Iran plant 'has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment'

[ECH1969]

Iran's controversial Natanz uranium processing plant has successfully restarted the sophisticated equipment that could enable it to produce material for nuclear warheads, according to reports received by Western intelligence.

In the past few days Iranian nuclear scientists have reportedly restarted four of the centrifuges required to produce weapons-grade uranium, and have begun feeding them with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, a key component in the production of nuclear bombs.

This crucial development follows Iran's decision to withdraw its co-operation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna after the body decided last week to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council.

However, a senior Western intelligence official said: "Iran's recent activity is a clear escalation of its attempts to enrich uranium to weapons grade. With the UN inspectors out of the way they are basically free to do as they please."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/11/wiran11.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/11/ixworld.html

[zonmoy]

1. does anybody really believe anything the mainstream press

or the evil ones administration says about anything anymore.

[LynnTheDem]

2. "nuiclear bomb-making equipment" BULLSHIT.

Telegraph, you fucked your credibility up when you did the "Iraq slaughter house" lie.

Fuck off.

Iran has the LEGAL RIGHT to persue nuclear research and energy. That's a FACT; get over it.

[Oversea Visitor]

3. aaah you got petrol

The you guilty of wanting to make a car.

[daleo]

4. I think it would take a long time with four centrifuges

Didn't the Manhattan Project use thousands of centrifuges?

[Massacure]

5. Centrifuges weren't used back then.

Back then gaseous diffusion had to be used.

[daleo]

9. I think several methods were tried

Cyclotrons, gaseous diffusion and thermal diffusion. This article mentions gas centrifuges - I don't know how accurate the article is though. Maybe I will check the FAS site for a fuller explanation.

"A massive enrichment laboratory/plant was constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Harold C. Urey and his colleagues at Columbia University devised an extraction system that worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion, and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the University of California in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic separation of the two isotopes.

Next, a gas centrifuge was used to further separate the lighter U-235 from the heavier, non-fissionable U-238. Once all of these procedures had been completed, all that needed to be done was to put to the test the entire concept behind atomic fission ("splitting the atom," in layman's terms)."

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm


Here is a bit from Federation of Atomic Scientists:

"Manhattan Project scientists and engineers explored several uranium-enrichment technologies, and production plants employing three uranium-enrichment processes —- electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS), liquid thermal diffusion, and gaseous diffusion -- were constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during the period from 1943 to 1945. Centrifugation was tried, but the technology needed to spin a rotor at an appropriate speed was not then practical on an industrial scale. The aerodynamic separation processes developed in Germany and South Africa did not exist during World War II; neither, of course did laser isotope separation or plasma separation. The World War II Japanese nuclear program made some attempts to find a purely chemical process."

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/uranium.htm

[Berserker]

6. BULLSHIT

BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT

[Malikshah]

7. Quick!!! Run for your lives!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahhahahhahhahahahahhahahahah.

*soils oneself repeatedly leaving a brown trail as one runs helter skelter back and forth flailing one's arms*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh.

Satisfied?

[lovuian]

8. The US is being set up to attack Iran...

and Iran is going nuclear no matter what...

WWIII :nuke:

God help us!!!

The saddest part of this is the majority of people do not want this...

[neverforget]

10. cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.......

the March of the War Pigs is on again, this time to Iran.

[daleo]

11. Here is a bit more about how many centrifuges are needed

From the Federation of Atomic Scientists:

"Although the separation factors obtainable from a centrifuge are large compared to gaseous diffusion, several cascade stages are still required to produce even LEU material. Furthermore, the throughput of a single centrifuge is usually small, which leads to rather small separative capacities for typical proliferator centrifuges. To be able to produce only one weapon per year, several thousand centrifuges would be required.

The electrical consumption of a gas centrifuge facility is much less than that of a gaseous diffusion plant. Consequently, a centrifuge plant will not have the easily identified electrical and cooling systems typically required by a gaseous diffusion plant."

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/uranium.htm

So, the way I read it, with only four centrifuges it would take hundreds of years to get enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb. No sense in panicking.

[dubya_dubya_III]

16. Well the martyr-express version of a nuke ony needs to be belt sized....

[daleo]

18. You need about 40 or 50 kilograms of enriched uranium for an A bomb

Of the Hiroshima design, which is what this article is getting at. You can't make a uranium fueled bomb with much less than this amount - it is called critical mass in nuclear physics. Furthermore, the gun barrel needed to bring the sub-critical masses together at high velocity is pretty sizable. Any working atom bomb that used uranium would weigh tons, given the size of the gun device and the shielding needed.

The centrifuges under discussion are used to separate the uranium isotopes, so the the bomb grade material can be concentrated. Producing the required amount of highly enriched uranium requires thousands of centrifuges, because any one centrifuge can only make micro-grams per day. The centrifuges can't be made very large, because they spin at such high velocities that they tend to become unbalanced and fly apart if they are very large. Four centrifuges would only make a few grams per year of bomb grade uranium.

A plutonium device only needs ten to twenty kilograms of plutonium, which can be obtained from nuclear reactors of the right design. They are much more difficult to build though - the engineering of an implosion device is extremely precise.

There will be no martyrs walking about with nuclear bomb belts.

[SicSemperTyrannis]

19. You obviously know very little about nukes.

[Zynx]

21. Take some physics.

Below critical mass, you don't have a nuke.

[dweller]

12. what, no mention of the bourse?

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ...

the sound of the fuse as Iran begins their trading of oil with the new bourse, which is what everyone should be fearing, not nuclear/wmd whatever bullshit that the *moron misadministration is peddling. Like their 'clean air' or 'healthy forests' initiatives, it's never what they claim. Yet the morans lap it up.

posts #'s 6 & 7 outline the dichotomy. Take your pick.

dp

[WhiteTara]

13. except for the fact they are 10 years away

from their nuclear bomb! Go to hell Chimp...actually I mean jail

[barb162]

14. It seems as if there are a lot of disbelievers here

With all that oil, why does Iran need nuclear "power" right now. They have oil to last them a hundred years

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060204/43332264.html

IAEA board adopts resolution to inform UN on Iran nuclear issue
14:47 | 04/ 02/ 2006

VIENNA, February 4 (RIA Novosti) - The IAEA Board of Governors has adopted a resolution Saturday to inform the UN Security Council on the Iran nuclear issue.

The resolution was supported by 27 member-countries of the UN's nuclear watchdog board. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa abstained. Syria, Venezuela and Cuba voted against.
snip

[EFerrari]

15. Autonomy is the answer to your question. n/t

[Malikshah]

17. Just color me "infidel"

It's a tad more complex than the war-mongers would think.

There is a *very* long history of foreign interference in Iran for it's natural resources-- that is the issue at hand.

But, hey, what's another war for those with a thirst for blood and death?

[SicSemperTyrannis]

20. The U. S. has a lot of oil, too....why are we planning to build....

...more nuclear power plants?