Iran to Cold Test Redesigned Arak Nuclear Reactor

Above, the nuclear water reactor of Arak in this handout released by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on December 23, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AFP)
Above, the nuclear water reactor of Arak in this handout released by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on December 23, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AFP)
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Iran to Cold Test Redesigned Arak Nuclear Reactor

Above, the nuclear water reactor of Arak in this handout released by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on December 23, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AFP)
Above, the nuclear water reactor of Arak in this handout released by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on December 23, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AFP)

Iran will cold test its redesigned Arak nuclear reactor as prelude to fully commissioning it later in the year, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Friday.

Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted by local media as saying the cold testing, which usually include the initial startup of fluid systems and support systems, will take place early in the Iranian new year that begins this Sunday, Reuters reported.

“In other words, we have advanced work in the field of fuel, storage, etc,” Kamalvandi said.

Iran has recently accelerated its breaches of the 2015 international nuclear deal in an apparent bid to pressure US President Joe Biden to reverse his predecessor’s abandonment of the agreement. Both sides are locked in a standoff over who should move first to save the deal.

Iran agreed to shut down the reactor at Arak – about 250 kilometers southwest of Tehran – under the 2015 deal. It was allowed to produce a limited amount of heavy water and Tehran has been working on redesigning the reactor. It says it plans to make isotopes for medical and agricultural use.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to member states earlier this week that Iran has started enriching uranium at its underground Natanz plant with a second type of advanced centrifuge, the IR-4, in a further breach of the deal.

Last year Iran started moving three cascades, or clusters, of different advanced models of centrifuge from an above-ground plant at Natanz to its below-ground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP). It is already enriching underground with IR-2m centrifuges. The deal only lets it enrich there with first-generation IR-1 machines.

Iran is enriching up to 20 percent purity at another plant, Fordow.



US Senate Report Faults Secret Service Discipline after Trump Shooting

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. President-elect Donald Trump will choose Sean Curran, right, as Secret Service Director.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. President-elect Donald Trump will choose Sean Curran, right, as Secret Service Director. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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US Senate Report Faults Secret Service Discipline after Trump Shooting

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. President-elect Donald Trump will choose Sean Curran, right, as Secret Service Director.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. President-elect Donald Trump will choose Sean Curran, right, as Secret Service Director. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

A US Senate report released on Sunday said a "cascade" of failures allowed a gunman to shoot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year and faulted Secret Service discipline including the lack of firings in the wake of the attack.

The report, released a year after a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear, accused the Secret Service of a pattern of negligence and communications breakdowns in planning and execution of the rally, said Reuters.

"This was not a single error. It was a cascade of preventable failures that nearly cost President Trump his life," the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report said. The Secret Service is charged with protecting current and former presidents and their families, as well visiting foreign leaders and some other senior officials.

One attendee of the July 13, 2024, rally was killed and two others were injured in the shooting. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was subsequently shot to death by Secret Service agents.

"This was not a single lapse in judgment. It was a complete breakdown of security at every level — fueled by bureaucratic indifference, a lack of clear protocols, and a shocking refusal to act on direct threats," the committee's Republican chairman, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, said in a statement.

Kimberly Cheatle resigned as the director of the Secret Service 10 days after the shooting, amid harsh scrutiny of the agency's role, and six Secret Service agents on duty during the attempt received suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days, the agency said on Thursday.

The committee said more than six officials should have been punished, and that two of those who were disciplined received lighter punishments than it had recommended. It highlighted the fact that no one was fired.

Current Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement that the agency has received the report and will continue to cooperate with the committee.

"Following the events of July 13, the Secret Service took a serious look at our operations and implemented substantive reforms to address the failures that occurred that day," Curran said.