Nuclear Crisis

[Rasputin]

يک مقام ارشد اطلاعاتی آمريکا در واکنش به ورود ايران به مرحله صنعتی توليد سوخت هسته*ای با ابراز ترديد درباره اين موفقيت ادعا کرد ,بر اساس اطلاعات موجود ايرانيها قادر نيستند در شرايط کنونی اين تعداد سانتريفوژ را به حرکت درآورند. از اين رو اين اقدام ايران فقط بزرگ*نمائی توانائيهای اتمی و فريب غرب است,.

بنا به نوشته روزنامه فايننشيال تايمز، اين مقام اطلاعاتی آمريکا گفت: جامعه اطلاعاتی آمريکا ارزيابی خود را در مورد توانائي*های هسته*ای ايران تغيير نداده است. براساس اطلاعات امريکا، ايران تا اوايل دهه آينده قادر به ساخت بمب اتم نخواهد بود.

وی افزود: ارزيابي*هايی که معتقدند ايران تا سال 2009 قادر به توليد اورانيوم مورد نياز برای ساخت بمب اتم خواهد بود در صورتی به حقيقت مي*پيوندد که بتواند تمام سانتريفوژهايش را بدون ايجاد مشکل به حرکت درآورد چيزی که بنا به گفته اين مقام اطلاعاتی آمريکا در شرايط کنونی امکان*پذير نيست.

فايننشيال تايمز در ادامه به نقل از اين مقام آمريکايی که نخواسته نامی از وی آورده شود مدعی شده است: ايران با بزرگ*نمايی توانائی هسته*اش مي*خواهد بازی فريب و گمراه کردن غرب را شروع کند. وی افزود: اکنون بيش از آنکه تعداد سانتريفوژهای نصب شده در تاسيسات هسته*ای نطنز مهم باشد نحوه عملکرد آنها مهم است.

اين روزنامه آمريکايی مي*افزايد ظاهراً پيشرفت آرام برنامه هسته*ای ايران که از سوی آژانس بين*المللی انرژی اتمی گزارش شده حاکی از آن است که دستگاههای سانتريفوژ ايران به اندازه کافی درست کار نمي*کنند و گرم شدن بيش از حد آنها عامل ناکارآمدی آنها محسوب مي*شود و به همين دليل نيز محمود احمدی نژاد رئيس جمهوری ايران از بيان دقيق تعداد سانتريفوژهای نصب شده در نطنز خودداری کرده است.

بنا به اين گزارش ايران پيش از اين نيز اعلام کرده بود قصد دارد سه هزار سانتريفوژ را در تاسيسات هسته*ای نطنز و با هدف توليد سوخت هسته*ای در مقياس صنعتی نصب کند. محمد البرادعی مديرکل آژانس بين*المللی انرژی نيز در ماه فوريه به روزنامه فايننشيال تايمز گفت: ايران ظرف شش ماه آينده مي*تواند نصب اين تعداد سانتريفوژ را به پايان برساند.

[abadani69]

خوشبختانه بحراني که به دنبال دستگيري 15 ملوان بريتانيايي ايجاد شده بود بدون اينکه نتايج خونباري رقم زند به پايان رسيد. به واقع که نشاط و سرخوشي سران ايراني با نگراني و دل مشغولي هايي که توني بلر در "بحران ملوانان" تجربه نمود، در تضاد کامل قرار دارد. پس از آن، ايران "روز فنآوري هسته اي" را اعلام کرد و اکنون تمامي گروه ها اعم از بنيادگرا و اصلاح طلب يک هدف را دنبال مي کنند: وارد شدن به جمع کشورهاي اتمي.

تمامي دوربين ها روي محمود احمدي نژاد متمرکز شده اند، ولي درحقيقت، موفقيت رسانه اي او در آزادسازي ملوانان دليل ديگري دارد. به واقع که درجه همبستگي مسؤولان ايراني در اين ماجرا عاملي بسيار مهم در تقويت موضع آنها در جدال هسته اي خواهد بود. اکنون اکثريت ناظران امر متقاعد شده اند که جدال جديدي از سوي ايران آغاز شده، به حدي که محدوديت هاي تعيين شده توسط جامعه بين الملل را نيز به چالش خواهد طلبيد.

