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| UNCONFIRMED: Iranian Uranium Enrichment Site Destroyed? | |
| 2013-01-25 | |
According to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow, an kaboom on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, the source said. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel. The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable. The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The kaboom occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them. The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime. The regime's uranium enrichment process takes place at two known sites: the Natanz facility with more than 10,000 centrifuges and Fordow with more than 2,700. The regime currently has enough low-grade (3.5 percent) uranium stockpiled for six nuclear bombs if further enriched. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #18 WORLD NEWS > KISSINGER:IRAN NUCLEAR SITUATION WILL COME TO A HEAD IN "VERY FORESEEABLE FUTURE"| ... ... "NUCLEAR IRAN" [fast] APPROACHING. * SAME > VARIOUS > [Minnestota Star Tribune] EXPERT WARNS THAT ITS NOT ENOUGH TO SANCTION IRAN ANYMORE OVER ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM. VALI NASR, Dean of Paul H. Nitze School of International Studies at John Hopkins Univeristy. ARTIC > NASR = In absence of significant Diplomatic breakthrough, or in the alternate Military strike agz its Nucprog, Iran per se will continue its unrelenting unilateral "rush" towards Nuclear Power, to includ possible NucWeapons development. VERSUS * WORLD NEWS > [Business Insider] BREMMER: JAPAN-CHINA CRISIS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT GEOPOLITICAL TENSION IN THE WORLD. Yuuuppp. * SAME > BREMMER: RISE OF CHINA CREATING CONFLICT. IMO more correct to say China's anti-US "Manifest Destiny" versus anti-US, "Multi-Polar", OWG-NWO "Globalism", wid not-a-little "Europe vs Asia", "Occident vs. Oriental" PHILISM VS PHOBISM historicities mixed in. * SAME > [SIno-Japan Crisis] ASDF AIR WING COULD MOVE TO SAKISHIMA ISLANDS. Yoohoo, JONG-UN, indirectly CHINA + PLAAF are looking at you. ["MIG ALLEY" here]. * SAME > A TWO-STATE SOLUTION [Balochis, Pakistan] FOR BALOCHISTAN? First off, IRAN is likely to demand inclusion in any such venture, both because of its claimed historical control of most of AFPAK, + its more contemporary fears that a US-led ground war agz Iran's NucProgs will result in post-war forced separation of Balochi regions in southern Iran to merge wid those of Pakistan, then to be given by the US to Afghanistan so that the latter can have strategic access to the Indian Ocean for trade. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-01-25 22:13 |
| #17 if this news is several days old - and actually true - then it seems like debka.com would have picked up this event. Good point, Raider. As far as I can tell (I don't have a membership), Debka is indeed not carrying this story. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-01-25 21:00 |
| #16 JohnQC - I think you're thinking of The Disciple - Jake Grafton/Tommy Carmellini novel by Stephen Coonts? Available on Amazon via Fred's links. Fun book |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-01-25 20:09 |
| #15 if this news is several days old - and actually true - then it seems like debka.com would have picked up this event. They usually cover sabotage within Iran very quickly. so without confirmation this story is suspect right now. |
| Posted by: Raider 2013-01-25 19:06 |
| #14 Awhile back, I recall that author Vince Flynn had a novel with this story line. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-01-25 18:52 |
| #13 Iff the site is indeed radioactive now, as alleged by some Netters, can Iran clean it up widout having to search for an alternate site??? A new move can easily be detected by ground recce + SPAWAR. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-01-25 18:49 |
| #12 could be an industrial accident ... may not be sabotage. Maybe one (or more) of the new centrifuges self-destructed at high rpm's?? that would explain why Iran is keeping it quiet. |
| Posted by: Raider 2013-01-25 17:58 |
| #11 Uranium hexafluoride? Boy howdee, if this happened, some people are gonna be talking with reelee deeeep voices. Reminds me of the time Daggett and Norbert went to the center of the Earth. |
| Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 2013-01-25 17:49 |
| #10 There are quiet a number of reports on the net now but they all quote Reza Khalili, a former intelligence officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who acted as a spy for, and eventually defected to, the United States as the source. |
| Posted by: tipper 2013-01-25 17:12 |
| #9 Morton salt seems more appropriate. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2013-01-25 17:01 |
| #8 Halliburton graphic please. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-25 15:47 |
| #7 Iran has, for about a year, been moving its best enrichment equipment from the Natanz site to the Fordow site. This is not just because the Fordow site is deep underground but also, it is thought, because the Natanz site was more difficult to keep clear of hostile insiders. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-01-25 15:01 |
| #6 World Net Daily. And it's several days old. And I haven't seen any related stories elsewhere yet. But it's a nice dream, at least. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-01-25 14:46 |
| #5 Boy howdy, be a real shame if all those nuclear scientists were trapped down there for good. I bet the rescuers are real happy heading into a mountain filled with trapped UF6. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2013-01-25 14:45 |
| #4 Next is Nataz. A kaboom is needed where Stuxnet left off. UF6 is not a nice chemical to be exposed to. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2013-01-25 14:34 |
| #3 Very clever operation ... if indeed this was sabotage. One thing's for sure - Iran willl hit back hard if they verify this was caused by foreign powers. |
| Posted by: Raider 2013-01-25 14:13 |
| #2 It happened on Monday at 11:30 a.m They sure take their time getting information out. |
| Posted by: tipper 2013-01-25 14:04 |
| #1 trapped underground with a possible radioactive release and possibly a damaged or nonexistent air supply? Well, Friday is prayer day in Iran |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-01-25 13:40 |