The Nuclear Situation
Iran Continuing with its nuclear program
Iran is still relying on old technology to expand its nuclear program, in what may be a sign it is having difficulties developing modern machines that could speed up production of potential bomb material. A recent report by the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran was significantly stepping up its uranium enrichment, a finding that sent oil prices higher on fears tensions between with the West could escalate into military conflict.
Israel has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes to prevent Iran getting the bomb and Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said Tehran's continued technological progress mean it could soon pass into a "zone of immunity", suggesting time was running out for an effective military intervention.
Contrary to some Western media reports in the run-up to the International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran does not yet seem ready to deploy advanced enrichment equipment for large-scale production, despite years of testing.
The IAEA document showed Iran was preparing to install thousands more centrifuges based on an erratic and outdated design, both in its main enrichment plant at Natanz and in a smaller facility at Fordow buried deep underground.
Russia faced major nuclear disaster in 2011
It has only recently been revealed that Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons.
Official assurances that it was not armed were incorrect.
Russian officials said at the time that all nuclear weapons aboard the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine had been unloaded well before a fire engulfed the 167-meter vessel and there had been no risk of a radiation leak.
The respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads when the fire occurred on December 29.
The statement read, "Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl".
The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world's worst nuclear accident.
Neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has responsibility for military matters, would immediately comment on the report. A spokesman for the navy could not be contacted.
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