يک تحليلگر ايراني در اين زمينه مي گويد: "اين مسأله را به هيچ وجه نمي توان يک موفقيت از سوي احمدي نژاد دانست. اعلام يک جنگ مطمئناً تندروها و افراطي هاي حکومت را خوشحال خواهد کرد، زيرا اين مسأله به آنها اجازه خواهد داد تا مشکلات اقتصادي و اجتماعي را که هرگز قادر به حل آنها نيستند مخفي نگهدارند." وي در ادامه مي افزايد: "احمدي نژاد آزادي ملوانان را اعلام کرد، زيرا نظام به اين نتيجه رسيده که رييس جمهور کشور بايد تصوير خوبي از خود نشان دهد. اين مسأله را درواقع مي توان به حفظ تعادل داخلي نظام تعبير کرد."

درحقيقت مي توان گفت رييس دولت تهران در حل و فصل اين بحران پيشقدم نبوده و هيچ دخالت مستقيمي نيز نداشته است. البته ناگفته نماند که او در جلسات شورايعالي امنيت ملي که براي حل اين مشکل برگزار شده بود، شرکت کرده است. در اين نشست که در آن تمامي گروه هاي بر سر قدرت حضور داشته و در رابطه با سياست هاي خارجي و هسته اي تصميم گيري و تشريک مساعي کرده اند، نظر نهايي از سوي آيت الله علي خامنه اي، رهبر انقلاب، صادر شده است. به گفته چندين منبع معتبر، نظام جمهوري اسلامي که از ايده ها و قدرت هاي متفاوتي شکل گرفته و گاهي نيز رقابت هايي را داخل خود تجربه مي کند، "به رهبر فشار مي آورد" تا اجازه ندهد احمدي نژاد زمام امور را به دست گيرد.

اين تحليلگر در ادامه مي گويد: "او ديگر آن رييس جمهوري که قبلاً بود نيست. حتي به مانند رفسنجاني يا ديگران نيز به عنوان يک چهره مهم شناخته نمي شود. مدتي است که او را از امور مربوط به سياست خارجي و انرژي هسته اي دور کرده اند."

به نظر مي رسد که اکثريت شاخه هاي قدرتمند نظام در ماه هاي اخير به اين نتيجه رسيده اند که سياست تهاجمي و جدال طلبانه احمدي نژاد درحال آسيب رساندن به وجهه ايران است و آن را بهانه اي براي افزايش فشارهاي بين المللي مي دانند. وخامت اين شرايط به خوبي در بحران هسته اي آشکار شد. در کمتر از مدت يک سال، شوراي امنيت سازمان ملل به منظور دلسرد کردن جمهوري اسلامي که همواره از صلح آميز بودن برنامه خود دفاع مي کند، سه قطعنامه را با اکثريت آراء به تصويب رسانده است.

برنامه اتمي به راستي "نبرد"ي را رقم زده که امروز به تدريج خود را وارد ايران مي کند. جمهوري اسلامي در تلاش است تا جامعه جهاني حق ايران را در تکميل سوخت هسته اي که درواقع نشانه غرور ملي آن است، به رسميت بشناسد. دولت تهران که از سياست دوگانه جامعه بين الملل و شناخته شدن به عنوان يک کشور متخلف به تنگ آمده، اکنون آبرو و اعتبار خود را روي پرونده هسته اي گذاشته است. درواقع مي توان گفت که اين پرونده به بنيادگرايي و ميانه روي يا به محافظه کاري و اصلاح طلبي ارتباطي ندارد. شايد گرايش هاي مختلف حاکم بر نظام درخصوص شيوه مديريت اين پرونده با يکديگر اختلاف داشته باشند، ولي مطمئناً هدف همگي آنها يک چيز است: وارد شدن به باشگاه اتمي.

در مورد بحران ملوانان، نقش علي لاريجاني، دبير شورايعالي امنيت ملي ايران، به شکل قابل توجهي پررنگ بوده است؛ شخصيتي که کشورهاي غربي به خوبي او را مي شناسند [به دليل مذاکرات هسته اي]. البته لاريجاني نيز درست مانند احمدي نژاد يک سياستمدار محافظه کار محسوب مي شود، ولي شيوه او در روبرو شدن با مسايل بسيار متفاوت است. درحالي که شيوه گفتاري رييس جمهور بسيار پرحرارت و ستيزه جويانه به نظر مي رسد، لاريجاني که همچنين رقيب وي در انتخابات اخير بوده، شيوه اي عمل گرايانه دارد.

