Uranium

More than 200 million years ago, toothy crocodile-like creatures stalked a hot, dry mega-continent while squid-like mollusks with spiral shells drifted in the surrounding ocean. Then, in what passes for an instant in geologic time, they vanished - making way for the age of the dinosaurs. How some 50% of terrestrial vertebrates and an even larger share of marine life died off in the late Triassic period has become more clear from new research published online Thursday in the journal Science.

More than 200 million years ago, toothy crocodile-like creatures stalked a hot, dry mega-continent while squid-like mollusks with spiral shells drifted in the surrounding ocean. Then, in what passes for an instant in geologic time, they vanished - making way for the age of the dinosaurs. How some 50% of terrestrial vertebrates and an even larger share of marine life died off in the late Triassic period has become more clear from new research published online Thursday in the journal Science.

Ukrainian border guards arrested a man trying to take nearly a pound of uranium into Hungary, border guard spokesman Yevheniy Bargman said. Guards arrested the driver of a van at the Tisa checkpoint after finding the material, he said. It was unclear whether the uranium was in ore form or had been enriched for potential use in reactors or weapons.

WASHINGTON - Six world powers floated a modestly improved proposal to Iran on Tuesday as talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program resumed after an eight-month hiatus, with little expectation of a breakthrough. Opening a two-day session in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the so-called P5-plus-1 group offered to slightly ease economic sanctions if Tehran halts production of near-weapons-grade uranium fuel. The powers - China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the United States - fear Iran is seeking the ability to make bombs, an intent it denies.

A state regulatory decision to impose a more stringent health standard for uranium in groundwater has been unanimously upheld by the state Court of Appeals in Santa Fe. The New Mexico Water Quality Commission adopted the new standard in 2004, and the mining industry went to court to challenge the decision.

Twenty-four pounds of highly enriched uranium, enough for a crude nuclear weapon, was secretly flown to Russia last week from a research lab in Uzbekistan, where Washington had feared terrorists could obtain the material, the U.S. Energy Department said. The material came from nuclear fuel assemblies kept at a research reactor near Tashkent, the capital. It is to be turned into low-enriched uranium that will no longer be suitable for a weapon.

A Turkish police official said Sunday that the amount of uranium seized by officers the day before was about 5 ounces, not 33 pounds as initially reported. The state-run Anatolian news agency reported Saturday that paramilitary police in the southern province of Sanliurfa detained two men after discovering the uranium in a lead container hidden beneath a seat in a taxi. But the amount initially reported had included the weight of the container, a Sanliurfa police official said.

Contrary to implications in Deborah Blum's "A Dark Magic in America's Silver Bullets" (Opinion, June 1) and the accompanying picture, it's unclear that the depleted uranium remaining after a battle is any more harmful or dangerous than other battle debris. Radiation emitted from DU is so low that it will generally not register on a radiation badge. In other words, you probably couldn't detect it out of the background radiation that we encounter daily. You're more likely to be harmed by the radiation you absorb at the beach than you are by being around DU. The half-life of U-238, which is overwhelmingly the primary isotope of DU, is not 109 years, as stated in Blum's piece.

In an admission that is certain to heighten concerns over Iran's nuclear capabilities, Tehran has informed the United Nations that it has been building a secret uranium enrichment plant, according to a statement released today by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Speaking before the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, President Obama said the plant is a "direct challenge" to global nonproliferation. He added, "Iran must comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions and make clear it is prepared to meet its responsibilities as a member of the community of nations."

Depleted uranium used by NATO in armor-piercing weapons in Kosovo had no detectable effect on health, a European Union panel of experts concluded. The findings concurred with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's own studies, which said there was no link between depleted uranium, a substance used for its penetrating power, and cancer among peacekeeping troops. U.S. aircraft used munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

TEHRAN -- On the eve of international talks about its disputed nuclear program, Iran announced Saturday that it had designated 16 sites for new nuclear power plants and also had discovered substantial new uranium deposits in its territory. The Islamic Republic also confirmed earlier reports that it had installed scores of new centrifuges to enrich uranium at its Natanz site in central Iran. The timing of Saturday's announcements from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran suggests that Tehran is trying to bolster its negotiating position in advance of nuclear talks scheduled to begin Tuesday in Kazakhstan.

