Timeline
of
Nuclear
Events
Return to home
Underground Tests Archive Data:
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/BRV_arch_exp.html
1918
The Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East
Orange, New Jersey, began manufacturing Radithor. It was advertised
as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine." It
consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1
microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes. The FTC
issued a cease and desist order against the manufacture in 1931.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor)(AH,
10/07, p.37)
1921 Frederick Soddy (b.1877),
English radiochemist, received the Nobel prize for chemistry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Soddy)
1942 Sep 17, US Army Lt. Gen.
Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970) made a temporary Brigadier General and
was placed in charge of the Manhattan Engineer District, which
became known as the Manhattan Project, the fledgling US atomic bomb
program.
(ON, 8/09,
p.7)(http://unjobs.org/authors/leslie-r.-groves)
1942 Dec 2, A self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the
University of Chicago. On the squash court underneath a football
stadium of the University of Chicago, the first nuclear chain
reaction was set off. At 3:45 p.m., control rods were removed from
the "nuclear pile" of uranium and graphite, revealing that neutrons
from fissioning uranium split other atoms, which in turn split
others in a chain reaction. The reaction was part of the Manhattan
Project, the United States' top-secret plan to develop an atomic
bomb. The group of scientists was led by Enrico Fermi and they
proved that building an atomic bomb would be feasible. Dr. Alexander
Langsdorf was one of the designers of the first 2 nuclear reactors
that followed the first sustained nuclear chain reaction at the
Univ. of Chicago. The first and last atomic bombs ever used in war
were dropped on Japan in 1945.
(TMC, 1994, p.1942)(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-10)(AP,
12/2/97)(HNPD, 12/2/98)
1943 Jan, Construction began at
Los Alamos, New Mexico, on a research facility for the Manhattan
Project, the US atomic bomb program.
(ON, 8/09, p.8)
1943 The Hanford nuclear
reservation was constructed in Washington state for the Manhattan
Project. Hanford made plutonium until the 1980s.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A7)
1945 Jul 16, The first US test
explosion of the atomic bomb was made at Alamogordo Air Base, south
of Albuquerque, New Mexico, equal to some twenty thousand tons of
TNT. The bomb was called the Gadget and the experiment was called
Trinity from a poem by John Donne (Batter my heart, three-person’d
God), and it was conducted in a part of the desert called Jornada
del Muerto, (Dead Man’s Trail), and measured the equivalent of
18,600 (21,000) tons of TNT. It was the culmination of 28 months of
intense scientific research conducted under the leadership of
physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer under the code name Manhattan
Project. The successful atomic test was witnessed by only one
journalist, William L. Laurence of the New York Times, who described
seeing the blinding explosion: "One felt as though he had been
privileged to...be present at the moment of the Creation when the
Lord said: Let There be Light." Oppenheimer’s own thoughts from the
Hindu Bhagavad-Gita were very different: "I am become death, the
shatterer of worlds." The event is described in Richard Thode’s "The
Making of the Atomic Bomb." In 2005 Diane Preston authored
“Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima.”
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.212-213)(HNPD, 7/16/98)(SFC,
12/31/98, p.D4)(SFEC, 12/19/99, Par p.15)(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.E3)
1945 Jul 16, Cruiser
Indianapolis left SF with an atom bomb.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1945 Aug 6, Hiroshima, Japan,
was struck with the uranium bomb, Little Boy, from the B-29
airplane, Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets (1915-2007) of the
US Air Force along with 11 other men. The 9,600 pound bomb had a
2-part core of enriched uranium-235. It killed an estimated 140,000
people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. Major Thomas
Wilson Ferebee (d.2000 at 81) was the bombardier. Richard Nelson
(d.2003) was the radio operator. In 1946 John Hersey authored
“Hiroshima,” an account of the bombing based on interviews with 6
survivors.
(AP, 8/6/97)(SSFC, 7/31/05, p.B2)(WSJ, 8/12/06,
p.P8)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A23)
1945 Aug 9, The 10,000 lb.
plutonium bomb, Fat Man, was dropped over Nagasaki after the primary
objective of Kokura was passed due to visibility problems. It killed
an estimated 74,000 people. The B-29 bomber plane Bock's Car so
named for its assigned pilot, Fred Bock, was piloted by Captain
Charles W. Sweeney (d.2004). Kermit Beahan (d.1989) was the
bombardier.
(WSJ, 7/19/95, p.A-12)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(SFC, 3/17/00, p.D6)(HNQ, 3/31/00)
1945-2002 Some 100,000 nuclear bombs were
manufactured over this period.
(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.E6)
1946 May 28, The US Army Air
Force initiated the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft
program (NEPA). Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp. was selected to
study the possibility of developing a long range strategic bomber
powered by a nuclear reactor.
(AH, 2/03,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion)
1949
Aug 29, The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at
Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. It was a copy of the Fat Man bomb and
had a yield of 21 kilotons.
(www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1940.shtml)
1950 Jan 31, President Truman
announced that he had ordered full-speed development of the hydrogen
bomb.
(TMC, 1994, p.1950)(AP, 1/31/98)
1950 Mar 8, Marshall Voroshilov
of the USSR announced the Soviet Union had developed an atomic bomb.
[see August 29, 1949]
(PC, 1992 ed, p.922)
1951 Jan 27, Atomic testing
began in the Nevada desert as an Air Force B-50D from a base in New
Mexico dropped a one-kiloton nuclear bomb on Frenchman Flats, Clark
County, 65 miles NW of Las Vegas. Over the next 40 years 928 nuclear
devices were exploded at the site.
(AP, 1/27/98)(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.D8)(www.ntshf.org)
1951 Feb 1, The third A-bomb
test was completed in the desert of Nevada.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1951 May 12, The 1st H Bomb
test was on Eniwetok Atoll. [see Oct 31, 1952]
(MC, 5/12/02)
1951 Sep 24, The Soviet Union
conducted its 2nd nuclear test.
(http://zvis.com/nuclear/ndb/ussrnuks.shtml)
1951 Nov 1, The 1st atomic
explosion, witnessed by troops, was at Yucca Flat, Nevada. Members
of the 1st Battalion, 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment from Ft.
Campbell, Kentucky, were the first unwitting test participants to be
sent to that facility by the Atomic Energy Commission and The
Department of Defense in a series of nuclear tests, code named
"Buster-Jangle."
(www.angelfire.com/tx/atomicveteran/exposed.html)
1951 Dec 20, Bechtel scientists
at a military facility in Idaho powered up a small nuclear reactor
and lit 4 light bulbs. It was the 1st fission reactor to generate a
usable amount of electricity.
(SFC, 5/12/05,
p.C1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I)
1951 The US Atomic Energy
Commission and the Air Force instituted the Aircraft Nuclear
propulsion development Program (ANP). It ended in 1961 under Pres.
John F. Kennedy.
(AH, 2/03, p.52, 56)
1952 Apr 22, An atomic test
conducted at Yucca Flat, Nevada, became the first nuclear explosion
shown on live network television.
(AP, 4/22/99)(SFC, 4/19/02, p.G3)
1952 Oct 3, The British
detonated their 1st atomic bomb, a 25-kiloton device, in the Monte
Bello Islands off Australia. In 1998 a visit to the islands was
limited to one hour due to lingering radiation.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A14)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)(AP,
10/3/08)
1952 Nov 1, The United
States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Ivy Mike," in a
test at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. The elements Einsteinium
and Fermium were discovered in the debris of the 1st hydrogen bomb
test. In 2002 Greg Herken authored "Brotherhood of the Bomb: the
Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence
and Edward Teller."
(AP, 11/1/07)(NH, 7/02, p.35)(SSFC, 10/12/02,
p.M1)(SFC, 7/3/10, p.C4)
1952 The Canadian Government
formed the Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, or
AECL, from precursor organizations dating back to the early 1940s.
(www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/nuctek/canhistory.html)(Econ,
6/20/09, p.38)
1953 May 25, The first atomic
cannon was fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada.
(HN, 5/25/98)(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 Jun 4, An atomic bomb test
explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000
tons of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1953 Aug 12, The Soviet Union
conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1953 Aug 20, The Soviet Union
publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1954 Mar 1, The Bravo hydrogen
bomb test exploded across Bikini atoll (Marshall Islands) with the
force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. A Nuclear Claims Tribunal,
established in 1986, later awarded Bikini and Enewetak 500 million
dollars but only a fraction of the amount was received. A Nov 30,
2004, deadline limited further suits.
(AP,
10/17/04)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX51.html)
1954 Mar 1, The No. 5
Fukuryu-maru was trolling for tuna off the Bikini atoll in the
Pacific during the Bravo hydrogen bomb test. 11 crew members died in
the half-century since the exposure, at least six of them from liver
cancer. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 66
nuclear tests at Bikini as part of "Operation Crossroads."
(AP, 2/28/04)
1954 Mar 26, The U.S. set off
the second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at
Bikini Island. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful
than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated
the neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the
island and other downwind atolls.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)(SS, 3/26/02)
1954 Apr 12, AEC hearings began
on Robert Oppenheimer. Lewis Strauss, head of the AEC, had accused
Oppenheimer on Dec 21, 1953, of disloyalty and presented a list of
the charges against him. Oppenheimer refused to resign, demanded a
hearing, and hired a lawyer.
(http://tinyurl.com/8e8lf)
1954 Apr 18, The US held a
nationwide test of its disaster radio system known as Conelrad. In
SF a simulated 10-megaton bomb, exploding over Hunters Point, was
estimated to kill 500,000 Bay Area citizens.
(SSFC, 4/12/09, DB p.43)
1954 May 27, The security board
of the Atomic Energy Commission affirmed Robert Oppenheimer's
loyalty but denied him security clearance. The AEC canceled his
contract.
(SSFC, 7/31/05, p.F2)(http://tinyurl.com/8e8lf)
1955 Mar 6, A US Atomic Energy
Spokesman said a cloud from the atomic blast at Nevada’s Yucca Flat
passed over the Central California coastline.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 May 5, The US detonated a
29-kiloton nuclear device in Nevada. “Apple 2” was the 2nd of 40
tests of Operation Cue, meant to study the effects of a nuclear
explosion on a typical American community.
(AH, 6/02, p.72)
1955 Jul 9, Scientists in
London issued a manifesto declaring that researchers must take
responsibility for their creations, such as the atomic bomb.
Bertrand Russel, British pacifist philosopher, drafted the
manifesto, which served as the philosophical origin for the 1957
Pugwash Conference (Nova Scotia) against nuclear arms. It was signed
by ten other scientists that included as Joseph Rotblat (1995 Nobel
Peace Prize), Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling and Frederic
Joliot-Curie.
(WSJ, 10/16/95, p.
A-15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat)
1955 Sep 17, A US Convair B-36
bomber took off from Carswell AFB, Texas, becoming the first
aircraft in the world to fly with a nuclear reactor. Over the next 2
years the Convair Crusader made 47 flights.
(AH, 2/03, p.51)
1955 Oct 14, A new US Navy
6-story, windowless structure was dedicated at the SF Naval Shipyard
at Hunters Point, Ca. The $8 million laboratory was to be devoted
exclusively to the development of defense against radiation.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1955 The synthetic element
mendelevium, atomic number 101, was constructed atom by atom by a
team at UC Berkeley. The team included Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T.
Seaborg, Gregory R. Choppin, Bernard G. Harvey, and Stanley G.
Thompson (team leader).
(SFC, 7/3/10,
p.C4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelevium)
1956 Jan 10, The US Navy
established its first nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New
London, Connecticut.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1956 May 20, The US dropped a
thermonuclear bomb from a plane onto Bikini Atoll. [see May 21]
(HN, 5/20/98)
1956 May 21, The first known
airborne US hydrogen bomb was tested over Bikini Atoll in the
Pacific.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1210)(AP,
5/21/97)
1956 Sep 22, Frederick Soddy
(b.1877), English radiochemist, died. He and Ernest Rutherford
explained that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of
elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He received the
Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1921.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Soddy)
1957 May 4, It was reported
that NATO has warned the Soviet Union that it would meet any attack
with all available meads including nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1957 May 15, The 1st British
hydrogen bomb was detonated on Christmas Island in South Pacific.
The 200 - 300 kilotons yield was less than expected.
(www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1950.shtml)
1957 Jun 24, A 37-kiloton
nuclear fission bomb, code-named Priscilla, was exploded in the
Nevada desert at Frenchman Flat. The security of a bank vault was
tested in the experiment. At this time the US was manufacturing 10
nuclear bombs a day.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.E1)
1957 Jul 12, Santa Susana in
Los Angeles County began receiving the nation’s first commercial
electricity from a small, civilian-owned, nuclear reactor. It was
shut down in 1964 and scientists later reported that the plant might
be responsible hundreds of cancer cases. PG&E had teamed with
General Electric to establish the Vallecitos atomic energy plant,
the world’s 1st privately owned and operated nuclear facility.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1957 Sep 2, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the Price-Anderson Act, which limited firms’ liability in
commercial nuclear disasters. The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries
Indemnity Act, a United States federal law, has since been renewed
several times since its passage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price-Anderson_Nuclear_Industries_Indemnity_Act)(SSFC,
4/8/07, p.A18)
1957 Sep 19, The United States
conducted its first underground nuclear test, code-named "Rainier,"
in the Nevada desert.
(AP, 9/19/07)
1957 Oct 7, A fire in the
Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield)
north of Liverpool, England, spread radioactive iodine and polonium
through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the
immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk.
At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were
subsequently linked to the accident. PM Harold Macmillan ordered the
disaster hushed up.
(HN, 10/7/00)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.76)(Econ,
10/13/07, p.63)
1957 Nov 3, Canada fired up the
National Research Universal (NRU) nuclear reactor near Ottawa. The
200 MWt reactor began producing medical and industrial
radioisotopes, including molybdenum-99, a critical isotope used for
medical diagnoses.
(Econ, 6/20/09,
p.38)(www.aecl.ca/Science/RR/History.htm)
1957 Nov, Communist bosses
gathered in Moscow. Mao Zedong predicted that between a third and a
half of the world’s population might be killed in a nuclear
conflagration, but that most survivors would be living in the
socialist block and “imperialism would be razed to the ground.”
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/quemoy_matsu-2.htm)(Econ,
11/27/10, p.65)
1957 Dec 2, The Shippingport
Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first full-scale
commercial nuclear facility to generate electricity in the US, went
critical. [see July 12] It was taken out of service in 1982.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)(AP, 12/2/07)
1957 Dec 18, The Shippingport
Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first nuclear facility to
generate electricity in the United States, went on line [see July
12].
(AP, 12/18/07)
1957 Denmark banned nuclear
weapons from its soil.
(AP, 10/29/10)
1957 The Flerov Laboratory of
Nuclear Reactions was founded in the Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research in Dubna, Russia.
(http://159.93.28.88/flnr/index.html)
1958 Mar 11, A B-47 out of
Hunter AFB in Savannah, Georgia, had just leveled off at 15,000
feet, when a bomb lock failed and dropped a nuclear bomb on the
suburban neighborhood of Florence, South Carolina. The bomb's high
explosives exploded on impact, wrecking a house and injuring several
people on the ground. The extent of radioactive contamination was
never revealed.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1958 Apr 4, The 1st march
against nuclear weapons began in London with a 4-day to the Atomic
Weapons Research Establishment close to Aldermaston, England.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldermaston_Marches)
1958 Apr 7, Anti-nuclear peace
protesters arrived at the Atomic Weapons Establishment near
Aldermaston, England, after marching for several days from London.
(AP, 4/7/08)
1958 Oct 6, The US nuclear
submarine Seawolf surfaced after spending 60 days submerged.
(AP, 10/6/08)
1958 A US B-47 bomber dropped a
7,600 pound, Mark-15 hydrogen bomb off the Georgia coast after it
collided with a Navy fighter jet. It became one of “11 Broken
Arrows,” nuclear bombs never found during air or sea accidents.
Evidence of unusual radiation in the area turned up in 2004
prompting a renewed search.
(SFC, 9/30/04, p.A7)
1959 Jul 21, The 1st atomic
powered merchant ship, NS Savannah, was christened at Camden, NJ. In
1995 it was docked as part of the Navy’s James River Reserve Fleet
at Fort Eustis, Va. Soviets launched the world’s 1st operational
nuclear surface ship in 1958. The NS Savannah served until 1971.
(OGA, Internet, 11/24/98)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.B5)(AH,
2/03, p.2)
1959 Jul 26, There was a
partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field
Laboratory 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. A report in
2006 said it may have caused hundreds of cases of cancer in the
community, and that chemicals threatened to contaminate ground and
water.
(AP,
10/6/06)(www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/santa/san_p1.html)
1960 Feb 13, Gerboise Bleue
("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It
was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara
desert, during the Algerian War (1954-62).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)(AP,
2/13/08)
1960 Mar 21, California state
officials dumped radioactive waste from civilian installations into
the ocean about 50 miles off of San Francisco at a site that the
Navy and other Atomic Energy contractors have been using since 1946.
The waste was mixed with concrete, sealed in 55-gallon steel drums
and dumped in about 7,500 feet of water.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
1960
Apr 1, France exploded a 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert.
Gerboise Blanche (“white gerboa”) was a surface shot fired in a
seven meter deep pit, which accounted for the strange, Christmas
tree-like shape of the fireball. General Ailleret once again
personally initiated the firing of the device.
(www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=112)
1960 Dec 27, France exploded a
3rd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert, code-named Gerboise Rouge (“red
gerboa”).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed
soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green
gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a
classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to
study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In
total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere
and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from
1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1960 May 22, Chile experienced
a 9.5 earthquake. A slow earthquake was detected just before the big
one. It caused tsunamis in every coastal town between the 36th and
44th parallels with a death toll of some 1000 people.
(PCh, 1992, p.977)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)
1961 Jan 24, A B-52 carrying
two nuclear bombs near Goldsboro, North Carolina encountered a
violent gust. The giant plane rolled completely over, came upright,
and continued rolling inverted a second time before whipping into a
vicious flat spin and breaking up.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1961 Sep 1, The Soviet Union
ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear
explosion in central Asia.