بسياري از سفراي اروپايي که با وي به مذاکره نشسته اند، در خصوص او مي گويند: "او بسيار خوش صحبت و اجتماعي است." حال آنکه مي بينيم اين اختلاف شيوه هيچگاه در مرافعات قابل ملاحظه پيرامون مسايل هسته اي ظاهر نشده. لاريجاني روز چهارشنبه گذشته در يک مکالمه تلفني با خاوير سولانا اين مسأله را به خوبي نشان داد. به نقل از منابع محلي، او گفت: "تعليق فعاليت هاي غني سازي به هيچ وجه قابل قبول نيست، نه به عنوان پيش شرط براي انجام مذاکرات و نه به عنوان نتيجه مذاکرات."

با اينکه مسؤولان ايراني در اواسط ماه فوريه به آژانس اتمي اعلام کردند که دومين سري آبشار زنجيره اي سانتريفوژ نصب شده است، ولي هنوز اطلاعاتي از عملياتي شدن آنها در دست نيست. به هرحال، چنين اقداماتي آن هم در زماني که سازمان ملل تحريم ها و مجازات هاي خود را عليه ايران تشديد مي کند، باز هم امکان مذاکره با جامعه بين الملل را سخت تر و آن را به تعويق خواهد انداخت.

[Rasputin]

در مورد انرژی هسته*ای هر روز خبرهای بسیاری در رسانه*های مختلف منتشر می*شود. مردم اصطلاحات و عباراتی را از سیاستمدارانشان می*شوند که از آن اطلاع چندانی ندارند. این نوشته شاید کمک کند که در مورد انرژی هسته*ای بیشتر بدانیم.
اورانیوم، که در جدول تناوبی عناصر با نشانه*ی U شناخته می*شود، عنصری*ست که دارای عدد اتمی ۹۲ است. یعنی دارای ۹۲ پروتون است و در جدول مندلیف در رده*ی نودودوم قرار می*گیرد. اورانیوم چگال*ترین عنصری*ست که در طبیعت پیدا می*شود و مانند بسیاری از مواد پرتوزا (رادیو اکتیو) در طبیعت، به*صورت ایزوتوپ یافت می*شود. از ایزوتوپ اورانیوم ۲۳۵- U می*توان برای سوخت هسته*ای استفاده کرد؛ زیرا این ایزوتوپ می*تواند در شرایطی خاص شکافته شود و مقادیر زیادی انرژی تولید کند.
اورانینت Uraninite
سنگ معدنی اورانیوم از معدن به دست می*آید و شامل دی*اکسید اورانیوم UO2 است. ولی می*تواند اکسید مواد معدنی دیگر، مانند روی، مس و غیره هم باشد. اورانینت ماده*ی معدنی اصلی سنگ معدنی اورانیوم است.
دی*اکسید اورانیوم UO2
نوعی اکسید اورانیوم است و به طور طبیعی در سنگ معدنی اورانینت یافت می*شود. نقطه ذوب آن ۳۱۲۰ درجه*ی سانتی*گراد است؛ و اگر از اورانیوم غنی*شده به دست بیاید، برای میله*های سوخت هسته*ای در رآکتور هسته*ای به کار می*رود.
اورانیوم غنی شده
اورانیوم طبیعی شامل ۹۹.۲ درصد ایزوتوپ اورانیوم ۲۳۸-U است و ۰.۷۲ درصد شامل ایزوتوپ اورانیوم ۲۳۵- U است. در روند غنی*کردن اورانیوم، باید خلوص اورانیوم ۲۳۶- U را در فرایند جداکردن ایزوتوپ*ها بالا برد.
اورانیوم غنی*شده، تا حد ۳ تا ۴ درصد، ماده*ای*ست که می*تواند به*عنوان سوخت برای تولید انرژی برق به کار رود؛ اما برای استفاده*ی نظامی، باید اورانیوم را تا ۹۰ درصد غنی کرد.

