The Bushehr nuclear plant
Iranian and Russian engineers have started loading fuel rods into Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr.
The project dates back to 1974, when German company Siemens signed on to build the plant for the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The company backed out of the contract in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution came to power in Iran.
Russia agreed to finish building the plant in 1995, and began shipping fuel for Bushehr in 2007. A test-run of the plant was carried out in February 2009. The country has reportedly spent US $1 billion on the project.
Inside the plant
The two countries have agreed that spent fuel rods from the plant will be sent to Russia so that Iran cannot use the plutonium inside them to build a nuclear bomb. UN inspectors will be able to verify that none of the waste is diverted.
Bushehr will only be able to enrich uranium at 3.5%, far below the 90% needed to create a nuclear weapon. Iran already has the ability to do this elsewhere, including up to a 20% level needed for medical research purposes.
US President Barack Obama’s top adviser on nuclear issues, Gary Samore, told The New York Times that he thinks it would take Iran “roughly a year” to turn low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material. The assessment was reportedly shared with Israel and could ease concerns over the possibility of an imminent Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
UPDATE: Israel has denounced the starting of Bushehr as “totally unacceptable.”
“It is totally unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates resolutions of the (United Nations) Security Council, decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its commitments under the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) should enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said. “The international community should increase pressure on to force Iran to abide by international decisions and cease its enrichment activities and its construction of reactors.”
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Told you. Israel, is gelded, cowed, deballed neutered. The mohammedan candidate, by his inaction and interference with our only friend in the mid-east, strikes again.
Neocon crank John Bolton must be chewing off his ugly ass mustache off by now. Sorry Jew lovers but Israel WAS intimidated by the Obama administration to hold off an attack just like back in 1991 when Scuds from Iraq were raining down on that country and they were told told not to retaliate against madmanHussein. The world is now a much more dangerous place.
Sorry to break your dreams but more likely there will be a regime change in Iran before any bombs drop on Tehran by either the US or Israel. You can forget that pipe dream that Obama will unleash a military attack to get re-elected!
For the Netanyahu fans wake up! He talks a tough game but doesn’t deliver. He is another cheap , lying, womanizing,corrupt politician like we have in this country who wrap themselves up in the flag and are nothing more than ” phony patriots”! Some sobering proof in Time magazine today http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2012302,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopularemail
“The improbability of sanctions breaking the stalemate has led to a flurry of media speculation over the possibility of Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities as early as next spring if the U.S. — as most expect — is reluctant to do so. Such speculation, however, tends to be based mostly on the apocalyptic rhetoric of Israeli politicians who frequently invoke Holocaust imagery in referring to Iran’s enrichment activities, rather than on the more sober assessments of its security establishment. Whereas Netanyahu likes to tell Western audiences that Iran is led by an irrational “messianic cult”, that view is not shared by Israeli military and intelligence analysts, according to Yossi Alpher, a Mossad veteran and former adviser to Israel’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak. Alpher argues that in light of the potentially catastrophic consequences, Israel would only take military action if Iran was in a position to launch a nuclear attack on the Jewish State in an “extremely short” time frame — and that a strike could set back the Iranian program for a significant period of time. “
Hey Netanyahu!
“Time to nut up or shut up!”
Time to listen up Sean Hannity! Stop looking lovey dovey & glassy eyed at your
” Hero” Bibi who talks tough here and talks on the other side of his mouth back home!
Netanyahu slaps down minister to end war of words with Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/netanyahu-lieberman-syria-israel
While the above is old hat and just matcho talk lets have a look at this piece of news…
August 19, 2010
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Files declassified in America have revealed covert public relations and lobbying activities of Israel in the U.S. The National Archive made the documents public following a Senate investigation. They suggest Israel has been trying to shape media coverage of issues it regards as important. You can download the files from the web-site of the Institute for Research on Middle Eastern policy. And we can cross to Washington now and talk to Grant F. Smith who is a director at that Institute
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kureFeGmoDI&feature=player_embedded
Netanyahu: America is Easy to Push Around (English Subtitles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6KLFrye9Xk&feature=player_embedded
Secret US-Russian sanctions vs Bushehr deal tied Israel's hands
http://www.debka.com/article/8984/
"Many will recall the prime minister's solemn reiterations that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel and noticed how fast they have faded.
His "security pledges" regarding a future Palestinian state on the West Bank should therefore be taken with a hefty grain of salt. Indeed, according to debkafile's Washington sources, the prime minister may already be listening to a US proposal to assign the policing of the Jordan Valley and West Bank mountain peaks to NATO troops, most of them American."