Tag: nuclear weapons

NSA REPORT: The NUMEC Affair and Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Nearly seventy years have gone by since Israel embarked on its nuclear program, and almost sixty years have passed since it achieved nuclear weapons capability. However, the narrative of Israel’s nuclear history remains largely unarticulated. The country has not produced an official and sanctioned account of its nuclear development, nor have any insiders been permitted to share their perspectives.

In 1966, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) performed a security inspection at the NUMEC uranium facility located in Apollo, Pennsylvania. During this inspection, the inspector suspected that some of the missing uranium had been transported to France before ultimately reaching Israel. Zalman Shapiro, one of NUMEC’s founders, had established a dubious new enterprise in collaboration with a French organization known as Société D’Applications de la Physique (SAIP). This new venture was named NUMEC Instruments and Controls Corporation (NUMINCO) and was located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. In 1957, as France was advancing its nuclear program, it initiated a nuclear agreement with Israel, sending engineers to assist in the construction of the nuclear reactor at Dimona, Israel. However, to facilitate the development of nuclear weapons, the newly established state required a plutonium separation facility, which was secretly built by the French company “Saint Gobain.” Shimon Peres, who passed away on September 28, 2016, was a protégé of David Ben-Gurion and played a key role in shaping Israel’s clandestine nuclear program, a program that was developed with French assistance – but whose existence is still officially denied to this day.

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NSA Waltz Demands Iran Give Up Entire Nuclear Program, Including Civilian Enrichment

While continuing to closely tie the recent US attacks on the Houthis in Yemen to Iran, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz confirmed that the Trump Administration is demanding “full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, including its capacity to enrich uranium for civilian use.

Waltz made the comments on CBS’ Face the Nation, and when asked what full dismantlement meant and to clarify the distinction between it and the verification deal the US had with Iran before President Trump pulled out of it in 2018, he made it clear this is far broader, covering everything, including enrichment, “weaponization,” and strategic missile programs.

Iran’s enrichment program, which is under IAEA monitoring, has no military component in the first place. Enrichment was purely for making fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant along Iran’s coast and for making somewhat higher enriched fuel for its medical isotope reactor. Iran has a long history of having a substantial nuclear medicine program, and supplied its own isotopes for that.

The long-abandoned nuclear deal was meant to give Iran a design to produce isotopes without 20% enriched uranium through a heavy-water reactor. Like most of the promises to Iran under the deal this was never honored, and Iran is left with the old research reactor. Higher levels of enrichment were also done to try to encourage new negotiations, though Iran promised the IAEA that they would not go above 60% levels, and weapons-grade uranium is a minimum of 90%.

Waltz’ new demand is not that Iran goes back down to 20% or anything, it’s to stop enrichment entirely. It’s unclear in the context if Iran is even allowed to keep it’s power plant, though without the ability to enrich uranium to make their own fuel, it would be effectively useless in fairly short order.

Beyond that, Waltz demanded Iran scrap its “weaponization” program, which will be a challenge because Iran does not have one, and US intelligence assessments have repeatedly said Iran hasn’t decided to try to make such a weapon though such assessments never seem to inform the content of US demands.

He also demanded Iran get rid of its entire strategic missile program, which sense they haven’t even attempted to create nuclear warheads would exclusively impact conventional weapons in Iran’s arsenal. Though presented as something to do with nuclear dismantlement, it is effectively unrelated in the case of these missiles.

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Macron Unveils Major Nuclear Expansion By 2035

France has talked a big, hawkish anti-Russia game of late, but this week President Macron has actually backed up the rhetoric with action, but which brings Europe another step closer to nuclear escalation with Moscow.

France unveiled earlier this week plans to establish a new nuclear-capable air base, which will be its fourth, also to be home to two squadrons of the latest version of its domestic-made Dassault Rafale multirole fighter.

France plans to invest around 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to establish the new nuke-capable installation. A moment, the three air bases equipped with secure weapons storage for nuclear missiles are: Saint-Dizier, Istres, and Avord.

Speaking of the location of what will become the next base to play nuclear host, Macron said, “The Luxeuil air base is about to be upgraded in an unprecedented way and regain its full role in France’s nuclear deterrent,” describing that it will need “massive investment” to be modernized.