(AP, 9/1/01)
1961 Sep 15, The US resumed
underground nuclear testing. Operation Nougat began a series of 45
nuclear tests conducted (with one exception) at the Nevada Test
Site.
(SSFC, 6/9/02,
p.F4)(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Nougat)
1961 Oct 30, The Soviet Union
tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at
about 50 megatons. This was the largest explosion ever recorded and
broke a 3-year nuclear test moratorium.
(AP, 10/30/06)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1962 Feb 16, Todd Gitlin
(b.1943), Harvard activist, helped organize a national anti-war
rally in Washington, DC. Some 8,000 students turned up. Boston SANE
& the fledgling SDS organized the first anti-nuclear march.
(www.peacebuttons.info/new/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february16)(Econ,
2/18/12, p.15)
1962 Mar 1, US-British nuclear
test experiment took place in Nevada.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1962 May 25, US performed an
atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1962 Apr 25,
Operation Dominic began with a test blast on Christmas Island. The
operation was a series of 105 nuclear test explosions conducted in
1962 and 1963 by the United States. Those conducted in the Pacific
are sometimes called Dominic I. The blasts in Nevada are known as
Dominic II.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Dominic_I_and_II)
1962 May 25, US performed
fizzled nuclear test at Christmas Island. The Tanana blast was part
of Operation Dominic.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Dominic_I_and_II)
1962 Jul 6, The US tested a 104
kiloton nuclear device in Nevada in "Project Sedan" and blew a hole
1,280 feet wide and 320 feet deep. It was one of many "Plowshare"
experiments to see if atomic detonations could be used for large
scale peaceful purposes.
(SFC,12/23/97, p.A3)
1962 Jul 7-1962 Jul 17,
Operation Sunbeam was a series of four nuclear tests conducted at
the United States of America's Nevada Test Site.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Sunbeam)
1962 Aug 25, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1963 Aug 5, The United States,
Britain and the Soviet Union signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty in
Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and
underwater. Public pressure helped JFK signed the ban on atmospheric
atom bomb tests.
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 7/15/07,
p.D1)
1964 Oct 16, Red China
detonated its first atomic bomb, codenamed "596," on the Lop Nur
Test Ground, and became the world's 4th nuclear power.
(TMC, 1994, p.1964)(AP, 10/16/07)
1965 Mar 3, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1965 Mar 3, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1966 The US nuclear arsenal
peaked at 30,000 weapons.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.E6)
1966 Jul 28, Operation
Latchkey, a series of 38 nuclear test explosions conducted in 1966
and 1967, began with the Saxon blast at the Nevada Test Site. All
but one of the tests took place in Nevada.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Latchkey)
1966 Jul-1991
Jul, During this period 175 French nuclear
detonations took place: 41 air bursts, 78 underground (in shafts dug
into the coral reef), and 56 underground (in shafts dug beneath the
lagoon). Of the 175 tests explosions, 163 were at the South Pacific
Mururoa Atoll, and 12 at Fangataufa atoll.
(http://tinyurl.com/3cutsg)
1966 In South Africa PM B.J.
Vorster (1915-1983) appointed P.W. Botha (1916-2006) as defense
minister. In 2010 it was revealed that Botha, as South Africa’s
defense minister, asked for nuclear warheads from Israel and that
Israel’s defense minister Shimon Peres offered them in 3 sizes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Willem_Botha)
1967 Jan 27, The US signed the
Outer Space Treaty with Russia. More than 60 nations signed a treaty
banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. All weapons of mass
destruction were banned from orbit, as was military activity on the
moon and other celestial bodies.
(SFC, 1/28/67, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/98)(SSFC, 7/15/07,
p.D1)
1967 Feb 18, Robert Oppenheimer
(62), theoretical physicist and leader of atomic bomb development,
died. His work included outlining processes by which old stars of
sufficient mass might collapse beyond the Schwarzschild radius and
become black holes. Physicist John Wheeler named the phenomena black
holes. In 2005 Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin authored “American
Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” and
Priscilla J. McMillan authored “The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.C3)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.B1)(SSFC,
7/31/05, p.F2)
1967 Feb 26, USSR performed an
underground nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1967 Mar 2, The US performed a
nuclear test at its Nevada Test Site. The Rivet III test was part of
Operation Latchkey.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Latchkey)
1967 Mar 3, The US performed a
nuclear test at its Nevada Test Site. The Mushroom test was part of
Operation Latchkey.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Latchkey)
1967 Mar 29, France launched
the Redoubtable, its first nuclear submarine. It did not enter
operational service until 1972, when it began its first patrol on 28
January.
(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/France/FranceOrigin.html)
1967 May 19, The Soviet Union
ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear
weapons from outer space: "Treaty on Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,
including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies." The Int’l. Outer
Space Treaty barred nations from appropriating celestial bodies but
did not mention individuals.
(AP, 5/19/97)(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 7/13/97,
Par p.8)
1967 Jun 17, China detonated
its 1st hydrogen bomb and became the world's 4th thermo-nuclear
power.
(SSFC, 6/9/02,
p.F6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teller%E2%80%93Ulam_design)
1967 Dr. Ervin Hulet (d.2010 at
84) discovered the heavy nucleus of mendelevium 258.
(SFC, 7/3/10, p.C4)
1967 India’s state-owned
Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) opened the first of 7
uranium mines in Jaduguda, Jharkhand state. A 2007 report, by the
non-profit Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), showed a
significant incidence of congenital abnormality, sterility, and
cancer among people living within 2.5 km (1.5 miles) of the mines
than those living 35 km away.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
1968 Jan 21, An American B-52
bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed at North Star Bay,
Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive
material. Reports began to surface later and in 1995 the Danish
government paid a $15.5 million settlement to some 1,700 exposed
workers.
(www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-02.asp)(AP, 1/21/08)
1968 Apr 26, The United States
exploded a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar" beneath the
Nevada desert.
(AP, 4/26/08)
1968 Jul 1, The United States,
Britain, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. India refused to sign.
(AP, 7/1/97)(SFC, 5/28/98,
p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/d5cf45)
1968 Aug 24, France became the
world's fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in
the South Pacific.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1968 Oct 27, Lisa Meitner
(b.1878), Austrian-born Swedish physicist, died in England. During
the war while in hiding from Hitler in Sweden, she analyzed and
understood for its significance the work of Otto Hahn who in 1944
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on nuclear
fission.
(MT, 10/94, letters,
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner)
1969 Mar 26, The Nuclear
reactor in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went into use.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodewaard_nuclear_power_plant)
1969 Jul 4, The USSR performed
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1969 Dec, In New Jersey the
boiling water Oyster Creek nuclear power plant was completed. It
used water from two rivers in a system of once-through cooling that
discharges slightly warmer water into canal connected to Barnegat
Bay, New Jersey.
(www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Early_closure_for_Oyster_Creek_0912101.html)
1970 Mar 23, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1970 Mar 26, 500th nuclear
explosion since 1945 was announced by the US.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1970 May 27, USSR performs an
underground nuclear test.
(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1970 Nov 4, Andre Sakharov,
Russian nuclear physicist, formed a Human Rights Committee.
(http://tinyurl.com/58dqt4)
1971 Mar 23, USSR performed
underground nuclear test.
(www.atomicforum.org/russia/russiantesting.html)
1971 May 25, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk.
(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1971 Jul 4, France performed a
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1971.html)
1971 Nov 6, The US Atomic
Energy Commission exploded a 5-megaton bomb beneath Amchitka Island,
Alaska, just 87 miles from the Petropavlovsk Russian naval base. It
registered as a magnitude-7 earthquake.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A4)
1971 In California the Hosgri
fault was discovered and forced PG&E to upgrade the design of
the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Unit 1 came online on May 7,
1985. Unit 2 became operational on March 13, 1986. In 2011 another
seismic fault was detected on the ocean floor a half mile from the
plant.
(SFC, 3/16/11,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Canyon_Power_Plant)
1972 David McTaggart (d.2001),
one of the founders of Greenpeace Int’l., sailed his small boat into
the French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa atoll in the South
Pacific.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1972 Scientists discovered an
extinct natural nuclear reactor in a uranium mine in Gabon. Research
revealed it had operated intermittently for a few million years from
about 2 billion years ago.
(SFC, 11/29/04, p.A4)
1973 Mar 23, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Toggle)
1973 Aug 25, France
performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1973 In Tennessee construction
began on a nuclear reactor at Watts Bar. Completion of the project
was expected in 2012.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.83)
1974 May 18, India became the
sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb. India conducted its first
nuclear tests and then halted testing.
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A12)(HN,
5/18/98)
1974 Jun 27, Pres. Nixon
arrived in Moscow for his 3rd summit. During the summit the US and
Russia approved a partial atomic test ban treaty.
(http://tinyurl.com/5yvrog)
1974 Jun, Members of the Joint
Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, USSR, reported their
discovery of Element 106, which they reported to have synthesized.
Glenn Seaborg was part of this group, and the element was named in
his honor. Ervin Hulet and Albert Ghiorso of UC Berkeley were also
members of the team.
(http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/106.html)(SFC,
2/27/99, p.A19)
1974 Aug 25, France
performed another nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1974 Nov 13, Karen Silkwood, a
technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium
plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a car crash while on her
way to meet a reporter
(AP, 11/13/07)
1974 The Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG), a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear
proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials
that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development, was founded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Suppliers_Group)
1976 Feb 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1976 Jul 28, In China a 7.8-8.2
earthquake in the northern city of Tangshan killed at least 242,000
people. This was reported as the deadliest earthquake in the last
100 years.
(AP,
7/28/97)(http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/a/tangshan.htm)
1976 Pres. Ford suspended
nuclear reprocessing under the fear that terrorist groups might
steal plutonium from American plants to manufacture bombs. Pres.
Carter made the decision permanent in 2007.
(WSJ, 3/13/09, p.A9)
1976 In Armenia the Metzamor
nuclear power plant opened. It featured two VVER nuclear reactors, a
design that continues to be used throughout the former Soviet Union
and eastern Europe. The plant was shut down in 1988 following the
Spitak earthquake, which killed 25,000 people and caused widespread
devastation. But Armenian authorities restarted one reactor unit at
the plant in 1993 following energy shortages that were causing heavy
deforestation.
(AP, 10/4/10)
1977 May 25, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1977 Apr 7, Pres. Carter
stopped the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel rods in order to
discourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1977 May 25, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1977 May 29, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1977 Jun 6, The Washington Post
reported that the US had developed a neutron bomb.
(http://piurl.com/5B)
1978 Feb, A top secret Pentagon
document titled "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear
Weapons" was completed. The report was made public in 1999 and
contained the locations of nuclear weapons minus their nuclear
charges.
(SFC, 10/20/99,
p.A7)(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19991020/04-01.htm)
1978 Mar 23, The US performed
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1978 May 29, The USSR performed
a nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1979 Sep 22, A 2-3 kiloton
thermonuclear device was set off in the waters off Bouvet Island, a
little-visited possession of Norway located between the bottom of
South Africa and the Prince Astrid Coast of Antarctica. It was
speculated to have been set off by either Israel, South Africa or
Taiwan.
(SFCM, 9/25/05, p.6)
1979 Aug 18, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1979 Sep 16, In Wisconsin the
Madison Press Connection published a detailed explanation of how to
build a hydrogen bomb in an article written by Charles Hansen
(1947-2003) of Mountain View, Ca. In 1988 Hansen published "U.S.
Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History."
(SFC, 9/17/04,
p.F4)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/HansenRetrospective.html)
1979 Sep 22, A 2-3 kiloton
thermonuclear device was set off in the waters off Bouvet Island, a
little-visited possession of Norway located between the bottom of
South Africa and the Prince Astrid Coast of Antarctica. The list of
suspects quickly narrowed to South Africa and Israel.
(SFCM, 9/25/05,
p.6)(www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/nuke-test.htm)
1980 Sep 15, A B-52H bomber
carrying nuclear-armed AGM-69 missiles experienced a fuel leak in
its number three main wing tank and caught fire on the ground at
Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1981 May 30, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(http://tinyurl.com/32s5h3)
1981 Jun 7, Israeli F-16
fighter-bombers in “Operation Opera” destroyed a nuclear power plant
in Iraq at Osirak, Iraq, before it went into operation. Israelis
charged that the facility could have been used to make nuclear
weapons. Ilan Ramon (d.2003) flew the last of the 8 planes that
bombed the reactor. In 2004 Rodger W. Claire authored “Raid on the
Sun.”
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A22)(AP, 6/7/97)(SFC, 2/3/03,
p.A7)(WSJ, 6/1/04, p.D8)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.28)
1982 Jun 12, Some one million
anti-nuclear demonstrators rallied in Central Park, NYC.
(www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/schell)
1982 Jul 4, USSR performed
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_9.htm)
1982 Virginia banned uranium
mining. It remained legal to process enriched uranium into usable
nuclear fuel. In 2008 it was reported that the largest undeveloped
uranium deposit in the US was in Virginia’s Pittsylvania County.
(www.cleanwateraction.org/publication/keep-ban-uranium-mining-virginia)(WSJ,
7/26/08, p.A7)
1983 Mar 2, USSR performed an
underground nuclear test.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1983 Mar 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1983 Apr 1, Anti-nuke
demonstrators linked arms in 14-mile human chain in England.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1983 May 25, France performed a
nuclear test.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1983 The French Green Party was
founded.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.D5)
1984 Feb 19, The USSR
performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_10.htm)
1984 Apr 16, In San Francisco
nearly 200 people were arrested as some 1,000 demonstrators
protested the noon speech by Henry Kissinger as the SF Hilton Hotel.
“I believe that, within the next 12 to 15 months, there is every
possibility that significant negotiations with the Soviet Union will
start.”
(www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/84/84-04kissinger-speech.html)(SSFC,
4/12/09, DB p.43)
1984 Aug 25, The USSR
performed an underground nuclear test.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_10.htm)
1984 In the Philippines the
Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was completed at a cost of $2.3 billion,
but remained dormant. In 2011 it was planned to open to tour groups
to teach them about nuclear power.
(AFP, 5/11/11)
1985 May 7, In California Unit
1 of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant came online. Unit 2
became operational on March 13, 1986.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Canyon_Power_Plant)
1985 Sep 30, Charles Richter
(b.1900), seismologist, died. He developed the Richter Scale for
measuring the amplitude of earthquakes. In 2007 Susan Elizabeth
Hough authored “Richter’s Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure
of a Man.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Francis_Richter)(SSFC,
1/21/07, p.M3)
1986 Apr 26, The world's worst
nuclear accident occurred in Pripyat, Ukraine, north of Kiev, at
1:23 a.m. as the Chernobyl atomic power plant exploded. A
300-hundred-square-mile area was evacuated and 31 people died as
unknown thousands were exposed to radioactive material that spread
in the atmosphere throughout the world. An exploded at Chernobyl,
Ukraine, and burned for 10 days. About 70% of the fallout fell in
Belarus. Damage was estimated to be up to $130 billion. By 1998
10,000 Russian "liquidators" involved in the cleanup had died and
thousands more became invalids. It was later estimated that the
released radioactivity was 200 times the combined bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was later found that Soviet scientists
were authorized to carry out experiments that required the reactor
to be pushed to or beyond its limits, with safety features disabled.
(WSJ, 11/8/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A14)(SFC,
12/18/99, p.C4)(AP, 4/26/05)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.18)
1987 Feb 26, USSR resumed
nuclear testing at Semipalitinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1987 Nov 7, Italian
citizens began voting in a 2-day referendum to close down 3 nuclear
power plants.
(AP, 11/13/03)(Econ, 6/6/09,
p.66)(www.radicalparty.org/ambiente/dilascia_ing.htm)
1987 US Congress amended the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act and directed DOE to study only Yucca
Mountain, Nevada, located within a former nuclear test site.
(www.nei.org/keyissues/nuclearwastedisposal/yuccamountain/)
1989 Soviet nuclear test
explosions ended in Kazakhstan. Between 1949 and the cessation of
atomic testing in 1989, 456 explosions were conducted at the STS,
including 340 underground shots and 116 atmospheric.
(SFC,11/20/97,
p.B2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semipalatinsk_Test_Site)
1990 Astrophysicist Clifford
Stoll authored “The Cuckoo's Egg," a true account of the tracking of
a hacker who probed the US's most sensitive secrets, using keywords,
such as "thermonuclear war." Stoll's pursuit of a hacker trying to
access American computer networks led to the discovery of a West
German spy ring.
(www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Clifford-Stoll/dp/0671726889)
1991 May 18, France performed a
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1991 Jul 8, Reversing earlier
denials, Iraq disclosed for the first time that it was carrying out
a nuclear weapons program, including the production of enriched
uranium.
(AP, 7/8/01)
1991 Jul 13, Soviet and
American negotiators meeting in Washington wrangled over a treaty to
reduce long-range nuclear missiles.
(AP, 7/13/01)
1991 Jul 14, American and
Soviet negotiators in Washington continued work on trying to
complete a treaty slashing long-range nuclear arsenals.
(AP, 7/14/01)
1991 Jul 28, President Bush
warned Iraq it would be making "an enormous mistake" if it failed to
disclose its nuclear weapons program to United Nations inspectors.
(AP, 7/28/01)
1991 Sep 23, UN weapons
inspectors in Baghdad discovered documents detailing Iraq's secret
nuclear weapons program and said Iraq was close to building a bomb.
This triggered a standoff with Iraqi authorities.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(AP, 9/23/01)
1991 Sep 27, President Bush
announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating
all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons, and called on the Soviet Union
to match the gesture.
(AP, 9/27/01)
1991 Sep 28, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev praised President Bush's pledge to drastically
reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and promised to "reciprocate."
(AP, 9/28/01)
1991 Sep 28, U.N. weapons
inspectors ended a five-day standoff with Iraq over documents
relating to Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
(AP, 9/28/01)
1991 Oct 5, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced sweeping cuts in nuclear weapons in
response to President Bush's arms reduction initiative.
(AP, 10/5/01)
1991 Dec 24, A day before
resigning, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev briefed Russian
President Boris Yeltsin on nuclear weapons-firing procedures.
Gorbachev also held a farewell meeting with staff members.
(AP, 12/24/01)
1991 Dec 30, Leaders of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia et al) agreed to
establish unified command over nuclear weapons, while allowing
member states to form their own armies.
