Iran 'lied to UN inspectors about Qom nuclear site'

[bananas]

Source: Guardian

US cables show IAEA officials were denied blueprints and told evidence of bomb-grade uranium enrichment was forged

Iranian officials withheld from international atomic energy inspectors the original design documents for a secret nuclear reactor suspected of being part of Tehran's plan to build an atomic bomb, a US embassy cable reveals.

The secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was denied the blueprints when in October 2009 its inspection team visited the part-built facility in a mountainside at Fordow near Qom. It was instead provided with designs that showed only what was already built.

Providing a picture of Iranian obstruction to the visit, Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA's deputy director general who led the inspection, revealed that Iranian officials were "steered by unseen observers who send notes to the Iranian interlocutors during meetings" and insisted on tape recording the meetings but refused to allow the IAEA to do the same.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/iran-lied-un-inspectors-qom-nuclear

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You just can't trust the nuclear industry.
We have to get to Global Zero, and Iran isn't helping.

CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2096028

Valerie Plame Wilson at Santa Fe Opening of Countdown to Zero (Video)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x501447

"Countdown to Zero": Valerie Plame Wilson's new anti-nuke crusade
An interview with Valerie Plame in Salon.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8800345

[Drale]

1. Thats why these "rogue states" are so dangerous

Everyone else can get rid of their nukes, but then only the crazy of the crazy will have them, and that just can't be.

[TheWraith]

2. What does nuclear power have to do with this?

You're intentionally trying to conflate civilian nuclear power with nuclear weapons, which have next to nothing to do with each other. Guess what: no country that has developed nuclear weapons has ever needed civilian nuclear power to do it.

[oberliner]

3. Why forge documents and withhold blueprints?

If this is just about nuclear power and not nuclear weapons then why the trickery?

[SkyDaddy7]

7. I think some people will side with anyone who is against the USA...

Oh well?

[joshcryer]

9. Point being, inspections work? The release shows we were on top of things.

Iran can continue to build their little power plant slash bomb building factory. But it'll take them several decades, like it took North Korea.

[SkyDaddy7]

6. That is not true...

You can gain a lot of knowledge via nuclear power & I believe North Korea & Pakistan both developed their nuclear weapon under the guise of nuclear power. It is not as cut & dry as you make it. Plus, I really hope you are not defending the Islamic regime...PLEASE tell me you are not trying say Iran is doing nothing wrong.

[joshcryer]

8. No, knowledge doesn't require nuclear power plants.

Bombs, likewise, are best made without nuclear power plants.

[Pavulon]

4. Ha, these cables support all the things you dont like. Iran is not a poor victim of the US

but actually trying to make a bomb. You have to get to global reality, funny these documents are going farther to support US positions.

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. No...anything that contradicts Common Knowledge is clearly faked.

Don't you know that?

[bananas]

10. These cables support my positions, maybe you have me confused with someone else

I've never said Iran was a poor victim of the US.
I've said that Iran was using its nuclear energy program to hide its nuclear weapons program.
There is someone up-thread who says I'm trying to "conflate" nuclear energy and nuclear proliferation,
maybe you should respond to him.

[joshcryer]

11. No one who has followed Iran's nuclear energy program has seriously considered it...

...a genuine nuclear energy program for many years. In fact, before I even joined these forums I held the position that if Iran wanted electricity then they should build fossil fuel burning plants, indicating to me that Iran in fact never wanted nuclear for energy to begin with.

[Elmore Furth]

12. It took 10 kilograms of plutonium to make a 'Fat Man' A bomb

It's not that difficult to make a nuclear bomb once you have fissable material.

It takes only 30 to 50 pounds of highly enriched uranium or 10 to 20 pounds of plutonium to make a bomb.

Boom.

[lepus]

14. The enrichment process is the slow part for a uranium bomb.

In a reactor, a significant portion of the U-238 is converted to plutonium as the U-235 is used up. Creating a plutonium based nuclear bomb removes the need for the enrichment process.

Ever wonder why used fuel pellets/rods are kept under such control? Separating the plutonium from the U-238/235 mix is a lot simpler than separating U-235.

While the resulting weapon is likely to be more complex than a uranium one, the total man hours and infrastructure investment are likely to be far less.

Methinks the reactor is a shortcut to a weapon.

[Ghost Dog]

13. Reactor? The ·part-built facility in a mountainside at Fordow near Qom",

as far as we have heard until now, is another centrifuge plant.

Psy-ops at the Guardian, much?