Tag: nuclear power

Analysis: Iran likely transferred highly enriched uranium to Isfahan before the June strikes

orking with a team of visual investigators that included the Bulletin, the French newspaper Le Monde has analyzed a previously unreported satellite image of the Iranian nuclear site at Isfahan, showing a large truck loaded with containers. In a Le Monde article published Saturday, experts said they could not be certain what the containers held. But the timing of the image, the type of load, and other indirect evidence suggest that Iran may have placed a significant quantity of highly enriched uranium—possibly all of its inventory—at the facility ahead of the June 2025 strikes by Israel and the United States against Iranian nuclear sites.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has mentioned the possible presence of highly enriched uranium at the Isfahan nuclear complex several times—a presence implicitly acknowledged by Iran’s own recent declarations. The IAEA has made multiple requests but was unable to access the underground tunnel complex at Isfahan, which was spared during Israeli and American military strikes in June. The satellite image could be the first publicly available evidence of the presence of highly enriched uranium at Isfahan.

According to Le Monde investigators, who have reviewed many satellite images of the entrance to Isfahan and other Iranian nuclear sites, it is the first time they have seen this type of convoy at the facility. Le Monde informed the Bulletin about the image on March 19. What follows is a detailed visual and technical analysis supporting my assessment that the cargo may have been highly enriched uranium.

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US-Iran war live: Donald Trump drops hint that massive escalation is imminent

Donald Trump seemed to drop a hint about his intentions in Iran on Sunday, Australian time, as he directed his followers on social media to tune in for a media appearance by a conservative political commentator, Mark Levin.

“Watch Mark Levin interview of Brilliant Marc Thiessen tonight at 8pm on Fox News. Will discuss the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!! President DJT,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Mr Thiessen, now a columnist and TV panelist, previously worked as a speechwriter for the Republican president George W. Bush. He and Mr Levin are both very much in favour of the Iran war.

The TV segment in question turned out to involve Mr Levin advocating for a dramatic escalation in Iran, which would involve the deployment of US ground troops to the country. He suggested Mr Trump should order the American military to seize the regime’s stores of enriched uranium.

Such an operation would be fraught with danger for US forces.

“Why would we need troops on the ground?” Mr Levin said, before answering the question for his viewers.

“Well there’s a lot of reasons, and we wouldn’t need 300,000 of them,” he said.

“It’s this uranium too. We’ve got to get the uranium.

“If it cannot be destroyed, if it cannot be altered, we’ve gotta get it. For the reason I just said, you can make dirty bombs and over time you can still make sophisticated missiles.

“So you need to get to the uranium. That’s why I’m reading, in the paper, we’re talking about (various troop deployments). It’s not talking abouts ending regular army and infantry in by the hundreds of thousands. The men he’s talking about, they are specialised.

“You know what else? I remember from my days in the Reagan administration. Many of them are trained for a moment like this. To try to secure enriched uranium.”

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NASA Unveils Plan for First Nuclear-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft

The first-ever nuclear-powered spacecraft built for interplanetary travel will set off on a mission to Mars in 2028.

The Space Reactor‑1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom) project was unveiled in Washington on March 24. NASA leadership said it’s the first step toward nuclear power on the moon and for exploratory missions farther out in space, where solar panels and traditional chemical propulsion would be less and less effective.

The ship was introduced by Steve Sinacore, NASA’s Fission Surface Power program executive, who said it comes from utilizing more than 60 years of NASA’s research into fission nuclear propulsion and repurposing a power and propulsion unit already nearing completion.

It will be fueled with low-enriched uranium, producing more than 20 kilowatts of advanced electric propulsion primarily through the transfer of heat from the uranium. It will also be equipped with radiation shielding and high-rate direct-to-Earth communications with images and data.

SR-1 Freedom’s first mission will be a year-long journey to Mars for a mission called “Skyfall.” Its job will be to deliver a payload of three helicopter drones modeled after “Ingenuity,” the first helicopter to fly on Mars, to the surface. The aircraft will then take readings of and below the planet’s surface in anticipation of a crewed mission, such as searching for water as ice trapped beneath the surface, and scouting out a landing site.

