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| Iran Tested New Nuke Design; Refuses To Export Enriched Uranium |
| 2009-11-09 |
| Last month, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei brokered a deal between Iran, France, Russia and the United States to supply much-needed uranium to a research reactor in Tehran. But while Moscow, Paris and Washington all quickly approved the plans, Tehran said it wanted amendments and further talks. Under ElBaradei's proposal, Iran would ship out most of its known low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment. The material would then be turned into fuel for the Tehran research reactor by France. On Friday Iran said it is preparing to give more details on its response to the international proposals for supplying nuclear fuel and expects more negotiations, even as Washington warned the time for talking is over. OOOOOOOOOH!!!I bet the MMs are Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran would give the additional details to the IAEA following the initial response it gave on October 29. "We have some more details which we have to give to the International Atomic Energy Agency," state television quoted Mottaki on its website as saying. "We have three options -- enrich the fuel ourselves, buy it directly or exchange our uranium for fuel," he said. "They (the IAEA and the major powers) have to choose from these options. Given the need of Iran to have the fuel, my view is that they will accept another round of discussions." His suggestion of further talks came despite a warning from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday that Washington's patience at Tehran's failure to give its definitive response was beginning to wear thin. She called on the Islamic republic to accept unamended the proposals drawn up by the IAEA. "As I have said, this is a pivotal moment for Iran, and we urge Iran to accept the agreement as proposed," Clinton told reporters. "We will not alter it, and we will not wait forever," she said. The IAEA proposal is aimed at allaying Western concerns that Iran could otherwise divert some of low-enriched uranium (LEU) reserves and enrich them further to the much higher levels of purity required to make an atomic bomb. Tehran strongly denies seeking to manufacture a nuclear weapon, and says its atomic programme is for purely peaceful purposes. The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence that it has experimented with highly advanced nuclear warhead designs, a British newspaper reported Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iranian scientists may have tested components of the sophisticated technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, the Guardian reported. This technology -- whose existence is secret in the United States and Britain -- would allow for the production of smaller and simpler warheads and reduce the diameter of a warhead and make it easier to put on a missile, it said. The Guardian cited previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the IAEA, drawn in part from reports submitted by western intelligence agencies, and presented to Iran for response. An unnamed European advisor on nuclear issues told the newspaper: "It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material." Western powers have long feared that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, something it denies. Iran and western powers are currently engaged in talks over how to procure nuclear fuel for an Iranian research reactor. Under a UN-brokered proposal Iran would send its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for conversion into fuel for the reactor. Iran says it would rather buy the fuel directly. Build the gadgets small enough so they can be set on a missile. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #1 Lest we fergit II, 1990's NET > RADICAL MULLAHS = "Nuke" or nuclear" means THERMONUCLEAR = HIGH-YIELD STRATEGIC NUCLEAR, NOT BATTLEFILED = TACTICAL, or even URANIUM, NUKE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-11-09 01:48 |