Iranian-Israeli tensions increase...

[lightbulb247]

http://www.dailymail....tml?ito=feeds-newsxml

could this lead to another conflict in the middle east? (has been reposted from the millitary section)

[StarBeast]

I'm pretty sure that enriched Uranium is not needed for domestic reactor power generatiion. It's need for weapons grade though.

[youngmafbog]

Gromit, you may well be right but there is a much bigger chance you are wrong. Iran will obliterate Israel if it gets the chance, with WHATEVER weapons it has.

Believe me, I am no pro Israeli, in fact totally the opposite. But if threatened with a realistic threat then I don't see they have much option but to 'go in first'

Quite how you can compare the UK over the past 40 years is beyond me. Have you forgotten the USSR? but then again you and your lot were probably over there.

[Gromit]

// I'm pretty sure that enriched Uranium is not needed for domestic reactor power generatiion //

You are wrong. Enriched Uranium is the most essential component.

Uranium U235 is about 1% of naturally occurring Uranium. This is enrich to between 3 and 5% to make it reactor grade for producing energy. Enriched Uranium at 5% is consistent to what the IAEA have found on its inspections.
To make weapons grade Uranium, enrichment needs be at least 90%.

Iran does not have 90% enriched Uranium (Weapons Grade), so the whole Nuclear threat is hogwash. It is Propaganda and disinformation to convince an uneducated public that war is justified when it is not.

[StarBeast]

"....so the whole Nuclear threat is hogwash"

I sincerely hope you are correct Gromit, however I don't think Israel will rely on hope alone.

[jake-the-peg]

Well there's circumstantial evidence

The Iranians are known to have significant quantities of Uranium enriched to a level well beyond what a commercial power reactor would use.


There may not be evidence sufficient for the IAEA to call them on but certainly on the balance of probabilities there is.

But you shouldn't assume they'd use it unilaterally on Israel - there's no benefit to them in doing so.

That stuff about wiping Israel off the map is rhetoric fr internal consumption - always plays well to the masses

Especially when you consider the history between Iran and the West and particularly the US having a deterrant like a nuclear weapon is of great value to them - You don't see the US even considering a fight with North Korea do you?

Having a nuclear weapon and the ability to hit Israel with it would give them the ability to stick two fingers up at the Americans and do what they wanted with immunity.

Can you imagine us trying to do to Iran what we did in Lybia if that were the case?

[Gromit]

// The Iranians are known to have significant quantities of Uranium enriched to a level well beyond what a commercial power reactor would use. //

Any evidence of that.

I assume they have tried higher enrichment but they certainly have not reached weapon grade never mind manufactured significant quantities. The IAEA said it had detected traces at 20% which have medical applications.

[venator]

I hate to disagree with Gromit, but the Iranians are not likely to volunteer the evidence.

What is true is that they have a far larger enrichment operation than they could ever justify for power generation. Also 20% enriched uranium is not needed for power generation, and only tiny quantities can be justified for medical purposes.

They have been offered a supply of power generation grade uranium if they will cease enrichment, which they have refused.

Only someone with his head buried in the sand could fail to see what their intentions are.

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it sure isn't a peaceful power generation programme.

[venator]

It's not just Israel who should be worried - Iraq is their ancient enemy. They fought a long war in which they used human wave attacks - including child soldiers, 95000 of whom were estimated to have been killed, with a total toll of a million.

Would they worry about dropping a nuclear bomb on Iraq?

http://en.wikipedia.o...Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

[Gromit]

// lso 20% enriched uranium is not needed for power generation, and only tiny quantities can be justified for medical purposes. //

And so far they haven't found tiny quantities. The IAEA have detected 'traces'.

// They have been offered a supply of power generation grade uranium if they will cease enrichment, which they have refused. //

They already have power generation grade uranium. There was a plan that Iran could send its excess production of Uranium to Turkey instead of enriching it. Iran says it wants to enrich to 20% for cancer treatment.

[pdq1]

The Israeli public have been issued with gas masks and told in which room to hide if the bombs start dropping. Sounds familier to what they told us during the cold war with Russia.