Green Energy

And if all that is not enough ....Iran can save 75% of the effort to refine U-235 because...

Nuclear fuel from Bushehr reactor could rapidly produce weapons-grade uranium

LONDON — The operation of Iran's first nuclear reactor could rapidly advance the Islamic regime's campaign for nuclear weapons.

Western analysts said the Bushehr nuclear reactor could produce nuclear fuel that could be quickly transformed into weapons-grade uranium. They said the 1,000-megawatt reactor could enrich uranium to a point where the weapons processing would be accessible.

Nuclear fuel requires an enrichment of 3.5 percent while weapons-grade Uranium 235 requires an enrichment of 90 percent. "If they do deliver this fuel — 3.5-percent-enriched uranium 235 — for a nuclear weapon, you need 90-percent-enriched uranium," said British nuclear consultant Frank Barnaby said.

"If you've got 3.5-percent-enriched uranium, that's a long way towards the 90 percent. "About 75 percent of the energy required to go to 90 percent is used to go to 3.5 percent," Barnaby added. "To go from 3.5 percent to 90 percent is a relatively small step."

The United States has concluded that the delivery of Russian nuclear fuel could advance Iran's uranium enrichment program. Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has achieved an enrichment level of 4.8 percent.

"Probably, countries are wondering whether if the Russians deliver this 3.5-percent-enriched fuel, Iranians would be able to take it and just complete the enrichment to 90 percent," said Barnaby, a consultant for the Oxford Research Group. "That is a possibility. It's a very long shot."

Frankly I have concluded that the Russian see Iranian nuclear weapons as being advantageous to them. No doubt the physical buffer of the 5 new stans make them inured to the inevitable fallout. Who knows, perhaps they view the dead there as an advantage as well? After all, the stans are populated by muslims the Russians suppressed for centruies..

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