Iranian Nuclear Program

waltky · Aug 24, 2012

Dey hurryin' up so's dey can nuke Israel...

Signs Suggest Iran Is Speeding Up Work on Nuclear Program
August 23, 2012 WASHINGTON — International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may also be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings.

Almost all of the new equipment is being installed in a deep underground site on a military base near Qum that is considered virtually invulnerable to military attack. It would suggest that a boast by senior Iranian leaders late last month — that the country had added upward of 1,000 new machines to its installation despite Western sabotage — may be true.

The report will also indicate, according to the officials familiar with its contents, that Iran is increasingly focused on enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent — a purity that it says it needs for a specialty nuclear reactor that it insists is used only for medical purposes, but that outside experts say gets it most of the way to the level needed to produce a workable nuclear bomb. The report does not attempt to address the question of whether Iran has made a decision to build a nuclear weapon; American intelligence officials believe it has not, and Iran insists it wants to use nuclear power for peaceful ends.

It is unlikely that Iran has begun to use the new centrifuges to produce fuel, and even with a significant increase in fuel production it would still take months, at the least, to produce a crude weapon. By most American government estimates, Iran would need at least two years to develop a workable warhead that could fit atop a missile. Nonetheless, the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s experts, first reported by Reuters, is likely to renew the debate over Iran’s intentions at a time when Israeli officials are stepping up their warnings that the window to conduct a pre-emptive military strike is closing.

A faction led by Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, will almost certainly argue that Iran has moved closer to what Mr. Barak calls a “zone of immunity,” a point at which so much equipment is installed in the underground facility, called Fordow, that it will soon be too late for Israel to stop Iran from producing a weapon, should it choose to do so. The report could also become an issue in the presidential race. The presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, used a trip to Israel last month to declare that President Obama had wasted time with fruitless negotiations with Iran, and that Iran had taken advantage of the time to advance its nuclear program.

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Iran continues uranium work: sources
Sat, Aug 25, 2012 - NOT STOPPING: Before talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday, it has been alleged that Iran has installed more underground machines to enrich uranium

Iran has installed many more uranium enrichment machines in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources said on Thursday, potentially paving the way for a significant expansion of work the West fears is ultimately aimed at making nuclear bombs. Iran denies allegations it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability. However, its refusal to curb its nuclear enrichment program has prompted tough Western sanctions and has heightened speculation that Israel may attack its atomic sites. In a possible sign of further Iranian defiance in the face of such pressure, several sources said Iran had put in place additional enrichment centrifuges in its Fordow facility, buried deep inside a mountain to protect it against enemy strikes. One source suggested hundreds of machines had been installed.

In another development likely to worry the West, they said satellite imagery indicated Iran had covered a building at a military site that UN inspectors want to visit with a brightly colored, tent-like structure. Western diplomats have said they believe Iran is cleansing the Parchin site to remove any evidence of illicit nuclear activity at a place where the UN nuclear watchdog suspects it has conducted tests that had a military dimension. Covering the building in question — which is believed to house a steel chamber for explosives experiments — may allow Iran to carry out sanitization or other work there which would not be seen via satellite pictures.

One Western envoy said that the suspected clean-up at Parchin was “intensifying” and that this made it doubtful that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would uncover any hard evidence there, even if they were allowed to go. “Given the extent of the clean-up, it is indeed unlikely the agency, if it ever gets access, would find anything at Parchin,” the diplomat said. There was no immediate comment from Iran’s mission to the Vienna-based UN atomic agency. It has previously dismissed the allegations about Parchin, which it says is a conventional military facility, as “ridiculous.”

The IAEA would press Iran again in talks yesterday for access to Parchin as part of its long-stalled probe into suspected nuclear weapons research in the Islamic state, even though it concedes that the alleged sanitization would hamper its probe. The meeting, the first since previous discussions ended in failure in June, takes place after an upsurge in rhetoric from Israeli politicians this month suggesting Israel might attack Iran ahead of the US presidential election in November. The talks are separate from Tehran’s negotiations with world powers that have made little headway since they resumed after a 15-month hiatus, but the focus on suspicions about Iran’s nuclear ambitions mean they are closely linked.

More http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2012/08/25/2003541162
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waltky · Oct 21, 2012

US, Iran Agree to 1st Direct Nuclear Talks...