(AP, 12/30/01)
1991 US intelligence discovered
that Algeria possessed a nuclear research reactor at Ain Oussera,
which was surrounded by air defenses.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/2j86s7)
1991 Iran’s first nuclear
reactor was supplied by China.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A1)
1991 The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative
Threat Reduction (CTR) Program began. It was sponsored by US
Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar. CTR assisted the states of the
former Soviet Union in controlling and protecting their nuclear
weapons, weapons-usable materials, and delivery systems.
(www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/forasst/nunn_lug/overview.htm)(Econ,
1/8/11, p.61)
1991 The International Atomic
Energy Agency placed a seal over storage bunkers holding
conventional explosives known as HMX and RDX and PETN at the
Al-Qaqaa facility south of Baghdad as part of U.N. sanctions that
ordered the dismantlement of Iraq's nuclear program.
(AP, 10/27/04)
1991 South Africa signed on to
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa had secretly
built several bombs but dismantled them before signing on to the
NPT.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.23)
1991-2005 The US spent some $7 billion on Russian
nuclear security.
(WSJ, 9/26/05, p.A1)
1992 Sep, A US nuclear test in
the Nevada desert was set off. After the test Washington voluntarily
gave up testing as part of the emerging global moratorium.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A3)
1993 The UN International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a database to count incidents of
nuclear trafficking.
(Econ, 10/04/08, p.65)
1994 Belarus gave up the
nuclear weapons it inherited in the breakup of the Soviet Union, but
it retained its highly enriched uranium stocks.
(AP, 12/1/10)
1995 Feb 14, Britain’s Sizewell
B nuclear power plant, near Leiston, Suffolk, started generating
power. Construction had started in 1988.
(www.british-energy.com/pagetemplate.php?pid=96)
1995 British Energy was formed
to run Britain’s second generation of nuclear plants.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.64)
1996 Jan 27, France detonated
its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb. In 1998 the Int’l. Atomic
Energy Agency confirmed that the test sites in the South Pacific
would be contaminated for centuries. Plutonium particles were
scattered in the sediment of the lagoons at Mururoa and Fangatoufa.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A7)
1996 Jul 29, China held a
nuclear test explosion that it promised would be its last, just
hours before international negotiators in Geneva began discussing a
global ban on such testing. Beijing said it would seek some changes
in the global test-ban treaty currently being fashioned by
negotiators.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/97)
1996 In Tennessee Unit 1 of the
Watts Bar nuclear power plant came on line after 23 years of
construction and a cost of $6.9 billion.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.A6)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.71)
1996 In Tennessee the US Dept.
of Energy began converting the K-25 building at Oak Ridge, which
anchored the world’s first full-scale uranium enrichment factory,
into an industrial park. By 2008 it was estimated that K-25 would be
leveled by late 2010, and the rest of the site finished by 2016 at a
cost of $3 billion.
(WSJ, 6/2/08, p.A2)
1996 A Danish government
admitted in a report that the United States had stored nuclear
weapons in Greenland during the Cold War, although Denmark had
banned nuclear weapons from its soil in 1957.
(AP, 10/29/10)
1997 Apr 5, Regional police
reported the arrest of 7 men in Novosibirsk, Russia, who officials
said planned to smuggle 11 pounds (5.2kg) of enriched uranium to
Pakistan or China. The uranium was reportedly stolen from a plant in
the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
(AP, 11/29/07)(http://tinyurl.com/3cydhn)
1997 Jul 2, The US began a
round of underground nuclear weapons-related tests in Nevada.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 16, Scientists
reported that an underground seismic event occurred in Russia.
Inquiries were being made about nuclear testing. Russian scientists
claimed a magnitude-2 earthquake near the Novaya Zemlya test range
triggered the event.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)
1998 May 11, India set off the
1st of 3 underground atomic blasts in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan
near the Pakistan border, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. Abdul
Kalam led the teams of scientists who developed missiles designed
for India’s atomic warheads.
(WSJ, 5/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/11/99)(WSJ, 7/15/02,
p.A1)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.42)
1998 May 13, India set off 2
more nuclear explosions in defiance of int’l. condemnations.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A1)
1998 May 28, Pakistan matched
India and exploded five of its own underground nuclear tests in the
Chagai Hills. Pres. Clinton grimly denounced the tests and imposed
penalties that could cause Pakistan billions. It was later reported
that the number and size of the weapons were exaggerated.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A1,13) (SFC, 9/16/98, p.A1)(AP,
5/28/99)
1998 May 30, Pakistan set off a
nuclear bomb, the 6th test in 3 days.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A15)
1999 Mar 26, The Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. received its
first shipment of nuclear waste. The facility was completed in 1988.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A2)
1999 May 19, Ukrainian
authorities on 19 May 1999 arrested four Russian citizens who were
attempting to smuggle 20kg of “enriched uranium ore” to Western
Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/3cydhn)
1999 Jun, In Japan a
self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred for 15 minutes at
the No. 1 reactor of Shika Nuclear Power Plant in Ishikawa
prefecture. Hokuriku Electric Power Co. failed to report the
reaction to authorities. In 2007 the company agreed to shut down the
reactor for inspection.
(AP, 3/15/07)
1998 Jul 15, A letter,
supposedly written by Jo Byong Ho, a North Korean official, was said
to be addressed to Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. It
said that the chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Jehangir Karamat,
had been paid $3 million and asked that “agreed documents and
components” be placed on a North Korean plane after delivering
missile parts to Pakistan. The evidence suggested that Pakistan’s
top military officials were involved in the secret sale of equipment
to North Korea that enabled it to begin enriching uranium.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A4)
1999 Sep 30, In Japan 3 workers
were hospitalized with radiation poisoning following an accidental
20-hour nuclear reaction at the JCO Co. nuclear processing plant in
Tokaimura, 80 miles northeast of Tokyo. Area residents were told
they could resume normal activity the next day. Production pressure
was later cited as the cause of the accident. Sumitomo Metal Mining
Co., the owner of JCO, promised to pay damages to victims of the
accident. The number of people exposed was later raised to 69.
Hisashi Ouchi (30), one of the 3 workers, died from radiation
exposure on Dec 21. Masato Shinohara (40) died Apr 27, 2000.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A1)(SFC,
10/4/99, p.A12)(SFC, 10/6/99, p.C16)(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A14)(SFC,
12/4/99, p.C1)(SFC, 12/22/99, p.C11)(SFC, 4/28/00, p.D6)
2001 Sep 3, In France COGEMA, a
state-owned uranium mining and fuel recycling firm led by Anne
Lauvergeon, became Areva in a merger with Framatome, a maker of
nuclear reactors.
(www.freebase.com/view/en/areva)(Econ, 5/9/09,
p.70)
2001 The Generation IV
International Forum (IGF) was established to coordinate the
development of new nuclear reactors. Members included America,
Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Japan, Russia,
South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland and Euratom, the EU’s nuclear
body.
(Econ, 12/12/09, TQ p.15)
2002 Tsutomu Yamaguchi
(1916-2010), twice-victim of the 1945 nuclear bombs in Japan,
published a collection of 31-syllable poems (tanka) that reflected
on his WWII ordeal.
(Econ, 1/16/10,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi)
2002 Alyn Ware of New Zealand,
a campaigner against nuclear weapons, established a network of
lawmakers worldwide to campaign against nuclear weapons at the UN.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2003 Aug 27, The US and North
Korea held direct talks for the first time in months, meeting for a
half-hour on the sidelines of a six-nation summit in Beijing
designed to resolve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Oct 4, A shipment of
uranium-enriching centrifuge gear was seized at the Italian port of
Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. In 2009 Urs Tinner, suspected of
involvement in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring, said in a
Swiss TV documentary that he tipped off US intelligence about a
delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons
program.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2004/nov/28/world/fg-network28)(WSJ,
12/31/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/22/09)
2004 Graham Allison, Harvard
security analyst, authored “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate
Preventable Catastrophe.”
(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.B1)
2005 Mar, Mining giant
BHP-Billiton paid $7 billion to acquire WMC Resources of Australia.
WMC owned the Olympic Dam copper an d gold mine, which also
contained the world’s largest uranium deposit.
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.56)
2005 Aug 31, Joseph Rotblat
(b.1908), Polish-born British physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
(1995), died in London. In 1957 he helped found the Pugwash
Conference on science and world affairs. His work on nuclear fallout
was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban
Treaty (1963). In 2012 Andrew Brown authored “Keeper of the Nuclear
Conscience: The Life and Work of Joseph Rotblat.”
(SFC, 9/2/05,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat)(Econ, 3/31/12,
p.94)
2005 Element 118 was created by
a team from Livermore, Ca., and scientists at the Dubna heavy ion
accelerator in Russia.
(SFC, 4/8/10, p.C5)
2006 Dec 7, Ali Reza Asgari, a
retired general who served in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, arrived in
Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria. He had become
involved in the olive business after retirement. Iranian officials
later said that he disappeared on Dec 9. In March, 2009, a former
German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was
providing information to the West on Iran's nuclear program. Asgari
allegedly told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps
to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an
Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007. In
November Iranian news Web sites reported that Asgari had been
abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2006 Dec 18, Pres. Bush signed
H.R. 5682, the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic
Energy Cooperation Act of 2006 (Hyde Act), to let the US share its
nuclear know-how and fuel with India, which continued to refuse to
sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It exempted from certain
requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 a proposed nuclear
agreement for cooperation with India. Robert Gates took the oath as
Pentagon chief.
(www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5682)(SFC, 12/19/06,
p.A16)(WSJ, 12/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Global Zero was founded by
Bruce Blair, a former Minuteman ballistic missile launch-control
officer. The group, dedicated to nuclear disarmament, announced
itself in December 2008.
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.69)(http://www.globalzero.org/)
2007 Jun 15, Areva, a French
nuclear energy group under the direction of Anne Lauvergeon,
announced a cash offer for UraMin, a Canadian start-up firm with
mining assets in Namibia, the Central African Republic, and South
Africa. The acquisition cost $2.5 billion. In late 2011 Areva took a
$2 million charge against the acquisition.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.67)(http://tinyurl.com/822j7j9)
2007 Jul 14, UN inspectors
arrived in North Korea to monitor the communist country's
long-anticipated promise to scale back its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea said it had shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon,
hours after a ship cruised into port loaded with oil promised in
return for the country's pledge to disarm.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/14/08)
2007 Aug 30, In a serious
breach of nuclear security, a US B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear
warheads flew cross-country unnoticed; the Air Force later punished
70 people.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2007 Sep 6, Israeli troops
backed by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike
at Palestinian militants and 10 militants were killed. Palestinian
militants said fighters in a pickup truck and jeep crashed through a
fence on the Gaza-Israel border and attacked an Israeli army post.
An Israeli airstrike hit in Syria where it was believed weapons,
being sent from Iran to the militant Islamic group in Lebanon, were
stored. It was later reported that the airstrike was aimed at a
partly constructed nuclear reactor.
(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/12/07)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.A19)
2007 Nov 28, Two Hungarians and
a Ukrainian were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary in an
attempted sale of uranium, material believed to be from the former
Soviet Union. Police said It was enriched enough to be used in a
radiological "dirty bomb."
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 12, India announced
major plans to increase its nuclear capabilities, saying it was
close to testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting targets up
to 6,000 kilometers (3,800 miles) away.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Russia and Iran
reached agreement on a schedule for finishing construction of a
nuclear power plant that plays a central role in the international
tensions over Iran's atomic program, Russian news agencies reported.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2008 Feb 5, A South African
court sentenced Daniel Geiges (69), a Swiss engineer, for his part
in an international nuclear smuggling ring. Geiges was given a
13-year suspended sentence on charges relating to a network run by
disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. Geiges' former boss
and co-accused, German engineer Gerhard Wisser was given an 18-year
suspended sentenced last year in a plea agreement for his role in
the network.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 7, Experts said Iran's
nuclear project has developed its own version of an advanced
centrifuge to churn out enriched uranium much faster than its
previous machines.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 27, Japan and Israel
shared their concerns about Iranian nuclear programs and agreed to
cooperate to prevent Tehran from going nuclear.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Mar 3, The UN Security
Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to
suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its
nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, China and Russia
scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's
nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 March 29, Azerbaijan
customs halted a shipment of Russian equipment for Iran’s first
nuclear power plant. The equipment was released May 1.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 8, In Pakistan a gas
leak sparked an explosion and fire at a nuclear plant that is
believed to produce enriched plutonium for the country’s atomic
weapons program. Two workers were killed.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 20, Russia closed down
a plutonium producing reactor in Seversk, marking a milestone in US
nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 24, Syria dismissed US
accusations that North Korea was helping it build a nuclear reactor
that could produce plutonium. Israeli warplanes bombed a site in
Syria on Sept. 6, 2007, that private analysts said appeared to have
been the site of a reactor, based on commercial satellite imagery
taken after the raid. Syria later razed the site.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 May 21, Two Swedish
contractors were arrested suspected of preparing to sabotage The
Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden, after traces of
explosives were found on one of the men.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 30, Jordan and France
signed an agreement to help the Arab kingdom develop its nuclear
energy program.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 2, The chief of the
International Atomic Energy Agency says Syria has agreed to let
inspectors into the country this month to probe allegations of
illegal nuclear activity.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 21, Four French
nationals, all Niger-based employees of the nuclear company Areva,
were abducted by rebels from the Movement for Justice in a part of
Niger known for its uranium mines. They were freed on June 25.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 25, A senior UN atomic
inspector said an initial probe of US allegations that a Syrian site
hit by Israeli warplanes was a secretly built nuclear reactor is
inconclusive and further checks are necessary.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 26, The Federation of
American Scientists, which studies the US nuclear arsenal, said in a
report that Washington had removed its last atomic bombs from the
British Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath, where they had been
stationed since 1954.
(Reuters, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 26, President Bush
said he will lift key trade sanctions against North Korea and remove
it from the US terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in
policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an
"axis of evil."
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 26, North Korea handed
over details of its nuclear programs, paving the way to be removed
from the US terrorism blacklist amid years of efforts to persuade
the North to abandon the atom bomb.
(AFP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, North Korea
destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program,
blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a
sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.
(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Geneva a
decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks
fizzled, with Iran stonewalling Washington and 5 other world powers
on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 26, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said that Iran now has 6,000 centrifuges, a significant
increase in the number of uranium-enriching machines in its nuclear
program.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Aug 1, The UN atomic
watchdog's board of governors unanimously approved an inspections
agreement with India that is key to finalizing a US-India nuclear
deal.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US Energy
Department said that even if no new reactors are built, getting rid
of the country's nuclear waste will cost $96.2 billion and require a
major expansion of the planned Nevada waste dump beyond limits
imposed by Congress.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 9, Syria said it would
bar UN nuclear investigators from revisiting a site bombed by
Israeli jets on suspicion it was a secretly built atomic reactor.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 24, Iran's official
news agency said the country has begun designing its second
light-water nuclear power plant, a 360-megawatt facility in the
southwest.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 26, An Ohio jury
convicted Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear plant engineer, of
hiding information in 2001 about reactor corrosion at the
Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie. Siemaszko’s attorney’s said the
plant’s owner set him up as a scapegoat because he spoke out about
safety concerns.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, North Korea said
it has suspended work on disabling its nuclear facilities as of
August 14 and is considering restoration of the Yongbyon reactor
that can make material for atomic bombs, accusing the US of
violating a disarmament deal by failing to delist North Korea as a
state sponsor of terrorism.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 28, Iran’s Junior
trade minister Mohammadali Zeyghami said Iran is ready to share its
nuclear technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west
African powerhouse boost electricity generation.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Sep 1, North Korea began
reassembling its Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic
bombs in violation of US conditions for improved diplomatic
relations. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported the restart on Sep 3
citing sources in Beijing close to six-party nuclear talks on North
Korean.
(Reuters, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 8, Australian Trade
Minister Simon Crean said Australia will not sell uranium to India
unless it signs a key non-proliferation pact, despite a decision by
nuclear supplier nations to end a ban on trading with New Delhi.
(AFP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 15, A new
International Atomic Energy Agency report said that Iran has
repeatedly blocked a UN investigation into allegations it tried to
make nuclear arms and the probe is now deadlocked.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 18, Australia’s PM
Kevin Rudd said the west's relations with Russia are at a turning
point after its intervention in Georgia and a pact to sell
Australian uranium to Moscow is in the balance.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 19, North Korea said
it is making "thorough preparations" to restart its nuclear reactor,
accusing the United States of failing to fulfill its obligations
under an international disarmament-for-aid agreement.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 22, North Korea asked
the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) to remove seals and surveillance
equipment from the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 24, The European Union
warned that Iran is nearing the ability to arm a nuclear warhead
even if it insists its atomic activities are peaceful.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 24, French power
provider EDF said it has agreed to acquire British Energy Group PLC
for about $23.2 billion in cash in a deal that would create a
powerhouse in nuclear energy.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 24, North Korea barred
UN nuclear inspectors from its main nuclear reactor and within a
week plans to reactivate the plant that once provided the plutonium
for its atomic test explosion.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 27, The UN Security
Council unanimously approved a new resolution reaffirming previous
sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment
program and offering Tehran incentives to do so.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 28, President Hugo
Chavez said that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy,
a move likely to raise US concerns over increasingly close
cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 1, The US Senate voted
overwhelmingly in favor of overturning a three-decade ban on atomic
trade with India, allowing American businesses to begin selling
nuclear fuel, technology and reactors in exchange for safeguards and
UN inspections of India's civilian nuclear plants. In response
Pakistani PM Yousaf Raza Gilani said: "Now Pakistan also has the
right to demand a civilian nuclear agreement with America. We want
there to be no discrimination. Pakistan will also strive for a
nuclear deal and we think they will have to accommodate us."
