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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 8/27/2003 5:42 AM (GMT -6) |   | Iran has nuclear bomb
From the Muslim News
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=5593
Iran has nuclear bomb quality Uranium – diplomat
26-08-2003
PA:
UN inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian nuclear facility, heightening concerns that Tehran may be running a secret weapons programme.
A senior diplomat said the discovery will be contained in a report prepared for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board meeting next month.
Agency inspectors found “particles” of highly enriched uranium that could be used in a weapons programme at the facility at Natanz, said the diplomat, who covers agency activities.
The United States has accused Iran of developing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, violating the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty barring the spread of atomic weapons.
Iran has denied the allegations, insisting its programmes are devoted only to generating electricity.
Highly enriched uranium is used in making nuclear warheads.
Iranian officials did not contest the finding by the IAEA inspectors but said the equipment was already contaminated by traces of enriched uranium when purchased by Tehran.
Suspicion about Iran’s nuclear programme prompted Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the Vienna-based IAEA, to tour Iran’s nuclear facilities in February. The visit was intended to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme was limited to peaceful, civilian purposes and that the facilities were safe.
ElBaradei’s tour included a visit to the incomplete nuclear plant in Natanz, about 200 miles south of Tehran. At the time, diplomats said he was taken aback by the advanced stage of a project using hundreds of centrifuges to enrich uranium.
Agency officials declined to comment on the report and what it contained. But IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said there were “a number of outstanding issues, particularly with regard to Iran’s enrichment programme, which requite urgent resolution.”
Gwozdecky said the agency’s inspectors had visited Iran five times since June.
“In particular, we have visited a number of new sites, have the results of previously taken environmental samples and taken many more new samples, and are in receipt of much new information from the Iranian authorities,” he said.
Analysing the new material would take “weeks or months,” he added.
In July, ElBaradei pressed Iran for “substantial progress without delay” in clarifying aspects of its nuclear programme and in signing an agreement that would let UN inspectors conduct in-depth and comprehensive checks of Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
At that time, he denied reports that agency inspectors found enriched uranium in samples taken recently in Iran, calling it “pure speculation at this stage.”
Iran is building, with Russian assistance, its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr, on the shore of the Persian Gulf. It has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and should be completed next year.
Iran’s second nuclear reactor will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and the government is beginning feasibility studies for a 5,000 megawatt reactor.
Niebuhr thought that sustained moral energy in politics depended on religion's power to mobilize reason along with self-transcending love. The prophetic tradition, meanwhile, gave Jews and Christians some protection against the temptation to identify their social causes with God's will. Lincoln's second inaugural address expressed the prophetic insight, "The almighty has His own purposes." | | Back to Top | | |
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