برای رآکتور آب سنگین، اورانیوم غنی شده*ی ۰.۹ درصد تا ۲ درصد کافی*ست. هزینه*ی این فرایند اندک است. البته برای رآکتور آب سنگین، از اورانیوم طبیعی هم می*توان استفاده کرد.

اما برای رآکتورهای آب سبک، نیاز به اورانیوم غنی*شده*ی زیر ۲۰ درصد است.

اورانیوم غنی*شده*ی بالای ۲۰ درصد، مصارف نظامی دارد. این نوع اورانیوم غنی*شده می*تواند برای نوع بسیار ابتدایی و با بازدهی سلاح اتمی به کار رود. برای تولید سلاح اتمی (بمب اتمی) حداقل پنجاه کیلوگرم اورانیوم غنی شده*ی ۸۵ درصد نیاز است.
شکافت هسته*ای
اورانیوم ۲۳۵-U قابلیت شکافت هسته*ای را دارد. این نوع اتم اورانیوم ۹۲ پروتون و ۱۴۳ نوترون دارد. یعنی در مجموع ۲۳۵ ذره در اتم این ایزوتوپ اورانیوم وجود دارد. اگر اورانیوم ۲۳۵- U به طریقی نوترون دریافت کند، تبدیل به اورانیوم ۲۳۶- U می*شود که اتمی بسیار ناپایدار است و تمایل دارد به اتم*های پایدار، مانند باریوم و پتاسیم، تبدیل شود. در نتیجه*ی این فروپاشی، اروانیوم ۲۳۶-U مقدار زیادی انرژی و ۲.۵ نوترون تولید می*کند. برای مثال، در شکاف یک اتم اورانیوم ۲۷.۲۳۴ پیکوژول انرژی تولید می*شود.
مثلا انرژی حاصل از واکنش یک گِرم اورانیوم برابر با انرژی گرمایی یک میلیون لیتر نفت خام است. یا انرژی حاصل از یک کیلوگرم اورانیوم معادل ۱۵۰۰ کیلوگرم زغال سنگ تخمین زده می*شود. از نوترون*های آزاد شده در شکافت هسته*ای می*توان در واکنش زنجیره*ای استفاده کرد.


واکنش زنجیره*ای شکافت هسته*ای
برای شکافت هسته*ای اورانیوم، یک نوترون به هسته*ی آن شلیک می*شود؛ که در نتیجه*ی این فرایند ۲.۵ نوترون، و گاه ۳ نوترون تولید می*شود. نوترون*های تولیدشده سرعت بالایی دارند و هرکدام می*توانند شکافت هسته*ای جدیدی را تولید کنند. به این ترتیب، زنجیره*ای از شکافت*های هسته*ای ایجاد می*شود که در نتیجه*ی آن، اورانیوم تبدیل به انرژی می*شود. برای ایجاد واکنش زنجیره*ای بادوام، به حداقل جرم ایزوتوپ اورانیوم نیاز است. این جرم حداقلی، به شکل و درجه*ی خلوص اورانیوم بستگی دارد. مثلا برای یک کره اورانیوم غنی*شده*ی ۲۳۵- U با غلظت ۲۰ درصد، به حداقل جرم ۴۰۰ کیلوگرم نیاز است.


رآکتور هسته*ای
رآکتور هسته*ای دستگاهی*ست که برای انجام زنجیره*ی واکنش*های هسته*ای، به*صورت تنظیم و کنترل*شده، استفاده می*شود. در اندازه*های آزمایشگاهی، رآکتور اتمی برای تولید ایزوتوپ یا مواد پرتوزا به کار می*رود. برای مثال، در مصارف پزشکی و در اندازه*های صنعتی، می*تواند برای تولید انرژی برق به کار رود. اگر زنجیره*ی واکنش*های هسته*ای کنترل*شده نباشند، انرژی هسته*ای حاصل از شکافت، در زمان کوتاهی آزاد می*شود که اثر تخریبی زیادی دارد.
آب سنگین
به طور معمول، یک مولکول آب (H2O) از دو اتم هیدروژن و یک اتم اکسیژن تشکیل شده است. ولی «آب سنگین» از دو اتم دوتریم (D) و یک اتم اکسیژن ساخته شده است.
دوتریم ایزوتوپ پایدار هیدروژن است که شامل یک پروتون و یک نوترون است. یعنی یک نوترون اضافه دارد. به طور طبیعی، (HDO) یعنی آب شبه*سنگین که شامل یک مولکول دوتریم و یک مولکول هیدروژن است)، به نسبت یک در ۳۲۰۰ مولکول وجود دارد. HDO را می*توان با استفاده از روش*های شیمیایی مختلف و الکترولیز از آب طبیعی جدا کرد.