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 8, South Korea's top
military officer said North Korea is working to develop a nuclear
warhead for a long-range missile, a day after the communist state
tested its short-range weaponry.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 9, The International
Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea has told it that the
government is placing all its main nuclear complex off-limits to
inspectors and will stop its program of dismantling the site.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 11, The United States
said it would drop North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, in the
latest attempt to salvage a nuclear disarmament deal before
President Bush's term ends in January.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 12, North Korea said
it will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after
the US removed the communist country from a list of states
Washington says sponsor terrorism.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 14, North Korea
resumed steps to disable its nuclear reactor under renewed
monitoring, after a deal with Washington to save the disarmament
process from collapse.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 18, Pakistan said that
China will help it build two more nuclear power plants, offsetting
Pakistani frustration over a recent nuclear deal between archrival
India and the US.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Nov 12, The United States
says it has shipped 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil to North
Korea as part of a nuclear disarmament deal. The fuel is scheduled
to arrive in the North in late November and early December. North
Korea said that it won't allow outside inspectors to take samples
from its main nuclear complex to verify the communist regime's
accounting of past nuclear activities.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 17, Algeria and
Argentina signed an agreement to boost cooperation over civil
nuclear energy as part of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's
tour of northern Africa.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 26, In Venezuela
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to help start a local
nuclear energy program and said Moscow is willing to participate in
a socialist trade bloc in Latin America led by President Hugo
Chavez.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 30, The head of Iran's
nuclear power agency said the country is willing to help neighboring
Arab countries build joint light-water nuclear power plants if they
are interested.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia
signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four
nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Beijing
delegates from six nations focused on a Chinese proposal on how to
verify North Korea's claims about its atomic program in talks aimed
at ending the secretive regime's nuclear activities.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Paris, France,
entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, Jordan's Queen Noor and other
dignitaries launched an ambitious project aimed at eliminating the
world's nuclear weapons over the next 25 years.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 13, North Korea warned
that it will slow down work on ending its nuclear drive after
six-party talks collapsed, but South Korea predicted a fresh start
for diplomacy under US president-elect Barack Obama.
(AFP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 20, The British
government said it has sold its final stake in the country's nuclear
weapons plant, prompting criticism from MPs who said it throws the
independence of the British nuclear deterrent into question.
State-owned British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) sold its one-third
stake of the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at
Aldermaston, Berkshire, to Jacobs Engineering Group of the United
States.
(AFP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 30, US President
George W. Bush signed a nuclear inspection agreement with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which will boost
international monitoring of nuclear activities,
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/31/content_10583484.htm)
2008 India’s Congress Party
boasted of paying bribes to wavering lawmakers to secure passage of
a landmark civilian nuclear deal between India and the US. In 2011
WikiLeaks revealed a diplomatic cable that described Congress
insiders showing off chests of money to achieve this end.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)
2008 Brian Michael Jenkins
authored “Will Terrorists Go Nuclear.”
(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A25)
2008 William Tucker authored
“Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green
Revolution and Lead America’s Energy Odyssey.”
(WSJ, 12/16/08, p.A21)
2009 Jan 11, Slovakia reopened
a nuclear power plant it was forced to shut down as part of its bid
to join the European Union, prompting condemnation from neighboring
Austria, which described the reactor at Bohunice as unsafe.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 12, The US slapped
sanctions on people and firms linked to Pakistani scientist Abdul
Qadeer Khan’s black market nuclear network.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 17, A US researcher
who visited the North said North Korea has hardened its stance on
disarmament, saying it has "weaponized" plutonium into warheads, but
hopes for better ties with President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 21, Russia's military
said that an old Soviet-built nuclear-powered satellite has spewed
fragments in orbit, but insisted they do not threaten the
international space station or people on Earth.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Feb 2, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed a nuclear inspections deal with
India.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, French group Areva
signed a draft accord for the sale of two to six nuclear reactors to
India, a huge new market now open with the end of a nuclear trade
embargo on New Delhi.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Germany
countries leading the drive to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear
program welcomed the new US administration's readiness to engage
with Tehran. Foreign Ministry officials from Germany and the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China,
France, Russia and the US, met in Wiesbaden.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Swedish
government agreed to scrap a three-decade ban on building new
nuclear reactors, saying it needs to avoid producing more greenhouse
gases.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 6, A Pakistani court
freed nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. He had admitted to
selling weapon technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A1)
2009 Feb 16, Authorities
acknowledged that nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France
collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, touching off new
concerns about the safety of the world's deep sea missile fleets.
The HMS Vanguard, the oldest vessel in Britain's nuclear-armed
submarine fleet, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was
also carrying nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage in the
collision.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 19, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said samples taken from a Syrian site
suspected of being a secretly built reactor have revealed new traces
of processed uranium.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 22, Iran's official
news agency says the country's first nuclear power plant will begin
preliminary phase operation after a series of delays.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 24, France’s Pres.
Sarkozy and Italy’s Premier Berlusconi signed a deal pairing
utilities from each nation to study the feasibility of building
nuclear power plants in Italy.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Feb 24, Syria's nuclear
chief told the UN's nuclear agency that his nation has built a new
missile facility on the site of what the US says was a nearly
finished nuclear reactor bombed by Israel in Sep 2007.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iranian and
Russian technicians conducted a test run of Iran's first nuclear
power plant, a major step toward launching full operations at the
facility.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Mar 2, Iran dismissed US
concerns about how much fissile material the country has produced,
saying it isn't developing a nuclear bomb and that any effort to
make weapons-grade uranium would be difficult under the eyes of
international inspectors.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Paraguay about
100 women disrobed in a square in downtown Asuncion to protest
nuclear weapons.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 18, The prime
ministers of China and North Korea discussed the nuclear situation
on the Korean peninsula as they met in Beijing amid rising tensions
over Pyongyang's atomic and missile programs.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 24, The French
government offered for the first time to compensate victims of
nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, bowing to decades of
pressure by people sickened by radiation.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 26, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy visited Brazzaville and Kinshasa. During the
Kinshasa trip, given over in large part to regional political
issues, Areva signed an agreement with the government allowing the
company to prospect for and mine uranium.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 31, The US Government
Accountability Office released a report saying 4 countries
designated a terrorism sponsors received $55 million from a US
supported program promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy under
the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation program. Between 1997 and 2007 Iran
received over $15 million, $14 million went to Syria, while Sudan
and Cuba received over $11 million each.
(WSJ, 3/31/09, p.A3)
2009 Apr 1, In London
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama said Russia and the
United States will pursue a new deal to cut nuclear warheads, making
good on a pledge to rebuild relations from a post-Cold War low. The
US and China agreed to establish a "strategic and economic dialogue"
group that would first meet in Washington later this year.
(Reuters, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 9, Iran's president
inaugurated a new facility producing uranium fuel for a planned
heavy-water nuclear reactor. Pres. Ahmadinejad was attending
celebrations in Isfahan for Iran's National Day of Nuclear
Technology, which marks the day in 2006 when Iran enriched uranium
for the first time. Iran has been building the 40-megawatt
hard-water reactor in the central town of Arak for the past four
years.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 14, North Korea vowed
to restart its nuclear reactor and to boycott international
disarmament talks for good in retaliation for the UN Security
Council's condemnation of its rocket launch.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, Ukrainian
officials said security agents have arrested a regional lawmaker and
two companions for trying to sell a radioactive substance that could
be used in making a dirty bomb. The legislator in the western
Ternopyl region and two local businessmen were detained last week
for trying to sell 8.2 pounds (3.7 kilograms) of radioactive
material to an undercover agent of the security service.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 16, UN nuclear
inspectors left North Korea after the hardline communist state
ordered them out and announced plans to restart production of
weapons-grade plutonium.
(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 17, Canadian police,
acting on a tip-off from the United States, charged a Toronto man
with trying to illegally export nuclear technology to Iran. The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Mahmoud Yadegari had attempted to
obtain pressure transducers, devices that are used to make enriched
uranium but can also have military applications.
(Reuters, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Italy US and
Russian arms negotiators held a "very productive" initial round of
talks aimed at agreeing a new treaty to curb nuclear weapons as part
of a broader effort to improve relations.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, North Korea said
it has restarted its nuclear facilities to harvest plutonium for
atomic weapons, just hours after the UN imposed new sanctions on the
communist state for its recent rocket launch.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 May 4, Niger’s Pres.
Mamadou Tandja accompanied representatives of French energy giant
Areva at a ceremony marking the beginning of a new uranium project
in Imoraren. The site is expected to boost Niger's uranium
production from 3,000 to 5,000 tons per year.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, A restricted UN
report said IAEA inspectors detected nuclear particles in Egypt last
year and in 2007. A senior diplomat accredited to the agency said
that it was the first time the traces were reported by the
Vienna-based nuclear monitor.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 19, Russia and the US
held talks in Moscow aimed at cutting stockpiles of nuclear weapons,
a move that could herald a thaw in relations between the former Cold
War foes.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 25, North Korea
claimed it carried out a powerful underground nuclear test, much
larger than one conducted in 2006. Russia's Defense Ministry
confirmed an atomic explosion at 9:54 a.m. (0054 GMT) in
northeastern North Korea, estimating the blast's yield at 10 to 20
kilotons, comparable to the bombs that flattened Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 25, It was reported
that a secret Israeli government report said Venezuela and Bolivia
are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 26, Libya and Ukraine
signed deals to cooperate in both peaceful civilian nuclear energy
and in defense during a visit by Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 26, Russia's uranium
export company signed a groundbreaking $1 billion package of
contracts to supply three US utilities with enriched fuel for
nuclear power plants. Tenex signed contracts to provide enriched
uranium fuel to San Francisco, California-based Pacific Gas &
Electric Company; St. Louis, Missouri-based AmerenUE; and Dallas,
Texas-based Luminant. Tenex will supply fuel to the US utilities
from 2014 through 2020 under the contracts, which provide the option
for renewal.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 29, In California the
new National Ignition Facility was dedicated at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. It was designed to create conditions like those
found in stars and in the explosions of hydrogen bombs. The project
was over 5 years behind schedule and costs to date reached $4
billion, almost 4 times the original estimate.
(SFC, 5/30/09, p.A1)(Econ, 5/30/09, p.81)
2009 May 29, In Geneva a
65-nation Conference on Disarmament broke a dozen years of deadlock
and opened the way to negotiate a new nuclear arms control treaty.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May, Iranian nuclear
scientist Shahram Amiri vanished during a pilgrimage to the Saudi
kingdom. In October Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
said: "We hold Saudi Arabia responsible for Shahram Amiri's
situation and consider the US to be involved in his arrest."
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Jun 2, Pres. Obama
appeared in a BBC interview and said Iran may have some right to
nuclear energy, provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are
peaceful. Obama also restated his plans to pursue direct diplomacy
with Tehran.
(SFC, 6/3/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 12, The UN Security
Council agreed to expand an arms embargo against North Korea and
authorize ship searches on the high seas, with the goal of derailing
the isolated nation's nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 13, An Italian court
ordered the recall of 10,000 tons of wood fuel pellets imported from
Lithuania over fears that they could have dangerous levels of
radioactivity. Test results showed that they contained cesium 137, a
highly toxic radioactive substance normally produced by a nuclear
explosion or from the combustion of a nuclear reactor. The
contaminated pellets themselves were not dangerous to humans, but
danger comes from the ashes and the smoke produced when they are
burned.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 13, North Korea vowed
to step up its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war if its
ships are stopped as part of new UN sanctions aimed at punishing the
nation for its latest nuclear test.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 24, Russia’s Pres.
Medvedev arrived in Nigeria to sign gas and nuclear energy pacts,
becoming the first Kremlin leader to visit Africa's most populous
and energy-rich nation.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jul 2, The UN nuclear
agency's governing board (IAEA) chose Yukiya Amano, a veteran
Japanese diplomat as its new head. The term of the present head,
Mohamed ElBaradei, ends in November.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 6, In Russia President
Barack Obama opened his first Moscow summit with confidence. Obama
and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev struck a preliminary deal to
reduce their stockpiles of nuclear warheads to as few as 1,500 each,
pointing the two countries' arsenals toward lower levels than in any
previous arms control agreement.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 16, Iran announced
that Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of its nuclear agency, has
resigned, a move that may have been connected to the country's
postelection turmoil. Aghazadeh told the semiofficial ISNA news
agency that he submitted his resignation from Iran's Atomic Energy
Organization 20 days ago and also resigned from his other post as
one of Pres. Ahmadinejad's vice presidents.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 20, The United States
and India agreed on a defense pact that takes a major step toward
allowing the sale of sophisticated US arms to the South Asian nation
as it modernizes its military. New Delhi also approved sites for two
US nuclear reactors.
(Reuters, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 26, India launched the
first nuclear-powered submarine built on its soil, asserting itself
as a world power. It joined 5 other countries that can design and
construct such vessels. The 367-foot (112-meter) -long submarine,
named "Arihant" or "Destroyer of Enemies," was sent for sea trials
at a ceremony attended by PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jul 30, A Libyan officials
said Libya and Canada have signed a memorandum of intent on nuclear
power. Since July 2007, Libya has signed three similar agreements
with France, Russia and Ukraine.
(AFP, 7/30/09)
2009 Aug 1, The Sydney Morning
Herald reported that North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret
nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic
bomb within five years, citing the evidence of defectors. "In the
event that the testimony of the defectors is proved, the alleged
secret reactor could be capable of being operational and producing
one bomb a year, every year, after 2014."
(AFP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 20, Diplomats said
Iran has lifted a year-long ban and allowed UN nuclear inspectors to
visit a nearly completed nuclear reactor as well as granting greater
monitoring rights at another atomic site.
(SFC, 8/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 28, A Pakistani court
ordered the government to lift any remaining restrictions on Abdul
Qadeer Khan, a scientist alleged to have spread nuclear technology
to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Germany 6
countries met for talks to try to address concerns about Iran's
nuclear program. The German government said it has received no
official word yet on new proposals that Tehran is pledging to make.
(AP, 9/2/09)
2009 Sep 7, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran will neither halt uranium enrichment nor
negotiate over its nuclear rights but is ready to sit and talk with
world powers over "global challenges."
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 11, The US said it
would accept Iran's offer of wide-ranging talks with major powers
despite the Islamic Republic's stated refusal to discuss its nuclear
program.
(Reuters, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Vienna,
Austria, a 150-nation IAEA nuclear conference passed a resolution
directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first
time in 18 years. Iran hailed the vote as a "glorious moment." 49
voted for the resolution. 45 were against and 16 abstained from
endorsing or rejecting he document.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 18, NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for the US, Russia
and NATO to link their missile defense systems against potential new
nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East, saying that the old
foes must forget their lingering Cold War animosity.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 23, US President
Barack Obama delivered a stern message to global leaders to work
together to solve the world's most pressing problems in his maiden
speech to UN General Assembly. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
challenged world leaders to cleanse the globe of nuclear weapons,
tackle the threat of catastrophic climate change and combat growing
poverty from the global financial crisis.
(AFP, 9/23/09)(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 24, The UN Security
Council unanimously approved a historic resolution aimed at ridding
the world of nuclear weapons at a summit-level meeting chaired by
President Barack Obama.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, The International
Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran has revealed the existence of a
secret uranium-enrichment plant, a development that could heighten
fears about Tehran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon and
escalate its diplomatic confrontation with the West. Armed with the
disclosure President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and
Britain demanded that Tehran fully disclose its nuclear ambitions
"or be held accountable" to an impatient world community.
(AP, 9/25/09)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.51)
2009 Sep 26, Ali Akbar Salehi,
Iran's nuclear chief, said his country will allow the UN nuclear
agency to inspect its newly revealed, still unfinished uranium
enrichment facility.
(AP, 9/26/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Cairo, Egypt, a
2-day meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear
Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) opened. It was set up by
the governments of Australia and Japan to probe ideas on how to cut
the world's nuclear arms stockpile ahead of a UN conference on the
subject next year. Iran and Israel stated their positions on
disarmament separately during the gathering.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Sep 29, Iran's nuclear
chief said his country built its newly revealed uranium enrichment
facility inside a mountain and next to a military site near the city
of Qom to ensure continuity of its nuclear activities in case of an
attack. Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said the site will be open
to inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.
(AP, 9/29/09)
2009 Oct 1, China celebrated 60
years of communist rule with a military parade and elaborate
pageantry on Beijing's Tiananmen Square showcasing the nation's
revival as a global power. China demonstrated its new J-10 fighters
and DF-31 nuclear ICBM.
(AFP, 10/1/09)(Econ, 10/3/09, p.54)
2009 Oct 1, In Switzerland
senior American and Iranian delegates met one-on-one during a lunch
break at seven-nation talks in Geneva. Iran brought a broad range of
geopolitical issues to the table, while the six powers, the
permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, sought to soften
Iran's resistance to freezing its uranium enrichment program. Iran
accepted a demand to allow UN inspectors into its covertly built
enrichment plant.
(AP, 10/1/09)(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 4, North Korea told
visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that it was open to bilateral
and multilateral talks on its nuclear programs.
(AFP, 10/4/09)
2009 Oct 4, The UAR’s official
news agency said Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of
the United Arab Emirates, has signed a law regulating the
development of a civilian nuclear program, clearing the way for
construction of a nuclear power plant with help from the United
States.
(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 8, French police
arrested Adlene Hicheur, a nuclear physicist in Vienne, on suspicion
that he had links to terrorist organizations in Algeria. The man had
been working on analysis projects with the LHCb experiment at CERN
since 2003.
(AP, 10/9/09)(AFP, 3/29/12)
2009 Oct 20, Talks in Vienna
meant to persuade Iran to send most of its enriched uranium abroad,
and thus delay its potential to make a nuclear weapon, bogged down
over fierce Iranian resistance to French participation.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 21, Diplomats in
Vienna said Iranian negotiators expressed support for a deal that,
if accepted by their leaders, would delay Tehran's ability to make
nuclear weapons by sending most of its existing enriched uranium to
Russia for processing.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Iran UN IAEA
inspectors got their first look inside the Fordo uranium enrichment
site 20 miles north of Qom, a once-secret uranium enrichment
facility that has raised Western suspicions about the extent of
Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 27, Iran’s state
television says Iran will agree to the "general framework" of a
UN-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for
processing, but will seek "important changes" in the deal.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 31, Senior Iranian
lawmakers rejected a UN-backed plan to ship much of the country's
uranium abroad for further enrichment, raising further doubts about
the likelihood Tehran will finally approve the deal.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 3, North Korea said it
has reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough
plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile, raising the stakes in an
apparent effort to push the US into direct negotiations.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 7, Senior Iranian
lawmakers rejected any possibility of Tehran shipping uranium abroad
for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to
reject the UN-backed plan altogether. Iranian authorities released 3
journalists who were among more than 100 people arrested during
pro-government and opposition street demonstrations on Nov 4.