U.S. Officials Say Iran Has Agreed to Nuclear Talks
October 20, 2012 - But negotiations are fraught with election-year politics

The United States and Iran have agreed in principle for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Irans nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran. Iranian officials have insisted that the talks wait until after the presidential election, a senior administration official said, telling their American counterparts that they want to know with whom they would be negotiating.

News of the agreement a result of intense, secret exchanges between American and Iranian officials that date almost to the beginning of President Obamas term comes at a critical moment in the presidential contest, just two weeks before Election Day and the weekend before the final debate, which is to focus on national security and foreign policy. It has the potential to help Mr. Obama make the case that he is nearing a diplomatic breakthrough in the decade-long effort by the worlds major powers to curb Tehrans nuclear ambitions, but it could pose a risk if Iran is seen as using the prospect of the direct talks to buy time.

It is also far from clear that Mr. Obamas opponent, Mitt Romney, would go through with the negotiation should he win election. Mr. Romney has repeatedly criticized the president as showing weakness on Iran and failing to stand firmly with Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat. The White House denied that a final agreement had been reached. Its not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any meeting after the American elections, Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Saturday evening. He added, however, that the administration was open to such talks, and has said from the outset that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally.

Reports of the agreement have circulated among a small group of diplomats involved with Iran. There is still a chance the initiative could fall through, even if Mr. Obama is re-elected. Iran has a history of using the promise of diplomacy to ease international pressure on it. In this case, American officials said they were uncertain whether Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had signed off on the effort. The American understandings have been reached with senior Iranian officials who report to him, an administration official said.

Even if the two sides sit down, American officials worry that Iran could prolong the negotiations to try to forestall military action and enable it to complete critical elements of its nuclear program, particularly at underground sites. Some American officials would like to limit the talks to Irans nuclear program, one official said, while Iran has indicated that it wants to broaden the agenda to include Syria, Bahrain and other issues that have bedeviled relations between Iran and the United States since the American hostage crisis in 1979. Weve always seen the nuclear issue as independent, the administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter. Were not going to allow them to draw a linkage.

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Iran denies report of plans for nuclear talks with US
Sun Oct 21, 2012 - Iran denied on Sunday a report in a U.S. newspaper that it had plans for direct talks with the United States over its disputed nuclear program.

The New York Times reported, citing Obama administration officials, that the United States and Iran had agreed in principle to one-on-one negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, though the White House quickly denied the report.

"We don't have any discussions or negotiations with America," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a news conference on Sunday. "The (nuclear) talks are ongoing with the P5+1 group of nations. Other than that, we have no discussions with the United States."

Several rounds of talks this year between Iran and world powers, dubbed the P5+1, have failed to yield a breakthrough.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/21/us-iran-nuclear-usa-idUSBRE89K05N20121021
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waltky · Oct 22, 2012

Uncle Ferd says dey prob'ly got an agreement in place - dey just don't wanna say anythin' yet till dey got the harem girls worked out fer the Secret Service...

White House Denies Agreement for Iran Talks
October 20, 2012 - The White House is denying a New York Times report that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks for the first time on Iran's nuclear program.

A White House spokesman said late Saturday that the United States will continue to work with its fellow members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany on a diplomatic solution. The spokesman said President Barack Obama has made it clear that he will do what he must to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

The newspaper, citing unnamed Obama administration officials, says the U.S. and Iran have been holding intense secret exchanges almost since Barack Obama became president in 2009.

The officials say Iran wants to wait until after the November U.S. presidential election to see with whom it would be negotiating, a second Obama administration or one under the Republican Mitt Romney, who has accused Obama of being too soft on Iran.

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Steady Pie · Oct 22, 2012

I've never understood why there's this automatic assumption that Iran shouldn't be allowed nuclear weapons.

Some say it's because an Iran with weapons is dangerous. Okay, isn't America? The United States has been arguably the most evil world power of the 21st century. We've (almost certainly) given nuclear weapons to Israel, Iran's enemy.

Isn't it perfectly reasonable for a country to want an equal defense against an aggressor?

The idea behind the non-proliferation treaty was to create a group of nations that could use their influence to halt proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world, but those same nations have ruined that possibility by secretly giving weapons to Israel, Pakistan, India, etc.

Not saying I'm for giving weapons to Iran, just that we should reevaluate the issue.

waltky · Nov 7, 2012

Granny says dey's hidin' sumpin'...

Iran Not Cooperating On Nuclear Weapons Probe
November 06, 2012 - The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is not cooperating with an investigation into suspected secret work on nuclear weapons.

