tagged w/ Uranium Enrichment
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By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, August 21st, 2011 -- 4:54 pm
WASHINGTON — US conglomerate General Electric is seeking permission to build a $1 billion plant for uranium enrichment by laser, a process which has raised proliferation fears, The New York Times said Sunday.
After testing the enrichment process for two years, GE has asked the US government to approve its plans for a massive facility in North Carolina that could produce reactor fuel by the ton, the report said, citing GE officials.
"We are currently optimizing the design," Christopher Monetta, president of Global Laser Enrichment, a subsidiary operated by GE and Japan's Hitachi, said in an interview with the newspaper.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to deliver its decision on whether to issue a commercial license for the complex by next year, the report said.
Uranium enrichment can be used to produce both the fuel for a nuclear reactor and the fissile material for an atomic warhead. New technologies are seen as potentially dangerous as they make it easier to build a bomb.
Monetta said the plant could enrich enough uranium each year to fuel up to 60 large reactors -- in theory, enough to power 42 million homes, or a third of all homes in the United States.
Donald Kerr, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who was recently briefed on GE's advance, said laser enrichment "appears to be close to a real industrial process" and a genuine technological breakthrough.
But critics say the technology could be co-opted by rogue states such as Iran or terror groups and used in the covert production of weapons, as it would be more difficult to detect small laser-equipped facilities.
"We're on the verge of a new route to the bomb," Frank von Hippel, a nuclear physicist who advised former US president Bill Clinton and now teaches at Princeton University, told the Times.
"We should have learned enough by now to do an assessment before we let this kind of thing out."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/21/laser-technique-to-enrich-uranium-raises-proliferation-fears/
Image courtesy of Flickr Commons.
"A person would think that this kind of info would remain Hush Hush, especially when you bring Nuclear Proliferation into the mix"By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, August 21st, 2011 -- 4:54 pm
WASHINGTON —... more
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KB723
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- CNN Breaking News...
Report: Iran now nuclear self-sufficient
Report: Iran now able to process its own raw uranium
December 5th, 2010
04:56 AM ET
Iran now produces everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization told state media Sunday.
The Islamic republic has begun producing yellowcake, Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV.
Yellowcake is an intermediate stage in producing uranium ores, Press TV said.
The United States and its allies fear that Iran is trying to produce a nuclear bomb, but Iran has denied the allegations.- CNN Breaking News...
Report: Iran now nuclear self-sufficient
Report: Iran now... more
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Gareth Porter: Potential Iranian presidential candidates differ on nuclear policy. Part 2
Gareth Porter discusses the possibility of U.S. – Iran negotiations and the conditions under which they would be possible. Compromises are turning out to be difficult as both sides have drawn lines in the sand. The coming presidential elections in Iran demonstrate the differing positions through the two competing candidates – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammed Khatami.
Ahmadinejad has built a strong following in rural Iran through a populist movement and has held a hard-line stance against negotiations with the United States unless hostilities towards Iran are dropped. Some of Ahmadinejad’s previous supporters are stepping back as Iran’s fragile economy faces the global economic recession. On the other hand, Khatami is rising in popularity and has always emphasized that Ahmadinejad’s hard-line position has harmed Iran.
The ongoing question of whether Iran is enriching significant quantities of Uranium remains unanswered. According to the National Intelligence Estimate, there is no evidence that Iran is trying to or has developed nuclear weapons. If Iran does decide to develop nuclear weapons though, it would have to exile international inspectors, withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and make public its intention. Porter emphasizes this point by stating, “There’s no way to do it in secret.”
In the next segment of the interview Porter and Jay discuss the true nature of the U.S. – Iran standoff.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/89613515/iran_debates_negotiations.htmGareth Porter: Potential Iranian presidential candidates differ on nuclear policy.... more
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US says talks didn't move, Iranian press upbeat
Iran and the European Union's chief negotiators agreed on Saturday to resume talks on suspending uranium enrichment in two weeks, after Tehran ruled out freezing its program in talks that included the United States for the first time. After the meeting European Union Envoy Javier Solana said the meeting was constructive but added " the reply to the answer I was looking for has not come clearly,". Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili said Tehran would remain constructive, but asked that Western powers not turn away from negotiations. But Undersecretary of State William Burns left Geneva without making public comment On her way to Abu Dhabi for a meeting with Arab foreign ministers US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of stalling, "It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer." In Tehran the reactions were more upbeat, President Ahmadinejad saying the talks were a “step forward” and newspaper headlines talking of optimism. Babak Yektafar of Washington Prism says talked the talks were upstaged by the first ever meeting Between high level representative from Tehran and Washington.US says talks didn't move, Iranian press upbeat
Iran and the European... more
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Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, describes how the Veep blocked an offer from Iran for negotiations.Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin... more
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"Aijaz Ahmad: New IAEA report says Iran has not lied; US demands new sanctions, China says no
"Based in New Delhi, Aijaz Ahmad is The Real News Network Senior News Analyst and Senior Editorial Consultant and political commentator for the Indian newsmagazine, Frontline. He has taught Political Science and written widely on South Asia and the Middle East."
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Very interesting analysis of the report and of how those who want to attack Iran spin that report which seems to be perfectly clear - Iran has done nothing wrong and neither has it lied.
You can dowload the new IAEA report in PDF format from here:
http://www.therealnews.com/media/trn_2007-11-15/aijaznov16.pdf"Aijaz Ahmad: New IAEA report says Iran has not lied; US demands new sanctions,... more
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