(AP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 15, In Singapore
President Barack Obama said the United States and Russia would have
a replacement treaty on reducing nuclear arms ready for approval by
year's end, an announcement designed as an upbeat ending to a summit
with Asia-Pacific leaders. Obama also attended a second summit with
leaders of the 10 southeast Asian countries that make up the ASEAN
group. Obama then arrived in Shanghai, launching a three-day visit
to an important global US partner and his first travels ever in
China.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 17, In Beijing
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised a
determined, joint effort to tackle climate change, nuclear
disarmament and other global troubles yet emerged from their first
full-blown summit with scant progress beyond goodwill.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 17, Iran vowed to
continue enriching uranium despite a wrist slap by the UN nuclear
watchdog, as US President Barack Obama warned of "consequences" if
Tehran refused to come clean on its atomic program.
(AFP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, Iran's foreign
minister said his country would not export its enriched uranium for
further processing, brushing aside the latest UN plan aimed at
preventing Tehran from potentially building nuclear weapons.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, In South Korea
President Barack Obama said a US envoy would visit North Korea early
next month, as he joined South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in
urging the communist state back to nuclear talks.
(AFP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 24, Iran said it was
ready to exchange its low-enriched uranium with a higher enriched
material, but only on its own soil, to guarantee the West follows
through with promises to give the fuel.
(AFP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 26, In Vienna Mohamed
ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), said that his probe of allegations that Iran tried to make
nuclear arms is at "a dead end" because Tehran is not cooperating
and warned that confidence in Tehran had shrunk in the wake of its
belated revelation of a previously secret nuclear facility.
(AP, 11/26/09)
2009 Nov 27, The board of the
UN nuclear watchdog censured Iran, with 25 nations backing a
resolution that demands Tehran immediately freeze construction of
its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed Security Council
resolutions calling on it to stop uranium enrichment.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, Pakistan’s
President Asif Ali Zardari gave up control of the country's nuclear
arsenal in a bid to fend off mounting pressures threatening to
weaken his rule further and complicate the war on the Taliban.
Zardari announced that control of the National Command Authority,
which analysts and lawyers confirmed was responsible for nuclear
weapons, had shifted to PM Yousuf Raza Gilani.
(AFP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 29, In India senior
government officials said workers at the Kaiga nuclear power plant
in southern Karnataka state were treated for poisoning after
drinking water was deliberately spiked with radiation.
(AFP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 29, Iran's parliament
passed a law earmarking $20 million to support militant groups
opposing the West and to investigate alleged US and British plots
against the Islamic Republic. Iran’s Cabinet ordered an expansion of
the country’s nuclear program that included an additional 10 nuclear
plants.
(AP, 11/29/09)(SFC, 11/30/09, p.A4)
2009 Nov 30, Iran's nuclear
chief said UN criticism pushed his country to retaliate by
announcing ambitious plans for more uranium enrichment. With
tensions rising over deadlocked negotiations, France said diplomacy
was not working and sanctions against Iran were needed.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Vienna Japanese
diplomat Yukiya Amano took the helm of the UN atomic watchdog
(IAEA), pledging a steady hand to steer the agency through the storm
surrounding Iran's nuclear drive.
(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 2, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran would enrich uranium to a higher level itself,
apparently ruling out a UN-brokered deal meant to dispel fears
Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons capability.
(Reuters, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 9, Iran claimed that a
newly built UN station to detect nuclear explosions was built in
Turkmenistan near its border to give the West a post to spy on the
country. The Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, or CTBTO, said
the station has now been fully constructed and is currently
undergoing testing.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 12, Iran said it
is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium
for nuclear fuel rods, as proposed by the UN, but according to its
own mechanisms and timetable. Iran also said it needs up to 15
nuclear plants to generate electricity. Tens of thousands of
hard-line clerics rallied in cities across the country to denounce
student protesters who burned photos of the country's supreme leader
in a taboo-shattering act earlier in the week.
(AP, 12/12/09)(Reuters, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 17, Canada put its
Candu nuclear division up for sale, saying the operation needed
outside investors to boost its chances for growth at a time of
expanding nuclear power generation and also help cut the cost to
taxpayers.
(Reuters, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 21, China and France
hailed their reinvigorated ties and sealed a series of economic
deals during a visit to Beijing by PM Francois Fillon. Electricite
de France (EDF) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC)
formalized their joint venture for the construction of two nuclear
reactors at a power plant in Taishan in southern Guangdong province.
French aerospace and defense industries group Safran and US
conglomerate General Electric won a multi-billion-dollar contract to
equip China's future C919 passenger jet with engines.
(AFP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 22, Iran's president
dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and
the West for Tehran to accept a UN-drafted deal to swap enriched
uranium for nuclear fuel, and claimed his government is now "10
times stronger" than a year ago. A state television Web site said
Pres. Ahmadinejad had appointed a new chief of the Art Academy,
removing opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from the post.
(AP, 12/22/09)(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 27, A South Korean
consortium, led by Korea Electric Power (KEPCO), won a $20 billion
contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.47)
2009 Dec 31, Lithuania began
shutting down its the 2nd Ignalina nuclear reactor. It was
scheduled to be disconnected from the power grid an hour before
midnight. The 1st reactor was shut down in 2004.
(AP, 12/22/09)(AP, 12/31/09)
2009 Thomas C. Reed and Danny
B. Stillman authored “The Nuclear Express: A Political History of
the Bomb and Its Proliferation,” a political history of nuclear
weapons from the discovery of fission in 1938 to the nuclear train
wreck that seems to loom in our future.
(WSJ, 1/17/08, p.W8)
2010 Jan 1, North Korea called
for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New
Year's message and said it was committed to making the Korean
peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 8, Steven Lin of
Hsinchu-based Heli-Ocean Technology, a Taiwanese company, said his
company had agreed to a request from a firm in China to procure
sensitive components with nuclear uses, then shipped them to Iran.
Such transactions violate UN sanctions imposed on the Middle Eastern
nation. Lin said he received an Internet order from a Chinese firm
in January or February 2008 to obtain an unspecified number of
pressure transducers, which convert pressure into analog electrical
signals.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan, Scientists at
Russia’s Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced internally
that they had succeeded in detecting the decay of a new element with
Z=117 using the reactions.
(SFC, 4/8/10,
p.C5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununseptium)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's
president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear
plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral
trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Feb 2, Iran said it was
ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested
by the UN.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 7, India again
successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit
targets across much of Asia and the Middle East. It was the fourth
test of the Agni III missile.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency to begin
enriching uranium to a higher level, a move that's likely to deepen
international suspicion over the country's intentions for its
nuclear program.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 8, Iran moved
closer to being able to produce nuclear warheads with formal
notification that it will enrich uranium to higher levels, even
while insisting that the move was meant only to provide fuel for its
research reactor. The semiofficial ISNA agency said that former
deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh was sentenced to six years
in prison by a Revolutionary court. The defense minister announced
that Iran has launched two production lines to build unmanned
aircraft with surveillance and attack capabilities.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, Iran began
enriching uranium to a higher level over the vociferous objections
of the US and its allies who fear the process could eventually be
used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 11, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch
of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not
be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day
after the US imposed new sanctions. Hundreds of thousands of
government supporters massed in central Tehran to mark the
anniversary of the revolution that created Iran's Islamic republic,
while a heavy security force that fanned across the city moved
quickly to snuff out counter protests by the opposition.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 16, Iranian Pres.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shrugging off international concerns,
announced the country was moving ahead to expand its nuclear
enrichment capacities by installing more advanced machinery at its
main enrichment facility.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 22, Iran said it plans
to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains
to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers
trying to curb Tehran's nuclear program for fear it is aimed at
making weapons.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, The United Arab
Emirates said it has picked former International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Hans Blix to head an advisory board for its nuclear
power program. Blix was director general of the IAEA, the UN's
nuclear watchdog, from 1981 to 1997. He led the UN search for
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran formally set
out its terms for giving up most of its cache of enriched uranium in
a confidential document, and the conditions fall short of what has
been demanded by the United States and other world powers.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Myanmar Sai
Thein Win, a former major in the army, defected and brought papers
cconfirming Myanmar’s intent, if not yet capacity, to enrich uranium
and eventually build a bomb.
(Econ, 6/2/10, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/35vxtvh)
2010 Mar 9, Israeli officials
said Israel wants to build a nuclear power plant, a move that could
bring new attention to the country's secretive nuclear activities.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Japan confirmed for
the first time the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with
the US that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese
ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 12, India signed 5
deals in New Delhi to purchase more than $7 billion in hardware and
expertise from Russia. The agreements included the construction of
at least 12 civilian nuclear reactors, an aircraft carrier and a
fleet of MiG-29 fighters.
(AFP, 3/12/10)(SFC, 3/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 13, Iran’s Fars the
news agency said Iran has busted what it says was a US-funded cyber
network group linked to an exiled opposition movement that collected
data on its nuclear scientists. 30 members of the network with links
to the outlawed People's Mujahedeen and monarchists were said to
have been arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 24, The US and Russia
reached a breakthrough agreement for a historic treaty to reduce
their nuclear arsenals. Prague announced it will host the signing of
a new US-Russian treaty to reduce long-range nuclear weapons. The
deal would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
(AP, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 26, Pres. Obama
concluded a new strategic arms reduction treaty in a call with
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 29, Officials said the
US and India have reached an agreement on reprocessing nuclear
material, clearing a major hurdle in putting into practice a
landmark atomic energy pact.
(AFP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 29, Russia and the
International Atomic Energy Agency set up the world's first nuclear
fuel bank, signing into life a plan meant to bridge shortages caused
by snags in deliveries of low enriched uranium to power reactors.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Quebec, Canada,
the world's leading industrial nations (G8) called for stronger
action against Iran over its nuclear program and the United States
said it was confident China would agree on the need for sanctions.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Vietnam and the
United States signed a pact described as a key foundation for
development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world
powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on
Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its
opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar, US and Chilean
engineers extracted Chile's last batch of highly enriched uranium
(HEU), 18 kg (40 pounds), from reactors near Santiago and shipped it
to the US. It was then driven to the Savannah River Site in SC and
the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Ten., where much of
it would be converted to safer fuel and resold for nuclear power.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 1, US President Barack
Obama called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to join forces on the
Iranian nuclear standoff as he stepped up efforts to block Tehran's
atomic program.
(AFP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 2, Iran's top nuclear
envoy called for negotiations without threat of sanctions, following
meetings in Beijing in the wake of US reports saying China had
dropped its opposition to possible new UN measures against Iran.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 8, President Barack
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the biggest
nuclear arms pact in a generation and envisioned a day when they can
compromise on the divisive issue of missile defense. Obama and
Medvedev warned Iran of possible sanctions over its nuclear program
shortly after signing the disarmament deal in Prague.
(AP, 4/8/10)(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 8, Israel lifted
months of censorship on a military espionage case, confirming the
house arrest of Anat Kamm (23), a former female soldier, charged
with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper. She
had been arrested in Dec 2009. PM Netanyahu abruptly called off a
trip to Washington just days before he was slated to attend a
conference there on the spread of nuclear weapons, fearing Israel
would be singled out over its own nuclear program. On Oct 31, 2011,
Kamm was sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison.
(AP, 4/8/10)(AP, 4/9/10)(AP, 10/30/11)
2010 Apr 9, France and Italy
agreed to cooperate more closely to increase nuclear power
generation and vowed to come to the aid of debt-laden Greece in
order to defend the euro.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 9, Iran unveiled a
third generation of domestically built centrifuges as the country
pushes ahead with plans to accelerate a uranium enrichment program
that has alarmed world powers fearful of the nuclear program's aims.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 12, President Barack
Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from
47 countries started work on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons
out of terrorist hands. Egypt called for world powers to press both
Iran and Israel on nuclear weapons, saying that the Middle East
should be a zone free of the ultra-destructive arms. China said
sanctions were not the answer to the Iranian atomic standoff. Iran's
envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog spurned the US nuclear summit,
saying any decision taken at the conference is not binding on
nations absent from the event.
(AP, 4/12/10)(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, Canadian PM
Stephen Harper said Canada will return spent nuclear fuel to its
supplier, the United States, as part of a global drive to secure
fissile materials.
(Reuters, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 13, In Washington, DC,
the leaders of 47 nations agreed to a voluntary program to prevent
weapons-grade nuclear materials from falling into the hands of
terrorists.
(SFC, 4/14/10, p.A2)(Econ, 4/17/10, p.67)
2010 Apr 14, Six major powers
wrapped up what they said was a "very constructive" meeting on fresh
UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, but diplomats
cautioned against expecting early adoption.
(AFP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Iran a senior
adviser said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has approved the location
for a new uranium enrichment facility Iran plans to begin building
over the next year.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 23, Diplomats said
Iran has agreed to give the UN nuclear monitoring agency greater
inspection and monitoring rights to a sensitive site where it is
enriching uranium to higher levels.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 24, Nigeria and the
United States agreed to work together to counter the spread of
nuclear weapons. The agreement was announced following a meeting
between US undersecretary of state for political affairs William
Burns with acting Pres. Goodluck Jonathan.
(AFP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 27, Brazil, a UN
Security Council member, demanded that Iran guarantee its nuclear
program has no military aims, saying the crisis has become the
single most important security issue in the world.
(AFP, 4/27/10)
2010 Apr 30, The EU's foreign
affairs chief Catherine Ashton said that China is willing to discuss
sanctions on Iran as long as they are carefully targeted and bolster
efforts to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr, Israel’s Defense
Minister Ehud Barak announced that Gen. Ashkenazi's four-year term
would not be extended by a year, as is customary. In 2011 it was
reported that the action was a result of Ashkenazi’s objection to a
proposal to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
(Reuters, 1/12/11)
2010 May 3, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seized center stage at the opening of a
monthlong debate at the United Nations on how to stop the spread of
nuclear weapons. But behind the scenes, UN Security Council powers
were discussing ways to punish Iran for defying their demands that
it curb nuclear activities that could be used to make bombs.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iran called for
independent verification of US claims it has pared its stockpile of
nuclear warheads back to 5,113 and queried whether Washington was
justified in holding such a lethal load.
(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, Brazilian local
media reported that Brazil is to build a 483-million-dollar nuclear
reactor to produce radioactive material for medical use as well as
industrial-grade enriched uranium.
(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 5, Yukiya Amano, the
head of the UN atomic watchdog, asked for international input on an
Arab-led push to have Israel join the Nonproliferation Treaty, in a
move that adds to pressure on the Jewish state to disclose its
unacknowledged nuclear arsenal.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, A Chinese media
report said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told President Hu Jintao
during his secretive trip to Beijing that he is ready to return to
stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, Israel declined to
address the international pressure that's been mounting for it to
join the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, saying only that its
refusal to acknowledge or deny it possesses atomic weapons is a
pillar of its military deterrence.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 8, Iran voiced
optimism about Turkish and Brazilian mediation efforts in its
nuclear dispute with the West, welcoming in principle ideas aimed at
reviving a stalled fuel deal with major powers.
(Reuters, 5/8/10)
2010 May 8, Pakistan
successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles capable of carrying
nuclear warheads, as the Islamic nation's leader urged the world to
recognize it as a legitimate nuclear power.
(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 11, Iran said that
Brazil and Turkey have offered a promising new proposal for a
nuclear fuel deal as Tehran steps up a diplomatic push to stave off
new UN sanctions over its disputed nuclear program. Iran’s foreign
ministry spokesman said Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili,
could hold talks with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in
Turkey. The Fars news agency reported that Iranian border guards
have arrested 9 Iraqi fishermen in Iranian waters in the Shatt
al-Arab waterway in recent days.
(AP, 5/11/10)(AFP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, Turkey and Russia
signed agreements for the construction of Turkey's first nuclear
power plant and the development of a pipeline project to carry
Russian oil from the Black Sea, through Turkey to the Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 17, Iran agreed to
ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in a surprise
nuclear fuel swap deal that could ease the international standoff
over the country's disputed atomic program and deflate a US-led push
for tougher sanctions. The deal was reached in talks between
Brazils’ Pres. Silva, Turkey’s PM Erdogan and Iran’s Pres.
Ahmadinejad.
(AP, 5/17/10)(SFC, 5/17/10, p.A2)
2010 May 19, Iran dismissed as
"illegitimate" a draft UN Security Council resolution seeking to
impose harsher sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to halt
uranium enrichment.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 23, In southern China
a fuel rod at the Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station
experienced a "very small leakage" that increased radioactivity
levels slightly in the nuclear reactor's cooling water. The plant
supplies power to Hong Kong.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 May 23, Iran said it will
abandon an offer to ship some of its uranium stockpile abroad if the
United States imposes new sanctions. Iran's intelligence minister
said he had no doubt three US citizens arrested last July near the
Iraq border were spies and called on Washington to propose a
prisoner swap to secure their release.
(AP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, Iran, seeking to
evade new UN sanctions, formally submitted its plan to swap some of
its enriched uranium for reactor fuel and said the onus was on world
powers to defuse tensions by accepting the deal.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 28, In a breakthrough
after a decade of deadlock, the Non-Proliferation Treaty's 189
nations proposed new steps towards nuclear disarmament and making
the Middle East free of atomic weapons. The next day Israel
condemned the NPT plan.
(AFP, 5/29/10)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A5)
2010 May 31, The UN atomic
agency said Iran has amassed more than two tons of enriched uranium
in a report that heightened Western concerns about the country
developing the ability to produce a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 1, China called on
Iran to improve its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, after
the agency said in a report that Tehran was pressing ahead with its
controversial atomic program.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 4, Robert Kelley, a
former senior UN nuclear inspector, said secret documents and
hundreds of photos smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector
indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons
and long-range missiles.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, Germany and Russia
declared that the five world powers negotiating with Iran support a
fresh set of international sanctions, and Chancellor Angela Merkel
said they could pass soon.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 7, Iranian state
television showed a video of a man it identified as a missing
nuclear scientist, who said he had been abducted and taken to the
United States. The scientist, Shahram Amiri, disappeared while on a
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009. US media reports in March
said he defected to the US and is assisting the CIA in efforts to
undermine Iran's nuclear program. Iran has repeatedly said Amiri was
abducted by the US.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, A Russian source
close to Security Council talks told reporters that UN sanctions
against Iran over its nuclear program have been "completely agreed
upon."