“Announcing the storage of modern nuclear missiles on an air base less than 200 kilometers from the German border is strategic signaling,” Politico has commented. “It also comes after Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said he wanted to hold talks about France’s nuclear deterrent as fears grow of a U.S. retreat from the continent.”

“If we are to avoid war, our country and our continent must continue to defend, equip and prepare themselves,” Macron said.

Storing ASN4G air-launched hypersonic nuclear missiles there will require the permanent staff to double to at least 2,000 people. The French President set a bar of preparing Luxeuil to host an expansion of next-generation Rafale fighter jets and their hypersonic nuclear missiles by the year 2035.

The double-engine Rafale is capable of flying supersonic speeds and can depart runways as short as 400 meters. Produced by Dassault Aviation, it has been a central fighter of the French Air Force since 2000.

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Declassified JFK Files: Transcript Reveals Israeli Scientists and US Experts May Have Played Roles in Transfer of Nuclear Intelligence to Israel

The newly declassified JFK file revealed that former CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton testified under oath in an executive session before the Church Committee in 1975 about deep intelligence ties between the United States and Israel.

The testimony, given in a top-secret executive session, was part of the Senate Select Committee’s broader investigation into intelligence operations.

Though much of the session was focused on Cold War espionage and Soviet defections, one line of questioning zeroed in on allegations that U.S. intelligence may have assisted Israel’s covert nuclear program.

Angleton, who served from the agency’s founding until late 1974, confirmed a formal, albeit unwritten, intelligence-sharing agreement between the CIA and Israeli operatives beginning in 1951, one reportedly brokered between Angleton and Reuven Shiloah, Israel’s first Mossad director, noting that the relationship operated on a fiduciary basis and avoided documentation.

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Massive Explosion at Russian Nuclear Bomb Base Following Ukrainian Drone Strike

On Thursday Ukraine carried out a drone-bombing attack against a Russian nuclear weapons base 450-miles outside of Moscow resulting in a massive explosion and numerous fires which spread to neighboring cottages.

The base, Engels airfield, hosts a number of Russia’s nuclear-capable heavy bombers and cruise missiles.

A state of emergency has been declared in the area.

Ukrainian Dictator Vladimir Zelensky carried out the attack as a ceasefire agreement is underway.

Notably Ukraine carried out a drone strike on sleeping Russian civilians in Moscow the last time they came to the ‘peace’ table.

France is preparing for nuclear war, according to statements by French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron.

A hospital in the region was also hit as well.

“A hospital in the central Russian city of Engels has sustained damage in the largest ever Ukrainian drone raid on the area, local officials have reported. The nearby regional capital, Saratov, was also targeted,” RT said Thursday.

On Monday representatives from Moscow and Washington will meet in Saudi Arabia for further peace negotiations.

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France To Expand Its Nuclear Deterrent With New Air Base

France has said it will establish another nuclear-capable air base — its fourth — that will be equipped with two squadrons of the latest version of the homegrown Dassault Rafale multirole fighter. The change in fortunes for the base, Luxeuil Air Base in eastern France — once threatened with closure — comes as European NATO members, including France, look at bolstering their nuclear deterrence capabilities independent of the United States.

The announcements were made today by French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Luxeuil — locally known as Base Aérienne 116. As a nuclear-capable base, Luxeuil is planned to host the new ASN4G hypersonic missile by 2035. The weapon will arm two squadrons of the most advanced F5-standard Rafales — a total of 40 aircraft. All in all, France will invest around 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into the installation.

Pointing to the fact that the war in Ukraine “has changed the situation,” Cédric Perrin, the senator for the region in which the air base is located, confirmed that the first Rafale squadron will touch down at Luxeuil in 2032, becoming operational the following year. The second squadron will become operational in 2036.

It appears that these 40 advanced versions of the Rafale will be in addition to the 42 examples ordered earlier this year. As well as being compatible with the ASN4G missile, the F5-standard Rafales will also be able to work in conjunction with ‘loyal wingman’-type drones.

