Here's the worst-case scenario: sometime soon, workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will realize they can't pump seawater into the cores of the wrecked reactors fast enough to keep up with the steady heating. The temperature in the core will exceed 5,000°F , causing hundreds of uranium fuel rods to slump to the bottom of the containment vessel like melted wax. The fuel will burn through the foundation of the plant, sinking into the ground and contaminating the ...

Israel and the United States commenced what is believed to be their largest ever joint military exercises in missile defense Wednesday. The long-planned, two-week air defense exercise has been dubbed Juniper Cobra 10 and will involve participation of 1,000 personnel from the U.S. European Command and the Israeli military, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces. It's the fifth such exercise since 2001. According to the global security analysis firm Stratfor, the Juniper Cobra drill will be ...

President Barack Obama has a personal stake in the outcome of Monday's meeting in Vienna between Western and Iranian nuclear experts on the future of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium. That's because, Administration sources tell TIME, Obama personally weighed in three times during secret, multiparty negotiations with the Iranians over the last four months — in what has become not just a test of Iran's nuclear intentions but also a test of Obama's effort to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions through a combination of sanctions ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are working together to ensure Iran's nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Russia has stopped short of committing to Iranian sanctions. Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting, Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated there has been no agreement between the countries on any sort of sanctions plan, even though Russia is not opposed to sanctions in principle. The United States is using a ...

Days after Iran revealed the existence of a second uranium enrichment facility, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency paid the country a visit. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran on Saturday night for two days of talks with Iranian officials, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency said Saturday. An IAEA spokesman said officials were planning to discuss the new underground facility near the holy Shiite city of Qom. Iran sent ...

Iran tested a missile-launching system and two types of missiles Sunday, the state-run Press TV said without offering details. Earlier, the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had said it would stage missile exercises beginning Sunday to promote the armed forces' defense capabilities. The tests, which are expected to go on for the next 10 to 11 days, are codenamed "Payghambar-e Azam 4" or "The Great Messenger 4," Press TV said. The station said the missiles fired Sunday were of the ...

In a dramatic policy shift, the Obama administration Friday said it is willing to engage directly with North Korea as a way to bring the reclusive regime back to six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions. "There's a consensus that we're prepared to engage North Korea bilaterally as a means to accomplish our long-term objectives," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks in April, protesting condemnation at the United Nations over ...

Syria's nuclear chief told members of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency Tuesday that his country has built a military missile facility at a site where traces of uranium have been detected in the past, a source who attended the meeting told CNN. The disclosure by Ibrahim Othman to members of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency was the first time Syria has described the type of military facility it has at the Dair Alzour site, the source said. Othman ...