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| Iran produces first batch of 20% enriched uranium: president |
| 2010-02-11 |
| Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran produced first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium. "The first batch of 20 percent (enriched uranium) fuel was produced," Ahmadinejad said at a rally in Tehran. "This work (of enrichment) will be continued until the needs of the country are met," he said, adding that "In the future the daily production (of the 20 percent fuel) will be tripled." Denouncing the West's attempts to discourage Tehran from pursuing its plan to enrich uranium to a higher grade, Ahmadinejad said "Some of them said that you don't produce radio medicine. They said that they will sell it to us....(But) we say we will produce the medicine and you buy it from us." "Right now in Natanz (enriching facilities), we have the capability to enrich 20 percent and 80 percent (uranium), but since we don't need it, we don't enrich (to that grade)," he said. Iranian president ruled out the western claims that its nuclear program may end in building the atom bombs. "All of our (nuclear) activities are transparent and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said, adding that "We don't build bombs....If our nation wants to build bombs, it has the courage to announce it openly and make it with no fear from you." Ahmadinejad, who addressed the rally in the Azadi Square, also enumerated a number of the Iranian government's achievements and enthusiastically denounced the West's policies. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians carrying flags and banners in support of the Islamic regime celebrated the 31st anniversary of Islamic Revolution on Thursday. State television showed the people in Tehran were carrying images of the late Islamic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor incumbent leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and moving to Tehran's Azadi (liberty) Square. The 1979 revolution ended with toppling the U.S.-backed regime of Shah. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #13 If we only found out a few days ago, that just doesn't seem very much in the spirit of the NPT. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-02-11 22:12 |
| #12 did Iran tell anyone that they were making this 20% enriched Uranium? It seems they did - giving just a few days notification |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-02-11 15:59 |
| #11 All of this material is supposed to be under IAEA safeguards with seals, monitoring cameras and periodic on-site inspectors. Anything else is a violation of Iran's NPT obligations. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-02-11 15:51 |
| #10 If I remember right, it is a long haul to get to 20% enrichment, and just short hop to get anything above that. Also, did Iran tell anyone that they were making this 20% enriched Uranium? And if not, then aren't they required to? |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-02-11 15:41 |
| #9 20% is not there yet Most of the separation work has already been done to reach 20%. From http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/ The essential concept is understand enrichment as a process of removing undesirable isotopes (or more specifically, isolating the desirable ones). So, imagine 1000 atoms of uranium. Seven of them will be the fissile isotope Uranium 235. The rest are useless Uranium 238. (If you are the sort of person who just said, “Hey! What about Uranium 234?” or other nitpicks this post is not aimed at you.) To make typical reactor fuel, Iran or any other country would removes 860 of the non-U235 isotopes, leaving a U235:U238 ratio of 7:140 (~5 percent). To make fuel for the TRR, Iran removes another 105 non-U235 atoms from the 140, leaving a ratio of 7:35 (20 percent). To make a bomb, Iran needs only to remove 27 of the remaining 35 atoms, leading a ratio of 7:8 (~90 percent). This is simplified illustration, of course, since some of the U235 ends up in the depleted stream as “tails” — but you get the idea. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-02-11 13:55 |
| #8 I suspect it will be mute point before too long. Netanyahu is no Obama. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-11 13:54 |
| #7 Fix for the Iranian Nuclear Problem - CANDU Nuclear Reactors An entire other set of problems - weapons grade Pu (smaller bombs that can be mounted on missiles) and tritium boosting (even smaller bombs). CANDU (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors) reactors are reloaded while in operation. The operator can easily replace a portion of the core (1/8 or so) after a short burnup time. The removed rods can then be reprocessed and weapons grade Plutonium produced. India has reportedly operated a few of its CANDU clones in low burnup mode for exactly this purpose. CANDU reactors use heavy water as the moderator. As it is cycled through the reactor, levels of tritium build up in the heavy water. Both Canada and India have developed de-tritiation methods to clean up the heavy water. India stockpiles the tritium produced for use as boost gas in its nuclear weapons. CANDU technology is not something Iran can be trusted with. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-02-11 13:51 |
| #6 "...Iran produced first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium." how much is a batch and if they did this, why not show it off with a picture |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-02-11 12:11 |
| #5 For a bomb, you'd need highly enriched U. That means at least 50%, otherwise your bomb may have delivery or explosion problems. Depends on design. Standard U235 bomb has 80% enriched core. 20% is not there yet. But depends what quantity of 20% you have and how many centrifuges can be plugged into production, it may not take long to get to 50%. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2010-02-11 11:18 |
| #4 Fix for the Iranian Nuclear Problem - CANDU Nuclear Reactors - Introduction. The Technology: One of the most important features of the CANDU reactor under active development focusses on its fuel cycle flexibility. As shown schematically, the CANDU reactor's neutron economy permits the use of not only natural uranium (0.7% 235U) but other sources ranging from slightly enriched uranium (1.2% 235U) to used fuel recovered from PWRs(pressurized (light) water reactor) Nuclear uranium enrichment problem is minimized and the bi-products are commercially viable for medical diagnostic purposes. /just sayiing. |
| Posted by: One Eyed Omimp6572 2010-02-11 10:15 |
| #3 NEWS KERALA > BRITAIN'S "WAR ON TERROR" MAY LAST AS LONG AS THE COLD WAR. Substitute "UK" with "USA", and NOT counting any LT, DECADES-N-SCORES-N-GENERATIONS-LONG GLOBAL RECESSION/DEPRESSION either! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-02-11 09:39 |
| #2 FREEREPUBLIC/OTHER > seems MOUD has formally declared that: To wit, * Iran is now offically a NUKULAAR STATE, + * Iran is capable of indigenously producing its own WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM [80%-and-higher]. IOW, MOUD has indir inferred that Iran is a NUCWEAPS STATE IN ALL BUT NAME [Arsenal]n capable of produc Nucweaps but just chooses NOT to? UNLESS I'VE MISSED SOMETHING, MOUD > is also strongly inferring that Iran is at the threshold of not only produc URANIUM BOMBS, BUT ALSO HYDROGEN-, PLUTONIUM = THERMONUKE BOMBS, AT LEAST WIDIN SCOPE OF RELIABLE THEORY??? Looks like the MILTERRS may get their NUCTECHS before 2012, at least as per RELIABLE "DIRTY NUKES" + OTHER ADVANC WMDS. Mark your Calendars, Boyz, as today is the END OF DEFENSIVE CONVENTIONAL INSURGENCY, e.g. VIETNAM + CONGO + MALAYSIA-INDON + AFPAK; AND THE BIRTHDAY = BEGINNING OF OFFENSIVE NUCLEAR TERROR-JIHAD [unknown]. 2010-2020/2025 = Brave New World, for both the US-ALLIES as well as proto-NUCLEAR RADIC ISLAMISM??? FTLG STAY ARMED! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-02-11 09:33 |
| #1 This was his gut punch. And with Obama in charge, it may be. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-11 06:43 |