Yukiya Amano told the U.N. General Assembly that talks between the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have intensified this year after an IAEA report in November 2011 said it had "credible information that Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," he said. "However, no concrete results have been achieved so far," Amano said.

While the IAEA continues to verify that Iran's declared nuclear material is not being diverted from peaceful purposes, "Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities," Amano said. "Therefore, we cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," he said. But the IAEA director general said "the agency is firmly committed to intensifying dialogue with Iran." "We will continue negotiations with Iran on a structured approach," he said. "I hope we can reach agreement without further delay."

Iran has repeatedly denied any interest in possessing nuclear arms, but the international community fears that Tehran may turn its peaceful uranium enrichment program toward weapons making a concern that is growing as the government expands the number of machines it uses to enrich its stockpile of enriched uranium. As those fears grow, so does concern that Israel could carry out its threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before that nation reaches the bomb-making threshold.

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee reiterated his country's position, that it has a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and rejected the claims in the IAEA report saying they are "not credible" and based on "forged reports" provided by Israel and the United States.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/1...probe-suspected-secret-work-on/#ixzz2BZ9Vvpi2
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Albert Di Salvo · Nov 7, 2012

I hope Obama fails in his dealings with Iran. I hope Obama is defeated by all the powers hostile to him.

waltky · Nov 28, 2012

Granny says, "Yea, right - an' pigs fly...

Why is Iran's nuclear stockpile growing?
November 27, 2012 - An increase in Iran's higher-grade uranium stockpile is worrying but may arise from a bottleneck in making reactor fuel as opposed to accumulating material for nuclear weapons.

An increase in Iran's higher-grade uranium stockpile is worrying but may arise from a bottleneck in making reactor fuel rather than a bid to quickly accumulate material that could be used for nuclear weapons, diplomats and experts say. The issue of when and how fast Iran might be able to build an atomic bomb if it chose to do so is closely watched in the West because it could determine any decision by Israel to launch pre-emptive strikes against the Islamic Republic. Tehran's move this year to use a big part of its most sensitive material - which could otherwise be turned into bomb-grade uranium - for civilian fuel purposes helped ease intense speculation of an imminent attack by the Jewish state.

But tension may soon flare again if Iran's holding were to rapidly approach an amount that would be enough for a weapon, either by stepping up output of higher-enriched uranium or by no longer using the material to produce reactor fuel, or both. "The question is, at what point do they cross the critical point ... when we enter the danger zone?" one senior diplomatic source said. "Will they decide to voluntarily decide to stay clear of that point?" A U.N. nuclear watchdog report issued this month showed that Iran in late September suddenly stopped converting uranium gas enriched to a fissile concentration of 20 percent into oxide powder to make fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

Because Iran's enrichment work at the same time continued unabated, the halt meant that its stockpile of the higher-grade uranium rose by nearly 50 percent to 135 kg in November compared with the level in the previous quarterly report in August. "It is very puzzling," said one intelligence official from a country which suspects Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies, about the finding reported by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It could be because of a technical malfunction or a "test balloon" to see how the West would react, the official added.

It took Iran a significant step closer to the amount of roughly 250 kg seen as sufficient for one atomic bomb if refined further, which Israel has signaled is a "red line" for Iran's nuclear program that may be reached by mid-2013. "By the late spring, at this pace, Iran will have more than enough to arm its first weapon," said Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think-tank which has advised the U.S. government on sanctions against Iran. But some Western diplomats and analysts believe Iran may have let its stockpile grow for reasons related to the fuel manufacturing process, and that it could at some point re-start conversion of uranium gas. "I think it is a technical issue," one envoy said.

Producing reactor fuel involves several steps. First, the enriched uranium must be converted into oxide powder, then it is turned into fuel plates, and this could help explain the halt in feeding more of the gas into production process. "It is probably because it is easier and quicker to make the conversion to oxide than to produce the fuel elements," Mark Fitzpatrick, a nuclear proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, said. Fitzpatrick said he believed it was "more of a bottleneck" issue, adding: "It is alarming because it brings the 20 percent stockpile closer to a weapons amount. But it is not alarming in the sense that this was a strategic decision on Iran's part."

Danger zone?
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pimptight · Nov 28, 2012

Can't imagine why they would be wanting to build a nuke with Israel constantly declaring their intention to not attack Iran.......Oh wait, I see what I did there.

waltky · Dec 7, 2012

Iran targeting Israel with biological weapons...

