So, Iran made its big nuclear announcement – they produced their own fuel for their medical isotope reactor. The fuel has to be enriched to 20%, so it was a step forward for them, but the article points out that the reason they had to do it is because when they tried to arrange for the fuel to be produced outside of Iran, the US and France stalled the talks.

Canada is dealing with the loss of their isotope reactor, and the results aren’t pretty. Nuclear medicine has to shut down, so some cancer therapies aren’t available.

This is another example of why Iran has a nuclear fuel enrichment program in the first place – the West has not acted in good faith when they have attempted to purchase fuel from abroad. Iran has uranium, but it must be refined and concentrated to be useful. They don’t have a reliable supplier, so they have to do it themselves.

North Korea has nuclear weapons because the West failed to live up to its side of the bargain struck during the Clinton administration, so the North Koreans reacted.

If the US keeps failing to keep its side of bargains with other countries, it can’t expect that they will make any more deals.

Iran continues to be in full compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Brent, Sonny, and Joar made it in late last night local time.

I’ll continue with these posts until the Red Lantern is extinguished, whether the musher calls it a Красный Фонарь, Lanterne Rouge, or Červená Lucerna. Michael Telpin’s tracker is again out of whack, but Michelle Fressineau is tracking beyond Scroggie Creek this morning. The Dawson to Pelly Crossing segment is the longest in the race.

Note: After the leaders show up the reporting really slows down. The only updates you can expect with any regularity are at the finish.

Standings at 10:30PM CST:

At Whitehorse
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
7 Sonny Lindner (3)
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
10 David Dalton (4)
Beyond Braeburn
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Trent Herbst (22)^I
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
At Braeburn
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
Beyond Carmacks
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.