adds, “I don’t know that the Trump administration yet has a set view on the desirability of allies going nuclear. I think there’s a mix of views.”
Yet it’s clear that Trump’s signaling of a global drawdown of the U.S. defense umbrella has also produced an accelerated trend toward building — or at least considering deploying — nuclear weapons. Potential U.S. adversaries as well as allies say they are puzzled by the fact that no one in the Trump administration seems willing or able to grapple with the issue.
In Beijing, Chinese officials are growing worried that that “regional security is fragmenting and eventually they’ll have to deal with more nuclear or ‘nuclear-latent’ countries in Asia,” said Francesca Giovannini, head of the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who met with Chinese officials in late March. The problem, she said, is that the Chinese “really have zero idea of who he will appoint for arms control dealings. The Trump people don’t have the expertise in place to make decisions.”
One senior official who was just confirmed by the Senate, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, has been a leading and often strident voice in pressing European and Asian allies to beef up their own defenses. Last year Colby told Yonhap that South Korea was going to have to take “primary, essentially overwhelming, responsibility” for its own defense and added that Washington should not sanction Seoul if it decides to go nuclear.
“It would not be rational to lose multiple American cities to just deal with North Korea,” Colby was quoted as saying. In his Senate testimony in March, Colby also said that Trump believes Taiwan needs to boost its defense spending from under 3 percent to about 10 percent of gross domestic product to deter a war with China — a hike that Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai called “impossible.”
Many U.S. allies now have a sense that Trump is abandoning the entire postwar global system and casting the world back into a vicious scramble for power in which the biggest powers get to dominate their regions, and the smaller countries fend for themselves. Secretary of State Marco Rubio all but said as much in a Jan. 30 interview with conservative pundit Megyn Kelly, when he effectively conceded that Washington’s hegemonic global stature had been “an anomaly.”
“It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet,” Rubio said.
“The message coming from the U.S. is that Trump’s foreign policy is all about spheres of influence. Russia can have Ukraine. China can have Taiwan,” said Karl Friedhoff, an expert in East Asian security at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
As a result, some national security experts say this could be turning into the most unstable period since the early Cold War — an unstable period that could have a lot more nukes in a lot more places.
“People outside the U.S. see this more clearly,” Friedhoff added.
Nuclear Threats Go Local
The danger posed by nuclear weapons in the 21st century is shaping up to be a very different threat than it was in the 20th century.
For decades during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union built up massive arsenals of nuclear missiles that could be launched from the air, ground or sea. The destructive power of those weapons led the two nations to conclude a series of arms control agreements that eventually reduced the size of those arsenals.
And in contrast to the Trump administration’s seemingly laissez-faire approach to arms control — in his first term Trump abandoned several nuclear-related pacts, including the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — his predecessors in the Oval Office going back to the 1950s worked hard to prevent the appearance of new nuclear states. Throughout the Cold War and well afterward Washington led an intense campaign to contain the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
During the 1950s and 1960s, “from 30 to 40 countries started nuclear energy programs with an eye to actual military applications,” said Brad Roberts, director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” program, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson pushed hard for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was signed in 1970 has since been a cornerstone of global nuclear non-proliferation and to which 191 nations are signatories.
Then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a concern that the breakup of the Soviet Union would result in loose nukes and newly independent post-Soviet states being armed with nuclear weapons. As a result, three former Soviet republics — Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus — were pressured into relinquishing the weapons stationed on their territories. In 1998, President Bill Clinton made an anguished plea to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to test a bomb; after Sharif refused, Clinton imposed sanctions. Finally, in the mid-90s the Clinton administration pushed successfully to extend the NPT from 25 years to an indefinite term. Among the nations that ultimately gave up active nuclear weapons programs: South Africa, Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, Italy, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Australia.
Today, largely as a result of all this frenetic diplomacy led by Washington, there are just nine nuclear powers in the world, as there have been for decades: America, Russia, China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and most recently, North Korea.