Iran Aims Biological Warheads At Israel
5 Dec.`12 - Source confirms missiles in underground silos target Tel Aviv

Iran has 170 ballistic missiles aimed at Tel Aviv, many with biological warheads, WND has learned. According to a source who served in Irans Intelligence Ministry and who recently defected, the Islamic regime has 170 missiles targeted at Tel Aviv from underground silos, some of which are armed with biological warheads. The Islamic regime ruling Iran has prepared for the total destruction of Israel as well as a capability to target European capitals, he said.

As reported in the Washington Times in August, a commentary in Mashregh, the media outlet of Irans Revolutionary Guards, confirmed that the Islamic regime not only has weapons of mass destruction but has armed its terrorist proxies with them, including Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. The commentary warned Israel that if the fighting in Syria does not stop, an all-out attack on the Jewish state will be launched and that at zero hour, Tel Aviv will be the first city to be destroyed.

The CIA has long warned about Irans growing missile threat, and in 2010, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Congress of Irans capability of launching a salvo of missiles, even at European capitals. U.S. intelligence officials believe those missiles could be tipped with biological or chemical warheads. A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, warned then that Tel Aviv will burn to ashes, and the regimes supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised the superfluous and fake Zionist regime will disappear from the landscape of geography. The source, talking to WND, confirmed that Iran has made significant advances on several fronts chemical, biological, nuclear and electronic warfare and that the regime is looking at the deterioration in Syria and the possibility of an attack on Irans nuclear facilities with the intent of setting Israel and the region on fire.

The regime is adamant about its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the source said, and is working on its nuclear weapons program at several sites unknown to the West. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the source said, is on the wrong track by focusing only on the Natanz and Fordo nuclear sites. There are more than 70 North Korean military advisers and scientists working in Iran on the countrys defense projects, including work on a plutonium bomb, the source said. The Associated Press reported exclusively last week that the Islamic regimes scientists have worked on a design for a plutonium bomb with three times the explosive force of what was used on Hiroshima.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/iran-aims-biological-warheads-at-israel/#sT6qAZRprZDdfx7e.99
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AP Exclusive: Diagram suggests Iran working on nuclear bomb much more powerful than Hiroshima
28 Nov.`12 - Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a diagram obtained by The Associated Press.

The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon. The officials provided the diagram only on condition that they and their country not be named. The International Atomic Energy Agency the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog reported last year that it had obtained diagrams indicating that Iran was calculating the "nuclear explosive yield" of potential weapons. A senior diplomat who is considered neutral on the issue confirmed that the graph obtained by the AP was indeed one of those cited by the IAEA in that report. He spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

The IAEA report mentioning the diagrams last year did not give details of what they showed. But the diagram seen by the AP shows a bell curve with variables of time in micro-seconds, and power and energy both in kilotons the traditional measurement of the energy output, and hence the destructive power of nuclear weapons. The curve peaks at just above 50 kilotons at around 2 microseconds, reflecting the full force of the weapon being modeled. The bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in Japan during World War II, in comparison, had a force of about 15 kilotons. Modern nuclear weapons have yields hundreds of times higher than that.

The diagram has a caption in Farsi: "Changes in output and in energy released as a function of time through power pulse." The number "5'' is part of the title, suggesting it is part of a series. David Albright, whose Institute for Science and International Security is used by the U.S. government as a go-to source on Iran's nuclear program, said the diagram looks genuine but seems to be designed more "to understand the process" than as part of a blueprint for an actual weapon in the making. "The yield is too big," Albright said, noting that North Korea's first tests of a nuclear weapon were only a few kilotons. Because the graph appears to be only one in a series, others might show lower yields, closer to what a test explosion might produce, he said.

The senior diplomat said the diagram was part of a series of Iranian computer-generated models provided to the IAEA by the intelligences services of member nations for use in its investigations of suspicions that Iran is trying to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any interest in such a weapon and has accused the United States and Israel of fabricating evidence that suggests it is trying to build a bomb. Asked about the project, Iran's chief IAEA delegate, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said he had not heard of it. IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said the agency had no comment. Iran has refused to halt uranium enrichment, despite offers of reactor fuel from abroad, saying it is producing nuclear fuel for civilian uses. It has refused for years to co-operate with the U.N. nuclear agency's efforts to investigate its program.

