The Bear Is Back .... (Russia sending 80 tons of uranium fuel to Iran)

“Meanwhile, the Bush administration stands by and does nothing.”

What cave did this writer crawl out of? Bush has supported this from the get-go.

I couldn’t get this in as I excerpted, but yes W agrees with this.
From the article:
President Bush responded to the Russian-Iranian deal with conciliatory words. “If the Russians are willing to do that — which I support — then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich,” Bush stated at a speech in northern Virginia. “If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.”

Just how many tons does it take to run a power plant? 80 tons?

Ping!

At some point, however, the egregiousness of Russian behavior cannot be papered over. Russia not only built Iran’s Bushehr reactor over years of Western objections and provided air defences for Iran’s nuclear facilities, it has now shipped 82 tons of uranium fuel rods to Iran, leading to the expectation that Bushehr could be operational around the end of next year.

Russia claims that this is consistent with its own opposition to Iran developing nuclear weapons, since Iran has committed to returning spent fuel rods - which contain enough plutonium to produce bombs - back to Russia. The US has tried to make lemonade out of lemons by not objecting, and arguing that Iran now has no excuse for not shutting down its own enrichment program.

We must remember that in 1981, Israel destroyed Iraq’s French-built Osirak reactor, despite a similar agreement that it would be maintained under international safeguards. And the Israeli strike came just before fuel was supplied to the reactor, to avoid the further damage that would be caused by dispersed nuclear fuel.

In Iran’s case, as disturbing as are the implications of Bushehr itself, the operation of this site is actually among the less central proliferation threats. Iran is also building a “research” reactor at Arak that would produce much more plutonium and could be completed in the next few years. Most of all, there is Iran’s defiant race to master the process of uranium enrichment at Natanz - which has room for 60,000 centrifuges, according to Israeli Military Intelligence - and which could result in an indigenous capacity to produce its own nuclear arsenal.

Accordingly, it is not so much Bushehr itself that is the problem, but Russia’s decision to give that project a significant boost forward despite Iranian defiance regarding enrichment. What greater blow could have been dealt to the international sanctions campaign, which Russia voted for, than supplying fuel regardless of Iran’s compliance with mandatory UN Security Council resolutions?

If the Iranian regime succeeds in obtaining nuclear weapons someday, the government that history will hold most responsible will be Russia’s. A nuclear Iran would be a tremendous boon for all the radical Islamist forces in the region, such as Hamas, Hizbullah and al-Qaida. For this reason alone, the idea that Russia should be invited into a process designed to isolate and combat precisely these forces makes no sense. But that’s not all.

Far from joining in the international consensus that Hamas must be isolated, Russia is openly siding with Hamas. In Paris, at the donor conference that raised over $7 billion in pledges for the Palestinian Authority, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Requiring special attention is the situation in the Gaza Strip, whose actual isolation hurts ordinary Palestinians. The worst may happen: the territory being turned into a ‘high security prison.’”

What does this mean, that Hamas should be even freer to attack Israel than it is now? Where is Moscow’s condemnation, at least on the level of lip service, of the constant missile attacks against Israeli civilians?

Thanks for the comments. Russia is once again being Russia. It acts in ways that alienate it from the West, and that is counter to it’s own interests. It’s just nutty policy IMO.

Russia has as much to fear from terrorist states as we do, yet it has backed the terrorists for forty years that I am aware of.

Medvid provided a rather intersting factoid recently. Since last July (or close to it), Israel has received one rocket entering it’s territory every thirty minutes (on the average). What state would put up with that? Russia?

Putin is a nut-job. I had hoped he would turn out to be an enlightened Russian capable of bringing it into the 21st century. Instead he seems determined to take it into the 20th.

And it will be transported how?

Air?

Ship?

Rail?

Truck?

What cave did this writer crawl out of? Bush has supported this from the get-go.

Yes, this was part of the negotiations with Iran which Iran would never accept. Another nation would provide them with Uranium that was enriched enough for fuel, but not enough for a weapon. In turn, Iran would have to give up their own enrichment program because they would no longer need it.

It gives Iran the nuclear power program that they claim to want, but removes their need for uranium enrichment which is could be used in creating a bomb.

If we can get Iran to dismantle their enrichment program, this is a big win. If they don't, then this is just cover that they will use to buy more time to complete their weapons program.

Russia's neo-Soviet dictator-for-life, or the 40 bi$$ion mob boss, or both?

America and the world, Moscow sends its greetings via Tehran.

It’s already there.
..................................

The Russian state corporation Atomstroiexport said on Monday they had delivered the first batch of nuclear fuel supplies. The delivery is expected to last up to two months. On Tuesday, the Iranian side confirmed the fuel’s arrival and said that the Bushehr plant will soon be launched.

The rather sensational way of presenting this news can be explained by the international rules of transportation of nuclear materials enforced by the IAEA: any movement of such materials across national borders must be secret to prevent theft or terrorist attacks. This was also the reason why the Russian side was ambiguous as to the expected delivery completion.