(Reuters, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 9, The US, Russia and
France dismissed a proposal by Iran to swap some of its enriched
uranium for reactor fuel hours before an expected UN Security
Council vote on new sanctions. The UN Security Council endorsed a
4th round of sanctions against Iran.
(AP, 6/9/10)(Econ, 6/2/10, p.15)
2010 Jun 10, Iran said it will
review relations with the UN nuclear watchdog a day after the UN
Security Council approved a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran
over its disputed nuclear program. Russia looked set to freeze the
sale to Tehran of S300 air defense missiles in response to new UN
sanctions on Iran.
(AP, 6/10/10)(AFP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 10, Turkey called the
imposition of UN sanctions on Iran a "mistake" and said that it and
Brazil would continue to seek a diplomatic solution to remove
concerns over Iran's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 15, The White House
said President Barack Obama has extended U.S. economic sanctions on
North Korea for another year, citing the continuing threat posed by
Pyongyang's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 16, Iran's nuclear
chief said his country is designing a new atomic research reactor in
another snub of international efforts to curb the Islamic Republic's
nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 21, Iran said it has
banned two UN nuclear inspectors from entering the country because
they had leaked "false" information about Iran's disputed nuclear
program.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, South Korea said
abnormally high radiation levels were detected near the border
between the two Koreas on may 15, days after North Korea claimed to
have mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogen
bomb.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 23, Iran's nuclear
chief said his country has produced 17 kilograms of uranium enriched
to 20 percent, defying UN demands to halt the controversial program.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun, Stuxnet, computer
malware, was first detected by VirusBlokAda, a security firm in
Belarus. It was tailored for Siemens supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) systems commonly used to manage water supplies,
oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities. It was able
to recognize a specific facility's control network and then destroy
it. The code had a technology fingerprint of the control system it
was seeking and would go into action automatically when it found its
target. In September German computer security researcher Ralph
Langner said he suspected that Stuxnet's mark was the Bushehr
nuclear facility in Iran. Unspecified problems have been blamed for
a delay in getting the facility fully operational.
(AP, 9/24/10)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.63)
2010 Jul 5, In Ottawa the
operator of a dormant Canadian nuclear reactor that once supplied a
third of the world's medical isotopes formally applied to restart
the plant, saying it was safe again after lengthy repairs. Atomic
Energy of Canada Ltd shut down the aging Chalk River facility in
eastern Ontario in May 2009 after discovering a leak of heavy water,
used as a moderator and coolant in the reaction process.
(Reuters, 7/05/10)
2010 Jul 6, A Toronto man was
convicted of attempting to illegally export nuclear-related
technology to Iran, in the first Canadian criminal case resulting
from UN sanctions against the Middle East nation. An Ontario judge
found Mahmoud Yadegari guilty of attempting to export pressure
transducers, which can be used in the building of both nuclear
plants and weapons.
(Reuters, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 6, The EU banned most
of Iran Air's jets from flying to Europe because of safety concerns,
emphasizing that the move was not related to UN sanctions against
Iran over its nuclear program.
(AP, 7/06/10)
2010 Jul 10, North Korea
expressed willingness to return to international nuclear disarmament
talks, a sign it is satisfied with the UN Security Council's
decision to avoid directly blaming it for the sinking of a South
Korean warship.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 11, Iran said it has
produced around 20 kg of 20% enriched uranium, in defiance of the
world powers who want Tehran to suspend the controversial nuclear
work.
(AP, 7/11/10)
2010 Jul 12, Shahram Amiri, a
missing Iranian nuclear scientist who Tehran claims was abducted by
the US, took refuge at the Pakistani embassy in Washington and asked
to return to his homeland. Amiri (32) disappeared while on a
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, Iran's Foreign
Ministry said nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri was on a flight home,
traveling through the Gulf nation of Qatar and was expected to
arrive in Tehran on July 15. A US official confirmed that Amiri left
the United States.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 21, Iran's nuclear
agency said it will conduct scientific studies for the construction
of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, an engineering challenge
that no nation has yet overcome.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Turkey foreign
ministers of Turkey and Brazil urged Iran to be flexible and open in
dealings with the West over its atomic program as Iran renewed its
readiness to resume frozen nuclear talks. Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said Iran has expressed willingness to have talks
with the European Union on its nuclear program after the month of
Ramadan ends in early September.
(AFP, 7/25/10)(Reuters, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 26, The EU adopted
tighter sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, with
steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail Tehran's refining
and natural gas capability.
(Reuters, 7/26/10)
2010 Jul 27, Iran vowed to
press ahead with its nuclear program even as it expressed readiness
to resume talks on the thorny issue despite being slapped with tough
new EU sanctions. Russia condemned new EU sanctions on Iran,
tempering hopes of closer cooperation between Moscow and the West
over Iran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 7/27/10)(Reuters, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 29, Iran said it will
suspend uranium enrichment to 20% if it acquires nuclear fuel for a
research reactor.
(AFP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, Iran said it was
ready for immediate talks with the US, Russia and France over an
exchange of nuclear fuel and added that it was also against
stockpiling higher enriched uranium.
(AFP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Myanmar
official talks between North Korea and Myanmar entered a second day.
The US said it is carefully watching the budding secretive
relationship between the 2 countries for signs of nuclear
cooperation.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Aug 6, The US for the
first time attended a ceremony commemorating its atomic bombing of
Hiroshima, 65 years after the Japanese city's obliteration rang in
the nuclear age.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 8, Arab League chief
Amr Moussa signed a letter asking for backing of a resolution urging
Washington and other powers to end support of Israel's nuclear
secrecy and to push the Jewish state to allow international
inspections of its program. Arab nations planned submit the request
to the September assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 9, Iran announced
plans to get rid of its dollar and euro reserves in response to the
latest UN sanctions over its contested nuclear program. The IAEA
said Iran has activated equipment to enrich uranium more efficiently
in a move that defies the UN Security Council.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 16, Iran said it plans
to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain
strongholds, with construction on the first starting in March, in
continuing defiance of international efforts to curb its nuclear
development.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 17, Canadian officials
said a nuclear reactor responsible for production of about a third
of the world's medical isotopes has resumed operation after more
than a year-long shutdown. Atomic Energy of Canada said that after
low-power testing on the Chalk River reactor in Ontario proved
successful, the 53-year-old facility returned to full power for the
first time since a heavy water leak forced it offline in May 2009.
(Reuters, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 20, India's Cabinet
cleared a nuclear liability bill, a crucial step on the path to
bringing foreign companies into its potentially vast nuclear energy
market. The bill caps the liability of foreign firms at $320 million
in the case of an industrial accident.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 21, Iranian and
Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power
plant, which Moscow has promised to safeguard to prevent material at
the site from being used in any potential weapons production.
(AP, 8/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, Moldova
authorities detained 2 former policemen and another person on
suspicion of trying to sell four pounds (nearly two kg) of uranium
on the black market, but it was unclear if this was enough for a
"dirty bomb." The uranium-238 had a value of euro9 million ($11.35
million). This was not made public until Aug 25.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 25, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak announced plans for the government to start building
the country's first nuclear power plant at a site on the
Mediterranean coast, ending a year of controversy.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 30, Chinese state
media said North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il wants an early restart
to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, ending official silence about
Kim's secretive five-day trip ahead of a key congress.
(Reuters, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug, Yukiya Amano, chief
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "invited Israel to
consider to accede" signing up to the nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty, during a low-key visit to the country.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 3, Japan imposed new
sanctions against Iran, including an assets freeze on people and
entities linked to its contentious nuclear program and tighter
restrictions on financial transactions.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 6, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel faced one of the biggest battles of her time in office
after announcing plans to put off the date when Europe's biggest
economy abandons nuclear power.
(AFP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 7, Iran said that it
was within its rights to vet UN inspectors who monitor its nuclear
facilities after the UN watchdog said its work was being hampered by
the barring of some of its staff.
(AFP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 9, An Iranian
opposition group claimed to have discovered a new uranium enrichment
plant being built about 75 miles (120 km) west of Tehran and said it
was 85 percent complete. The head of Iran's nuclear agency, Ali
Akbar Salehi, said the country has no undeclared nuclear sites. A US
government official also disputed the claim by the People's
Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, saying the site did not appear to
have a nuclear role.
(AP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 13, The head of the UN
nuclear watchdog agency warned that Iran's selective cooperation
with his inspectors means that he cannot confirm that all of
Tehran's atomic activities are peaceful.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 16, In Niger armed
assailants kidnapped 7 people, including 5 French nuclear experts, a
person from Togo and a person from Madagascar, near the uranium
mining town of Arlit, in the northern Sahara desert region. 3 of the
hostages were released in February, 2011.
(AP, 9/17/10)(SFC, 9/22/10, p.A2)(SFC, 2/26/11,
p.A2)
2010 Sep 17, In New Mexico
scientist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni (75) and his wife Marjorie Roxby
Mascheroni (67), who both once worked at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, were arrested after an FBI sting operation. They were
charged with offering to help develop a nuclear weapon for
Venezuela.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 18, In Germany tens of
thousands demonstrated in Berlin against the government's proposal
to extend the life of Germany's nuclear power plants for another
decade or more.
(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 21, Israel’s nuclear
chief Shaul Chorev said It is against Israel's interests to join a
global anti-nuclear arms treaty and the UN atomic watchdog is
overstepping its mandate in demanding it to do so.
(AFP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 24, The UN atomic
watchdog threw out an Arab-backed resolution urging Israel to accede
to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The International Atomic
Energy Agency, on the last day of its annual general conference,
voted against the resolution, with 51 votes against, 46 votes for
and 23 abstentions.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 24, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters that Iran would consider ending
higher level uranium enrichment, the most crucial part of its
controversial nuclear activities, if world powers send Tehran
nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Iran’s
semi-official ISNA news agency says Iranian nuclear experts met this
week to discuss how to remove the malicious computer code, dubbed
Stuxnet, which can take over systems that control the inner workings
of industrial plants.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, Iranian officials
said the malicious Stuxnet computer worm has hit 30,000 industrial
computers, but denied the Islamic republic's first nuclear plant at
Bushehr was among those infected.
(AFP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, Pakistan was
chosen to head the UN atomic agency's governing body, despite its
refusal to accept the nonproliferation treaty and its link to the
nuclear black marketer who supplied Iran and North Korea.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Oct 5, Iran claimed that
the Stuxnet computer worm, found on the laptops of several employees
at the country's nuclear power plant, is part of a covert Western
plot to derail its nuclear program.
(AP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 9, Iran said it is
ready to hold talks over its nuclear program with the US and other
major powers in late October or early November. Iran also revealed
for the first time that some personnel at the country's nuclear
facilities were lured by promises of money to pass secrets to the
West, but said increased security and worker privileges have put a
stop to the spying.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, Iranian Sunni
rebels said they had kidnapped a nuclear scientist and would publish
secrets he knows about Iran's nuclear program unless 200 political
prisoners were released.
(Reuters, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 15, Iran’s Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran was ready to resume
talks about its nuclear program with the international community
within a matter of weeks.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Russia agreed to
help build Venezuela's first nuclear power plant and buy $1.6
billion of oil assets, reinforcing ties with President Hugo Chavez,
who shares Moscow's opposition to US global dominance.
(Reuters, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 16, North Korea said
it is willing to resume six-nation nuclear disarmament talks but
would not be "hasty" because the US and some other parties were not
ready. North Korean media threatened a "1,000-fold" military buildup
as the US ruled out lifting sanctions to try to coax the North into
resuming talks aimed at its nuclear weapons programs.
(AP, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 17, The Washington
Post reported that the United States believes some Chinese firms are
helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nuclear
weapons and has asked Beijing to prevent such activity.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Iran's Pres.
Ahmadinejad endorsed the idea of new talks with the international
community over his country's nuclear program, while warning that
negotiations would fail if the West does not clearly come out
against Israel's suspected nuclear arsenal.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 25, The leaders of
India and Japan signed a broad agreement in Japan aimed at
increasing trade and agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian
nuclear energy deal despite sensitivity in Japan over India's past
atomic test blasts. PM Naoto Kan and PM Manmohan Singh also agreed
to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear cooperation deal that
would allow Japanese companies to export nuclear power generation
technology and equipment to India.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 26, Iran began loading
fuel into the core of its first atomic power plant, moving closer to
the start up of the Bushehr facility that leaders have touted as
defying of international efforts to curtail the country's nuclear
ambitions.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 29, Iran notified the
EU that it is willing to restart international negotiations over its
nuclear program after Nov. 10, potentially reviving talks that
foundered a year ago.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, Bolivia’s
President Evo Morales confirmed that his country plans to build a
nuclear plant with Iran's help, stressing the facility would be for
peaceful purposes.
(AFP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 2, Britain and France
vowed to work hand-in-glove as their leaders ushered in an
unprecedented era of defense cooperation by agreeing to create a
joint force and share nuclear test facilities.
(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 2, Israel's military
intelligence chief said Iran possesses enough enriched uranium to
build one nuclear bomb and soon will have enough to produce a
second.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 5, In France
environmentalists handcuffed themselves in front of a train carrying
what activists claim is "the most radioactive ever" cargo of nuclear
waste. The shipment was returning German waste for storage after it
was treated in France by the Areva group.
(AFP, 11/6/10)(SFC, 11/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 6, A train carrying
what activists claim is "the most radioactive ever" cargo of nuclear
waste ran the gauntlet of hundreds of protesters as it crossed the
Rhine from France to Germany. The shipment was returning German
waste for storage after it was treated in France by the Areva group.
(AFP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 7, In Germany
activists rappelled down from a high bridge, broke through police
lines and chained themselves to train tracks, trying to halt a
shipment of nuclear waste as they protested Chancellor Angela
Merkel's plans to keep using nuclear energy.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 7, Iran proposed that
a new round of international talks on its nuclear program be held in
Turkey, an ally that also has close ties to the West and has sought
to mediate in the standoff.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Germany a
shipment of nuclear waste arrived at a railway depot in Dannenberg
after a nearly three-day trip from France that was regularly
disrupted by protests. The waste was set to be loaded onto trucks
for the final 12-mile (20-km) leg of the trip to a storage site at
Gorleben.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 9, A UN report
suggesting North Korea may have supplied Syria, Iran and Myanmar
with banned nuclear technology headed to the Security Council. The
latest report by the so-called Panel of Experts on Pyongyang's
compliance with UN sanctions was delivered to the Security Council's
North Korea sanctions committee in May, but did not move for nearly
six months due to Chinese objections.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 20, American scientist
Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the US Los Alamos Nuclear
Laboratory, said in a report that he was taken during a recent trip
to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small
industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently
completed centrifuges. The North told him it was producing
low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor. North Korea told
Hecker it began construction on the centrifuges in April 2009 and
finished only a few days before the scientist's Nov. 12 visit.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 22, The US and its
allies accused North Korea of being a danger to the region after it
showed off its latest advances in uranium enrichment, but Washington
said it was still open to talks.
(Reuters, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 22, Diplomats said
Iran’s nuclear program has suffered a recent setback with major
technical problems forcing the temporary shutdown of centrifuges
enriching uranium.
(SFC, 11/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 28, More than 250,000
classified US State Department documents were released by online
whistleblower WikiLeaks. Among the leaked memos was information that
Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel.
Memos said the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to
facilitate weapons shipments." Documents also detailed concerns by
US officials in Baghdad about Iran’s influence on Iraq. Memos also
said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United
States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program to stop Tehran
from developing a nuclear weapon. One cable revealed that the US
kept nuclear weapons in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and
Turkey.
(AP, 11/28/10)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.35)
2010 Nov 29, Iran’s President
Ahmadinejad admitted that "several" uranium enrichment centrifuges
were damaged by "software installed in electronic equipment," amid
speculation Iran's nuclear activities had come under cyberattack.
(AFP, 11/29/10)
2010 Nov 29, In Iran assailants
on motorcycles attached magnetized bombs to the cars of two nuclear
scientists as they were driving to work in Tehran, killing Majid
Shahriari and wounding Fereidoun Abbasi. Pres. Ahmadinejad accused
Israel and the West of being behind the attacks.
(AP, 11/29/10)
2010 Nov 30, The EU announced
that Iran has agreed to discuss its nuclear program at a meeting
next week in Geneva.
(AP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 1, Belarus announced
that it will give up its stockpile of material used to make nuclear
weapons by 2012. The arrangement was announced on the sidelines of
an international security meeting in the Central Asian nation of
Kazakhstan by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her
Belarussian counterpart, Sergei Martynov.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Russia’s PM
Vladimir Putin warned that his country will find it necessary to
build up its nuclear forces, if the United State's doesn't ratify a
new arms reduction treaty.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 3, In Vienna, Austria,
the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency
approved an IAEA-run repository for nuclear fuel, in a move meant to
limit proliferation by making domestic uranium enrichment programs
superfluous.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, Lithuania said a
South Korean bidder, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), had pulled
out of a four-nation nuclear power plant project and another was
rejected. Lithuania itself has been aiming to have a stake of around
one-third, but there has been disagreement with Estonia, Latvia and
Poland about their relative holdings and power share-out.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 5, Iran claimed it
could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel,
giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects
is geared toward producing weapons.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, India and France
signed a multibillion agreement to build two nuclear power plants in
India as French President Nicolas Sarkozy worked to drum up business
for his nation during his four-day visit.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 6, In Switzerland six
world powers held their first meeting in 14 months with Iran over
its disputed nuclear program, sounding out Tehran's intentions after
it claimed to have taken a new step in making fissile material.
(AFP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Leaders of six
US-allied Gulf Arab nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),
said they were monitoring with "utmost concern" developments in
Iran's disputed nuclear program and issued a thinly veiled warning
to their Persian neighbor not to meddle in their internal affairs.
