Green Energy
From David Goldman at PJM:
- Intelligence Chief: North Korea Restarts Plutonium Reactor
Intelligence chief: North Korea restarts plutonium reactor WASHINGTON — North Korea has expanded a uranium enrichment facility and restarted a plutonium reactor that could start recovering spent fuel in weeks or months, the U.S. intelligence...
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Newsmax: John Bolton: Russia's Loading of Nuke Fuel Into Iran Plant Means Aug. 21 Deadline for Israeli Attack Friday, 13 Aug 2010 By: David A. Patten News that Russia will load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor has touched off a countdown...
- Iran Could Be Developing Hydrogen Bomb
From the Weekly Standard: Iran's nuclear program is spread throughout a variety of experimental laboratories, hardened enrichment facilities, heavy water manufacturing plants, and two plutonium reactors currently...
- Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program
Satellite images show that Pakistan is building a new nuclear reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, an American watchdog group said Thursday, warning that it could contribute to an atomic arms race with archrival India. A picture taken June...
- Iran Inaugurates New Arak Heavy Water Facility Capable Of Producing Plutonium
From Gertz..... Iran has inaugurated a heavy water facility that can produce plutonium directly from uranium. The plant, which took eight years to complete, is located at Khondab, 190 kilometers southwest of Teheran. The plant, also known as Arak, would...
Green Energy
Iran May Be Close to a Plutonium Bomb, German Defense Experts Warn
From David Goldman at PJM:
Iran might be “on the verge of producing weapon-quality plutonium,” Germany’s daily Die Welt reported on Nov. 26. Hans Rühle, a former top official in the German defense ministry, and foreign editor Clemens Wergin cite clues pointing to an Iranian crash program to build a plutonium bomb in the just-released International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear activity. Rühle headed German defense policy planning during the 1980s; Wergin is one of the most capable young journalists writing in any language. Their report should be read in dead earnest.
The IAEA reported that Iran removed fuel rods from the Bushehr light water reactor—supposedly a peaceful application of nuclear energy—on October 22. There might be a technical explanation for the premature extraction of fuel rods from a light water reactor, Rühle and Wergin observe. But “it may also mean the starting point for production of weapons-grade plutonium. That would mean a dramatic expansion and acceleration of Iran’s nuclear armaments program (my translation).”
Although light water reactors are not designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, the design can produce large amounts of weapons-grade plutonium in a short period of time. In a matter of months, the authors report, the low-enriched uranium fuel in the Bushehr reactor could yield enough plutonium for dozens of atomic bombs:
In a light water reactor, which is operated with low enriched uranium (four percent), the fuel remains in the reactor up to 60 months when the reactor is run at maximum power generation,. But it takes only a few months to produce plutonium 239, that is, weapons-grade plutonium. … In the 1970s a British company had shut down a light water reactor prematurely. The result was around 450 kilograms of plutonium, or material for about 70 bombs.
It would take only three or four months to convert the plutonium from the Bushehr reactor’s spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium, the authors report. Depending on how long the fuel rods were used before Iran removed them on Oct. 22, they would yield between 150 kg and 300 kg of plutonium, or enough fissile material for 25 to 50 bombs.
Western negotiators previously ignored the Bushehr reactor, on the grounds that it constituted peaceful use of energy. Oliver Thränert, head of the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, told Die Welt, “If Iran does not give a convincing explanation for the early removal of fuel rods, a correction in this policy should be urgently considered.”
Last February, I cited Rühle’s analysis of the logistics of a possible Israel strike on Iran, in which the German expert argued that Israel had the capacity to set the program back by years.
- Intelligence Chief: North Korea Restarts Plutonium Reactor
Intelligence chief: North Korea restarts plutonium reactor WASHINGTON — North Korea has expanded a uranium enrichment facility and restarted a plutonium reactor that could start recovering spent fuel in weeks or months, the U.S. intelligence...
-
Newsmax: John Bolton: Russia's Loading of Nuke Fuel Into Iran Plant Means Aug. 21 Deadline for Israeli Attack Friday, 13 Aug 2010 By: David A. Patten News that Russia will load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor has touched off a countdown...
- Iran Could Be Developing Hydrogen Bomb
From the Weekly Standard: Iran's nuclear program is spread throughout a variety of experimental laboratories, hardened enrichment facilities, heavy water manufacturing plants, and two plutonium reactors currently...
- Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program
Satellite images show that Pakistan is building a new nuclear reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, an American watchdog group said Thursday, warning that it could contribute to an atomic arms race with archrival India. A picture taken June...
- Iran Inaugurates New Arak Heavy Water Facility Capable Of Producing Plutonium
From Gertz..... Iran has inaugurated a heavy water facility that can produce plutonium directly from uranium. The plant, which took eight years to complete, is located at Khondab, 190 kilometers southwest of Teheran. The plant, also known as Arak, would...