Like this is going to go over well - Iran and Nukes
From
Breitbart/Associated Press:
Iran says it controls entire nuclear fuel cycle
Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel with the opening of a new facility to produce uranium fuel pellets, the Iranian president said Saturday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the speech two days after the inauguration of the facility which produces uranium oxide pellets for a planned 40-megawatt heavy-water nuclear reactor near the town of Arak, central Iran.
Production of nuclear fuel pellets is the final step in the long, complicated chain of nuclear fuel cycle. The U.S. and its allies have expressed concern over Iran's developing nuclear program for fear it masks a nuclear weapons program—a charge Iran denies.
Heavy-water reactors use a different process than light-water ones, but have their own nuclear proliferation concerns. The West fears Iran could eventually reprocess spent fuel from the heavy-water reactor to produce plutonium for a warhead.
"Today, with the grace of God, Iran is a country controlling the entire nuclear fuel cycle," Ahmadinejad said on state television.
This means that Iran is now able to control the entire process from start to finish without being dependent on supplies from the Russians. Ahmadinejad's claim that this is for power generation is ludicrous considering the quantity of oil and natural gas that Iran is sitting on. They simply do not have the need.
The heavy-water reactor (water with Deuterium instead of Hydrogen) is a very old design, a good one to start with as it doesn't require as pure a fuel as other designs, the Deuterium greatly assists the nuclear reaction. The idea that they will stop with just this one reactor is silly. If this is what Obama or the United Nations believes, they need to wake up and smell the cappuccino...
Posted by DaveH at April 12, 2009 11:39 AM
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