آب سنگین در نوع خاصی از رآکتورهای اتمی که از اورانیوم استفاده می*کنند برای کم کردن سرعت نوترون، به منظور ایجاد زنجیره*ی شکاف هسته*ای بادوام استفاده می*شود.

رآکتور CANDU نوع مشخصی*ست که از آب سنگین استفاده می*کند. رآکتور آب سنگین بازدهی بالایی برای تولید زنجیره*ی واکنش هسته*ای دارد؛ و به همین دلیل، در مقایسه با رآکتور آب سبک، احتمال بیشتری را برای استفاده در مقاصد نظامی فراهم می*کند.
رآکتور آب سبک
آب معمولی (H2O) مقدار بیشتری نوترون را در مقایسه با آب سنگین جذب می*کند. بنابر این، برای استفاده از آب معمولی در ایجاد واکنش هسته*ای نیاز به اورانیوم غنی*شده با خلوص بالاست.
تولید اورانیوم
سنگ اورانیوم عموما شامل ۰.۱ تا ۰.۲۵ درصد اکسید اورانیوم است. سنگ اورانیوم را پودر کرده و می*توان با استفاده از واکنش*های شیمیایی مختلف با اسید ( یا باز) فلز اورانیوم را از سنگ اورانیوم به دست آورد. به ماحصل این فرایند، برای به دست آوردن فلز اورانیوم، «کیک زرد» می*گویند. کیک زرد شامل ۷۵ درصد اکسید اورانیوم است. کیک زرد را با استفاده از اسید نیتریک، تبدیل به نیترات اورانیل می کنند که در آب حل می*شود. از این ماده، برای تولید گاز هگزا فلوراید، که در روند جداسازی ایزوتوپ*های اورانیوم، برای غنی سازی اورانیوم به کار می رود، استفاده می*شود.


هگزا فلوراید اورانیوم UF6
در صنعت به آن «هکس» می*گویند؛ و ماده*ای*ست که برای غنی*سازی اورانیوم، به عنوان سوخت در رآکتور اتمی و ساخت سلاح اتمی، به کار می*رود. ماده*ی جامد و خاکستری رنگی*ست که بشدت مسموم*کننده است و بسرعت با آب واکنش شیمیایی ایجاد می*کند. در دمای ۶۴ درجه*ی سانتی*گراد و در فشار کمی بالاتر از فشار جوی، می*تواند به هر سه حالت جامد، مایع و گاز وجود داشته باشد.
از گاز هگزا فلورید اورانیوم در چرخه*ی غنی*سازی اورانیوم استفاده می*شود.
غنی*سازی اورانیوم با استفاده از سانتریفیوژ گازی
یکی از روش*های معمول غنی*سازی اورانیوم استفاده از دستگاه*های سانتریفیوژ گازی*ست. سانتریفیوژ، اتاقکی سیلندری شکل است که با سرعت زیاد حول محور خود می*چرخد. گاز هگزا فلورید اورانیوم به داخل این سیلندر دمیده می*شود و نیروی گریز از مرکز ناشی از چرخش سیلندر باعث می*شود که مولکول*های سبک*تر، که دارای اورانیوم ۲۳۵ -U هستند در مرکز سیلندر متمرکز شوند و مولکول*های سنگین*تر که حاوی اورانیوم ۲۳۸ -U هستند پایین سیلندر انباشته شوند. اورانیوم ۲۳۵ -U غنی*شده، که از این طریق به دست می*آید، داخل سانتریفیوژ دیگری می*شود تا درجه*ی خلوص آن بالاتر رود. این عمل بارها و بارها، توسط سانتریفیوژهای متعددی که به طور سری به یکدیگر متصل هستند، تکرار می*شود تا اورانیوم ۲۳۵ -U با درصد خلوصی که برای استفاده در رآکتور اتمی نیاز است به دست آید.