But some of those nations that surrendered programs are now rethinking those decisions, along with some new nuclear wannabes. What Trump will do about this, again, remains a large question mark. When Trump talks about “denuclearizing,” he tends to focus on the first three countries on that list, which still have the largest arsenals, and he talks about nuclear arms control as if it’s still something that the leaders of superpowers can decide among themselves.
Yet increasingly, nuclear weapons are being sought by countries that aren’t global superpowers but instead face threats from neighbors or regional rivals, such as Russia in Europe, or Iran in the Middle East. That means the nuclear equation is increasingly a region-by-region strategic puzzle with global ramifications.
Here’s some of what that looks like.
Europe
In Germany — a country where even discussing the bomb used to be a political third rail — the likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, didn’t rule out the idea of developing one in a March interview. Merz also said Berlin should start talks about expanding the French and British nuclear deterrents to Europe, and he suggested Germany may finally be ready to go along with France’s on-again, off-again push for strategic autonomy from the U.S. French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed extending France’s nuclear umbrella; on March 18 he said France will deploy its own Rafale fighter jets equipped with supersonic nuclear warheads along its border with Germany in 2035.
And in Poland, a NATO frontline nation, Prime Minister Donald Tusk in March became that country’s first leader to hint at going nuclear, saying in a speech his nation should “reach for opportunities related to nuclear weapons.” He also suggested that Ukraine made a mistake by giving up its nuclear arsenal in the 1990s, leaving itself vulnerable to Russia.
As for Ukraine, which feels threatened with abandonment by Washington in the face of Russia’s aggression, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has openly talked about reestablishing a nuclear deterrent. “Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and then it will be a defense for us, or Ukraine will be in NATO,” Zelenskyy declared last October.
According to Ukrainian news reports, Zelenskyy said that, before the U.S. election in November, Trump told him during a meeting, “‘Your reasoning is fair.” Trump officials have since declared flatly that Ukraine will not be joining NATO.
“Say you’re Zelenskyy and you’re being forced into unsatisfactory peace with Russia without good security guarantees, what’s your best bet?” said Daniel Serwer of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “Could the Ukrainians technically do this? Sure. Look what they’ve done driving the war. They know their business. They’ve handled a lot of nuclear material. They have good physicists and really good engineers. It’s not beyond Polish, German, Japanese or Taiwanese capabilities either.”
And in the long run a French guarantee of extended nuclear deterrence would not suffice for many European states. “Would the Poles see it as credible? Not a chance. It’s not likely the Germans would either,” said Roberts, who foresees a future of new regional groupings of nuclearized states, including the Nordic countries.
Middle East
In the Middle East, experts believe Iran has been backed into a strategic corner since Israel decimated its proxy armies, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that its leaders are now more motivated than ever to build a bomb.
In his first term, Trump withdrew from an agreement the Obama administration and its partners had negotiated with the Iranian regime that froze its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Since Trump ended that accord, Iran has raced to develop its program, and current assessments estimate that Iran is close to producing weapons-grade uranium and is only months, not years, away from completing a nuclear bomb.
Both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have indicated they would duplicate Iranian nuclear capabilities if Tehran got a bomb. Turkey will begin operating its Russia-built Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant — its first — this year. And numerous reports over the years have indicated that the Saudis may have a secret diplomatic understanding with Pakistan under which Riyadh could quickly obtain a nuclear weapon from Islamabad, which developed its own bomb in the 1990s with Saudi financial backing. (Saudi Arabia denies such an understanding.)
Trump is now seeking to reopen nuclear talks with Iran, vowing that the program must be completely dismantled. Iran has given mixed signals about how eager it is to reach an agreement. Representatives of both nations are set to hold their first, tentative meeting on Saturday in Oman.
All this is taking place as the region is more unstable than it has been in decades following the Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023, and concerns are now growing that a new Mideast war is imminent. The United States and Israel have threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, which could further destabilize the region. And nations that formerly dabbled in nuclear programs around the world, even Brazil, “are watching these developments very closely,” Roberts said.
