Iran - Years Away from a Bomb

[joemurphy]

Iran's efforts to produce highly enriched uranium, the material used to make nuclear bombs, are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology.

Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved. The country denies developing weapons, saying its pursuit of uranium enrichment is for energy purposes...

'The reality is that they have got to the stage where they can run a small experimental centrifuge cascade intermittently,' said one Western source familiar with the Iranian programme. 'They simply have not got to the stage where they can run 3,000 centrifuges There is no evidence either that they have been stockpiling low-enriched uranium which could be highly enriched quickly and which would give an idea of a malevolent intent.'

Another source with familiarity with the Iranian programme said: 'Iran has put all this money into this huge hole in the ground at Natanz; it has put a huge amount of money in these P-1 centrifuges, the model rejected by Urenco. It is like the Model T Ford compared to a Prius. That is not to say they will not master the technology eventually, but they are trying to master very challenging technology without access to everything that they require.'

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2000303,00.html>

[sam sarrha]

1. they are just baiting the Moran in Chief.. they know he will do something stupid that will further

the Extremist Iranian Governments extremists desires...

the majority of the Iranian people do not support the government..

[Rex]

2. We gave them the blueprint on how to build a nuke

and fudged a few technical facts (which were figured out in no time). Huge hole in the ground huh? Sound as dumb as our Pentagon and even they eventually learned how to attach nukes to planes and missiles.

Then there are all those thousands of nukes just sitting around the former Soviet Union. Putin was snuggling up to India the other day so who the fuck knows what he has secretly given Iran.
The stupidest of all ideas is for America to attack Iran. Something most people here think will not happen, even with the 'billion dollar bluff' of navy hardware close at hand and getting larger.

If money is the root of all evil, then Iran has a nuke and knows how to use it or can get one from Russia or maybe China. Does that give us the right to invade it? No. Same with Iraq.