Nuclear Energy

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that oil prices could more than double to $200 per barrel if the United States attacked Iran over a standoff about Tehran's nuclear program. "If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela . . . oil would not be $100 but $200," Chavez told an OPEC summit in the Saudi capital. His remarks were translated into Arabic.

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said the country had produced its first nuclear fuel pellets for use in the Arak heavy-water reactor, which is still under construction. The uranium oxide pellets are made in a process separate from the uranium enrichment at the heart of a standoff between Iran and the U.S., but the Arak reactor is a concern to the West because its spent fuel can be used to produce plutonium, which can be used for a nuclear weapon.

Iran has sent a formal protest note to Washington for allegedly spying on its nuclear activities. The note was handed over to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, the state IRNA news agency said.

One of the oldest artifacts of America's first experiments with nuclear power, a 70-year-old atom-busting machine, will be junked, Columbia University has announced. The 60-ton cyclotron has sat dormant in the basement of the New York university's physics department since 1965, when the school sent parts of it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

On the brink of a nuclear power resurgence in America, the once-vilified industry is buoyed by a slate of presidential candidates who seem ready to embrace -- or at least consider -- a nuclear energy future. Already enjoying strong support in the White House, nuclear-fueled electricity is championed by all of the Republican front-runners. And, while the top contenders on the Democratic side cite serious concerns about safety, waste disposal and plant security, only former Sen.

Iran announced Tuesday that it would resume nuclear fuel research next week, provoking new concern from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency and nations, including the United States, that are convinced Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday saying its nuclear body planned to resume research and development on its "peaceful nuclear energy program" on Jan.

One day after Iran publicly confirmed it would resume nuclear research, a newspaper reported Wednesday that Tehran had been seeking components and know-how in Europe for nuclear weapons and missiles. Iran responded quickly to the front-page report in the Guardian newspaper based on a leaked European intelligence document. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the article was intended to harm Iran's "transparent" efforts to obtain civilian nuclear power.

Global criticism rained down on Iran on Tuesday after it broke seals set by the International Atomic Energy Agency on a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, ending a two-year freeze on activities that Western leaders fear could lead to the enrichment of uranium to build nuclear weapons. In response, European ministers scheduled an urgent meeting for Thursday to determine whether to recommend that Iran face proceedings before the U.N. Security Council that could result in economic sanctions.

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons. The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations.

Iran today lifted a ban it had imposed on CNN a day earlier for misquoting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad ordered the reversal "due to the expression of an apology" from CNN, state-run television reported. Iran on Monday had banned CNN from working in the country "until further notice," after it mistranslated comments Ahmadinejad made in a recent news conference. In remarks Saturday, Ahmadinejad had defended Iran's right to continue nuclear research.