This Should Be Front Page Headlines
Allen July 28th, 2004
Read Diplomats: Iran Resumes Nuclear Program to learn how Iran has broken the seals on their centrifuges and may take steps to restart uranium enrichment.
Blue State or Red State, conservative or liberal, this should worry people. Iran’s mullahs have made no bones that they seek membership in the nuclear club. And there is little doubt for what purpose they would use their new-found power.
Original article in GUARDIAN: Diplomats: Iran Resumes Nuclear Program.
From the original article:
Most of the IAEA’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program focus on traces of highly enriched uranium found at several sites and the extent and nature of work on the advanced P-2 centrifuge.
Iran has grudgingly acknowledged working with the P-2, but said its activities were purely experimental. It says the minute amounts of enriched uranium were from equipment bought on the nuclear black market.
As a note, I teach the Atomic Energy Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts in the area.
Without going into details as to how you enrich uranium, do you know what percentage of U-235 (the powerful stuff) is needed in a sample of U-238 (the dross) to sustain a power reaction — 5%.
Any ideas as to how much enrichment you need to get the U-235 to go “boom” instead of “hum”? 90-95%
So weapon’s grade uranium is found on Iran’s most sophisticated centrifuges obtained through the black market. This is troubling on several levels. Let us concede Iran’s claim that the “contamination” is from previous activity? Where did they get those centrifuges? They are, after all, black market centrifuges. My guess is North Korea or Pakistan. Why are they selling such centrifuges in the first place? Why is this activity taking place outside IAEA control? Why would we trust the IAEA to monitor such activity when they have been utter failures in the past?
But if the “contamination” is not from the previous owners, why are the centrifuges contaminated with such highly enriched uranium? It takes a lot of enrichment activity to get from 5% enrichment to 90% enrichment. You just don’t accidentally leave the motor on for an extra 3 or 4 minutes.
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