Iran still refusing to suspend uranium enrichment

Iran is continuing to defy UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday. “Contrary to the decisions of the (UN) Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities,” the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in its latest report on Tehran’s disputed nuclear drive. In all, Iran was operating about 3,500 uranium-enriching... 

Iran, Switzerland sign gas export deal

Iran and Switzerland signed an agreement Monday to major exports of Iranian gas to a Swiss company, in a rare energy deal between Tehran and the West in their nuclear tug-of-war drags on. “Today we have witnessed the signing of a gas contract between the two countries,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced at a joint press conference with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey. Financial... 

Tag: pakistan uranium discovery

Iran again rejects suspension of uranium project

Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Larijani has told the European Union there was no chance Tehran would suspend its programme of uranium enrichment, state television reported on Thursday. He made the comments in a telephone conversation on Wednesday with the EU’s top diplomat, Javier Solana. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to negotiate only on non-diversion (of its nuclear programme... 

Iran continues uranium enrichment

Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program instead of complying with a U.N. Security Council ultimatum to freeze it, the U.N nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday. The finding clears the path for harsher Security Council sanctions against Tehran. “Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency, basing its information on material... 

Tag: relationship of bauxite uranium and plutonium

Gold May Rise as Investors Seek Alternative to Dollar

Gold may climb for the second-straight week as investors avoid dollar-denominated assets and purchase the precious metal. Thirteen of 34 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg from Sydney to Chicago on Dec. 21 and Dec. 22 advised buying gold, which rose 0.5 percent last week in New York to $622.30 an ounce, the first gain in three weeks. Nine respondents said to sell the metal, and 12... 

Crude Oil Declines as Mild U.S. Weather Curbs Fuel Consumption

Crude oil fell more than 2 percent in New York, the biggest drop in six weeks, as mild U.S. weather curbs heating-fuel consumption. Home-heating demand in the Northeast, the region responsible for 80 percent of U.S. heating-oil use, will be 26 percent below normal through Jan. 2, said Weather Derivatives, a forecaster in Belton, Missouri. Natural gas, a competing fuel, plunged more than 7 percent on... 

US: Iran uranium enrichment ‘full steam ahead’

The United States deplored Iran’s race to enrich uranium and confirmed the presence of a second set of centrifuges in the Islamic republic to do the work, a spokesman said. An International Atomic Energy Agency document from August 31 “mentioned an installation of a second 164-centrifuge cascade was proceeding, and it was unclear at that point whether or not it was up and running,”... 

From Uranium Enrichment to Bomb in 12 months, Expert Says

From the time Iran masters the enrichment of uranium, it could be as little as 12 months until the Islamic Republic is able to field an operational nuclear weapon, an Israeli professor said this week. Professor Gerald Steinberg of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) said that separating the fissile material from natural uranium through enrichment “is a very difficult technical... 

Germany calls for an international uranium enrichment centre

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has proposed setting up uranium enrichment centres under UN control to end nuclear disputes like the one over Iran. Steinmeier said such centres could be used by several nations and placed under control of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the daily Handelsblatt said in an advance extract of its Monday edition. “Interested... 

First uranium enrichment center to open in Siberia – Kiriyenko

The first international uranium enrichment center will be established in Angarsk in southeast Siberia’s Irkutsk Region, Russia’s nuclear chief said Saturday. Sergei Kiriyenko said Russian and U.S. experts had already started combining Russia’s proposal to create a network of international uranium enrichment centers, and a U.S. initiative on global partnership in the nuclear sphere. “One...