East Asia
The Trump administration’s nuclear policy toward the Indo-Pacific is less clear, at least as of now. In contrast to his stunning rebuke of European allies in February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described Japan as an “indispensable partner in deterring Communist Chinese military aggression” during a visit to Tokyo in late March.
📣 Want more POLITICO? Download our mobile app to save stories, get notifications and more. In iOS or Android.
But since his first administration, Trump and senior defense officials also have been pushing Asian allies hard to build up their own defenses. As a result, in South Korea and even Japan — where building a bomb was once unthinkable after Hiroshima and Nagasaki — there is a new willingness to embrace nuclear weapons in some form.
“The nuclear debate is still taboo in Japanese society, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine we’ve seen a total wake-up call in Japan about what kind of additional military power to possess,” said Junjiro Shida, a national security expert at Meio University on Okinawa, where about half of the 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan are stationed.
On March 7, in what has become a typical Trump trope about U.S. allies taking advantage of U.S. generosity, the president accused Japan of similar freeloading. “We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. … I actually ask, ‘Who makes these deals?’”
As a result of all this U.S. pressure, Shida said the new Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is embracing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s call for “nuclear sharing”— diplomatic code for permitting nuclear missiles to be stationed on its soil for the first time. In a statement last fall, Ishiba proposed an “Asian version of NATO” that must “specifically consider America’s sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region.”
South Korean politicians have gone further. In January — a week before Trump’s inauguration — South Korea’s politically embattled president, Yoon Suk Yeol, said for the first time that his country might consider building nuclear weapons in the face of mounting threats from nuclearized North Korea. Yoon has since been ousted after being impeached for declaring martial law last year. But even his likely successor, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea — which once stoutly opposed nukes — has not ruled this out.
“Since Yoon mentioned it there has not been one politician from the progressive side who’s laid out why Korea doesn’t need a nuclear weapon,” Friedhoff said.
As in Japan, the debate in Korea stops just short of a full-on endorsement of a bomb. South Korean politicians prefer to speak of a policy of “nuclear latency” — which effectively means becoming a threshold state that could swiftly build nukes if needed.
But Japan and South Korea, longtime rivals, are also watching each other closely and a move to go nuclear by one could provoke the other. “South Korean politicians and academics worry that Japan has more capability to develop nuclear weapons because Japan has so much plutonium,” thanks to its 64 nuclear power plants, Shida said.
Even in Taiwan — which is under constant threat of Chinese invasion but has been pressured by Washington to remain non-nuclear — there may be renewed interest in moving to nuclear weapons. Twice in the past the Taiwanese have been cited by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency for suspicious dabbling in fissile material. And as elsewhere, the Trump administration is pushing Taipei hard to take up more of its own defense.
Spheres of Influence
There is still a very long road, however, from discussions about building a bomb to getting it done.
The reason? “Going nuclear is one of the most politically dangerous and costly moves any country can make,” Harvard’s Giovannini said. “It’s not like one day is zero day and the next day you’re nuclear. You have to create an infrastructure and remove yourself from the NPT,” or Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As North Korea has discovered, huge stigmas and often sanctions attach to any country that withdraws from the NPT.
But it’s Washington that has led efforts to impose sanctions and isolation on NPT violators. So much will depend on what signals the Trump administration sends to its allies in the coming months about how independent it wants them to become on defense, and how comfortable the administration is with nuclear weapons being part of that mix. “There continues to be a lack of clarity about how they’re going to direct their efforts on this,” said Mark Melamed of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Experts said the uncertainties created by Trump have turbo-charged discussions already underway in an increasingly volatile global environment.
“There is growing doubt among allies and partners about whether the United States will meet its defense commitments when the chips are down,” said Eric Brewer, the former director for counterproliferation at the National Security Council in Trump’s first term. “But there are a lot of other systemic factors driving countries to talk about developing nuclear weapons. One is the deteriorating regional security environments. In Europe, [you have] Russia’s growing nuclear arsenal and threat. In Asia you have the growing North Korean and Chinese nuclear arsenal. In the Middle East you have Iran at the nuclear threshold. The other factor is the absence of cooperation among great powers. During the Cold War we had U.S.-Soviet cooperation on non-proliferation. Now you have Russia actively aiding the missile if not nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.”