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waltky · Dec 17, 2012

Granny says dey's up to sumpin', dat Amerjabberjob is a sneaky lil' Shiite...

US-Iranian nuclear talks fail. Iran has plutonium for 24 Nagasaki-type bombs
December 15, 2012, The secret, one-on-one nuclear negotiations President Barack Obama launched with Iran have run into a blank wall. A senior Iranian team member, Mostafa Dolatyar, said Friday, Dec. 14 in New Delhi that the diplomatic process for solving the nuclear issue with Iran was in effect going nowhere, because the demand that Tehran halt its 20-percent enrichment of uranium “doesn’t make sense.”

He went on to say: “They [the world powers] have made certain connections with purely technical issues and something purely political. In so far as this is the mentality and this is the approach from 5 + 1 (the Six World Powers) - or whatever else you call it - definitely there is no end for this game.”

debkafile: The phrase “or whatever else you call it” may be taken as Iran’s first veiled reference to the direct talks with Washington that were launched Dec. 1 in the Swiss town of Lausanne.

Mostafa Dolatyar is not just a faceless official. He is head of the Iranian foreign ministry’s think tank, the Institute for Political and International Studies, as well as a senior member of the Iranian team facing US negotiators in Lausanne. His remarks were undoubtedly authorized by the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who, through him, posted a message to Washington: If the enrichment suspension demand stands, the game’s over.

After more than 15 years of on-and-off, largely aimless, nuclear diplomacy with world powers and evasive tactics with the UN nuclear agency, Tehran is for the first time showing signs of impatience and not just is usual disdain. This is because two things have changed:

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Iran making anthrax at secret plant
16 Dec.`12 - Weaponization efforts also include deadly encephalitis, 'yellow grain'

Russian scientists have helped Iran master four microbial agents for bombs, which the Islamic regime has used to arm 37 launch-ready missiles so far, sources have revealed. The secret work is being done at a plant named Shahid Bahonar on a mountaintop by the city of Marzanabad off the mountainous Chalus road to the Iranian Caspian Sea. The plant, under the supervision of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, is headed by Dr. Esmaeil Namazi, who oversees 28 Iranian and 12 Russian scientists, according to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence division with access to the site.

There are several underground facilities at two levels with elevators reaching the lower level some 40 feet underground and where more than 100 personnel work on the microbial bomb project, the source said. The plant has been expanded significantly in the last two years, and two high-power towers, one at the bottom of the mountain and one behind the plant, provide the needed electricity for the site. Homes have been built close by to accommodate personnel so they would not raise suspicion by commuting back and forth.

The scientists are working on 18 agents but so far they have developed four for weaponization, according to the source, who provided particulars on three of them:

More http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/iran-making-anthrax-at-secret-plant/
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waltky · Jan 19, 2013

Look for the Israelis to strike Iran's nuclear program this year...

UN fails in attempt to restart Iran nuke probe
January 18, 2013 - U.N experts returned from Tehran on Friday without sealing a long-sought deal that would restart a probe of suspicions that Iran worked on atomic arms, adding to doubts that upcoming separate talks between six world powers and the Islamic Republic will succeed in reducing fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Herman Nackaerts, who headed the team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts, said the two sides would meet again in the Iranian capital Feb. 12. But even if those talks make progress, they will come too late for an Iran-six nation meeting tentatively scheduled for the end of this month. Those nations - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - had looked to the Tehran meeting as providing a signal for Iranian readiness to compromise when they sit down with Tehran. They hope those talks will result in an agreement by the Islamic Republic to stop enriching uranium to a higher level that could be turned relatively quickly into the fissile core of nuclear arms. Iran says it is enriching only to make nuclear reactor fuel and for scientific and medical purposes.

This week Iran's Foreign Ministry again cited a 2005 fatwa by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that banned nuclear weapons - a declaration the West has dismissed as a stalling tactic. By compromising on the IAEA probe, Iran could have argued that the onus was now on the six powers to show some flexibility, temper their demands, and roll back U.S. and European sanctions that have hit Iran's critical oil exports and blacklisted the country from international banking networks. Although Tehran may hope that agreement to meet again next month with the IAEA shows it is interested in a deal, that may be too little for the six powers, who are growingly frustrated that their own talks with Tehran have barely progressed.

