Iran to speed up nuclear warhead development

[indian_foxhound]

Iran to speed up nuclear warhead development | The Times of Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits
the Natanz enrichment facility in 2008 (photo
credit: www.president.ir)


V IENNA (AP) — The UN nuclear agency has told
member nations that Iran is poised for a major technological upgrade of its uranium
enrichment program, in a document seen
Thursday by The Associated Press. The move
would vastly speed up Tehran’s ability to make
material that can be used for both reactor fuel
and nuclear warheads. In a statement that described the project as “a
cause for concern,” the British Foreign Office
confirmed that Iran had informed the
International Atomic Energy Agency of its plan to
install a new generation of uranium-enriching
centrifuges. In an internal note to member nations, the IAEA
said it received notice last week from Iran’s
nuclear agency of plans to mount the high-tech
devices at its main enriching site at Natanz, in
central Iran. The machines are estimated to be
able to enrich up to five times faster than the present equipment. The brief note quoted Iran as saying new-
generation IR2m “centrifuge machines … will be
used” to populate a new “unit” — a technical
term for an assembly that can consist of as many
as 3,132 centrifuges. It gave no timeframe and a senior diplomat
familiar with the issue said work had not started,
adding it would take weeks, if not months, to
have the new machines running once
technicians started putting them in. He demanded
anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to divulge confidential information. Phone calls seeking comment from Ali Asghar
Soltanieh, Iran’s chief IAEA delegate, went to his
voicemail. The planned upgrade deals a further blow to
international efforts to coax Tehran to restore
confidence in its aims by scaling back its nuclear
activities and cooperating with agency attempts
to investigate allegations of secret weapons
work. It complicates planned talks next month during
which the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and
Germany are expected to press Tehran to cut
back on uranium enrichment, and Iran is likely to
seek relief from sanctions cutting into its oil sales
and financial transactions. Iran may be hoping that its tough line on
enrichment will force further concessions from
the six, which over the past year have scaled
down their demands from a total enrichment
freeze to a stop of Iran’s higher enrichment
program. Yousaf Butt, a consultant to the Federation of
American Scientists, said Iran was “using the
only leverage it has — its enrichment program —
as a means to coax some sanctions relief.” But
Tehran’s tough stance may instead backfire and
dash any chance that the six will offer to ease sanctions. Indirectly criticizing the Iranian plan, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted Thursday
that Moscow and its fellow UN Security Council
members “have called on Iran to freeze
enrichment operations during the negotiations.” Separately from those talks, IAEA experts are
scheduled to visit Tehran on Feb. 13 in their more
than year-long effort to restart a probe of the
weapons allegations. Iran insists it does not want nuclear arms and
argues it has a right to enrich uranium for a
civilian nuclear power program. But suspicion
persists that the real aim is nuclear weapons,
because Iran hid much of its program until it was
revealed from the outside more than a decade ago and because of what the IAEA says are
indications that it worked secretly on weapons
development. Defying UN Security Council demands that it halt
uranium enrichment, Iran has instead expanded
it. Experts say Tehran already has enough
enriched uranium to be able to turn it into
weapons-grade material for several nuclear
weapons. Non-proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick
described the planned upgrade as a potential
“game-changer.” “If thousands of the more efficient machines are
introduced, the timeline for being able to produce
a weapon’s worth of fissile material will
significantly shorten,” said Fitzpatrick, of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies. “This won’t change the several months it would
take to make actual weapons out of the fissile
material or the two years or more that it would
take to be able to mount a nuclear warhead on a
missile, so there is no need to start beating the
war drums,” he said. “But it will certainly escalate concerns.” A Western diplomat accredited to the UN agency
said IAEA delegation heads from the US and its
allies exchanged views over Iran’s plans
Thursday and agreed to await further
developments. He, too, demanded anonymity
because he was not authorized to talk about the issue. Iran says it is enriching only to power reactors
and for scientific and medical purposes. But
because of its nuclear secrecy, many countries
fear that Iran may break out from its present
production that is below the weapons-grade
threshold and start enriching uranium to levels of over 90 percent, used to arm nuclear weapons. Tehran now has more than 10,000 centrifuges
enriching uranium at its main plant at Natanz,
225 kilometers (140 miles) southeast of Tehran,
to fuel grade at below 4 percent. Its separate
Fordo facility, southwest of Tehran, has close to
3,000 centrifuges — most of them active and producing material enriched to 20 percent,
which can be turned into weapons-grade
uranium much more quickly. Iran has depended on domestically made and
breakdown-prone IR-1 centrifuges whose
design is decades-old at both locations up to
now, but started testing more sophisticated
prototypes in the summer of 2010. David Albright, whose Washington-based
Institute for Science and International
Technology serves as a resource for some U.S.
government branches, estimated in a 2011
report that 1,000 of the advanced machines
“would be equivalent to about 4,000-5,000 IR-1 centrifuges” in production speed.

