By Yousaf Butt
Consider yourself warned – “[I]n the next few years Iran will be in position to detonate a nuclear device,” so writes Ray Takeyh, confidently, in a recent Washington Post OpEd [1]. Why? Because the Iranian government willingly informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it would begin installing additional centrifuges with higher capacity to enrich uranium. [2]
Just like fertilizer can be used to increase crop yields – or make bombs – uranium is a dual use material.
Uranium enrichment has been conflated with nuclear weaponization so often that it has morphed into a virtual bogeyman bomb itself – an absolutely impermissible activity for the likes of Iran to pursue. This was not always the case. In irony that only history can muster, Iran’s nuclear program was kicked off in the 1950s with the full encouragement and support of the United States, under the auspices of president Dwight D Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program. [3]
In 1970, the US proposed installing 23 nuclear power plants in Iran by the year 2000. A 1976 directive by then-president Gerald Ford offered Iran a US-built reprocessing facility for extracting plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel, another key ingredient for making nuclear bombs. [4] This “nuclear fuel-cycle” infrastructure is precisely the type of technology the US is now keen to keep out of Iran.
Continue reading at Spinning Iran’s centrifuges
Featured Topics / 特集
Latest Posts / 最新記事
- 福島第一原発事故10年、特別除染地域の85%で除染進まず 廃炉計画では新たな代替案が不可欠 via グリーンピース・ジャパン 2021/03/04
- 85% of Special Decontamination Area remained contaminated Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning road map unachievable – a new plan is inevitable via Greenpeace Japan 2021/03/04
- French report grapples with nuclear fallout from Algerian War via the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 2021/03/04
- 教科書に載ってない「ビキニ」 29歳監督が撮った男たちの苦悩 via 毎日新聞 2021/03/04
- Ex-PMs Kan, Koizumi urge Japan to quit nuclear power generation via The Mainichi 2021/03/04
Discussion / 最新の議論
- DramaCool on German energy study offers framework for Japanese policy chaos via The Japan Times online
- halodunia davit on US Nuclear Disaster Could Be Worse than Fukushima, Experts Warn via News wire
- Polisi Tangerang on US Nuclear Disaster Could Be Worse than Fukushima, Experts Warn via News wire
- PrepaidCardStatus on The Real Risks at Oi via SimplyInfo
- Horinaja on Iceland: We Won’t Sign Nuclear Weapons Ban Until Others Do, Too via Grapevine
Archives / 月別アーカイブ
- March 2021 (17)
- February 2021 (69)
- January 2021 (91)
- December 2020 (104)
- November 2020 (126)
- October 2020 (122)
- September 2020 (66)
- August 2020 (63)
- July 2020 (56)
- June 2020 (70)
- May 2020 (54)
- April 2020 (85)
- March 2020 (88)
- February 2020 (97)
- January 2020 (130)
- December 2019 (75)
- November 2019 (106)
- October 2019 (138)
- September 2019 (102)
- August 2019 (99)
- July 2019 (76)
- June 2019 (52)
- May 2019 (92)
- April 2019 (121)
- March 2019 (174)
- February 2019 (146)
- January 2019 (149)
- December 2018 (38)
- November 2018 (51)
- October 2018 (89)
- September 2018 (118)
- August 2018 (194)
- July 2018 (22)
- June 2018 (96)
- May 2018 (240)
- April 2018 (185)
- March 2018 (106)
- February 2018 (165)
- January 2018 (241)
- December 2017 (113)
- November 2017 (198)
- October 2017 (198)
- September 2017 (226)
- August 2017 (219)
- July 2017 (258)
- June 2017 (240)
- May 2017 (195)
- April 2017 (176)
- March 2017 (115)
- February 2017 (195)
- January 2017 (180)
- December 2016 (116)
- November 2016 (115)
- October 2016 (177)
- September 2016 (178)
- August 2016 (158)
- July 2016 (201)
- June 2016 (73)
- May 2016 (195)
- April 2016 (183)
- March 2016 (201)
- February 2016 (154)
- January 2016 (161)
- December 2015 (141)
- November 2015 (153)
- October 2015 (212)
- September 2015 (163)
- August 2015 (189)
- July 2015 (178)
- June 2015 (150)
- May 2015 (175)
- April 2015 (155)
- March 2015 (153)
- February 2015 (132)
- January 2015 (158)
- December 2014 (109)
- November 2014 (192)
- October 2014 (206)
- September 2014 (206)
- August 2014 (208)
- July 2014 (178)
- June 2014 (155)
- May 2014 (209)
- April 2014 (242)
- March 2014 (190)
- February 2014 (170)
- January 2014 (227)
- December 2013 (137)
- November 2013 (164)
- October 2013 (200)
- September 2013 (255)
- August 2013 (198)
- July 2013 (208)
- June 2013 (231)
- May 2013 (174)
- April 2013 (156)
- March 2013 (199)
- February 2013 (191)
- January 2013 (173)
- December 2012 (92)
- November 2012 (198)
- October 2012 (229)
- September 2012 (207)
- August 2012 (255)
- July 2012 (347)
- June 2012 (230)
- May 2012 (168)
- April 2012 (116)
- March 2012 (150)
- February 2012 (198)
- January 2012 (292)
- December 2011 (251)
- November 2011 (252)
- October 2011 (364)
- September 2011 (288)
- August 2011 (513)
- July 2011 (592)
- June 2011 (253)
- May 2011 (251)
- April 2011 (571)
- March 2011 (494)
- February 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
Top Topics / TOPトピック
anti-nuclear
Atomic Age
Capitalism
East Japan Earthquake + Fukushima
energy policy
EU
France
Hanford
health
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
Inequality
labor
Nuclear power
nuclear waste
Nuclear Weapons
Radiation exposure
Russia/Ukraine/Chernobyl
Safety
TEPCO
U.S.
UK
エネルギー政策
メディア
ロシア/ウクライナ/チェルノブイリ
健康
公正・共生
兵器
再稼働
労働における公正・平等
原子力規制委員会
原発推進
反原発運動
大飯原発
安全
広島・長崎
廃炉
東京電力
東日本大震災・福島原発
汚染水
米国
脱原発
被ばく
資本主義
除染
食の安全
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.