Putin is mainly responsible for bringing back the nuclear threat, beginning with his “escalate to de-escalate” policy — that is, threatening nuclear war to prevent conflicts from getting worse. Humiliated by the fierce Ukrainian resistance to his invasion, Putin has also repeatedly hinted that he could use nukes in that conflict, even announcing that he was moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and suspending participation in the New START treaty, Moscow’s last major arms control pact with Washington.
China is also destabilizing the nuclear status quo. In the past few years, satellite photos have revealed China’s dramatic — and highly secret — nuclear buildup, which may include as many as 300 new missile silos. China’s nuclear arsenal now amounts to about 600 operational nuclear warheads as Beijing moves swiftly to counter the U.S. stockpile of about 3,700 warheads, the Federation of American Scientists reported in March.
And the United States isn’t sitting still, either. Under both Trump and Biden, Washington has been consistently upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including via developing the country’s first new nuclear warhead, the W93, in 40 years; a B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb; 400 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles; a fleet of nuclear-armed strategic submarines; and a new strategic bomber (the B-21) and air-launched cruise missile.
All this means that for war planners worldwide, nuclear calculations have once again become part of the conventional war equation. During the Cold War, the idea of nuclear war simply meant mutually assured destruction, or MAD, and the major powers created massive arsenals that no other nation could think of matching.
Today, from the Middle East to Europe and the Indo-Pacific, we live “in a world full of missiles that can be very precise about their delivery” and tipped with new types of lower-yield nukes known as “tactical” weapons, said Becca Wasser, a strategist at the Center for a New American Security. “We’ve seen an increased push toward the integration of conventional and nuclear war plans.”
Trump thus has no choice but to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal and, at the same time, badger U.S. allies about beefing up their defenses.
“A lot of it comes down to our allies responding to a renewed nuclear threat regionally,” Costlow said. “That sort of went away at the end of the Cold War. We removed a lot of our regional nuclear weapons that we deployed in Europe and Asia. So it’s lot harder for us to respond quickly as Russia and China change. Russia has this enormous advantage in regional nuclear weapons. China, the same thing. We don’t have any of those.”
Trump’s Nuclear Opportunity
Yet some arms control experts say there may be cause for hope that Trump could also relieve some of the nuclear tension. They suggest that even as Trump has appeared eager to appease Putin, he has a kind of “Nixon goes to China” credibility in seeking to stabilize relations with Russia and China — perhaps even driving a partial wedge between them.
“There is quite a weird optimism within the nuclear community about Trump,” Harvard’s Giovannini said. “There is an idea that he has a political space that no other president before him had to make a good deal with Russia, China and Iran.” Giovannini, who confers frequently with Chinese officials, added that China had favored Trump over Kamala Harris in the U.S. election because “he seems to have more political space to compromise.”
In France, meanwhile, the government believes the rest of Europe is finally going along with the vision of partial autonomy from Washington that Charles De Gaulle laid out decades ago. And some European diplomats believe this could help re-stabilize the fraught transatlantic relationship. “There is a kind of convergence between the French vision and Trump’s vision of having Europeans taking responsibility for their own security,” said one European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Almost everybody in Europe now thinks that’s the right path.”
In late January, Trump told the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos by video that he’s very concerned about nuclear arms proliferation and he wants to start up talks with China and Russia, saying, “So, we want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible.” Those talks have not gotten underway.
As Costlow put it, Trump faces a vastly complex challenge of supplying America’s “extended deterrence” — its global nuclear defense umbrella — to allies in the face of “opportunistic and coordinated aggression between Russia and China in two different theaters,” Europe and Asia. Trump’s defenders argue that he has already had success in bullying allies from Germany to Taiwan into investing more in defense against Beijing and Moscow.
And mainly what’s happening now in countries like Germany and South Korea is “nuclear signaling,” Wasser said. Countries are merely “demonstrating a willingness to pursue nuclear capability if that’s what’s required.”
