-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of uvj at vsnl.com Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 6:41 AM To: lbo Subject: [lbo-talk] Iran: Countdown to showdown
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
November/December 2004, Volume 60, No. 6, pp. 67-72
Iran: Countdown to showdown
By David Albright and Corey Hinderstein
The United States wanted the Security Council to sanction Iran, but the European Union preferred to make a deal. Now Iran appears to have backed out of their agreement . . .
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, reported to the board of governors on September 1, 2004, that Iran intended to convert 37 metric tons of yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride, the "feed" material that is enriched in gas centrifuges. It was a surprising revelation--37 metric tons is a small quantity for a civilian nuclear power program. But it would be a large amount for a fledgling nuclear weapons program--enough material to make roughly five crude nuclear weapons.
Iran's processing of yellowcake represents another step in its abandonment of a short-lived agreement with the European Union (EU), signed in October 2003, that offered Iran a range of benefits in exchange for suspending its uranium enrichment program. Iran formally broke the deal when it announced that it was once again starting to assemble centrifuges. Iranian officials reportedly added they would likely start enriching uranium in fall 2004. http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/nd04/nd04albright.html
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