Iran denies any interest in nuclear weapons, asserting that all its nuclear activities are peaceful. It stopped answering questions about allegations that it secretly did research and development work on such arms more than four years ago, saying it had provided enough information to disprove the claims. New attempts to restart the investigation have dragged on for more than a year, with Tehran insisting on a detailed outline of what U.N. experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency may or may not do in their investigations. Nackaerts, in brief arrival comments Friday said that "differences remain," and no deal was reached.

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Indofred · Jan 19, 2013

Just as Iraq had tried to get yellowcake and had a serious set of WMD.

It's bull, not true, made up, designed for fools to believe.

Got it?
You have to be a blithering idiot to believe it.

waltky · Jan 29, 2013

possum sittin' at the computer with a big ol' possum grin on his face...

Massive Explosion Reported At Iran's Fordow Nuclear Facility
Jan. 28, 2013, Reports of an explosion at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility have surfaced and are being both confirmed and denied by multiple sources.

The Jerusalem Post cites a report by Reza Kahlili that says: “The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran- Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast.” Kahlili's report says the Fordow nuclear facility was severely damaged in an explosion and up to 240 workers trapped inside. The explosion was reportedly confined to the plant, suggesting that if it were an airstrike, it was highly localized. But this possibility is no more or less likely than sabotage, or an accident, assuming the explosion occurred at all.

Jay Carney told reporters in a press conference, that the White House had no information on the report: "We [the U.S.] have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible. We don't believe those are credible reports." Iran's official news agency, says the same thing, with the IRNA, promptly denying the explosion, claiming the news was simply the result of the Western media-fueled "propoganda machine." That might have ended the story there, but The Times of London's Israel correspondent Sheera Frenkel is confirming the incident through her own independent sources:

An explosion is believed to have damaged Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, which is being used to enrich uranium, Israeli intelligence officials have told The Times. Sources in Tel Aviv said yesterday that they thought the explosion happened last week. The Israeli Government is investigating reports that it led to extensive structural damage and 200 workers had been trapped inside. One Israeli official said: “We are still in the preliminary stages of understanding what happened and how significant it is.” He did not know, he added, if the explosion was “sabotage or accident”, and refused to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft were seen near the facility at the time of the explosion.

Frenkel goes on to mention that Tehran has yet to evacuate the surrounding area, but it's unclear if that's because no harmful substances have been released or if the government is trying to avoid panicking local residents. The Fordow nuclear enrichment site is buried deep within a mountain and fortified to withstand attack. The only bomb believed capable of striking the facility and inflicting any real damage is the U.S. massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) bomb. The 30,000 pound piece of ordnance was just certified ready to use by the Pentagon.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mass...-fordow-nuclear-facility-2013-1#ixzz2JLjg9700
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AliJ · Feb 1, 2013

so true indofred..

waltky · Feb 3, 2013

More Iranian delay and stall tactics...

EU proposes Iran nuclear talks, hopes for Iranian confirmation
3 Feb.`13 - World powers have proposed holding a new round of talks with Iran over Tehran's nuclear work in the week of February 25 in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Sunday.

However, Ashton's team, which coordinates diplomatic contacts with Iran on its nuclear program on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain, is still hoping for confirmation of the date and venue from Iran's negotiating team, the spokesman said.

Source
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Iran hedges on nuclear talks with six powers or U.S.
3 Feb. `13 - Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspects is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb, have been all but deadlocked for years, while Iran has continued to announce advances in the program. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a suggestion on Saturday by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington was ready for direct talks with Iran if Tehran was serious about negotiations was a "step forward". "We take these statements with positive consideration. I think this is a step forward but ... each time we have come and negotiated it was the other side unfortunately who did not heed ... its commitment," Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference where Biden made his overture a day earlier.

He also complained to Iran's English-language Press TV of "other contradictory signals", pointing to the rhetoric of "keeping all options on the table" used by U.S. officials to indicate they are willing to use force to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "This does not go along with this gesture (of talks) so we will have to wait a little bit longer and see if they are really faithful this time," Salehi said. Iran is under a tightening web of sanctions. Israel has also hinted it may strike if diplomacy and international sanctions fail to curb Iran's nuclear drive. In Washington, Army General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States has the capability to stop any Iranian effort to build nuclear weapons, but Iranian "intentions have to be influenced through other means."

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his comments on NBC's program "Meet the Press," speaking alongside outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta said current U.S. intelligence indicated that Iranian leaders have not made a decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon. "But every indication is they want to continue to increase their nuclear capability," he said. "And that's a concern. And that's what we're asking them to stop doing." The new U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, has said he will give diplomacy every chance of solving the Iran standoff.

