Nuclear Technology

VIENNA - Facing international opposition, US negotiators at a nuclear meeting have dropped their insistence on a ban of uranium enrichment technology to non-nuclear states, diplomats said yesterday. The compromise, which moves America closer to the positions of other nations selling nuclear technology and material, is important because it could give ammunition to Iran, which is under UN sanctions for defying a Security Council demand that it give up its enrichment program. It also could complicate efforts to put life into a US-Indian deal that would allow transfers of sensitive nuclear...

TOKYO - Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation's 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped like giant fish that have become a potent antinuclear symbol. Japan was without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido went offline for mandatory routine maintenance. After last year's March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, no reactor halted for checkups has been restarted amid public worries about...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- US officials, seeking Arab allies to provide a united front against Iran, are pushing Gulf states to expand their defenses against ballistic missiles and chemical weapons. Analysts and former US officials say the goal is to gird for retaliation against oil-rich allies like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in case of any US-led attack on Iran. A slew of high-level State Department officials have visited Gulf states recently to make Washington's case. Thus far, however, their efforts have not brought about a stepped-up security agenda focused on Iran, according to US military...

Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation's 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol. Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline for routine maintenance. After last year's March 11 quake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, no reactor halted for checkups has been restarted amid public worries about the safety...

TEHRAN -- Iran publicly acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it once bought nuclear equipment from middlemen on the Asian subcontinent, lending credence to a recent report that detailed black-market nuclear deals between a Pakistani scientist and Iran and Libya. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi did not go into details, but repeated Tehran's contention that its efforts to acquire nuclear technology were strictly energy-related and never intended for weapons development.

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran is willing to provide nuclear technology to other Muslim states, Iran's president said yesterday. Hours later, European nations renewed an offer of incentives if Tehran halted its uranium enrichment. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment after talking with Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. Ahmadinejad repeated promises that Iran will not develop nuclear arms, the report said.

PARIS - Accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France yesterday suggested tougher sanctions against the Mideast nation over its refusal to suspend nuclear activities. Sarkozy, who has toughened the French position on Iran since taking office in May, called the possibility of an Iranian bomb "unacceptable. " Sarkozy was expected to discuss sanctions with other world leaders at the UN General Assembly next week. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile, was in Washington to meet with senior US officials and to discuss Iran,...

BERLIN -- Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker, a physicist who researched atomic weapons for the Nazis and became a philosophy professor who espoused pacifism after World War II, died yesterday, his family said. He was 94. Mr. von Weizsaecker had been severely ill for a long time, his daughter-in-law said by telephone from his house. She declined to provide her name. Born in Kiel on June 28, 1912, into a nationally prominent family of jurists and theologians, Mr. von Weizsaecker studied physics and mathematics in Leipzig, Berlin, and...

Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation's 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol. Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline for routine maintenance. After last year's March 11 quake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, no reactor halted for checkups has been restarted amid...

UNITED NATIONS -- Several countries in addition to Iran and North Korea may be trying to develop nuclear weapons, and Washington is pursuing the customers of an underground Pakistani network, US Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said yesterday. He said he wasn't prepared to name any of the other countries because US officials are still seeking information. "There are several others," Bolton said. "There's a lot of information that we don't necessarily have corroboration for, but we are pursuing our concerns where we do have information . . . learning from...

The one-day talks between Iran, the United States, and five other world powers last week gave a glimmer of hope that the impasse over Iran's nuclear program might be solved through diplomatic rather than military means. But the brief meeting merely tested Iran's willingness to discuss its program, and left the real heavy lifting for a follow-up meeting scheduled for late May. That approach has generated criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused the Obama administration of stringing out the negotiations.

LONDON - Besieged by international sanctions on the Iranian nuclear program including a planned oil embargo by Europe, Iran warned six European buyers yesterday that it might strike first by immediately cutting them off from Iranian oil. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said the threat was conveyed to the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Portugal in separate meetings at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran....

Takashi Yamada would prefer life without the nearby nuclear power plant. But the 66-year-old retired electronics retailer says, "It is also true we all need it. " Host communities such as this seaside city on the island of Shikoku need the jobs and financial subsidies the plants provide. And Japan's $5.5-trillion economy needs the energy. Many Japanese have grown uneasy with nuclear power since the March 11 tsunami, which left more than 20,000 dead or missing and sent a plant in Fukushima into meltdown.

TEHRAN - Iran accused the United States yesterday of involvement in the disappearance of one of its nuclear scientists during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, raising a new mystery at a time when the West is trying to determine the extent of Iran’s nuclear program. Shahram Amiri vanished during a pilgrimage to the kingdom more than four months ago and Saudi Arabia has not responded to requests for information on his whereabouts, Iranian officials say. But in complaints about his disappearance Iranian officials have avoided mentioning that Amiri was...

WASHINGTON - The United States yesterday slapped sanctions on people and companies connected to the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. US officials called the sanctions "a warning to other would-be proliferators" and urged the world to "remain vigilant" to make sure that Khan's associates are stopped from leaking sensitive nuclear information or equipment in the future. The State and Treasury Departments said the United States had placed sanctions on 13 people and three private companies for their...

VIENNA - Facing international opposition, US negotiators at a nuclear meeting have dropped their insistence on a ban of uranium enrichment technology to non-nuclear states, diplomats said yesterday. The compromise, which moves America closer to the positions of other nations selling nuclear technology and material, is important because it could give ammunition to Iran, which is under UN sanctions for defying a Security Council demand that it give up its enrichment program. It also could complicate efforts to put life into a US-Indian deal that would allow transfers...

ROME - A senior US nuclear arms official said yesterday that North Koreans were in Syria and that Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment. Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not identify the suppliers, but said North Koreans were in the country and that he could not exclude that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.

WASHINGTON - The United States yesterday slapped sanctions on people and companies connected to the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. US officials called the sanctions "a warning to other would-be proliferators" and urged the world to "remain vigilant" to make sure that Khan's associates are stopped from leaking sensitive nuclear information or equipment in the future. The State and Treasury Departments said the United States had placed sanctions on 13 people and three private companies for their...

PARIS - Accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France yesterday suggested tougher sanctions against the Mideast nation over its refusal to suspend nuclear activities. Sarkozy, who has toughened the French position on Iran since taking office in May, called the possibility of an Iranian bomb "unacceptable. " Sarkozy was expected to discuss sanctions with other world leaders at the UN General Assembly next week. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile, was in Washington to meet with senior US officials and to discuss Iran, among other joint...

ROME - A senior US nuclear arms official said yesterday that North Koreans were in Syria and that Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment. Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not identify the suppliers, but said North Koreans were in the country and that he could not exclude that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.