Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: RoadKingLarry on August 21, 2010, 10:03:26 PM
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear;_ylt=AgyM23lTVqfzvYx.sg_Xwl.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNjMDRvNDVnBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODIxL2lyYW5fbnVjbGVhcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2lyYW5zdGFydHNudQ-- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear;_ylt=AgyM23lTVqfzvYx.sg_Xwl.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNjMDRvNDVnBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODIxL2lyYW5fbnVjbGVhcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2lyYW5zdGFydHNudQ--)
Bsically Iran, with Russian assitance is on the verge of starting up their first nuclear reactor. According to Iran it is for peaceful power generation only.
Of course Isreal doesn't like it becasue of the potential threat to them. The US and GB are pretty much going along with letting Iran go nuke.
I'm of the opinion that Iran should be allowed to operate a nuclear power station (under Russian supervision).
In the current appeasment political climate I don't think there is much that can be done to stop them.
I also think it will take a nuclear attack by Iran on another country before anything gets done and then it will likely be more UN sanctions.
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I'd like to know more about the design of the plant.
If it's a design that makes it impossible to make bomb-grade materials, I'm ok with it.
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What the hell do they need a nuclear power plant for????? How much electrical infrastructure is there in Iran, anyway???
They're cooking weapons grade plutonium, mark my frakkin' words.
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The "Russian supervision" part makes me feel oh so much better.
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What the hell do they need a nuclear power plant for????? How much electrical infrastructure is there in Iran, anyway???
They're cooking weapons grade plutonium, mark my frakkin' words.
Depends on the design of the reactor. Certain designs are incapable of producing weapons grade stuff. Others.. not so much.
Why do I doubt the design is one of the "safer" kinds?
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Not to mention it could be the source for a extremely effective dirty bomb- plutonium is one of the most toxic substances known.
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What the hell do they need a nuclear power plant for????? How much electrical infrastructure is there in Iran, anyway???
They're cooking weapons grade plutonium, mark my frakkin' words.
I don't know that they need nuclear power, but it is a safe (environmentally/industrial speaking), reliable, clean source of power. Cost per kWh is very low. There is also a prestige issue as well.
They actually have a fair amount of manufacturing base. They annually consume 153.8 billion kWh. That's a fairly respectable infrastructure, relatively speaking.
Re weapons grade fissionable material, I wouldn't know. Doubt the US does either, since Richard Armitage and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby destroyed our spy network that kept an eye on such things.
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What the hell do they need a nuclear power plant for????? How much electrical infrastructure is there in Iran, anyway???
They're cooking weapons grade plutonium, mark my frakkin' words.
As for why do they need it, Iran's budget relies heavily upon their petroleum sales to the rest of the world, the more of it they don't have to burn locally, the more money they save. Add to this their surprisingly low refining capacity (they actually import the majority of their distillate fuels, ie. gasoline) and the cost savings become even higher.
To the plutonium breeding, to the best of my knowledge breeder reactors run off un-enriched (basic Ur-238/235 ratio) Uranium fuel. With how much Iran has already spent in time and money on Uranium enrichment facilities they have obviously chosen to go the HEU route for nuclear devices, rather than Plutonium, which would require both the time and money intensive steps of first breeding it, and then running it through a similar separation and enrichment process like they do with the Uranium (HEU bombs eliminate one of those steps and are thus cheaper and quicker to make).
As it sits, the enrichment centrifuges pose a significantly higher danger, regarding the creation of a nuke, than a reactor that may possibly be a breeder design, and they already have the materials to create dirty bombs if they wished (uranium oxides). In the interest of full disclosure, HEU does have uses in nuclear power, a reactor running off 4% enriched fuel rods for example can run for about 6 months non-stop, a reactor running off 90+% fuel rods, considered weapons grade, can run for about 20 to 30 years before refueling. Guess which kind of rods the Navy uses?
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This may be a good thing in the long run because people and countries that didn't pay much attention to them before will have their eyes on them now.
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I'm expecting that Iran will be receiving some heavy "rain" from a westerly direction soon....
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The problem is, Iran really does need nuclear power. Had they not been such jackwagons about the whole "ZIONIST MENACE" nonsense, people would not really have a problem with them having it. The late Pehlevi advocated nuclear power for Iran before he was overthrown.
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The problem is, Iran really does need nuclear power. Had they not been such jackwagons about the whole "ZIONIST MENACE" nonsense, people would not really have a problem with them having it. The late Pehlevi advocated nuclear power for Iran before he was overthrown.
Not just their threats to wipe Israel off the map. They also are at war with America and some of us haven't forgotten the last 444 days of the Carter administration.
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...some of us haven't forgotten the last 444 days of the Carter administration.
Nor have the people of Iran forgotten the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh by the CIA in 1953 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), an act which we can thank to ghosts of PM Churchill and President Eisenhower for.
Iran is finally fueling their first reactor, which as a member of the IAEA they have every right to do so when used for peaceful intent. The Russians are helping them? Makes sense to me since the Russians have lots of experience in building running the things safely and what happens when the procedures for running a reactor are not followed. It is not like our folks are in high favor over there, and how many reacters have WE put on line of late?
Threats against the "ZIONIST MENACE"? Eh, Isreal can take care of itself at this point. Some of us have not forgotten the U.S.S. Liberty (http://www.gtr5.com/).
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Nor have the people of Iran forgotten the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh by the CIA in 1953 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), an act which we can thank to ghosts of PM Churchill and President Eisenhower for.
Is that why US always have a fairly high general approval rating over there?
I can see why they want Nuke power. As far as I know, oil production has been in decline in Iran for quite some time. I thought it was partly due to the US embargo. They also don't refine much of any oil there so they are dependent on imports.