The 2-day gathering of leaders from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman followed the publication of leaked
US diplomatic memos that revealed deeper concern among Gulf Arab
leaders over Tehran's nuclear program than had previously been
known.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Switzerland 6
world powers wrapped up two days of "substantive" talks with Iran on
its contentious nuclear program, with the two sides agreeing to meet
again in Istanbul next month.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 10, US Deputy Energy
Secretary Daniel Poneman said that the framework pact — known as the
123 agreement because its requirements are set in section 123 of the
US Atomic Energy Act — would help boost nonproliferation efforts and
create new business opportunities. The deal did not require
congressional approval, but Congress could have rejected it within
90 days of continuous session — a period that elapsed Dec 9 without
a vote of disapproval.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 11, Egypt’s minister
of electricity said his country plans to build its first nuclear
power plant and have it operational by 2019.
(SSFC, 12/12/10, p.A10)
2010 Dec 16, The Israeli
military said the air force has shot down a suspicious object,
"apparently a balloon," hovering over southern Israel, where its
main nuclear reactor is located.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 20, North Korea said
it would not react to "reckless" military drills by the South,
despite an earlier threat to retaliate, and CNN reported that
Pyongyang had agreed to the return of nuclear inspectors.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 22, The US Senate, in
its final act of the lameduck session, approved the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (71-26) signed earlier this year by Pres. Obama and
Russia’s Pres. Medvedev.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 22, The UN nuclear
agency said tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from a defunct
Serbian reactor have been repatriated to Russia. The 2.5 metric tons
(2.76 tons) of the spent fuel arrived at a secure Russian facility
from Serbia's Vinca reactor.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 24, Russia's
parliament gave preliminary approval to a landmark nuclear arms
reduction treaty with the United States, supporting ratification of
the new START pact in the first of three required votes.
(Reuters, 12/24/10)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state
television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the
technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding
additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 4, Iran’s government
confirmed that it has invited world powers and its allies in the
Arab and developing world to tour Iranian nuclear sites before a
high-profile meeting late this month on its disputed nuclear
program.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 13, Iran's proposal
for a tour of its nuclear sites floundered after China effectively
rejected the invite and Russia cautioned such a trip could never
replace UN inspections or talks between Tehran and world powers.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 15, In Iran several
international envoys, but crucially none from the world powers, got
a look inside an Iranian nuclear site as part of a tour the Islamic
Republic hopes will build support before a new round of talks on its
disputed atomic activities. Ambassadors to the UN atomic energy
agency from Egypt, Cuba, Syria, Algeria, Venezuela, Oman and the
Arab League arrived in Tehran and visited the unfinished heavy water
reactor near Arak.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 21, Two-day talks
between Iran and six world powers started in Istanbul. A senior
Iranian official said suspending uranium enrichment is not up for
discussion.
(AFP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Turkey talks
meant to nudge Iran toward meeting UN Security Council demands to
stop uranium enrichment collapsed, with Tehran shrugging off calls
by six world powers to cease the activity that could be harnessed to
make nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 25, Russia's lower
house of parliament ratified a landmark nuclear arms pact with the
United States, virtually assuring passage of an agreement President
Barack Obama has described as the most significant arms control deal
in nearly two decades.
(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 26, Russia's upper
house of parliament unanimously ratified the New START nuclear arms
pact with the United States.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 28, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev signed the ratification of a nuclear arms cut pact
with the US, the centerpiece of Pres. Obama's efforts to reset ties
with Moscow.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Feb 4, European leaders
launched a trillion-euro bid to slash dependency on Middle East oil
and Russian gas, clearing the way to place nuclear power at the
center of 21st century needs.
(AFP, 2/4/11)
2011 Feb 5, The United States
and Russia formally inaugurated their new START nuclear arms treaty,
capping two years of work to "reset" the sometimes strained ties
between the former Cold War enemies.
(Reuters, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 11, A top US diplomat
for arms control said Poland and other Eastern European countries
are expressing concern to the United States about an arsenal of
tactical nuclear weapons believed to be at their doorsteps in
Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 23, The US National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Republic of Lithuania
today announced that they have signed an Implementation Agreement on
Cooperation in Preventing Illicit Trafficking of Nuclear and Other
Radioactive Material.
(http://tinyurl.com/4dplcz7)
2011 Feb 26, Iran confirmed it
was having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor of its only
nuclear power station, signaling more problems for the Russian-built
Bushehr plant after decades of delay.
(Reuters, 2/26/11)
2011 Mar 11, A ferocious
tsunami spawned by an 8.9 earthquake, one of the largest ever
recorded, slammed Japan's eastern coast, killing hundreds of people
as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned
out of control. At least 574 people were killed. Estimates put the
toll as high as 1300. At least 10,000 people were missing. Japan
declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power
plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of the
earthquake.
(AP, 3/11/11)(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 12, In Germany tens of
thousands demonstrated against plans to extend the life of the
country’s nuclear power stations, as an explosion at a Japanese
nuclear plant sharpened the dispute.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 12, In Japan an
explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station destroyed
a building housing the reactor, but a radiation leak was decreasing
despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful
earthquake and tsunami. Japanese nuclear agency spokesman Shinji
Kinjo acknowledged there were still fears of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 13, People across a
devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day without water,
electricity and proper food, as the country grappled with the
enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than
10,000 people dead in one area alone. Japanese officials raised
their estimate of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. Japan also fought to
avert a meltdown at three earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/13/11)(Reuters, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 14, In Japan a second
hydrogen explosion in three days rocked the Daiichi nuclear power
plant in Fukushima, devastating the structure housing one reactor
and injuring 11 workers. Water levels dropped precipitously at
another reactor, completely exposing the fuel rods and raising the
threat of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 14, The Swiss
government suspended plans to replace and build new nuclear plants
pending a review of two hydrogen explosions at Japanese plants.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 15, Chancellor Angela
Merkel said Germany will take seven of its 17 reactors offline for
three months while the country reconsiders plans to extend the life
of its nuclear power plants.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Japan faced a
potential catastrophe after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant
exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo,
prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on
essential supplies.
(Reuters, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 16, Japanese emergency
workers forced to retreat from the tsunami-stricken Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear plant when radiation levels soared prepared to
return tonight after emissions dropped to safer levels. Japan's
national news agency, Kyodo, said that 33 percent of the fuel rods
at the No. 2 reactor were damaged and that the cores of both
reactors were believed to have partially melted. Nearly 3,700 people
were officially listed as dead. Officials believed the toll will
climb over 10,000 since several thousand more were listed as
missing.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried
high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that
dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool
an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation
was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as
dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over
10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 18, The US and Chile
signed a nuclear energy accord.
(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 18, The Japanese
government acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of last
week's twin natural disasters. The earthquake and tsunami has now
officially left more than 6,900 dead and more than 10,700
missing. Japanese engineers conceded that burying a crippled
nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a
catastrophic radiation release. Authorities raised the rating of the
nuclear crisis to a Level 5 from a Level 4 on a seven-point
international scale. Radiation at the crippled Fukushima No.2
nuclear reactor was recorded at 500 microsieverts per hour.
(AP, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 18, Malaysian police
said that they had found equipment they suspect could be used to
make nuclear weapons smuggled on board a ship headed to Iran. On
March 8 police confiscated two containers from the MV Bunga Raya
Satu traveling from China to Tehran.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 19, One of Japan's six
tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors appeared to stabilize but the
country suffered another blow after discovering traces of radiation
in food and water from near the stricken power plant. Crews fighting
to cool reactors managed to connect a power line. Japan halted sales
of food products near Fukushima because of contamination by a
radioactive element which can pose a short-term health risk. Japan's
police agency said 7,348 are dead and 10,947 are missing after last
week's earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 3/19/11)(AFP, 3/19/11)(Reuters, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry
official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of
radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition
to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found
included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such
contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six
reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage
pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst
natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Taiwan some
2,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated, demanding an immediate
halt to the construction of an atomic power plant.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 21, In Japan gray
smoke rose from two reactor units, temporarily stalling critical
work to reconnect power lines and restore cooling systems to
stabilize the Fukushima radiation-leaking nuclear complex. Police
officials estimated that the toll from the massive March 11
earthquake and tsunami will exceed 18,000 deaths.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 22, Japanese crews
connected all six reactors at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plant to the electrical grid, a day after smoke triggered an
evacuation from the facility. But the plant's operator cautioned
that pumps, motors and other equipment must be checked before the
power can be turned on. It's likely to be days or weeks before
cooling systems can resume functioning. A Japanese nuclear safety
official said a pool for storing spent fuel at the crippled nuclear
plant is heating up, with temperatures around the boiling point.
Police said nearly 9,100 people are dead after an earthquake and
tsunami with almost 13,800 are missing.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, Japan said the
cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake
could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). A spike in
radiation levels in Tokyo tap water, twice the level acceptable for
infants, spurred new fears about food safety. Rising smoke forced
another evacuation of workers trying to stabilize the Fukushima
nuclear plant. Police said nearly 9,500 people are dead after an
earthquake and tsunami with over 16,000 still missing.
(AFP, 3/23/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 25, European Union
leaders called for worldwide stress testing of nuclear plants and
committed to putting their 143 reactors through the toughest
security checks possible.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 25, Japanese officials
said a suspected breach in Unit 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima
nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, as
PM Naoto Kan called the country's ongoing fight to stabilize the
plant "very grave and serious." The official death toll jumped past
10,000. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more
than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected
to surpass 18,000.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Germany some
200,000 people turned out in the largest cities to protest against
the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor
disaster.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Japanese officials
said radiation levels have surged in seawater near the
tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima, as engineers
battled to stabilize the plant in hazardous conditions.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, In Japan emergency
workers struggling to pump contaminated water from the stricken
Fukushima nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors
after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity, a spike that
officials later apologetically said was inaccurate. Police said the
death toll from earthquake and tsunami stood at 10,668, with more
than 16,574 people missing. Hundreds of thousands of people remained
homeless.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 28, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel pledged to press ahead with a review of nuclear
power's future after her coalition suffered a "very painful" defeat
in a weekend state election dominated by Japan's nuclear crisis.
(AP, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 28, In Japan power
company officials said plutonium has been detected in 5 locations in
the soil outside of the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex. A TEPCO
official said the amounts were very small and were not a risk to
public health. TEPCO said highly radioactive water has leaked from
the reactor. Environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected
high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
(AP, 3/28/11)(Reuters, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 30, Japan weighed a
series of creative solutions to its unfolding nuclear disaster, from
draping reactors with special fabric to sending in military robots
to do the risky work. TEPCO said 4 of the 6 Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plants were damaged beyond repair. UN nuclear agency
officials said that readings outside the exclusion zone of the Japan
nuclear disaster showed radiation exceeding recommended evacuation
levels by the agency.
(AP, 3/30/11)(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 31, Japan said that
its crisis-hit nuclear plant must be scrapped, but currently had no
plans to evacuate more people, despite calls for a larger exclusion
zone around the crippled facility.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 31, In Switzerland a
letter bomb exploded at an office of the Swiss nuclear power
industry in the northern city of Olten, injuring two people.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, In Germany several
thousand people took part in nation-wide demonstrations demanding an
end to nuclear power.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Apr 2, In Japan highly
radioactive water spilled into the ocean from the tsunami-damaged
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex as PM Naoto Kan surveyed the
damage in a town gutted by the wave.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Workers at Japan's
crippled Fukushima nuclear plant struggled to stop a radioactive
water leak into the Pacific, as the government warned the facility
may spread contamination for months. TEPCO workers used a polymer
and even newspapers to try to close off pipes through which the
water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit, from where it has run
into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement
failed to stop the leak.
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 4, Japanese engineers
were forced to release radioactive water into the sea while
resorting to desperate measures to try to find the source of leaks
at a crippled Fukushima nuclear power complex hit by a tsunami on
March 11. Tokyo Electric Power said it had found radioactive
iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit in seawater near the
facility. Biologists admitted that the contamination could
eventually find its way into the ocean food chain.
(Reuters, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/11,
p.A1)
2011 Apr 5, Tokyo Electric
Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear
power plant, said it had reduced the flow of highly radioactive
water out of a reactor. The government set its first radiation
safety standards for fish after the nuclear plant reported
radioactive contamination in nearby seawater measuring at several
million times the legal limit.
(Reuters, 4/5/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 6, In Japan workers
halted a leak of highly radioactive water into the ocean that had
raised concerns about the safety of seafood. Officials did not rule
out the chance of contaminated water still leaking into the sea from
other points. Engineers prepared to inject nitrogen into containment
vessels around the cores to deter any hydrogen explosions.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 16, A senior Iranian
military official said experts have determined the United States and
Israel were behind a mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet that
has harmed Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 16, TEPCO, the
Japanese operator of a stricken nuclear plant, said it has started
dumping a mineral into the sea that absorbs radioactive substances,
aiming to slow down contamination of the ocean.
(AFP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iran’s Kayhan
daily reported that an Iranian military commander has accused German
engineering company Siemens of helping the United States and Israel
launch the Stuxnet virus, a cyber attack on its nuclear facilities.
(Reuters, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, TEPCO, the
operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant, laid out a blueprint for
stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the
next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the
tens of thousands of evacuees to return to the area.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, In Japan a pair of
thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside the crippled
Fukushima nuclear reactor came back with disheartening news:
Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 19, In India a mob
opposing a government plan to build a nuclear plant in the western
state of Maharashtra ransacked a hospital and set buses on fire
during a protest strike.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 24, In Japan thousands
of people marched in Tokyo to demand an end to nuclear power and a
switch to alternative energy after the crisis at an atomic plant hit
by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(AFP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 28, Exelon Corp., the
largest operator of nuclear plants in the US, said it has agreed to
buy Constellation Energy Group for about $7.9 billion in stock. This
would add stakes in 5 reactors and make it the largest US
electricity marketer.
(SFC, 4/29/11, p.D3)
2011 Apr 28, The UN nuclear
agency said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli
warplanes in the Syrian desert five years ago was a covertly built
nuclear reactor, countering assertions by Syria that it had no
atomic secrets to hide.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 29, In Japan senior
nuclear advisor Toshiso Kosako resigned saying the government was
not adequately protecting the public from radiation.
(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Apr 30, In Taiwan some
2,000 protesters demanded that the government scrap plans to operate
a newly built nuclear power plant and turn the facility into a
museum to highlight the dangers of nuclear power.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 May 6, Japan's PM Naoto
Kan ordered the suspension of operations at an ageing nuclear power
plant southwest of Tokyo because it is located close to a dangerous
tectonic faultline.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 7, In Japan thousands
of people rallied to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an
earthquake and tsunami sparked the world's worst atomic crisis since
Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.
(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 8, Iran's Bushehr
nuclear power station began operating at a low level in a crucial
step toward bringing it online.
(Reuters, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of
Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic
faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down
its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, Iran said it has
accepted the European Union's proposal for more talks about the
country's controversial nuclear program.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 10, Japan’s PM Naoto
Kan said Japan will scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity
from nuclear power and will instead promote renewable energy and
conservation as a result of its ongoing nuclear crisis. The
president of TEPCO submitted a request for Japanese government aid
in compensating those affected by its stricken nuclear power plant,
as the utility said it faced funding problems.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AFP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 12, In Japan TEPCO
officials said one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear
power plant has been damaged more severely than originally thought,
a serious setback for efforts to stabilize the radiation-leaking
complex.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 13, Japan announced a
plan to help Tokyo Electric Power compensate victims of the crisis
at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant without going broke while it
struggles to resolve the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
(Reuters, 5/13/11)
2011 May 14, Japan shut down
the final working reactor at a nuclear plant near a tectonic
faultline as PM Naoto Kan pledged a new law to help compensate
victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. A worker at the
tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died,
bringing the death toll at the complex to 3 since a massive
earthquake and tsunami in March.
(AFP, 5/14/11)(Reuters, 5/14/11)
2011 May 15, Japan started the
first evacuations of homes outside the 20-km government exclusion
zone radius from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, after the March
11 earthquake and tsunami crippled one of the country's nuclear
power plants.
(AFP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 17, Pakistan's PM
Yousuf Raza Gilani declared China his country's best friend in an
apparent dig at Washington as he began a visit to China. China is
Pakistan’s main arms supplier. Pakistan last week opened a
330-megawatt nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with
Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two
more reactors.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 23, In Japan furious
parents at the center of the atomic crisis and hundreds of their
supporters rallied in Tokyo against revised nuclear safety standards
in schools they say are putting children at risk. A new limit
allowed exposure of up to 20 millisieverts a year, 20 times the
radiation that was permissible before the March 11 tsunami caused a
meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In Japan major
international mission to investigate the flooded, radiation-leaking
nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel
had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the
March 11 tsunami.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 25, The Swiss
government said it will decommission all its nuclear power plants.
(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 26, China Central
Television said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he would adhere
to the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula during talks with
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 26, Tokyo Electric
Power, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant,
detailed a new leak of radioactive water as Greenpeace slammed the
country's "inadequate response" to a growing threat to sea water and
health.
(Reuters, 5/26/11)
2011 May 30, Germany's
governing coalition said it will shut down all the country's nuclear
power plants by 2022. The decision, prompted by Japan's nuclear
disaster, will make Germany the first major industrialized nation to
go nuclear-free in years.
(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 31, Analysts said
Germany's plan to shut all its nuclear power plants by 2022 will add
up to 40 million tons of CO2 dioxide emissions annually as the
country turns to fossil fuels.
(Reuters, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, In northeastern
Japan an oil spill and a small explosion caused limited damage, but
no further radiation leaks. TEPCO said damage to a gas cylinder
caused a loud noise outside a reactor building at the Fukushima
nuclear plant as rubble was being cleared away.
(AP, 5/31/11)(Reuters, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 8, The government of
Iran announced it planned to continue nuclear enrichment, despite
opposition from other nations that worried Iran was planning to
build an atomic bomb.
(Reuters, 6/8/11)
2011 Jun 11, In Japan
protesters held mass demonstrations across the country against
nuclear power in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami
that left over 23,000 dead.
(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A7)
2011 Jun 18, Japan’s Tokyo
Electric Power Co. halted an operation to clean highly contaminated
waste water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi facility due to
higher-than-expected radiation levels.
