OMG! Who knows about Minerals?

I'm listening to Scott Ritter doing an interview on a local morning show, and he says that Iran CANT enrich Uranium because their ore is contaminated with a mineral, and I cant remember the name of it, but its symbol is MO...

so does this mean that Iran doesnt have nukes and Bush is doing it again???

No real sarcasm intended, but to clarify, we absolutely should avoid even the notion of war with Iran. Not because of anything other than GW is an asshat who likes to fight at the drop of a hat, and as all other terrorists like to do, keeping fear and chaos reigning is a good plan for them.

uranium isotopes can't be purified if it's present - occurs naturally as an alloy with uranium. Interesting - didn't know this about Iran.

Iran could even sell the MO to steel companies since it is used to help harden steel. In fact here in CO, there is a MO mine and mill in which MO is removed from the ore.

If they have the smarts to separate one type of uranium from another type, surely they could remove this lighter element, MO, from the much heavier Uranium.

Like Iraq did !! We must bring them freedom.

Why do you hate 'murika ?

but they can refine reactor output with a lot of trouble and the right centrifuge equipment.

They can also buy, especially if Russia or China is selling.

But yes, Bush is doing it again. He wants an excuse to throw a nuke of our own to get the Hiroshima effect once again, remind everyone how Great and Powerful we are, and Iran is looking like a great place to do it.

"They can also buy, especially if Russia or China is selling."

N. Korea, Pakistan...

...

PMCPA processes molybdenum-uranium ores from deposits in the Strelts- ovskoe ore field. These deposits are concentrated in the Tulukuev volcano- tectonic caldera, which dates from the Mesozoic era (approximately 140 million years ago) and has an area of about 150 km2. A total of 19 molybdenum-uranium deposits have been found in close proximity in the caldera, and these deposits contain unique sources of uranium totaling more than 250,000 metric tons.1 About 50 percent of the uranium resources of the Streltsovskoe ore field have been extracted to date.

...

http://darwin.nap.edu/books/030909688X/html/178.html

Here is just one process to separate Uranium and Molybdenum:

http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/issues/kim-98-22-4/kim-22-4-10-97037.pdf

The purpose here is analytical, but, in fact solvent extraction is an industrial process used for the separation of actinides from other elements. Molybdenum is a fission product, and I'm quite sure that its separation from uranium is well developed.

In the worst case, the elements could be separated by the fractional distillation of their volatile fluorides. (Both elements have fluorides that are easily rendered gaseous - in fact the process for enriching uranium depends on the use of uranium hexafluoride gas.) Molybdenum pentafluoride is also gaseous, but it has a different boiling point than uranium hexafluoride.

This is not to make any comment about Bush's justifications for war. The Iranian nuclear scare mongering is no different that the historically discredited Iraqi uranium scare mongering. However there is no technological limitation on the use of any uranium ores of which I am aware for enrichment purposes - with the possible exception of certain ores in Gabon that were depleted by the operation of naturally occurring nuclear reactors several billion years ago.

When it comes out of the Canyons, no matter where they are located and what name is given to any particular one, it will all be the same stuff when it comes out and no mineral or element that originally existed in the base material (which is used reactor rods - the construction of which will be the stage where the impurities are removed) will be left and nothing that nature made will be included.

So my point is that this is an incidental matter that is taken care of well before you get to the point where you are making weapons materials.

Now if you want to really get you mind working on these sorts of things take a look into the half life of tritium, where it is used, and our stated position on producing the stuff. Hmmmmmmm