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Poland & Baltic Nations Welcome Macron’s Words Of Nuclear Escalation Aimed At Russia

Poland as well as Baltic nations have expressed approval of Wednesday’s ultra-provocative words by French President Emmanuel Macron which floated the idea of using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the European continent from Russian threats.

Macron said he is opening a “strategic debate” on possibly extending France’s nuclear umbrella to all of Europe – a role currently played by US nukes stationed in NATO countries. He claimed in the televised address that unless Putin is defeated in Ukraine, he will threaten other European countries with invasion. 

Throughout the more than three-year long Ukraine war the tiny Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been outsized in their hawkish anti-Moscow rhetoric.

France remains the only nuclear power in the European Union, and it possesses some 290 nuclear warheads – according to media estimates – which is why Russian leaders quickly slammed the Macron comments as “extremely confrontational”

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AfD Demands German Nuclear Arsenal Amid Shifting Geopolitical Landscape

As seismic geopolitical shifts unfold and Europe’s dependence on the U.S. for security grows increasingly uncertain, the right-wing, anti-globalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is urging Germany to develop its own nuclear arsenal and reinstate universal military conscription—including for women.

Speaking to the German news outlet T-Online in an interview on Thursday, March 6th, AfD MP Rüdiger Lucassen, a former Bundeswehr colonel who serves as the party’s chief defense expert, argued that Germany can no longer depend on Washington’s nuclear shield to ensure it’s security.

“If the U.S. steps back, Europe must step up,” Lucassen stated, calling for an independent European security structure with Germany at its core. “We need our own nuclear deterrent, a European command structure, and a military capable of defending itself. That means changing the Basic Law—fast.”

While clarifying that he isn’t suggesting some kind of Russian attack is imminent, Lucassen said it was nevertheless a possibility that responsible German leaders ought to prepare for. The former Bundeswehr colonel’s concerns were echoed by Hannes Gnauk, another member of AfD’s faction in the German Bundestag, who has also called for Germany to develop its own nuclear weapons stockpile.

Gnauk’s take on Russia and its proper relationship to Germany is slightly different from the former colonel’s, however, as he advocates for pragmatic economic ties while acknowledging that Moscow is neither a friend nor an enemy.

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POWDER KEG EUROPE: Polish PM Donald Tusk Announces Military Training for All Adult Males, Vows To Pursue Access to Nuclear Weapons

All over Europe, nations are scrambling to rearm at a frantic pace, but probably no one has put the warmongering quite as much into overdrive as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Speaking to Parliament today, Tusk vowed to more than double the size of Poland’s army, to militarily train every adult man in the country, and also to pursue nuclear weapons.

The PM told the Sejm that preparations are ongoing for ‘large-scale military training for every adult male in Poland’.

BBC reports:

“’We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war, so that this reserve is comparable and adequate to the potential threats’.”

Tusk said the Ukrainian army has 800,000 soldiers, whilst Russia has around 1.3 million and he wants to increase the size of the Polish army, including reservists, to 500,000 from around 200,000 now.

“’We’re talking about the need to have an army of half a million in Poland, including the reservists’, he said. ‘It seems if we organize things wisely, and I’m talking constantly with the Minister of Defense, we will have to use several courses of action. That means the reservists, but also intensive training to make those who do not go into the army fully-fledged and competent soldiers during a conflict’, he added.”

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This Is How The Military Wants AI To Help Control America’s Nuclear Arsenal

While it has long been a world-ending threat in science fiction, U.S. Air Force and Space Force officials see artificial intelligence (AI) playing important, if not critical roles in the command and control enterprise at the heart of America’s nuclear deterrent capabilities.

AI has the potential to help speed up decision making cycles and ensure that orders get where they need to go as fast and securely as possible. It could also be used to assist personnel charged with other duties from intelligence processing to managing maintenance and logistics. The same officials stress that humans will always need to be in or at least on the loop, and that a machine alone will never be in a position to decide to employ nuclear weapons.

A group of officers from the Air Force and Space Force talked about how AI could be used to support what is formally called the Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) architecture during a panel discussion at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Warfare Symposium, at which TWZ was in attendance. The current NC3 enterprise consists of a wide array of communications and other systems on the surface, in the air, and in space designed to ensure that a U.S. nuclear strike can be carried out at any time regardless of the circumstances.

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