(AFP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 21, It was reported
that tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at
least 48 of 65 sites, according to US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety
issues at aging nuclear power plants.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, In Japan TEPCO,
owner of the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, said it will pay an
estimated $1 billion (88 billion yen) to thousands of residents who
evacuated homes near the radiation-leaking plant and don't yet know
when they can return.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, The US blacklisted
a major Iranian port operator and the country's national airline,
Iran Air, to increase pressure on Tehran to curtail its alleged
nuclear weapons program.
(Reuters, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Japan angry
parents of children in Fukushima city marched along with hundreds of
people to demand protection for their children from radiation more
than three months after a massive quake and tsunami triggered the
worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
(Reuters, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 28, Moldova officials
said 6 people have been arrested for trying to sell an unspecified
amount of uranium-235 to a North African country for $28.85 million.
(SFC, 6/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 29, In New Mexico the
Los Conchas Fire expanded to 110-square miles reaching the edge of
the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory.
(SFC, 6/30/11, p.A9)
2011 Jun 30, The German
parliament approved government plan to shut down nuclear power
plants by 2022.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 13, In Japan radiation
fears mounted after news that contaminated beef from a farm just
outside the Fukushima nuclear no-go zone has been shipped across the
country and probably eaten.
(AFP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 18, In India
construction began at two new indigenously-designed 700-megawatt
nuclear plants in the western state of Rajasthan.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 19, An Indian
government official said the new Tumalapalli mine in Andhra Pradesh
state could contain the largest reserves of uranium in the world.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 22, China said it had
hooked its first so-called "fourth generation" nuclear reactor to
the grid, a breakthrough that could eventually reduce its reliance
on uranium imports.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Iran gunmen
firing from motorcycles killed Dariush Rezaeinejad (35), said to be
an electronics masters’ student at Khajeh Nasir University in
Tehran. Initial reports said a pair of gunmen firing from
motorcycles killed Darioush Rezaei (35), a physics professor whose
area of expertise was neutron transport. It was later reported that
he participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component
that is crucial to setting off the explosions needed to trigger a
nuclear warhead.
(AP, 7/23/11)(AFP, 7/24/11)(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 28, In NYC the United
States opened discussions with North Korea, in a move testing
Pyongyang's willingness to negotiate giving up its nuclear arsenal.
(AFP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 29, Japan's PM Naoto
Kan pledged a "revolutionary" shift away from atomic power and
towards renewable energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear
disaster.
(AFP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Japan’s PM Naoto
Kan criticized the country's nuclear safety agency for allegedly
trying to plant questions aimed at supporting atomic energy at
public forums. An estimated 1,700 people rallied in the capital of
the Fukushima region, home to a crippled atomic power plant, calling
for an end to nuclear energy.
(AP, 7/31/11)(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 2, Japan’s Tokyo
Electric Power Co. reported its 2nd deadly radiation reading in as
many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
(SFC, 8/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 3, Japan’s Parliament
passed legislation allowing the use of public money to shore up
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the company operating the crippled
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant to help it pay expected billions in
compensation claims.
(SFC, 8/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Aug 17, Iran's foreign
minister Ali Akbar Salehi, speaking in Russia, said Iran is ready to
resume negotiations on its nuclear program and a Russian proposal
will aid the process.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 19, Belarus said it
has suspended an effort to fully give up its Soviet-era stockpile of
highly enriched uranium with US assistance in response to new
American sanctions.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 22, Cuba succeeded
North Korea as chair of the world's main forum against nuclear arms
that has been stalemated since it wrote the nuclear test ban treaty
in 1996. The leadership role rotates through the body's members
alphabetically (in French).
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 24, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev near
Lake Baikal. A spokesman for Medvedev said North Korea is ready to
impose a moratorium on nuclear missile tests if international talks
on its nuclear program resume.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 26, Japan's nuclear
agency said the amount of radioactive cesium that has leaked from a
tsunami-hit nuclear plant is about equal to 168 of the atomic bombs
dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Sep 4, Iranian state radio
said the country's first nuclear power plant has been connected to
the national power grid for a test run. The power plant in the
southern port of Bushehr, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, was
built with Russian help.
(AP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 12, In southern France
the Centraco nuclear waste site had an explosion that killed one
person, seriously burned another and slightly injured three others.
Centraco is located on the 300-hectare Marcoule site, which also
houses a research center and four industrial sites, including one
that makes Mox, a fuel made from plutonium and uranium.
(AP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Austria a
35-nation meeting of the UN nuclear agency adopted a post-Fukushima
nuclear safety plan, despite gripes by influential member nations
that it to too timid for making compliance voluntary.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 23, Islamic nations at
a 151-nation IAEA conference in Vienna demanded that Israel open its
nuclear program to international purview, asserting that its
undeclared atomic arms program is a threat to Mideast peace.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, In Libya Kadhafi
spokesman Mussa Ibrahim called for continued resolve against "agents
and traitors." A fighter for the interim government helping
desperate residents flee Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte was killed and
a packed family car was destroyed when pro-Kadhafi forces fired on
their convoy. The UN atomic agency confirmed the existence of raw
uranium in Libya.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Oct 6, Israel's supreme
court barred nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu (56) from
emigrating on the grounds he still poses a threat to state security.
Vanunu served 18 years behind bars for disclosing the inner workings
of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper
in 1986.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Geneva US and
North Korean officials concluded their two-day talks about
Pyongyang's nuclear program. Top US envoy Stephen Bosworth expressed
confidence about the prospects of restarting long-stalled nuclear
negotiations after two days of "very positive" talks with North
Korea.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 27, France's nuclear
monitor said that the amount of cesium 137 that leaked into the
Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear
contamination of the sea ever seen.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 31, EDF Energy
submitted its application to build the first new nuclear power plant
in Britain, the country's Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)
confirmed in a statement.
(Reuters, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Japan and Vietnam
agreed to move ahead with a plan to export Japanese nuclear
technology to build reactors in Vietnam despite Japan's ongoing
nuclear crisis. PM Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart
Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed to jointly mine rare earth minerals in
Vietnam.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 2, Bangladesh and
Russia signed a deal to build a nuclear power plant in the
energy-starved South Asian nation.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Japan restarted its
first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in March, in a
boost to its beleaguered atomic power industry faced with a deeply
skeptical public.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 8, An accident at the
Idaho National Laboratory caused at least two workers to suffer
internal exposure to plutonium.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 8, Israel’s Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said only crippling sanctions against
Iran's central bank and its oil and gas industries will force Tehran
to halt its nuclear drive. The UN atomic agency said for the first
time that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose
sole purpose is the development of nuclear arms.
(AFP, 11/8/11)(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In South Korea
Vietnam agreed to seek greater nuclear energy cooperation with South
Korea, opening the way for its participation in a project to build
atomic power plants at home.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran won't retreat "one iota" from its
nuclear program, denying claims that it seeks atomic weapons. Key
ally Russia gave the Islamic Republic a major boost, rejecting
tighter sanctions despite a UN watchdog report detailing suspected
arms-related advances.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 11, The Austria-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said very low levels of
radiation, which are higher than normal but don't seem to pose a
health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and
elsewhere in Europe.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, The UN atomic
agency (IAEA) shared satellite images, letters and diagrams with 35
nations as it sought to underpin its case that Iran apparently
worked secretly on developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 15, Saudi Arabia said
it has signed an agreement with South Korea on developing nuclear
power generation to help meet the kingdom's rising demand.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 17, The UN nuclear
agency said a Hungarian manufacturer of medical radioactive
substances was "most probably" the source of increased radiation
levels measured in several European countries in the past weeks.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Austria the US
and its Western allies bluntly accused Iran of deceiving the world
and declared it could no longer dismiss evidence it is working
secretly on making nuclear arms.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 21, The US approved
extra curbs on Iran’s banking system and oil industry in an ongoing
effort to thwart the country’s nuclear program.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 25, A shipment of
nuclear waste reprocessed in France crossed into Germany on its way
to a controversial storage site near the town of Dannenberg that
protesters say is unsafe.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 27, German police
cleared a sit-in of thousands of protesters attempting to block a
shipment of nuclear waste and detained 1,300 people.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Iran's parliament
voted on expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh
Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that
other countries could also be punished. The bill now has to go to
the Guardians Council for approval.
(AFP, 11/27/11)
2011 Dec 4, Australia’s Labor
party passed PM Julia Gillard's proposal with 206 votes to 185,
reversing a decades-old policy excluding New Delhi from Australia's
uranium trade because it is not a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 5, In France
Greenpeace activists broke into the Electricite de France’s
Nogent-sur-Seine plant. EDF said 9 people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 6, Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (TEPCO) said it believes 150 liters (40 US gallons) of
waste water including highly harmful strontium, linked with bone
cancers, has spread to the open ocean. The announcement came a day
after TEPCO said it found 45 tons of waste water pooled around the
leaky water-treatment system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
In the weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the
plant, TEPCO dumped 10,000 tons of lower-level radioactive water
into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 9, Japanese workers
discovered a nuclear plant leak. 1.8 ton of radioactive water leaked
from the cooling system at the idled reactor at the Genkai nuclear
plant in Saga prefecture in the southern Kyushu region. The leak was
contained within the system.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 16, Japan's PM
Yoshihiko Noda announced that the country's Fukushima Dai-ichi
tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has achieved a stable state of "cold
shutdown," a crucial step toward the eventual lifting of evacuation
orders and closing of the plant.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, South Korea joined
a fresh multinational effort to press Iran to scrap its suspected
nuclear weapons program, adding more than 100 names to a financial
blacklist of Iranian firms and individuals.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 17, It was reported
that North Korea has agreed to suspend its enriched-uranium nuclear
weapons program, a key United States demand for the resumption of
disarmament talks, as Washington agreed to provide the North with up
to 240,000 tons of food aid.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 21, The Japanese
government set a 40-year timeline for cleanup of the Dai-ichi
nuclear plant at Fukushima.
(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 22, US regulators
approved a Westinghouse next generation nuclear reactor slated for
Florida Power and Light’s Turkey Point plant and five other
utilities in the Southeast. These would be the first new reactors in
the US in 3 decades.
(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 27, India and Pakistan
tentatively agreed to renew an agreement designed to reduce the risk
of an accidental nuclear war.
(SFC, 12/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 27, Iran warned that
it would block the Strait of Hormuz if Western powers attempt to
impose an embargo on Iranian petroleum exports in their effort to
isolate the country over its suspect nuclear energy program.
(SFC, 12/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 31, Iran said it has
proposed a new round of talks on its nuclear program with six world
powers that have been trying for years to persuade Tehran to freeze
aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to
weapons production.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2012 Jan 1, Iran’s nuclear
agency said its scientists have tested the first nuclear fuel rod
produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Pakistan and India
exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an accord which
prohibits both sides from attacking these locations.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 6, Nadeem Akhtar (46),
a Maryland businessman, was sentenced to over 3 years in prison for
conspiring to export to Pakistan materials that can be used in
nuclear reactors.
(SFC, 1/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 8, A leading Iranian
hardline newspaper reported Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the
Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom, well protected from
possible airstrikes. Another newspaper quoted a senior commander of
the powerful Revolutionary Guard force as saying Tehran's leadership
has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a
strategic oil route, if the country's petroleum exports are blocked.
(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 10, The Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists announced that it has moved its "Doomsday
Clock" one minute ahead to five minutes to midnight.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 11, Cuba and Iran
highlighted the "right of all nations to the peaceful use of nuclear
energy" during a visit by Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the
communist-ruled island. Ahmadinejad slammed capitalism as bankrupt
and called for a new world order.
(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Iran 2
assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a university professor working at the Natanz
nuclear facility, killing him and his driver. Defiant Iranian
authorities pointed the finger at archfoe Israel.
(AP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 11, Namibia's
competition commission said it has cleared a Chinese nuclear company
to take over an Australian mining firm with rights to the world's
fourth-largest uranium deposit.
(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 15, Britain's foreign
secretary William Hague said that European nations will intensify
pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, but insisted the West
wasn't pressing for military action.
(AP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 19, A US federal judge
blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to
shut down when its license expires in March and said the state
cannot force the plant’s owner to sell electricity to in-state
utilities at reduced rates as a condition of operation.
(SFC, 1/20/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 19, Egypt’s Al-Ahram
newspaper reported that a safe containing radioactive material was
stolen from a site in Al-Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast. The
low-level radioactive material was stolen from a laboratory at a
construction site for a nuclear power plant that is not yet
operational. A day later the Al-Akhbar newspaper said that the
experts who toured the site a day earlier found "no evidence of any
theft of radioactive material" or any radioactive leakage.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 26, Pres. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran is ready to revive talks with the world
powers, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply
scale back its nuclear program. A US-made F-14 Iranian fighter jet
crashed in southern Iran. Both the pilot and the co-pilot were
killed.
(AP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 29, UN nuclear
inspectors began a critical mission to Iran to probe allegations of
a secret atomic weapons program amid escalating Western economic
pressure and warnings about safeguarding Gulf oil shipments from
possible Iranian blockades.
(AP, 1/29/12)
2012 Jan 30, Iran's top
diplomat offered to extend the current visit of UN nuclear
inspectors and expressed optimism their findings would help ease
tensions despite international claims that Iran is trying to build
nuclear weapons. Iran's state TV reported the development of
laser-guided artillery shells capable of hitting moving targets.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 1, Senior UN nuclear
expert Herman Nackaerts announced plans to revisit Tehran soon after
a "good trip," indicating progress on his team's quest to probe
suspicions that the Islamic Republic is secretly working on an
atomic arms program.
(AP, 2/1/12)
2012 Feb 2, Israel's chief of
military intelligence, General Aviv Kochavi, warned at a security
conference that Iran has enough radioactive material to produce four
nuclear bombs.
(AFP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 9, The US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 to grant a license to build two more
nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia.
(SFC, 2/10/12, p.A9)(Econ, 2/18/12, p.34)
2012 Feb 10, Argentina accused
Britain of sending nuclear weapons to the disputed Falkland islands,
while UN leader Ban Ki-moon appealed to both sides to avoid an
"escalation" of their sovereignty battle.
(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 11, In Japan thousands
demonstrated in Tokyo against nuclear power generation, 11 months
after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at
the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 15, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran has added 3,000 more centrifuges to its
uranium enrichment effort increasing the total to 9,000, as he
unveiled progress in his country's controversial nuclear program.
Iran began loading domestically made nuclear fuel rods into its
Tehran research reactor. Iran also said it was considering cutting
oil sales to six EU countries in retaliation to an EU ban on Iranian
oil imports that is being phased in as existing contracts expire up
to July 1.
(AFP, 2/15/12)(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 17, In France British
PM David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy put recent
disputes behind them to unveil a nuclear power deal and renew their
own sometimes shaky political alliance. Cameron said the British
engineering firm Rolls-Royce will secure a £400 million (481
million euro, $632 million) share in the work to build Britain's
first French-pioneered EPR reactor at Hinkley Point in southern
England.
(AFP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 19, UN nuclear
inspectors arrived in Iran in the latest push to hold key talks with
Iranian officials about how far the country's controversial nuclear
program has come. Access to Parchin, a military site suspected of
testing nuclear weapon components, was denied.
(AP, 2/20/12)(Econ, 2/25/12, p.28)
2012 Feb 21, Iran said it views
its nuclear activities as a non-negotiable right, but confirmed they
will be discussed in mooted talks with world powers aimed at
defusing a crisis containing the seeds of a new Middle East war.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, The UN nuclear
agency acknowledged renewed failure after a trip to probe suspicions
of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work. Their statement was issued
just hours after an Iranian general warned of a pre-emptive strike
against any foe threatening the country.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 24, Japan said some
areas surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was wrecked
last year by a massive tsunami will likely remain permanently
off-limits.
(AFP, 2/24/12)
2012 Feb 29, In Britain, the
world's oldest running nuclear reactor shut down at
Oldbury-on-Severn after 44 years of operation, starting the
countdown to 2025, by when a new nuclear station is expected to open
on a site just a few hundred meters away.
(Reuters, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, North Korea's new
leadership said it would suspend nuclear and missile tests and its
uranium enrichment program as part of a deal that includes US food
aid for the impoverished nation.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Mar 6, Iran’s
semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the government will
grant UN inspectors access to a military complex where the UN
nuclear agency suspects secret atomic work has been carried out.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 11, In Taiwan
thousands of protesters took to the streets calling on the
government to shut down the island's nuclear power plants, citing
the painful lesson of Japan's 9.0-magnitude earthquake one year ago.
(AFP, 3/11/12)
2012 Mar 19, In southern India
police arrested nearly 200 activists who were protesting the start
of work at a long-stalled nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu's
Koodankulam region. Engineers resumed working the next day on one of
two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors after the local government gave
the green light for the resumption of the Russia-backed project.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 26, In South Korea
leaders or top officials from 53 nations gathered in Seoul for a
summit on nuclear security. President Obama said the United States
would further cut its own nuclear stockpiles, as he warned North
Korea and Iran to back down over their atomic plans.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 27, In South Korea
world leaders including US President Barack Obama called for strong
steps to combat nuclear terrorism, wrapping up a 53-nation summit
overshadowed by North Korea's planned rocket launch.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 29, Franco-Algerian
nuclear physicist Adlene Hicheur went on trial in Paris for
allegedly plotting terror attacks in France. Police arrested
Hicheur, a researcher studying the universe's birth, at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in October 2009 after
intercepting emails he wrote. He stood trial charged with criminal
association as part of a terrorist enterprise.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 29, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's
nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. Turkey relies on Iran for 30% of its oil imports, and
has refused to go along with sanctions imposed by the US and Europe,
saying it will observe only UN-mandated restrictions on Iran.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 9, Turkey's PM Erdogan
oversaw the signing of two nuclear agreements with China on a trip
to the Asian nation that also saw him make an unprecedented stop in
ethnically-tense Xinjiang. The two agreements paved the way for
deeper nuclear cooperation between the two countries, but few
concrete details were made available.
(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 14, Iran and senior
diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and
Germany, known as the P5+1, gathered at the negotiating table in
Istanbul for their first meeting in 15 months hoping to ease
tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Nuclear
End of file