 

[A1Kaid]

Even if Iran did develop a nuke it can only produce a few low yield warheads, as they have limited radioactive elements the nuclear threat from Iran is over blown. Then again Israelis are afraid because their country is already as small as it is low yield nukes can effectively hurt them. Though their missile defense shield system is highly effective in the 90%+ range.

 

[The SiLent crY]

Iran to speed up nuclear warhead development | The Times of Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits
the Natanz enrichment facility in 2008 (photo
credit: www.president.ir)


V IENNA (AP) — The UN nuclear agency has told
member nations that Iran is poised for a major technological upgrade of its uranium
enrichment program, in a document seen
Thursday by The Associated Press. The move
would vastly speed up Tehran’s ability to make
material that can be used for both reactor fuel
and nuclear warheads. In a statement that described the project as “a
cause for concern,” the British Foreign Office
confirmed that Iran had informed the
International Atomic Energy Agency of its plan to
install a new generation of uranium-enriching
centrifuges. In an internal note to member nations, the IAEA
said it received notice last week from Iran’s
nuclear agency of plans to mount the high-tech
devices at its main enriching site at Natanz, in
central Iran. The machines are estimated to be
able to enrich up to five times faster than the present equipment. The brief note quoted Iran as saying new-
generation IR2m “centrifuge machines … will be
used” to populate a new “unit” — a technical
term for an assembly that can consist of as many
as 3,132 centrifuges. It gave no timeframe and a senior diplomat
familiar with the issue said work had not started,
adding it would take weeks, if not months, to
have the new machines running once
technicians started putting them in. He demanded
anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to divulge confidential information. Phone calls seeking comment from Ali Asghar
Soltanieh, Iran’s chief IAEA delegate, went to his
voicemail. The planned upgrade deals a further blow to
international efforts to coax Tehran to restore
confidence in its aims by scaling back its nuclear
activities and cooperating with agency attempts
to investigate allegations of secret weapons
work. It complicates planned talks next month during
which the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and
Germany are expected to press Tehran to cut
back on uranium enrichment, and Iran is likely to
seek relief from sanctions cutting into its oil sales
and financial transactions. Iran may be hoping that its tough line on
enrichment will force further concessions from
the six, which over the past year have scaled
down their demands from a total enrichment
freeze to a stop of Iran’s higher enrichment
program. Yousaf Butt, a consultant to the Federation of
American Scientists, said Iran was “using the
only leverage it has — its enrichment program —
as a means to coax some sanctions relief.” But
Tehran’s tough stance may instead backfire and
dash any chance that the six will offer to ease sanctions. Indirectly criticizing the Iranian plan, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted Thursday
that Moscow and its fellow UN Security Council
members “have called on Iran to freeze
enrichment operations during the negotiations.” Separately from those talks, IAEA experts are
scheduled to visit Tehran on Feb. 13 in their more
than year-long effort to restart a probe of the
weapons allegations. Iran insists it does not want nuclear arms and
argues it has a right to enrich uranium for a
civilian nuclear power program. But suspicion
persists that the real aim is nuclear weapons,
because Iran hid much of its program until it was
revealed from the outside more than a decade ago and because of what the IAEA says are
indications that it worked secretly on weapons
development. Defying UN Security Council demands that it halt
uranium enrichment, Iran has instead expanded
it. Experts say Tehran already has enough
enriched uranium to be able to turn it into
weapons-grade material for several nuclear
weapons. Non-proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick
described the planned upgrade as a potential
“game-changer.” “If thousands of the more efficient machines are
introduced, the timeline for being able to produce
a weapon’s worth of fissile material will
significantly shorten,” said Fitzpatrick, of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies. “This won’t change the several months it would
take to make actual weapons out of the fissile
material or the two years or more that it would
take to be able to mount a nuclear warhead on a
missile, so there is no need to start beating the
war drums,” he said. “But it will certainly escalate concerns.” A Western diplomat accredited to the UN agency
said IAEA delegation heads from the US and its
allies exchanged views over Iran’s plans
Thursday and agreed to await further
developments. He, too, demanded anonymity
because he was not authorized to talk about the issue. Iran says it is enriching only to power reactors
and for scientific and medical purposes. But
because of its nuclear secrecy, many countries
fear that Iran may break out from its present
production that is below the weapons-grade
threshold and start enriching uranium to levels of over 90 percent, used to arm nuclear weapons. Tehran now has more than 10,000 centrifuges
enriching uranium at its main plant at Natanz,
225 kilometers (140 miles) southeast of Tehran,
to fuel grade at below 4 percent. Its separate
Fordo facility, southwest of Tehran, has close to
3,000 centrifuges — most of them active and producing material enriched to 20 percent,
which can be turned into weapons-grade
uranium much more quickly. Iran has depended on domestically made and
breakdown-prone IR-1 centrifuges whose
design is decades-old at both locations up to
now, but started testing more sophisticated
prototypes in the summer of 2010. David Albright, whose Washington-based
Institute for Science and International
Technology serves as a resource for some U.S.
government branches, estimated in a 2011
report that 1,000 of the advanced machines
“would be equivalent to about 4,000-5,000 IR-1 centrifuges” in production speed.

Then good for Iran .