Iran admits to producing higher grade uranium [Over 4% now.]

Reuters by way of The Age (Australia) ^ | 01MAY06 | Reuters

[familyop]

Iran has enriched uranium to more than 4 per cent, an Iranian official said, a level higher than Iran previously told the UN nuclear watchdog but still well below the range needed to make nuclear weapons.

Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency two weeks ago that it had enriched uranium to 3.6 per cent, a level which the agency confirmed from samples.

According to experts, uranium enriched to a range of 3 to 5 per cent is used in atomic power reactors.

Uranium needs to be enriched to 80 per cent or more to make nuclear weapons, which is what the West fears Iran wants.

"We have done enrichment in the range of above 4 per cent," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, said on Iranian state television.

He also repeated Iran's position that it would not give up enrichment, describing it as an "issue of life and death for Iranian society" and saying the goal enjoyed broad support.

"It is up to Iran to decide if it will keep enrichment at a pilot level or move towards an industrial scale," he said.

- US and Iranian officials held talks on Iraq in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region "a while ago", Iraq's al-Sharqiya television quoted President Jalal Talabani as saying.

US, Iranian and Iraqi officials could not confirm the report.

According to Sharqiya, Mr Talabani told Iraqi and Arab writers during a spring cultural festival that the talks took place in the lakeside mountain resort of Dukan and were "dedicated to the Iraqi issue".

It said Mr Talabani, a Kurd, expected further meetings on the matter.

Iranian and US officials have said they would hold talks to discuss Iraq, without giving a date.

A spokesman at the American embassy in Baghdad said he was unaware of such a meeting.

There was no immediate comment from Tehran.

The US accuses Iran of fuelling sectarian violence in Iraq, a charge dismissed by Tehran, which says the presence of US troops is to blame.

Both sides had said any such talks would only cover Iraq, although some analysts said it could open a conduit for discussion of other issues, particularly the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

[familyop]

Read between the lines. Both Reuters and The Age tend to slant to the left.

Iran could speed its nuclear weapons development exponentially with a little help from some of her neighbors and other associates. Iran has both import and domestic programs for the same.

[aristotleman]

Why must the United States always go at it alone, cleaning up the world's crazies and controlling the outcome of history positively?

The world wants things to worsen, allows kooks like Ahmadinewhatsisname to go about their business, and in the end, we'll be the bad guys, wait and see.

[Marine_Uncle]

One would have to be naive to think Iran would not push their uranium enrichment beyond the 3.5% level. Depending on the type reactor, life time of a given fuel rod mix/design, one can expect higher energy output from the reaction with the end result being higher amount of electricity being generated.
And since they are planing on creating their own fuel rods for the soon to be operational reactor at Bashar, surely they would want to enrich a bit higher for future fuel usuage.
It is sad they cannot be trusted. For there is nothing wrong with going nuclear. Why burn fuel oil to generate electricity when it can be use for home heating, and or further fractioned to provide other needed things such as Benzene, Toluene, Naphalen, and or skiped and yield more gasoline etc..
It is sad the jerks are going the route they have choosen.

[familyop]

"Why must the United States always go at it alone, cleaning up the world's crazies and controlling the outcome of history positively?"

We won't have to go it alone. Quite a few other nations are helping with both diplomatic, and even military operations when it comes to that.

Iran will be going it alone, though.

[Monti Cello]

One might have said the same about a camel-humping terrorist toppling 2 WTC towers and assaulting the Pentagon in one day.

Once they have the material, there are a million means of delivery.

[EEDUDE]

"The problem is not getting the uranium, but the mechanics of the bomb and delivery. Not so easy."

I must disagree. Uranium 238 bombs are easy to construct. The simple "gun barrel" is easy...well within their capabilities.

A plutonium bomb must be of the implosion type and is quite difficult to manufacture.

If they can get a enough U238 to achieve critical mass, they can build a bomb.

[pterional]

I think Iran recently received some missiles from North Korea that had extended range and the capabilities of carrying a nuclear warhead.

[BlueDragon]

you have the isotopes reversed. no amount of 238 goes boom all by itself...it's too stable to do that...
enrichment actually is getting rid of portions of the 238, leaving greater a concentration or percentage of 235.

The 238 can become plutonium in a reactor, though, because it doesn't split when bombarded by nuetrons coming from the unstable, and highly radioactive 235. Under the right conditions, it can absorb the nuetron, thus becoming "plutonium" 239, 240, etc.

How much 238 becomes, briefly, 239 or higher, in an atomic bomb detonation, if it does at all, is beyond me, but I do think that it *just might*, to varing extent, depending on the configuration used.

[Bob J]

If they're admitting 4, it's probably 6.

[EEDUDE]

Yes, you are correct. I realized I got them backwards right after I posted.

Thanks for correcting that.