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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Problems slow down Iran's nukes |
| 2006-07-12 |
| A series of technical problems at the central Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz appear to have slowed down its nuclear fuel-enrichment program and put on hold plans to expand it, it was reported on Tuesday. In April, Iran succeeded in operating a cascade of 164 centrifuges, an amount sufficient to fuel nuclear power plants, but far short of the threshold of several thousand needed to build a nuclear bomb. A second round of feeding uranium into centrifuge enrichment machines began on June 6. According to one diplomat, several unconfirmed reports state that the first cascade, basis for Iranian plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by 2007, had a failure rate of up to 50 percent, Channel 2 reported. He said the centrifuges seemed to be showing fragility after being spun at supersonic speeds, and the nature of materials injected into them - which could involve impurities in the uranium - could be damaging too. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #10 6 actually, if the technos aren't careful and/or the cetrifuges have leaks there may already be some nasty levels of rad and toxic stuff in the room and as Mike K says, the technos probably are under considerable pressure to keep the machines spinning |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-07-12 19:34 |
| #9 I think the chemical should be undetectable as well as odorless and tasteless. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-07-12 16:23 |
| #8 I still think the easiest bet would be to smuggle a very toxic, but otherwise odorless and tasteless chemical into those facilities with a battery powered vaporizer. Something that will slowly contaminate the entire place so that in a week or two, everybody will die, and the facility will be so contaminated that it can't ever be used again. There are many industrial chemicals that would work, and would irrevocably destroy the liver of every person in there. This would wipe out most of their nuclear scientists and it would close their facilities. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-12 15:58 |
| #7 how can this be? the Iranians do not have a nuke enrichment program, only peaceful research. the press clippings are right...around.....here.. somewhere........I think I left them in my pants and they went thru the laundry, nothing left but worthess pulp. |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2006-07-12 14:25 |
| #6 164 centrifuges are "far short of the threshold" for single pass bomb enrichment. But the output can be fed back multiple times to get high enrichment. But it can be impractical due to time requirements. Previous articles have said the Iranians used Russian supplied UF6 in the centrifuges for their show and tell earlier this year due to contamination in domestic production. But it's a temporary problem. Gas purification has well known solutions. What's new is the high stated failure rate of the centrifuges. Still with 50% failure, they will have to test each centrifuge individually and build twice as many. So build 6,000 to get a 3,000 cascade. The Iranians are planning to intall 50,000 in Natanz alone. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-07-12 10:37 |
| #5 Smokescreen. |
| Posted by: Glomosh Jinesing1688 2006-07-12 10:07 |
| #4 See? Negotiations work. We just need to keep it up. /LLL moonbat logic |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-07-12 08:59 |
| #3 I wonder how much these problems are due to "foreign powers" using front companies to provide substandard materials, etc? Remember the doctored nuke designs that the CIA was peddling? Now about those "fragile" centrifuge tubes... |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-07-12 08:58 |
| #2 Interesting. I was not aware thet 164 centrifuges are "far short of the threshold of several thousand needed to build a nuclear bomb". I thought it would just take more time that way. Experts? Also interesting to consider this as disinformation and contemplate the source, timing, and the potential reason for it. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-07-12 08:54 |
| #1 ...Well, IIRC the raw nuclear material is corrosive to an unbelievable degree - this was a problem during the Manhattan Project that nobody foresaw. Now, add to that the fact that most - if not all - of the centrifuges may have come from other countries (indicating that the MMs either can't make their own or are unable to make/maintain many) and that gives Amidinnerjacket a real problem. He's been making promises with his alligator mouth that his canary ass won't be able to keep. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-07-12 08:43 |