The International Atomic Energy Agency, responding to U.S. concerns, has barred Russia from attending this week’s fifth IAEA International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, to be held in Washington, D.C. this week. Bloomberg reported last week, “The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Thursday that executives from Rosatom Corp. and Russia’s industry regulator were dropped from the agenda of next week’s meetings in the US capital. White House officials have been considering for months ways to reduce the Kremlin’s influence on global nuclear markets, where state-owned Rosatom continues to be the biggest exporter of nuclear fuel and reactors.”
The move against Russia also reflects IAEA concerns about Russia’s repeated threats and attacks against Zaporizhzhia station, with six reactors the largest nuclear plant in Europe and generator of a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity under normal circumstances. Russia’s acts have threatened to cause a radiological accident.
In a statement, the IAEA said “Participation in the conference can change because of programmatic or personal reasons. We are confident that the current program will ensure a successful conference” that will include discussions around “the role of nuclear power and its contribution to energy security.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Microsoft founder and nuclear entrepreneur Bill Gates will be presenting America at the D.C. atomic confab. The revised agenda includes representatives from Argentina, China, Poland and South Africa Nuclear officials from Argentina, China, Poland and South Africa.
The White House staff have been working to isolate Russia at next month’s Group of 20 meeting in Bali. But Biden earlier indicated he might try to talk to the Russian autocrat if they could discuss the fate of U.S. professional basketball player Britttney Griner, imprisoned in Russia. Politico reported that the White House quickly doused that notion with frigid water last week. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, Biden “has no intention of meeting with President Putin.” She added that Biden believes “that the Russians need to take the serious offer that we put forward on the table, or make a serious counter-offer to negotiate, but in good faith,” reiterating, “he has no intention of meeting with Vladimir Putin.”
Accusing Ukraine of working on a “dirty” nuclear bomb to use against invading Russian forces, Moscow’s Defense Ministry says it is preparing its forces to work under conditions of radioactive contamination, Reuters reported Monday (Oct. 24). Kyiv denies the charge. “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the accusation was a sign that Moscow was planning such an attack itself and would blame Kyiv,” the news service said, adding, “After weeks of rising international tension following threats by President Vladimir Putin to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” with nuclear weapons, it was the first concrete statement from Moscow of a change in its forces’ state of preparedness.”
The account quoted Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in making the dirty bomb claim. Kirillov, in a media briefing in Moscow, said, “The aim of the provocation would be to accuse Russia of using a weapon of mass destruction in the Ukrainian military theatre and by that means to launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world, aimed at undermining trust in Moscow.”
Western military analysts dismissed the Russian claim as a smokescreen to cover its own nuclear weapons plans, which might also include a dirty bomb inflicted on Ukrainian civilians. Russia’s current desperate military strategy is Ukraine’s civilian population, as it has been unable to defeat the country’s gritty and motivated military.