In recent months the national security community in Seoul was extremely disturbed when Hegseth acknowledged North Korea as a “nuclear power” in a statement before his confirmation hearing as defense secretary.
“What makes the South Koreans nervous is the fear that we wouldn’t risk San Francisco to save Seoul,” said Robert Soofer, Trump’s former deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy.
But even now “the South Koreans would rather put pressure on the U.S. to help more than embarking on a costly nuclear strategy,” argued Giovannini. The challenge for Ukraine would be similar, she added. “There is no infrastructure in Ukraine at the moment that would lead to a bomb. And for them the process of nuclearization is very risky. Because the Russians are not just going to stand by.”
For key U.S. allies still haunted by World War II, like Japan and Germany, any nuclear debate will take years to play out. “Japan’s ‘nuclear allergy’ is very strong, partly because it is the only country to have experienced atomic bombings,” said Kazuhiro Maeshima, a political scientist at Tokyo’s Sophia University. “This is what makes it different from South Korea, where the argument for nuclear weapons is growing due to North Korea’s nuclear development. If the discussion of Japan’s nuclear armament grows, it is likely to cause a kind of panic in Japan.”
In Germany, too, the public outcry would be enormous — and cause a kind of existential crisis within the European Union. “Germany would certainly prefer to maintain the current nuclear order with the U.S.,” said Claudia Major, a national security expert at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. “Any change means less security and stability for all involved. Taking a unilateral decision to develop a German bomb would signal our neighbors: ‘We don’t care about you; we gave up on European defense.’ It would call into question traditional German policies (like support for the NPT) and could encourage worldwide proliferation.”
But as Costlow and others point, just a willingness to broach the prospect of going nuclear could be something of a Pandora’s Box.
“I compare it to uranium enrichment: The first 20 percent is actually the hardest hurdle to overcome. The last 80 percent doesn’t take much time,” Costlow said. “For some of these countries just the fact that they’re now talking about becoming a potential nuclear state is the toughest hurdle.”
And, he added, they’re starting to clear it.
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
All Things Considered. Iowa Public Radio News. All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The Daily. 0:00. 0:00. All Things Considered. Iowa Public Radio …
… all of its theater nuclear forces. The challenge of compensating for … A theater nuclear force that is not survivable is not a credible deterrent to …
For decades during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union built up massive arsenals of nuclear missiles that could be launched from the …
China is making remarkable progress in nuclear energy and is a strong supporter of the IAEA’s mission to ensure that nuclear technology serves peace and development, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said while meeting China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. Read more →
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has carried out five deliveries of equipment and other technical assistance over the past week as it remains fully focused on helping to prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict in Ukraine, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today. Read more →
Food irradiation is a gentle, non-invasive technique that uses radiation to keep food fresh and safe to eat. It eliminates microbes and control insects and other pests while preserving the nutritional content, flavour and overall quality of food. Read more →
Sufficient uranium resources exist to support both the continued use of nuclear power and its significant growth through 2050 and beyond. However, timely investments in new exploration, mining operations and processing techniques will be essential to ensure that uranium becomes available to the market when needed. Read more →
Experts in the use of radiation technologies are gathering in Vienna to discuss innovative applications in aeronautics, recycling, climate monitoring and more. Read more →
A mural on the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran depicts the Iranian government’s view of negotiations with the US
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
But, if Trump agrees to this one demand from Iran, in order “to seal the deal” with the U.S. government, “But US President Donald Trump must first agree there can be no “military option”, Foreign Minister Abbas said, and added that Iran would “never accept coercion”, my question is would Trump lie and agree to the demand, and then go forward with the “military option” is an agreement is not agreed to . . .
Another negative possibility is that Trump will simply refus to negotiate without the “military option” in place, which would also immediately cancel the Saturday scheduled meetings.
