Remember the Iraqi Information Minister?

[bevin]

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and that includes access to nuclear technology without depending on the Western countries, because the Western countries have shown themselves to be notoriously unreliable and undesirable partners

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If they want powerplants, they can buy everything they need for their nuclear powerplants (like Brazil has done for the past 20 years).

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Which reliable source do they have?

/Bevin

[Dr. Shane]

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The Iranian supplies only have about 20 years left.

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They just discovered oil in the Caspien Sea a few years ago which may contain more tha Saudi Arabia.

[Dr. Shane]

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There is as much difference between an Islamic fundamentalist and radical as there is between GWB and a David Koresh

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To me a fundamentalist is a radical on the right end of the spectrum. A person can also be a radical on the left end of the spectrum.

GW Bush is an evangelical, I do not consider him a fundamentalist. Rev. Pat Robertson is a fundamentalist.

[Bravus]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/fuel...4521400748.html

The enriched uranium that Iran has cannot be used in weapons. It can only be used for peaceful purposes - and they can't make very much of it.

Understanding the science of nuclear fission makes fear of weapons irrelevant at this stage. This stuff will not and cannot explode. A fission weapon requires enrichment to over 90% U235 - the Iranians have just reached the 3.5% needed for peaceful uses.

[Dr. Shane]

I don't know enough about that. My question is that if they can enrich it to 3.5% what is to stop them from enriching it to 90% and how would anyone know?

[Bravus]

Because it's very, very difficult to enrich uranium. The U238 which forms the majority of the atoms and the U235 that will sustain fission are chemically identical, and differ in atomic mass by just over 1%. You need massive centrifuges and massive amounts of time and massive amounts of raw material (naturally occurring uranium is 99.3% U238 and 0.7% U235). So far they have enriched the uranium 5x: to get to 90% they whould have to enrich it almost 130x... and it gets harder the more enriched it is.

[Dr. Shane]

And we did this back in the 1940s? What is the difference between using uranium and polonium?

[bevin]

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They just discovered oil in the Caspien Sea a few years ago which may contain more tha Saudi Arabia

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Which further threatens Iran's source of oil revenue, making them more want other sources of income and independence from the West

/Bevin

[bevin]

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And we did this back in the 1940s? What is the difference between using uranium and polonium?

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Enriching U[mixed] to U[mixed with more 238] is hard because the U's all have the same chemical properties.

Relatively pure 238 is needed to make a U-based atom bomb. Given the stuff, a U238 bomb is trivial - put half critical mass at one end at one end of a cannon, blast the other half into it - 10 Kilo-ton dirty bang.

However if, instead, you let plutonium (not polonium - different stuff) build up in it (e.g. in a reactor) you can chemically separate out the plutonium (different chemical so reacts differently so can be easily separated). But it is more of an engineering challenge to make a P-based bomb - but since it was done in WW-II, you can tell it ain't that hard.

P-based bombs are much cheaper in the long run. And in a few years LOTS of countries will have them - and GWB won't be able to stop it - which is why the USA has to stop raving about "we are allowed P-based bombs and you aren't" and instead start thinking about how to live in such a world.

/Bevin

[Bravus]

But it takes a certain kind of reactor (a 'fast breeder reactor') to manufacture plutonium from uranium fuel. Most power generation reactors are not of this type - for good, safety-based reasons as well as because fast breeder reactors are much harder to build and much more high-tech. Yes, it was done in the 40s, during the Second World War, with some of the greatest brains of the century working on the project, and the full might of American industry and science behind it. That doesn't make it a trivial challenge to do it now. The difficulty is not in discovering new knowledge - all that was done in the 40s - the difficulty is in the physical separation. (and just a detail note on bevin's post - it's U235 that's fissile, not 238)

[Dr. Shane]

I believe most of the oil in the Caspien Sea belongs to Iran.

[Dr. Shane]

Given time the situation will resolve itself. Iran will nuke Israel and Israel will nuke them back. There will be lots of fall out in the middle east. Thousands will die. But since the oil will still be in the ground the demand for labor over there will still be strong.

By gully, maybe that is the solution to the illegal immirgrant problem. They can all go over to the middle east and work the oil fields after the nuclear fall our kills the arabs. (Once the air is safe again that is)

[Bravus]

In 10,000 years, you mean? <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Bravus]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/04/13/iran/index.html

[Neil D]

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[:"green"]

TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at

Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?" [/]

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I don't know about you all, but this does make me nervious...

I wonder if a surgical strike is needed here....

Perhaps the influence of my republican relatives are influencing me....

But then again, perhaps you all need to read it all here! so that you can make up your own minds..