THE BEST CHANCE
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mikezila · Feb 7, 2013

waltky said: ↑

possum sittin' at the computer with a big ol' possum grin on his face...

Massive Explosion Reported At Iran's Fordow Nuclear Facility
Jan. 28, 2013, Reports of an explosion at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility have surfaced and are being both confirmed and denied by multiple sources.
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that's a pretty big blast for it to be sabotage or bomb smuggled in...i suspect the dummies were assembling a device and it went off.

TheSteve · Feb 20, 2013

I like how the only country to use two Nuclear weapons to wipe out two different cities seems to want to be the authority of who can or can not have Nuclear weapons. So what if they claim to have one? Russians had them during the cold war but we were not telling them to destroy the weapons. If they shot it at us do you think it would make it to America anyway? It would be shot down before it even got over any American soil. Due to history, I fear America using one before I worry about Iran using them.

mikezila · Feb 21, 2013

TheSteve said: ↑

I like how the only country to use two Nuclear weapons to wipe out two different cities seems to want to be the authority of who can or can not have Nuclear weapons. So what if they claim to have one? Russians had them during the cold war but we were not telling them to destroy the weapons. If they shot it at us do you think it would make it to America anyway? It would be shot down before it even got over any American soil. Due to history, I fear America using one before I worry about Iran using them.
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the NPT is the authority on who can have them.

waltky · May 23, 2013

Granny says Ammerjabberjob gonna blow up the Jews `fore he leaves office...

Iran expanding nuclear weapon program: IAEA
Fri, May 24, 2013 - Iran is making significant progress in expanding its nuclear program, including in opening up a potential second route to developing the bomb, a new UN atomic agency report showed on Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) latest quarterly update said Tehran had accelerated the installation of advanced uranium enrichment equipment at its central Natanz plant. It also outlined further progress at a reactor under construction at Arak, also in central Iran, which Western countries fear could provide Iran with plutonium if the fuel is reprocessed. The US Department of State said the report was an unfortunate milestone marking a decade of Iran expanding its nuclear activities in blatant violation of its international obligations. A US congressional panel backed tougher sanctions against Iran.

Highly enriched uranium and plutonium can both be used in a nuclear weapon. North Korea used plutonium in two tests in 2006 and 2009, while uranium was used in the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. The new IAEA report, seen by Agence France-Presse, said Iran has installed at Natanz almost 700 IR-2m centrifuges and/or empty centrifuge casings, compared with just 180 in February. However, none was operating.

Iran has said it intends to install about 3,000 of the new centrifuges at Natanz where about 13,500 of the older models are in place enabling it to speed up the enrichment of uranium. The UN Security Council has passed numerous resolutions calling on Iran to suspend all enrichment and heavy water activities of the kind under development at Arak. It has imposed four rounds of sanctions.

Last year, additional unilateral US and EU sanctions targeting Irans oil exports and its financial system began to cause real problems for the Persian Gulf countrys economy. Israel, the Middle Easts sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, has refused to rule out military action against Iran, as has US President Barack Obama. Iran says that its atomic activities are peaceful. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the impasse, most recently in six-power talks with Iran in Kazakhstan last month, have failed to make concrete progress.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2013/05/24/2003563066
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waltky · Jun 21, 2013

'Encouraging Signs' From Iran...

Lavrov: Iran agrees to halt 20-percent uranium enrichment. West must lift sanctions
June 18, 2013, Iran has confirmed it is prepared to halt its enrichment of 20-percent uranium, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reported on the ministry website Tuesday, June 18.

He urged Western nations to reciprocate by lifting sanctions. debkafile: It was not clear whether this was a temporary suspension, an absolute halt or a dodge for getting sanctions eased to enable the incoming Iranian president Hassan Rouhaini get to grips with his top priority, his countrys dire economic straits. Lavrov explained persuasively in his message: For the first time in many years, there are encouraging signs in the process of settlement of the situation with the Iranian nuclear program. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this opportunity.