NASA leaders didn’t announce where the launch would take place or disclose what kind of rocket would be used.

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Trump is strategizing means to seize Iran’s nuclear stockpiles, sources say

The Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran’s nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions, as a U.S.-Israel-led military campaign against Tehran enters a more uncertain phase. 

The timing of any such an operation — if President Trump were to order it — remained unclear Friday night. One source said he has made no decision yet. 

But planning has centered on the possible deployment of forces from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, the elite military unit often tasked with the most sensitive counter-proliferation missions, two of the sources told CBS News. 

A White House spokeswoman said it’s the Pentagon’s job to make preparations.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon didn’t immediately comment. 

Mr. Trump in a Truth Social post Friday evening said: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran.”

The private deliberations on the nuclear material come amid an evolving conflict that in its opening focused on degrading Iran’s conventional military capabilities — including air defenses, missile systems and key infrastructure tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

That initial wave of strikes carried out by U.S. and Israeli forces was intended to blunt Iran’s ability to retaliate across the region. However, despite the onslaught from the air, Iran has been able to counterstrike on Israel and U.S.-allied countries in the Gulf region, and has halted most oil shipments by threatening ships. 

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California Startup Starts Drilling World’s First Underground Nuclear Borehole

Deep Fission, a California-based nuclear energy startup, started drilling the world’s first underground nuclear borehole March 10 in Kansas, taking a major step forward in building small modular pressurized water reactors one mile below the surface.

The test project is being funded as part of the Trump administration’s plan to breathe new life into the American nuclear sector by investing in new technology.

“It represents the shift from concept to construction and begins the process of demonstrating a fundamentally new approach to nuclear energy deployment,” Liz Muller, CEO and co-founder of Deep Fission, said.

The initial phase will include the sinking of three wells for site characterization and engineering validation.

The first well will be drilled about 6,000 feet below the ground and will be about eight inches in diameter. Workers at the site will be able to gather critical data to inform the company’s final engineering design, safety analysis, and regulatory planning.

The site’s location in the rural community of Parsons, about 130 miles east of Wichita and home to about 10,000 residents, was chosen in December for its dense and impervious shale and limestone, which provide natural containment and radiation shielding.

“By placing reactors one mile underground, the surrounding geology provides billions of tons of passive shielding and natural containment—enhancing safety and security while significantly reducing cost, surface footprint, and visual impact,” the company stated.

The company also plans to complete construction of its first reactor and achieve criticality by July 4 at the Kansas location.

Deep Fission has already signed an agreement with the Great Plains Development Authority to develop a full-scale commercial project at the same site.

The company’s design uses pressurized water reactor technology with deep-borehole drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry and geothermal heat-transfer.

Each gravity reactor is installed one mile underground, where the surrounding geology provides natural shielding and containment, while also reducing the need for above-ground megastructures, according to Deep Fission.

The company has already entered into an agreement to buy low-enriched uranium from Urenco USA for the small water reactors.

“Securing fuel is one of the most important steps for any nuclear project,” said Deep Fission’s CEO Liz Muller. “This agreement with Urenco enables us to move quickly toward commercialization and scaling our technology with high-quality fuel.”

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Kayleigh McEnany Lays Out the Money Trail — Obama and Biden Showered Iran With Billions While Tehran Built Its Nuclear Program

The Left and their media allies want Americans to forget how the Iranian regime was empowered in the first place.

But former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany recently walked viewers through the timeline, and the receipts, showing how the Obama-Biden foreign policy machine sent billions to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

McEnany recently walked viewers through what she described as a troubling financial trail that began with the Obama administration’s controversial nuclear agreement with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

McEnany’s breakdown begins with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, where Barack Obama promised Americans that sanctions relief would not strengthen the radical regime in Tehran.

Speaking in 2015 while defending the deal, Obama acknowledged that Iran would gain access to tens of billions of dollars in previously frozen assets.

“It is true that if Iran lives up to its commitments, it will gain access to roughly $56 billion of its own money, revenue frozen overseas by other countries,” Obama said at the time.

