Posted on 09/03/2005 4:04:26 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
Iran has pumped out about seven tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment since it restarted the process last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Friday. A former UN inspector said that would be enough for an atomic weapon.
In unusually strong language, an IAEA report also said despite its investigation, questions remain about key aspects of Iran's 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity and that it still was unable "to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."
"Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue," said the confidential document obtained by The Associated Press. The document listed perceived Iranian failings and called for "access to individuals, documentation related to procurement … certain military-owned workshops and research and development locations."
Among the unanswered questions, according to the report, were gaps in the documented development of Iran's centrifuge program used in uranium enrichment and in what was received, and when, from the black market network headed by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.
Overall, the report confirmed recent revelations that most of the traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported to Iran on equipment from Pakistan that it bought on the black market even though it said it was not possible to determine the origins of other traces enriched to less than weapons grade.
That finding hurts U.S. arguments that the traces were likely the result of enrichment done in Iran, as part of a secret program to make nuclear weapons.
Iranian state television quoted Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani as saying the conclusion showed that the country's nuclear program is "completely peaceful and has never been diverted to illegal activities."
But the key issue in the report was uranium conversion changing raw uranium into gas that then is spun by centrifuges into enriched uranium.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
ping
Time to light the mullahs up.
Yes, we know how harsh language always makes criminals, despots, and terrorists fall in line. A few smoking craters in Iran would be the ideal landfill area for the Gulf Coast disaster.
Time to go!
Time for a few 10-megaton bunker busters. :)
Hey, I never excelled in physical sciences so can someone explain to me how gas can weigh 7 tons? I can see if they freeze the gas into a solid or liquid how you can determine a weight but then that means it won't be a gas, right?
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