He called Tehrans concession a breakthrough agreement, significantly alleviating existing problems, including concerns about the possibility of advanced uranium enrichment to a weapons-grade level. Lavrov urged the international community to adequately respond to the constructive progress made by Iran, including gradual suspension and lifting of sanctions, both unilateral and those introduced by the UN Security Council. The Russian foreign ministers move ties in with two other developments one at the two-day G8 summit ending Tuesday in Northern Ireland and the other in Tehran:

1. The Group of Eight was about to wind up its summit Tuesday evening by issuing a joint communiqué over President Vladimir Putins objections calling for a transition government in Damascus and Bashar Assads removal from power. Lavrovs message from Tehran sought to persuade the Western powers, chiefly President Barack Obama, that they would be missing the chance of a nuclear settlement with Iran, because Tehran would never countenance Assads ouster.

2. Moscow tried to put a positive slant on President-Elect Rouhanis negative statement at his first news conference Monday, when he said Tehran would not consider halting the countrys uranium enrichment activities entirely. What he meant, Lavrov hinted, was that Iran would not abandon low-level 5.3 percent enrichment - only the 20 percent grade which brought its nuclear program close to a weapons-grade capacity.

The Russian ministers comment about it being a shame not to take advantage of this opportunity was addressed to Jerusalem. debkafiles military sources report that, two years ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak, came to a secret agreement with the Obama administration that if Tehran stopped the 20-percent enrichment of uranium and shut down its underground enrichment plant at Fordo, Israel would have no objections to Iran carrying on producing uranium refined to the 5.3 percent level. Israel revoked this deal at the end of 2012 when Iran began massively accelerating its enrichment activities and accumulated enough 5.3 percent material for a rapid switch to 20-percent enriched uranium.

http://www.debka.com/article/23056/...t-uranium-enrichment-West-must-lift-sanctions
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flogger · Jul 6, 2013

mikezila said: ↑

the NPT is the authority on who can have them.
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Until Israel is held to the same standards as its neighbours regarding the possession of nuclear weapons and its research and production facility at Dimona shut down I think its hypocrisy to say one kind can have nukes but the other cannot.

Nobody should have nukes in that entire region including Israel in my view. While that strategic imbalance is allowed to exist the Arabs will keep looking to get such a weapon one way or the other sadly

mikezila · Jul 6, 2013

flogger said: ↑

Until Israel is held to the same standards as its neighbours regarding the possession of nuclear weapons and its research and production facility at Dimona shut down I think its hypocrisy to say one kind can have nukes but the other cannot.

Nobody should have nukes in that entire region including Israel in my view. While that strategic imbalance is allowed to exist the Arabs will keep looking to get such a weapon one way or the other sadly
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if they had signed on to the NPT, they would be. otherwise it's tough tango.

AboveAlpha · Jul 6, 2013

flogger said: ↑

Until Israel is held to the same standards as its neighbours regarding the possession of nuclear weapons and its research and production facility at Dimona shut down I think its hypocrisy to say one kind can have nukes but the other cannot.

Nobody should have nukes in that entire region including Israel in my view. While that strategic imbalance is allowed to exist the Arabs will keep looking to get such a weapon one way or the other sadly
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When Iran signed the NPT they were allowed to PURCHASE Nuclear Tech. that they could not develop on their own. In exchange Iran by signing the NPT agreed not to develop Nuclear Weapons.

Israel did not sigh the NPT.

THAT...is the difference.

AboveAlpha

flogger · Jul 6, 2013

AboveAlpha said: ↑

When Iran signed the NPT they were allowed to PURCHASE Nuclear Tech. that they could not develop on their own. In exchange Iran by signing the NPT agreed not to develop Nuclear Weapons.

Israel did not sigh the NPT.

THAT...is the difference.

AboveAlpha
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Thats a technicality in realpolitik. The strategic imbalance remains and whilst it does this problem of Arab nuke programmes will continue because if it isnt Iran it will be somebody else and thats guaranteed. Perhaps we should really be questioning why Israel has not been heavily leant on to sign this treaty and is thus not beholden to the same strictures as its neighbours ?

AboveAlpha · Jul 6, 2013

flogger said: ↑

Thats a technicality in realpolitik. The strategic imbalance remains and whilst it does this problem of Arab nuke programmes will continue because if it isnt Iran it will be somebody else and thats guaranteed. Perhaps we should really be questioning why Israel has not been heavily leant on to sign this treaty and is thus not beholden to the same strictures as its neighbours ?
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This is not my opinion it is just the facts.

Israel was attacked multiple times by Arab countries such as when Nasser attempted to Invade Israel with the help of other countries several times.

If it were not for this fact the Israeli's would never have developed a Nuke.

AboveAlpha

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