“Our best analysts expect the bulk of this revenue to go into spending that improves the economy and benefits the lives of the Iranian people.”

But the controversy only intensified a year later.

In January 2016, the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran, reportedly delivered in pallets of foreign currency. The transfer happened the same day Iran released several detained Americans, raising immediate questions about whether the payment functioned as leverage or ransom.

CNN itself acknowledged the timing sparked outrage and speculation that the payment and hostage release were linked.

At the time, administration officials denied any quid pro quo.

The story did not end with the $400 million.

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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Don’t Join ‘Em

2026 marks yet another year Americans find themselves watching Washington and its media surrogates prepare the country for war in the Middle East. Speaking on Iran, President Donald Trump said that “either we reach a deal, or we’ll have to do something very tough.” He has deployed what he called a “massive armada” to the region and insisted that Iran has only a month to capitulate or face a “very difficult time.” His demands no longer focus solely on the nuclear program; Trump now insists on ending all uranium enrichment, severing Tehran’s ties to regional militias, and placing strict limits on Iran’s ballistic‑missile stockpile. He said a fair agreement would mean “no nuclear weapons, no missiles.” Such conditions, issued by a nation with an arsenal of its own, amount to complete disarmament and have led observers to conclude that the administration is setting Iran up to fail so it can justify another round of attacks. Last June he authorized the bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities, yet he now argues that more force will be needed if Tehran refuses to accept total capitulation.

Hard‑line commentators have joined the chorus. Conservative media host Mark Levin spoke gleefully about the United States organizing a major attack on Iran and that “this regime must be destroyed,” even issuing a direct threat to Iran’s supreme leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted similar maximalist rhetoric. Netanyahu has signaled he favors the use of force to topple Iran’s government or at least cripple its missile defenses and that he and his advisors believe Washington should exploit Iran’s recent unrest to end the Islamic Republic’s 47‑year rule. At a February conference he demanded that all enriched uranium be removed from Iran and that any deal include dismantlement of enrichment infrastructure and resolution of the “ballistic‑missile issue” – conditions that would leave Iran defenseless. Tehran has said its ballistic‑missile program is a “firmly established” part of its deterrence and not open for negotiation, but Trump echoed Netanyahu’s stance, saying a fair deal means “no nuclear weapons, no missiles.” These extreme and shifting demands appear less about arms control than about engineering an impasse that can be used to rationalize war.

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NASA Aims To Build ‘Martian Outpost’ On Mars With Nuclear Propulsion

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced his agency’s commitment to developing a nuclear propulsion system for missions to Mars within the next three years.

“Before the end of @POTUS‘ term, @NASA will lay the foundation of a ’transcontinental railroad’ to Mars,” Isaacman wrote on X on Jan. 30. “By utilizing nuclear electric propulsion, our nation will have the tools necessary to establish a Martian outpost and maintain American superiority in deep space.”

The administrator shared a clip from a Jan. 30 appearance on Fox News in which he explained that while NASA continues its work to put boots back on the moon, it will also launch its first nuclear power and propulsion rocket by the end of President Donald Trump’s term.

“That’s going to essentially almost establish the transcontinental railroad to Mars,” he said. “It’s how you efficiently move lots of mass to Mars. So it’s not necessarily always the fastest way to get there, but it gives you the tools to build out potentially a Martian outpost, certainly to mine and refine propellant on Mars, which is what you’re going to need to bring your astronauts back home.”

He explained that America would have the capability to send astronauts to Mars, but the hard part was bringing them back. Nuclear power and propulsion solved that problem.

Meanwhile, Isaacman reaffirmed that the Artemis program would continue to push forward the goal of the president’s national space policy to not just land humans back on the moon, but to construct a lunar base in order to stay and fulfill its scientific, economic, and strategic potential.

That base, he said, will involve a nuclear power plant, as well as mining operations, and refining Helium 3, which is considered to be the best fuel for nuclear fusion reactors, and plan to do it before communist China’s plan to do so by 2030.

“The Chinese said they’re going to do it,” Isaacman said of a nuclear reactor on the moon, “We’re going to do it first.”

