As you all are probably already aware, the International Atomic Energy Agency recently discovered enriched uranium and plutonium in one of Iran’s nuclear waste facilities. Now, enriched uranium is necessary for their supposedly peaceful nuclear power program… it just sits happily in its little reactor pile, slowly releasing its energy over a controlled, extended period of time, heats the hell out of heavy water, and goes about its merry business. But that is low-grade enriched uranium. High-grade enriched uranium tends to be used more for situations where instantaneous release of all possible energy is ideal – to put it simply, nuclear weapons. What type of enriched uranium was this?
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the report publicly, said that while the uranium traces were enriched to a higher level than needed to generate power, they were below weapons-grade.
Hm. So does that mean the scientists accidentally ran their centrifuges for a little too long, or that the centrifuges were not of sufficient power/capacity to make the high-grade stuff they actually wanted? Either way, this particular uranium is neither damning nor saving, but it certainly does make me a wee bit uncomfortable.
The plutonium, however, is a cut-and-dried case. Plutonium has absolutely no place or use in just about any nuclear power reactors, barring radioisotope thermoelectric generators like the ones used to power the Galileo and Cassini probes. So, either Iran is embarking upon an interesting new space-exploration program, or they are working on the more common use of the fissile material – nuclear weapons. Plutonium has been a key element in that destructive device since the days of the Manhattan Project, which was constructed to create weapons-grade plutonium for use in the Fat Man bomb (Little Boy used U-235). And just to make you all warm and fuzzy inside, you only need 16 kilograms of plutonium to reach critical mass… and modern nuclear weapons only need around 5 kilograms. So, sure, the IAEA only found "traces"… but how big was the chunk the traces fell off of?
Still, though, the evidence is not completely damning… the traces of plutonium found could have just been leftover byproducts from one of Iran’s reactors, and nothing to be concerned about. Well, nothing until Iranian newspapers started exhorting their readers to prepare for the upcoming war against Israel. Now, I am not entirely sure about their math, but, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how they count 50% of Israel being destroyed during its war with Lebanon… Perhaps that would hold true for Lebanon, but the newspapers made it rather clear they tought Israel was already halfway destroyed… Certainly, Hezbollah lobbed enough Katyusha rockets into Israel (most of them from residential areas, so counterstrikes would invariably turn public opinion agianst Israel), but their piss-poor aim and the unguided nature of the rockets generally resulted in most of the strikes making beautiful craters in the desert. However, despite their somewhat questionable math, the newspaper writers did have something correct:
"It was proven that, by means of an offensive operation that need not be equal to Israel’s moves, it is possible to neutralize the Zionist navy," the article said triumphantly.
They are, of course, referring to the incident during the Israel – Lebanon conflict wherein a Hezbollah C-802 missile struck an Israeli frigate. However, what they are not telling you is that the impact was entirely the fault of the Israelis. Much like most American warships, the Israeli SAAR-5 Missile Corvette mounts the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System, as well as anti-missile missiles and electronic countermeasure systems. However, all of these systems were disabled due to their predominantly automatic nature, and the Israeli fears that the systems would engage their own manned and unmanned aircraft – they were more worried about shooting their own people down, than being shot at by the Hezbollah, a notoriously low-tech organization which, to all external appearances previous to the incident, lacked the capabilities to produce or effectively use the C-802. This, of course, caused all manner of speculation concerning Iranian involvement in both this incident, as well as the entire conflict as a whole, and this news report only fuels that concern. Unfortunately, this one slip-up by Israel has resulted in way too much of a morale-boost for Hezbollah and Iran… Thankfully, it will be a short-lived boost if they try to test the scenario again (assuming Israel learned its lesson), but for the time being, uniformed people around the world are believing those two organizations can take on Israel’s navy. I am not so convinced.
Regardless, couple this newfound fervor for the "collapse" of Israel, along with Iran’s newfound interest in and irrational defiance of their nuclear program, and you get a very, very disturbing picture. Considering how much Iran supports terrorism / suicide bombers, and the mentality that indicates, I honestly do not believe the Iranian government is sufficiently rational or intelligent to realize that glassing Israel would result in their own destruction, either by the resulting fallout (they are downwind, after all), or by other nations indicating their displeasure. And then things get ugly.
Just remember, people, these people who are threatening to instigate the "collapse" of Israel through a "great war" are adherents of a "religion of peace"… And, yes, I will be the first to say that it is not the fault of the religion, but more the radicals… but the more I hear about things like this, the more I have to wonder how many moderates there are in that realm of the world any more. And even if they do exist, why are they being silent? These radicals are threatening to embroil your country in a massively self-destructive war – do something about it. *sigh* I should stop reading the news.
Hat tip to A Little More to the Right.
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