The Russian side stressed that all safety requirements during the transportation are strictly observed - IAEA experts sealed the containers before they were carried out of the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant that produces the nuclear fuel for Iran. The same experts will remove the seals in Iran allowing the fuel to be unloaded. Until this moment, the Russians stress, the containers will be kept in a special depot equipped with special means of video surveillance connected to IAEA headquarters.

Russia’s $1 billion Bushehr project has lately been under the threat of closure because the international community, led by the United States and Israel, strongly opposed its start, fearing that Iran could use the project in its military nuclear program. Russia had to delay the delivery of nuclear fuel, initially scheduled for March, citing payment problems from the Iranian side. But the payment problems were probably due to Tehran’s fears that there would not be any fuel deliveries, which would make the project worthless.

Now, with the problems apparently overcome, the Bushehr plant is expected to start generating electricity in June of next year. The date will be officially announced later this month, Atomstroiexport’s president Sergei Shmatko told reporters last week.

The $46 Billion dollar man,
the wealthiest in Europe.

I stand corrected, bump it up another 6 billion, and since 'comrade' Putin is playing the international oil markets he is earning millions per day if oil trends up or down.

Some info below:

Putin's Wealthy Friends

Yulia Latynina writes in the Moscow Times: The most serious economic consequence of Putin's presidency is that many of his friends have acquired tremendous wealth over the past seven years. If, for example, oil pumped by Yuganskneftegaz was previously exported by Yukos or one of its offshore subsidiaries, now the same oil is exported by Gunvor, which has capital reserves that are estimated to be about $20 billion. Gunvor is a Geneva-based oil-trading company co-founded by Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, who is reportedly Putin's close friend.

Putin's reputation in the West took a serious blow after Yukos was dismantled and its CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was jailed. This means that either Putin generously let his reputation suffer in order to help Timchenko strike it rich, or else he jailed Khodorkovsky in order to channel Yukos oil to another friend.

After the cut, Anders Aslund argues that the Putin administration's theft of Yukos makes it more corrupt than Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Zaire's Mobutu.

From Anders Aslund: "Unmasking President Putin's Grandiose Myth"

In a sensational interview in Germany's Die Welt on Nov. 12, Stanislav Belkovsky, the well-connected insider who initiated the Kremlin campaign against Yukos in 2003, made specific claims about Putin's wealth. He alleged that Putin owned 37 percent of Surgutneftegaz (worth $18 billion), 4.5 percent of Gazprom ($13 billion) and half of Timchenko's company, Gunvor (possibly $10 billion). If this information is true, Putin's total personal fortune would amount to no less than $41 billion, placing him among the 10 richest in the world.

These shareholdings have been rumored for years, but now a prominent international newspaper has published such allegations made by a well-informed source. If these numbers contain any truth, Putin would be the most corrupt political leader in world history, easily surpassing Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Zaire's Mobutu.source

Is this uranium-235 or 238? The 238 isotope is the one that’s great for making bombs....it is abundant and easily contrivertable into plutonium, which is excellent for weapons but has little energy use. Uranium-235 has to be enriched up to 90% or higher, and even that only yeilds a bomb with a 60 KT max...which is relatively low, and uranium weapons are very heavy in comparison to plutonium. Uranium mined in Iran is rich in molybdenum, which is very hard to separate from the uranium in centrifuges and reduces the quality or uranium produced....which is why it would be easier for Iran to buy uranium (from Russia) than to mine their own.

contrivertable

This should say convertible....

Then when is one guy in the Pub primaries going to take after Russia and China as real threats? It would play well with at least one wing of the GOP.

Just how many tons does it take to run a power plant?

Uranium is heavy. Many fuel rods required.

McCain puts down Putin, sees ’KGB’ in his eyes

By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, December 19, 2007 | http://www.bostonherald.com | 2008 Campaign News

Photo by Nancy Lane
Weighing in for the first time on the bombshell revelation that Russia is shipping nuclear fuel to an Iranian power plant, Arizona Sen. John McCain this morning called for the United States to be tougher on President Vladimir Putin.

“I would have had a much stronger response to Mr. Putin a long time ago,” McCain said in an exclusive interview with the Boston Herald.

In light of Russia’s determination to deliver uranium-enriched fuel rods to the Bushehr power plant in Southern Iran, McCain said, “I would seriously consider saying the G-8 should not invite him to its next meeting.”

“I looked into his eyes and saw three letters: a K, a G and a B,” McCain said of Putin, referring to his ties to the former Soviet spy agency.

McCain said today that he does not envision a re-ignition of the Cold War because Russia is too destitute to wield such power. However, he said the U.S. missed an opportunity to put Russia on a better track under the late former President Boris Yeltsin.

“We may look back on the Yeltsin era as a period of missed opportunities,” McCain said.

In a blow to the U.S., Russia made its first delivery Monday of enriched-uranium fuel rods to the Iranian power plant yesterday, a move that the Atomic Energy Organization said today promises to strengthen relations between Tehran and Moscow.

McCain called Russian presidential nominee Dmitry Medvedev a mere “puppet” for Putin, who has agreed to become prime minister under a Medvedev regime. Putin was named “Person of the Year‘’ by Time magazine today.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1054835

Thank you. I realize we’re talking about Russian tech here, but isn’t pebble technology the way to go these days?

Christmas weekend, and you’re giving me homework !