Nuclear | featured news

Iran s official news agency says a complex computer worm has affected the personal computers of staff at the country s first nuclear power plant weeks before the facility is to go online.

Iran would consider ending higher level uranium enrichment, the most crucial part of its controversial nuclear activities, if world powers send Tehran nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday.

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and his wife were charged with trying to sell nuclear weapons secrets to a person they believed was a Venezuelan government official, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Fidel Castro criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for what he called his anti-Semitic attitudes and questioned his own actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 during interviews with an American journalist he summoned to Havana to discuss fears of global nuclear war.

Iran would retaliate by striking Israel's nuclear facility if Israel attacked its nuclear activities, armed forces chief of staff Hassan Firouzabadi said on Friday.

The two countries seemingly renew their vows as Communist brethren, with China's Hu Jintao promising to help develop his ally's economy and North Korea's leader expressing desire to resume nuclear talks. Chinese President Hu Jintao promised North Korean leader Kim Jong Il help in developing the North's economy while Kim spoke of his desire to restart talks on the nuclear program during a summit Friday in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, the Chinese government said Monday.

Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for 1-2 nuclear arms but it would not make sense for it to cross the bomb-making threshold with only this amount, a former top U.N. nuclear official was quoted as saying.

Russia, which helped build the plant, emphasized that it could not be used for nonpeaceful purposes, though the United States had urged a delay in its opening.

Iran would stop higher-grade enrichment if it is assured of nuclear fuel supplies for a research reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a Japanese newspaper on Friday.

Russia said it will start loading a nuclear reactor in Iran with fuel next week, moving the project closer to being complete.