Iran Reaches Key Nuclear Target: Ahmadinejad

Source: Agence France-Presse

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has built a landmark 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday, despite international pressure to halt its atomic work.

"We have now reached 3,000 machines," a defiant Ahmadinejad told a rally in the northeastern city of Birjand.

Scientists say that in ideal conditions 3,000 centrifuges can make enough highly enriched uranium in a year's time for an atom bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in August that Iran had 12 cascades of 164 centrifuges (1,968) running simultaneously to enrich uranium and that 656 others were either under construction or being tested.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071107/wl_mideast_afp/irannuclearpoliticsenrichment

I dont'.


I think BushCo will invade regardless. Iran has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Saddam cooperated with the IAEA, didn't have any WMD program, and that didn't save his ass.

a matter of if, but when.

over some Saudi or Kuwaiti oil fields.

Even if they don't have the bomb, they can threaten BushCo with using the nuclear material.

Enriched Uranium is just as dangerous as depleted uranium. It's a heavy metal that acts as an alpha emmiter and forms uranic compounds which cause heavy metal poisoning in humans and animal life.

Radiologically it's nearly worthless unless the population is eating it, drinking it, or breathing it.

If they wanted a true dirty bomb they would want fission fragments and fission waste, notably Co-60 and Sr-90 and Cs-135. Co-60 isn't a fission fragment but is a very dangerous substance commonly created in nuclear reactor plants due to their construction. Sr-90 and Cs-135 are incredibly dangerous highly long lived (30+ yr half life) fission fragments that are capable of entering the food chain and decimating an area. They are the principal reason the area around Chernobyl is no safe for human habitation, as large quantities of Cs-135 dust build up and accumulate inside buildings, while livestock in the area has injested large volumes of Sr-90 which acts similiarily to Calcium and replaces bone mass.

and it probably did save their ass.

:sarcasm:

The Russians intentionally kept the technology from them when they built the facilities.

They could have the capability in the future, but at the moment it doesn't exist.

All they need to do is continue to use the centrifuges until they reach the desired concentration of U235. The only issue with that is avoiding critical mass in the centrifuges once you go past the LEU levels and start reaching weapons grade (which is only about 40%).

Now don't misconstrue my post, if you want to have a viable nuclear energy industry, you need secure access to fuel, and that requires you to have full access to enrichment facilities. So these facilities could easily be used to make a decent quantity of LEU for fuel and scientific purposes. I mainly wish to know what your background is in suggesting that they can't make HEU with a centrifuge facility.

of the next election. If there is to be war with Iran, it will be on *co's watch.

:)

"Scientists say that in ideal conditions 3,000 centrifuges can make enough highly enriched uranium in a year's time for an atom bomb."

WHICH scientists?

Good for Iran for not backing down on their legitimate right to nuclear energy (as much as I am against nuclear energy itself)

<snip>

"A claim by President Ahmadinejad that Iran has 3,000 working uranium-enriching centrifuges sent a tremor across the world yesterday amid fears that Israel would respond by bombing the country’s nuclear facilities.

Military sources in Washington said that the existence of such a large number could be a “tipping point”, triggering an Israeli air strike. The Pentagon is reluctant to take military action against Iran, but officials say that Israel is a “different matter”. Amid the international uproar, British MPs who were to have toured the nuclear facility were backing out of their Iran trip.

Even before President Ahmadinejad’s announcement, a US defence official told The Times yesterday: "Israel could do something when they get to around 3,000 working centrifuges. The Pentagon is minded to wait a little longer." US experts say 3,000 machines running for long periods could make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.

Israel responded by serving notice that it would not tolerate a nuclear Iran. “Talks never did, and never will, stop rockets,” said Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, after talks with the security cabinet."

more

Shit, conditions would have to be way beyond "ideal". Impossible is more like it. Having seen gaseous diffusion in action, nothing is ever ideal, far from it. Variations in speed, centrifuges breaking down, problems with the uranium hexaflouride, all of these and more generally mean that what "ideally" will take 1 year generally takes five, ten years or more. This is a very slow and tricky process of enrichment. It is due to these factors that all modern nations have given up this method of enrichment except for fuel and other such low grade enrichment needs.