Neither one of these options is acceptable because Trump’s word is not anything other world leaders, or even U.S. leaders and our citizens, can rely on because he may order that Iran be militarily attacked — or “bombed” in Trump’s vernacular — in either case. ~llaw
Iran says it is ready for nuclear deal if US stops military threats
David Gritten
BBC News
AFP
A mural on the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran depicts the Iranian government’s view of negotiations with the US
Iran is ready to engage with the US at talks on Saturday over its nuclear programme “with a view to seal a deal”, its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.
But US President Donald Trump must first agree there can be no “military option”, Araghchi said, and added that Iran would “never accept coercion”.
Trump, who pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term, warned that Iran would be in “great danger” if talks were not successful.
The US and Iran have no diplomatic ties, so last month Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader via the United Arab Emirates. It said he wanted a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the US and Israel.
Trump disclosed the upcoming talks during a visit to the White House on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Tuesday that both leaders had agreed “Iran will not have nuclear weapons” and added “the military option” would happen if talks dragged on.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.
However, Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal, in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.
Watch: Iran, tariffs and hostages – key moments in Trump meeting with Netanyahu
The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that this weekend’s meeting in Oman would be “very big”.
“I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump said.
But he also warned that it would “be a very bad day for Iran” if the talks were not successful.
“We will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect negotiations. It is as much an opportunity as it is a test,” Araghchi said.
Iran harboured “serious doubts” about the sincerity of the US government’s intentions, he noted, citing the “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions that Trump restored soon after starting his second term.
“To move forward today, we first need to agree that there can be no ‘military option’, let alone a ‘military solution’,” he said.
“The proud Iranian nation, whose strength my government relies on for real deterrence, will never accept coercion and imposition.”
Araghchi insisted there was no evidence that Iran had violated its commitment not to seek nuclear weapons, but also acknowledged that “there may exist possible concerns about our nuclear programme”.
“We are willing to clarify our peaceful intent and take the necessary measures to allay any possible concern. For its part, the United States can show that it is serious about diplomacy by showing that it will stick to any deal it makes. If we are shown respect, we will reciprocate it.”
“The ball is now in America’s court,” he added.Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
ABC News New 85K views · 13:26 · Go to channel · Scientists Warn Yellowstone Caldera Volcano is About to Erupt Massively. ViewCation New 319 views · 5 …
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd in Tehran, Iran, March 31.
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
Dementia? Iran has apparently never said they would agree to direct talks with Trump about a nuclear deal. In fact they have said the opposite. Is Trump lying intentionally or is he mentally ill? Read the “Guardian” story or listen to the video — or both — and consider whether this man is mentally able to continue as the U.S. president. The last “direct” talks between the U.S and Iran were held 45 years ago in 1980.
Some the article’s reporting has somehow apparently been edited out of the original story, so far as I can tell, from both the “Guardian” and the “AP” stories, and also from “NPR”s more recent version of the story: All I could fine was … nuclear deal. Source: AP. Mon 7 Apr 2025 21.55 EDT Last modified on … all the warnings about a ‘dementia tsunami’, here are the things you …
I did find in a time-related “Guardian” story about “Alzheimer’s” or “dementia” in an article where Trump is quoted in the following way: “ As Trump himself observed: “The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”
Donald Trump has announced that the US is to hold direct talks with Iran in a bid to prevent the country from obtaining an atomic bomb, while also warning Tehran of dire consequences if they fail.
Sitting beside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that discussions would start this coming weekend, though he also implied communications had already begun.
He said the talks were happening in an effort to avoid what he called “the obvious” – an apparent reference to US or Israeli military strikes against the regime’s nuclear facilities.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” he told reporters.
“And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or, frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it.
“So we’re going to see if we can avoid it. But it’s getting to be very dangerous territory. And hopefully those talks will be successful. And I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful.”
He gave no details of where the talks would take place or which officials would be involved. When questioned by journalists, Trump issued a thinly veiled threat if the talks failed, saying Iran would be in “great danger”.
“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran … Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it – because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“It’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Right now we have countries that have nuclear power that shouldn’t have it. But I’m sure we’ll be able to negotiate out of that too as part of this later on down the line.