WASHINGTON - Iran has told the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency that it plans to add 3,000 faster centrifuges to its main uranium enrichment facility, a step that could shorten the time needed if Tehran decides to build a nuclear bomb. Officials with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that Iranian authorities had informed them in a letter that Tehran would add IR-2m centrifuges, which spin three to five times faster than the current IR-1 model, to the enrichment hall at the Natanz nuclear complex.

WASHINGTON - Iran has finished installing centrifuges at a fortified underground facility and can sharply increase production of enriched uranium to a purity that can be quickly improved to weapons grade, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said Friday in a report likely to stir new concern in the West about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. According to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has prepared 700 more centrifuges at the Fordow facility for operation since August, doubling the plant's enrichment capacity.

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio - As he campaigned Saturday near the convergence of three coal-producing states, Mitt Romney pressed his domestic energy plan, saying the nation needs to increase production for its security and its economy. “We're going to take full advantage of our oil, our coal, our natural gas, our nuclear, our renewable,” he told about 3,500 supporters gathered in the college green at Shawnee State University. “We have 250 years of coal. It can be burned cleanly. This president when he was running for office said that if you want to build a new coal plant you can, but if you do, you'll go bankrupt.

WASHINGTON - Iran has increased its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium by nearly a third since May, United Nations investigators reported Thursday, indicating that Tehran is pushing ahead with nuclear development despite tightening U.S. and European sanctions and the threat of an Israeli military strike. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, also reported that Iran has doubled the number of centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, in an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom that experts say has been built to withstand an attack.

WASHINGTON - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency is expected to report next week that Iran has significantly expanded its uranium enrichment capability at its Fordow facility, according to U.S. officials and others briefed on the finding. The move could shorten the time Tehran would need to build a nuclear weapon. "My understanding is that work at the Fordow facility has been dramatically intensified," said Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "There are now 1,500 centrifuges completed, up from 700," he added, although the new centrifuges are not believed to be working yet. The Fordow facility, tucked into the mountains near the holy city of Qom, was secretly built deep underground to withstand an air attack.

Australia has agreed to sell China uranium for nuclear power stations despite concerns that Beijing could divert the material to atomic weapons. The countries' foreign ministers signed two agreements that included assurances that China would not build bombs with uranium from Australia.

Uranium seized by Colombian authorities was depleted and could not be used to make a nuclear bomb or "dirty bomb" to spread radiation, officials said. Two suspects said they didn't realize the metal was uranium and were not trying to sell it. One of them, Javier Francisco Sanchez, told RCN television that he had received the uranium from a scrap-metal merchant. Soldiers and police arrested Sanchez and a woman in Bogota, the capital, on Feb. 24 and seized 29.

Using a new dating technique, researchers from Britain, Spain and Portugal have shown that cave art in Spain is the oldest in Europe, as much as 10,000 years older than some previously dated cave art in France. The oldest art they found was nearly 41,000 years old, which means it was produced about the same time that anatomically modern humans first entered Europe from Africa. That means either that the modern humans brought the technique with them from Africa, that their new creativity was inspired by conflict and competition with the Neanderthals, or that the art was done by the Neanderthals themselves, said archaeologist Joao Zilhao of the University of Barcelona.

WASHINGTON - The United States and five other countries have agreed to offer a joint proposal to Iran at a high-level meeting next week in an effort to open a path for negotiations to curtail Tehran's disputed nuclear program and to ease the threat of war. When they meet in Baghdad on Wednesday, the six powers will offer to help Iran fuel a small reactor used for medical purposes, and to forgo seeking further United Nations economic sanctions....