Posted on 11/13/2005 6:18:44 AM PST by FreedomNeocon
South Africa offers yellowcake, enrichment tech to Iran's nuclear program
South Africa has offered to be a supplier of nuclear material and technology to Iran. Iranian officials said Pretoria has offered to transfer material and technology to help Teheran's nuclear program. They said the South African offer would be restricted to activities permitted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We are in the process of negotiating on the modalities of this participation," said Javad Vaidi, an official from Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
On Nov. 5, Iran approved a resolution that would enable foreign companies to participate in that nation's uranium enrichment program. The resolution, which requires parliamentary approval, would allow the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization to invite domestic and foreign investors to the Natanz enrichment facility.
Vaidi told Iranian state television on Nov. 7 that South Africa has offered to immediately supply Iran with U308, or yellowcake. Yellowcake could be converted to uranium hexafluoride gas, or UF6, the feed material for gas centrifuges required to produce enriched uranium.
Under the program, Pretoria would deliver yellowcake to Iran's uranium conversion plant in Isfahan. In the second stage, he said, South Africa would participate in the actual uranium enrichment, a leading requirement for nuclear weapons.
Officials said Iran and South Africa have been discussing nuclear cooperation for more than a year. The two countries have exchanged nuclear delegations amid international pressure on Iran to resume its suspension of uranium enrichment.
Vaidi said Russia and South Africa have accepted Iran's right to complete the nuclear fuel cycle. The two countries have opposed U.S.-led efforts to submit the Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.
Western intelligence agencies have monitored the flow of South African nuclear technicians and scientists to Iran over the last two years. South Africa operated a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s and 1980s, but said it was dismantled in 1989.
In Washington, UN Director-general Mohammed El Baradei said the IAEA was progressing in efforts to determine the extent of Iran's nuclear program. On Nov. 7, El Baradei told a conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that his inspectors were examining a military facility at Lavizan suspected of conducting nuclear weapons tests.
"We are moving in the right direction," El Baradei said. "We are making good progress with Iran."
Joe Wilson call your office.
Guess the clowns who were making light of the 'yellow cake' were . . . and are . . . just clowns.
So where exactly does yellow cake fit in with a civilian nuclear electricity generation?
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