U.S. Adds Penalties Amid Resistance by Iran to Inspection of Nuclear Work

[bananas]

Source: New York Times

Amid signs that Iran’s military is resisting efforts to open its nuclear program to deeper inspection, the Obama administration on Friday imposed sanctions on several Iranian organizations, including one run by the reclusive scientist who is widely believed to direct research on building nuclear weapons.

In a statement, the White House said the sanctions were a continuation of its strategy to crack down on groups suspected of seeking to avoid or violate existing sanctions, even as “the United States remains committed” to striking an accord by late November that includes “a long-term, comprehensive solution that provides confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”

But in the month and a half since the talks were extended, Iran has missed a major deadline to provide information about its nuclear research, declared it will not allow visits to a military site suspected of being part of nuclear component testing, and said it is completing work on far more powerful centrifuges to make nuclear fuel.

<snip>

For the first time, the administration said in public that Iran was at work on a process that seemed aimed at allowing the country to reprocess plutonium, much as North Korea has, to fabricate weapons fuel. But there is no evidence that any of that reprocessing has taken place, and Iran so far is not known to have produced any plutonium — or bought any from North Korea, a pathway American intelligence officials say they are watching for any signs of nuclear-related transactions.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/world/middleeast/us-imposes-sanctions-on-iranian-groups.html

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Nuclear proliferation is one of the major problems with nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy is dirty, dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary.
The "Nuclear Renaissance" was another bad idea sold to us during the Bush administration.

[bananas]

1. 2002: "Nuclear Renaissance or Nuclear Nightmare?"

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4528

Nuclear Renaissance or Nuclear Nightmare?

Thought the Nuclear Power Industry was Dead? Guess again. The Bush Administration is Breathing New Life into Commercial Nukes.

by Karl Grossman, Special to CorpWatch
October 23rd, 2002

Last month, nuclear industry executives and U.S. government officials got together in Washington, D.C. for a conference called "The Nuclear Renaissance"-- a gathering boosting a comeback of commercial nuclear power in the U.S.

"Renaissance" has replaced "revival" as the word being used by nuclear proponents in the U.S. and around the world to describe their desired recovery of the nuclear industry. There has not been an order of a new nuclear power plant in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident shattered public trust in nuclear technology. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster damaged confidence in atomic energy worldwide. But the nuclear industry and its allies in government are back for a "renaissance."

<snip>

George W. Bush: Nuclear President

The "renaissance" also now comes with what Mariotte says "may be the most ardently pro-nuclear power presidency in U.S. history." The Bush administrations stance on nuclear power is aggressive and minimizes the dangers of atomic technology. As Bushs Secretary of Treasury Paul ONeill has told The Wall Street Journal, "If you set aside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the safety record of nuclear is really is good."

The administration struck a close working relationship with the nuclear industry well before taking office. Its energy "transition" advisors included:

<snip>

Two weeks after being sworn in, Bush set up a "National Energy Policy Development Group" and appointed Vice President Dick Cheney as its chairman. Its members included ONeill and Andrew Lundquist, who also coordinated the energy "transition" team was named executive director.

<snip>

[lastlib]

4. I thought GWB was the "Nucular" pResident..........

It takes a special kind of idiot, after TMI, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima, to think that nuclear power is a safe alternative energy source. We should all be able to see that even a slight miscue with nuclear power can have unbelievably disastrous consequences. But all these evil fucks like Cheney can see is the dollar signs, and not people's lives or health and safety.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I think it's time to pronounce this effort dead. If we're having to sanction Iran

in the midst of ongoing negotiations, it's a sign they have no intention of acting in good faith, but instead are probably playing games and stalling us from doing something in Iraq and/or Syria they don't like.

[840high]

3. I felt they had no good

intentions from the start.