IAEA discovers traces of plutonium, enriched uranium in Iranian waste facility

posted at 1:57 pm on November 14, 2006 by Allahpundit
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According to the AP. The IAEA found traces of enriched uranium back in August, too. Said WaPo at the time,

Previous traces were found to have been the result of used and discarded centrifuge equipment the Iranians bought from Pakistan. Officials at the IAEA said privately yesterday that the new contamination appears to be from old spent fuel the Iranians moved out of harm’s way during their eight-year war with Iraq.

One of our commenters at the time speculated that the spent fuel probably came from the research reactor we built for Iran in 1967.

Re: the plutonium, I won’t even pretend to know what I’m talking about. Rather, I’ll rely on the knowledgeable among you to explain it to me. From what I understand of this 2003 paper, as of three years ago only two reactors in the country had previously produced plutonium and both of those were under “IAEA safeguards.” Another plant, at Arak, will eventually produce enough plutonium for 8 to 10 bombs a year, but it hasn’t been built yet and won’t be ready until 2009 or so. The only other possibility is the light-water reactor at Bushehr, of which the paper has this to say:

Iran could try to pursue one of two reprocessing routes if it wanted to produce plutonium. Both pathways present unique challenges and limitations. First, … Iran would likely have the large Bushehr nuclear power plant operating. This plant embodies the potential for dozens of nuclear weapons per year as long as Iran was willing to circumvent NPT restrictions, agreements with the IAEA, and the proposed agreement between Iran and Russia to ensure that all spent fuel from Busheher is returned to Russia. In order to handle the hundreds of tons of spent fuel, Iran would need a relatively large reprocessing facility. Iranian officials could try to justify this type of facility as legitimate within the letter of the NPT. Nonetheless, the United States and other like-minded nations would probably protest that this facility would raise too much alarm about Iran’s ability to develop a substantial nuclear arsenal.

A clandestine reprocessing facility would also do the trick, they claim. But what are the odds that Iran has one of those?

Ahmadinejad, earlier today in Tehran:

[T]he nation would be informed of two very great progress in the fields, he said.

Briefing domestic reporters on the progress, Ahmadinejad said one of these progress would be quite unique and the Islamic Republic of Iran is the first ever country in the world who has found access to such achievement, he underlined.

“This year’s Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-11) period will mark the Iranian nation’s success in mastering fuel cycle as well as its achievements in other fields,” said Ahmadinejad.

Iran is to officially enter the nuclear market during Ten-Day Dawn period this year, pointed out the president.

MEMRI’s got excerpts of hardline Iranian newspapers calling on Muslims to prepare for “the great war.”

Update: Netanyahu being Netanyahu: “It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany.”

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