Iran to let UN inspect new reactor next month.
Source: AP / Newsobserver.com
TEHRAN, Iran An Iranian official says the authorities are ready to let the U.N. nuclear agency inspect a new heavy water reactor within weeks.
The spokesman of Iran's nuclear department, Behrouz Kamalvandi, is quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday as saying inspections at the Arak facility could take place by Dec. 11.
But Kamalvandi also says Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency would first have to agree on the details of the inspections. IRNA did not elaborate further.
The offer is seen as a goodwill gesture ahead of the next round of talks between Iran and the IAEA on Dec. 11.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/12/3364322/iran-to-let-un-inspect-new-reactor.html
jessie04
(1,528 posts)Stall...delay....stall some more....deflect.... empty talk.
I guess they think the world is THAT stupid.
QuestForSense
(653 posts)Perhaps there are hardliners at home who need convincing. They seem very anxious to have those sanctions lifted, the sooner the better. Time will tell, one way or the other.
jessie04
(1,528 posts)they want you to believe they are coming around.
CyrusV
(35 posts)I keep hearing about time. I've heard for over a decade that Iran is only a few months away from a nuclear weapon. Yet nothing ever happened.
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
That's the basis of Canada's CANDU reactors. - Don't need enriched uranium.
Check it out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water_reactor
"A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear power reactor, commonly using unenriched natural uranium as its fuel, that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and moderator. The heavy-water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a PWR. While heavy water is significantly more expensive than ordinary light water, it yields greatly enhanced neutron economy, allowing the reactor to operate without fuel-enrichment facilities (mitigating the additional capital cost of the heavy water) and generally enhancing the ability of the reactor to efficiently make use of alternate fuel cycles."
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CC
jessie04
(1,528 posts)open up ALL the sites.
QuestForSense
(653 posts)Iran began producing 20 percent uranium in 2010 when efforts to secure fuel for the US-built Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) fell through, and they began to attempt to produce fuel rods for themselves. The TRR provides materially all of Irans medical isotopes for nuclear medicine.
Deputy head of the Iranian parliament National Security Committee Hossein Hosseini reported that Iran no longer needs to produce 20 percent uranium because it already has enough to make all the fuel rods the TRR will need for the foreseeable future.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/10/23/iran-halts-20-percent-uranium-enrichment/
It might sound like I'm an apologist for Iran, but I'm not. I'd just like to see the enmity ended.
CyrusV
(35 posts)And nuclear weapons require 90% enriched uranium which Iran is nowhere near with 20% enriched.
bananas
(27,509 posts)It sounds like a big difference, but it really isn't.
The hard part is going from 0.7% to 20%.
Once you've done that, going to 90% is easy.
Explained here: http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2620/iran-to-enrich-20-percent-leu