“And if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran.”
During his presidency, Trump pulled out of a deal signed by Barack Obama known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. That deal offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limitations on its uranium enrichment activities – resorting instead to a policy of “maximum pressure” that tightened economic embargoes.
Critics say Iran nevertheless accelerated its nuclear program and is now closer to building a bomb than ever before. Attempts by Joe Biden at reviving the deal negotiated by Obama faltered.
Netanyahu, who views Iran as an existential threat to Israel, actively undermined Obama’s agreement and has long railed against any deal that would allow the country’s theocratic rulers to maintain a program that could converted to nuclear weaponry.
Iran, for its part, has consistently denied any intent to build a bomb and said its program is meant for purely civilian purposes.
Iran and the US have had no direct diplomatic relations since 1980, when ties were severed after revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held 53 diplomats hostage for 444 days.Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… nuclear program but revealing a potential sticking point about the format for negotiating … All Things · Culture · Food and Drink · The Guide · All …
The B-2 Spirit Bomber, capable of delivering up to 20 tons of either conventional or nuclear bombs
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion: . . . And here we go with questionable deal-maker, Trump at the negotiating helm for the United States. Let us hope “sound minds” if they exist, which is also questionable, prevail.
With the Iranian army on full alert, and Trump having threatened (a week ago on March 31) that:
“There Will Be a Bombing’”, according to Trump’s threats, “if No Nuclear Deal Reached”, and today it seems that there is at least one bomber within striking distance. A spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command has confirmed the presence of the B-2 Spirit on the island of Diego Garcia, which serves as a strategic U.S. military base for operations across the Middle East, Africa, and Indo-Pacific regions.
So, at this point all we can do is wait and see what happens. There are links to further information included at the end of this “FDD” (Foundation for Defense of Democracies). ~llaw
April 7, 2025 | Flash Brief
‘They Are Sitting Inside a Glass Room’: Citing U.S. Threats, Iran Puts Army on High Alert
Latest Developments
Iran Fears U.S. Strikes: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei placed his country’s military on its highest alert level, fearing potential strikes by the United States, according to an Iranian official cited by Reuters on April 6. The move comes after President Donald Trump said on March 30 that if Iran does not reach a deal with the United States over its nuclear weapons program, he will issue secondary tariffs alongside “bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Iran has also reportedly sent a notice to the region’s U.S.-allied states — including Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and Bahrain — that a U.S. attack using their territory or air space would be considered a hostile action.
Tehran Rejects Trump’s Negotiation Offer: On March 5, Trump presented an offer for direct negotiations with Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program in a letter sent to Khamenei. Khamenei and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected the offer, responding that if the White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign persists, they would only engage in indirect negotiations through Omani intermediaries.
Iran Threatens U.S. Military Positions: On March 31, Khamenei said during an Eid-al-Fitr speech that “if [U.S. forces] commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow.” In an interview the same day, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, “The Americans have at least 10 bases around Iran in the region, which accommodates some 50,000 forces. This means they are sitting inside a glass room.” The regime-affiliated Tehran Timesreported on March 31 that the Iranian armed forces have “readied missiles with the capability to strike U.S.-related positions.”
FDD Expert Response
“This raising of Iranian military posture levels is the natural result of President Trump’s recently launched ‘maximum pressure’ campaign and Israel’s kinetic actions against Iran last fall. In truth, it does not matter what posture level Iranian forces are at; both the United States and Israel can impose costs on Iran at any time they choose. President Trump should stop the rhetorical threats against Iran and impose kinetic costs, at least in response to Iran’s support for the Houthis.” — RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, FDD Senior Fellow and Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology
“Tehran lacks the financial resources, military capability, and domestic support for a large-scale military conflict with the United States and Israel. However, Iran’s leaders likely prefer a limited, surgical military strike on their nuclear program over a voluntary, full dismantlement of that program.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
US unveils nuclear expansion plan to meet growing energy demand · The U.S. plans to add 15 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2035, with a goal of reaching …