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Fusion Ignition Breakthrough: Energy Researchers Report Tokamak Experiments That Exceed Mysterious ‘Plasma Density Limit’

In a potential new milestone for fusion energy research, researchers in China report achieving a state once only theorized for fusion plasmas, enabling stable operation under conditions that significantly exceed normal limits.

The achievement was made during experiments with China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), which reportedly produced fusion plasmas in a “density-free regime,” overcoming a longstanding hurdle to nuclear fusion ignition.

The team’s findings were featured in a new study in Science Advances, offering a fresh perspective on tackling one of the most significant impediments to practical fusion energy.

The Plasma Density Limit

Amid growing concerns about access to clean, sustainable energy, nuclear fusion has long been seen as one of the most promising avenues for future energy sources.

Despite its promise, harnessing nuclear fusion is easier said than done, since it involves fusion reactions between deuterium and tritium that require heating plasmas to around 150 million kelvins—temperatures that still only represent a fraction of the intense conditions that occur naturally on the surface of the Sun.

Nonetheless, achieving such temperatures in conventional tokamaks—devices physicists use to conduct controlled fusion experiments with hot plasmas—is challenging because of the currently known upper limit on attainable plasma density. In essence, energy levels above this boundary typically lead to instabilities that not only affect plasma confinement but also cause disruptions that can damage tokamaks.

A Fusion Ignition Breakthrough

The recent work reported in Science Advances is significant because the EAST experiments now demonstrate that the plasma density limit, which has long constrained the operational capabilities of tokamaks, may finally have been overcome.

The research, co-led by Prof. Zhu Ping from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. Yan Ning of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, details the achievement of high-density plasmas at EAST, potentially extending stable operating periods without causing plasma disruption.

At the heart of the Chinese team’s work is a novel concept known as plasma-wall self-organization (PWSO) theory, which offers a unique approach to overcoming the plasma density limit. This theoretical approach, first developed by French physicist Dominique Franck Escande and colleagues with the French National Center for Scientific Research and Aix-Marseille University, holds that the key to overcoming plasma density issues involves attaining harmonious conditions between the plasma within the tokomak and its metallic walls, where physical forces increasingly impact the plasmas and their confinement as temperatures increase.

Verification of PWSO Theory

Although PWSO theory was initially introduced in 2021, it has yet to see verification in practice until now. According to the Chinese research team, the recent EAST experiments have successfully demonstrated the concept by combining careful control of fuel pressure with increased temperature during the initial startup phase of tokamak operation. During this time, electron cyclotron resonance heating is initiated, and with optimal control between fuel pressure and heating, the resulting plasma-wall interactions become more manageable from the outset.

The EAST researchers report that employing this process helps reduce potentially harmful interactions between the heated plasmas and the tokamak wall, limit impurity accumulation during confinement, and reduce overall energy loss.

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DOJ Grants Antitrust Immunity To Nuclear Fuel Companies

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division recently authorized antitrust immunity to companies involved in the domestic nuclear fuel chain. 

Stemming from the set of nuclear industry Executive Orders (EOs) issued earlier this year on May 23rd, the Department of Energy (DoE) established the Nuclear Fuel Chain Defense Production Act (DPA) Consortium back in August to meet some of the goals directed by the EOs. The consortium has since been working “to develop plans of action to ensure that the nuclear fuel supply chain capacity for mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, deconversion, fabrication, recycling and reprocessing is available to enable the continued reliable operation of the nation’s reactors.”

After some initial hype following the consortium’s establishment, rumors kicked back up about the potential for the government building a Strategic Uranium Reserve (SUR). However, most of the interest in the consortium’s activities/goals fell off after the government shutdown delayed the first meetings of the new group.

Fast forward to last week when the DOJ completed the required justification for the US government to enter into agreements with companies involved in the nuclear fuel chain that would have otherwise been illegal under antitrust laws. The DOJ presented their findings on December 19th, stating “the purposes … of the DPA may not reasonably be achieved through a voluntary agreement having less anticompetitive effects or without any voluntary agreement. Given this finding, the proposed Voluntary Agreement may become effective”.

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