(Iran) Throwing down the nuclear gauntlet (BBC)

Throwing down the nuclear gauntlet

By Jonathan Marcus
BBC Defence correspondent


Iran is presenting a fundamental challenge to the Bush administration's diplomacy.

Its foreign minister has said that once relations with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, are "normalised", Iran will resume its uranium enrichment activities.

The United States firmly believes that Iran has no real need for a nuclear power programme and is intent on gathering the building-blocks for a nuclear weapon.

America's European allies share many of its concerns, but not Washington's certainty.

They have encouraged the Bush administration to pursue a multilateral approach to dealing with Iran, by offering more carrot than stick as it cajoles and encourages Tehran to open up all of its nuclear activities to international inspection.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3498432.stm

with "certainty" is shitty. Best listen to the Europeans this time.

Since the dawn of the nuclear era every effort has been made to separate US civilian nuclear power programs from nuclear weapons programs.

This has not been entirely successful.

Historically, the US has used the same uranium enrichment facilities to supply enriched uranium to both the US nuclear power industry and government nuclear weapons programs.

Recently, however, ChimpCo authorized the use of civilian nuclear power reactors (Tennessee Valley Authority plants) to produce tritium for use in US nuclear weapons.

ChimpCo is also blending-down weapons-grade plutonium for use in civilian mixed-oxide (U+Pu) nuclear power reactors.

If ChimpCo is going to convince the rest of world that merging civilian nuclear power and weapons programs is a "bad thing" - perhaps they could lead by example.

But I'm not holding my breath...