I'm sorry I meant Mordechai Vanunu :)
Posted on 12/02/2007 2:49:01 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
This is the second similar report I’ve seen on this, but I believe both this and the earlier one cite the same source, because both specifically noted the absence of cooling towers on the overhead images of the facility.
I’ve worked in smaller test reactor facilities that did not require a cooling tower, a feature which is normally associated more with the steam turbine/cooling loops on the power side of production reactors than with test facility reactors where thermal energy extraction isn’t a priority.
Still, some form of fissionable material being onsite fits well with the following widely publicised aspects of the 9/6 IAF raid:
1. “Cement ship” (useful cover for shielding radiation emitters during transport)
2. “Soil samples” reported seized by IDF commandos before and after the raid
3. “Stun the world” and “WW-III” comments made after the raid, by a Netanyahu aide, an unnamed UK official, even President Bush
4. Syrian efforts to bury the site, with what appeared to me to be sand, after the raid. Certain sands contain significant quantities of boron, a neutron flux absorbant, and for this reason, helicopters dropped similar sands into the open reactor vessel at Chernobyl 4 after the reactor rapidly climbed out of its unstable “iodine well” just before a routine test and caused a LOCA event and explosion which displaced the biological shield, opening the pit to the outside world.
In simplest form then, we have two discussions, by one man, in two media outlets, speculating that plutonium, or at least fissionable material, was present at the Syrian facility, a conclusion which closely matches my own, however...
As this man is known by some as the “Father of Dimona”, it is reasonable to assume he has close contacts still in place with the cream of Israel’s nuclear community, at least some of whom would presumably have been involved in testing and identifying components present in any soil samples collected by IDF commandoes at the Syrian nuclear facility site.
Not conclusive, but compelling none the less.
I think it’s safe to assume Iran has anything Syria does, they signed a mutual defense pact a couple years ago, and there are numerous examples of military and financial cooperation in weapons acquisition between the two.
It’s important to note, however, that Korea’s lone nuclear test was a fizzle, and that Iran’s weapons program has been largely based on Pakistani assisstance, and to the best of my knowlege, Pakistan does not have a viable (or successfully tested)design for a plutonium weapon.
Iran may well be in position of having core fuel for a plutonium weapon, and blueprints for a Pakistani uranium core weapon design. Bridging a gap like that would take time, Pakistan’s nuclear expert Khan is supposedly off the market and in any event, generals are usually unwilling to bet their whole armies on untested “super-weapons”.
To be on the safe side, it’s probably best to assume Iran has 1 to 3 assembled high energy devices, all of which are untested. I’d strongly hesitate before assuming they could fit any of these to a missile warhead, where size and weight are critical restrictions.
All I can think of is Wile E. Coyote standing there, blackened and smoking, with a blown up stick of dynamite in his hand.
Good point, delivery is a key, because you can’t smuggle a nuke into Israel of USA without some level of miniturization. Just too big. Missle delivery, though, scares me re. Mahamood and Israel.
In anything goes war, they simply put one in a large oil tanker full of oil. No one is the wiser until it is too late. 50’ of oil probably makes a pretty good radiation shield.
Or...
Fly a chartered plane into Any City, Western World and never land - an air detonation at the optimum altitude without all the technical complications of a missile... And no customs to deal with...
I’m just a security/military ignorant guy sitting behind a computer. But it seems pretty obvious that it wouldn’t be that difficult to a nuke to virtually any city USA with a little knowledge and resources. All by far cheaper than a missile and much more difficult to track. If LA suddenly went up in a flash of light, it is pretty difficult to respond affectively if you don’t know who did it, especially considering how many lives are on the line.
Ping to Oldexpat’s post.
Very interesting.
Really?
Chartered plane.
Container ship.
Oil tanker.
None which go through customs or any US inspections until they are here...
Here is too late.
A chartered plane is the worst. Over any city USA air detonation. No customs. No inspections. Much more accurate and reliable than a missile and dirt cheap in comparison.
Plane’s just can’t fly in from overseas with no transponder and no prearranged flight plan.
Didn’t you know, its Bushs fault, not Assad and Il’s
I never thought of shielding....we all puzzled over this shipment of "cement"..
Makes sense now.
The UN? It was an emergency to do nothing.
It’s not only a waste of money, it’s a waste of hope.
I said nothing about no transponders or missing flight plans.
Planes are chartered to haul freight and chartered to haul people daily. The come and go all over the world everyday.
However, if it was an assembly line (as it might have been) I do not think that it contained any weapons grade material (yet).
Another possibility is that this plant was meant as a message to the West from Iran that they know how to make bombs.
There is another possibility.
Iran subcontracted part of it’s NOKO sourced material to Syria and can maintain plausible deniability for some short term duration.
The long term effort could be curtailed as long as the heat is on with substantial progress still being made by the Syrian subcontractor.
Prior to this incident, there was no suspicion of a Syrian nuclear capability.
“A chartered plane is the worst. Over any city USA air detonation. “
I read a book 25 years ago or so that had CHina nuking NY using that method
Fascinating thread. Thanks to all contributors.
“Why wasn’t an emergeancy meeting of the UN Security Council called?”
Good question. Some interesting reading here...
http://www.ianlivingston.com/threatmatrix/12_2007_reading.pdf
Thanks to Ian and the Threat Matrix thread for posting this here...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933472/posts
scroll to “Recommended Reading” UN1267
ping
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