U.N.: Iran Has Tons of Gas for Nuke Bomb

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2005/sep/02/090206452.html

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has produced nearly seven tons of the gas used in uranium enrichment since last month, a U.N. report said Friday. Experts said that amount was enough to produce a nuclear bomb.

In unusually strong language, the report also said questions remain about key aspects of 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity on Iran's part despite more than two years of investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The agency is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after 2 1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation," according to the confidential document, which was seen by The Associated Press. "Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue."

The report, prepared by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, came on the eve of an informal deadline for Iran to cease conversion activities at a nuclear facility in central Iran.

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[mom cat]

1. Oh shit.

[daleo]

2. I think this gas diffusion process still takes a long time

And lots of money. Also, plenty of big buildings and lots of electricity.

[jpak]

3. They have converted a lot of yellowcake to UF6 in a very short time.

How fast they can enrich it???

No one knows...

They use gas centrifuges and allegedly have "hundreds" of them - if that's the case, then it will take a long time (years).

If they have "thousands", they could enrich enough for a bomb within a year or so..

But it's all for peaceful purposes you see...

:evilgrin:

[Massacure]

5. Centrifuges are better than diffusion.

The U.S. still has a diffusion plant.

[daleo]

7. I gather both diffusion and centrifuge techniques were developed in WWII

I read recently that at one point one-seventh of the electricity in the U.S. was going towards the Manhattan project. I suppose the techniques have been refined and perfected. Still, it seemed like an awfully big and expensive job. Not that a mid-level power with oil money like Iran couldn't do it if it put sufficient resources into it - Oppenheimer said back in the late 1940's that any reasonably modern country could perfect the technique in well under a decade, even then.

[Massacure]

8. I didn't hear about the 1/7 figure.

I did hear that 1/3 of the electricity made by the Tennessee Valley Authority went to uranium enrichment though.

[daleo]

9. It is from the book "Pandora's Keepers" by Brian Vandemark

I read it over the August 6 weekend. The first half of the book tells the history of the Manhattan project from a technical point of view, through the scientists that worked on the bomb. The second half tells of the political and philosophical struggles that these scientists had after the bomb was dropped. Quite interesting reading.

Since it was from a book (a paper copy), I can't find the exact quote very easily. But I distinctly recall him saying one seventh.

[Massacure]

10. I'll have to read that book.

[wli]

4. Cheney's backdoor draft just cast a wider net, too n/t

[Judi Lynn]

6. I wonder how John Bolton's arrival at the U.N. only recently might

correspond with this COMPLETELY divergent view of Iran emergening from outta nowhere.