[Rasputin]

The head of the UN's nuclear agency has said Iran is only at the early stages of enriching uranium.
Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran had not reached the industrial scale of uranium enrichment it claimed recently.

Mr ElBaradei said Iran had only hundreds of centrifuges for enriching uranium, not the thousands that would be needed for industrial production.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, but the West fears it wants to build atomic bombs.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said international concern over Iran's nuclear programme was based on its motives, rather than its current capability.

"Iran is still just at the beginning stages in setting up its Natanz enrichment facility. The talk of building a facility with 50,000 centrifuges is just at the beginning, and it is currently only in the hundreds," Mr ElBaradei said.

The UN Security Council has imposed a package of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to cease enriching uranium, which some Western countries fear could be part of a secret nuclear weapons programme.

'Nuclear club'

On Monday the Iranian president said his country had "joined the nuclear club of nations" by beginning the industrial scale enrichment of uranium.

Russian officials have already expressed doubts over the Iranian claims.

This is the first time Mr ElBaradei has commented on Iran's announcement that it has entered a new phase in its enrichment programme.

He said that Iran would not be able to produce the highly enriched uranium needed for a nuclear bomb as long as it remained under the supervision of IAEA inspectors.

A team of IAEA inspectors is currently in Iran where it has been making a routine visit to the enrichment facility at Natanz.

[Rasputin]

The Israeli journalist Amira Hass describes the moment her mother, Hannah, was marched from a cattle train to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. "They were sick and some were dying," she said. "Then my mother saw these German women looking at the prisoners. This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable 'looking from the side'."
It is time we in Britain stopped looking from the side. We are being led towards perhaps the most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush/Cheney/Blair "long war" edges closer to Iran for no reason other than that nation's independence from rapacious America. The safe delivery of the 15 British sailors into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and his rivals (until their masters got the wind up) is both farce and distraction. The Bush administration, in secret connivance with Blair, has spent four years preparing for "Operation Iranian Freedom". Forty-five cruise missiles are primed to strike. According to General Leonid Ivashov, Russia's leading strategic thinker: "Nuclear facilities will be secondary targets, and there are 20 such facilities. Combat nuclear weapons may be used, and this will result in the radioactive contamination of all the Iranian territory, and beyond."
And yet there is a surreal silence in Britain, except for the noise of "news" in which powerful broadcasters gesture cryptically at the obvious, but dare not make sense of it lest the one-way moral screen erected between us and the consequences of an imperial foreign policy collapses, and the truth is revealed.
"The days of Britain having to apologise for the British empire are over," declared Gordon Brown to the Daily Mail. "We should celebrate!" In Late Victorian Holocausts, the historian Mike Davis documents that as many as 21 million Indians died unnecessarily in famines criminally imposed by British policies. And since the formal demise of that glorious imperium, declassified official files make clear that British governments have borne "significant responsibility" for the direct or indirect deaths of between 8.6 million and 13.5 million people throughout the world - from imperial military interventions and at the hands of regimes strongly supported by Britain. The historian Mark Curtis calls these victims "unpeople". "Rejoice!" said Thatcher. "Celebrate!" says the paymaster of Blair's bloodbath. Spot the difference.

We need to look behind the one-way moral screen, urgently. Last October, the Lancet published research led by Johns Hopkins University in the US that calculated the deaths of 655,000 Iraqis as a direct result of the Anglo-American invasion. Downing Street acolytes derided the study as "flawed". They were lying. They knew that the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Roy Anderson, had backed the survey, describing its methods as "robust" and "close to best practice", and that other government officials had secretly approved the "tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones". The figure of Iraqi deaths is now estimated at close to a million.

"This Labour government, which includes Gordon Brown as much as it does Tony Blair," wrote Richard Horton, the editor of the Lancet, "is party to a war crime of monstrous proportions. Yet our political consensus prevents any judicial or civil society response. Britain is paralysed by its own indifference." Such is the scale of the crime and of our "looking from the side".

As hysteria is again fabricated, for Iraq, read Iran. According to the former US treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, the Bush cabal decided to attack Iraq on "day one" of Bush's administration, long before 9/11 - and it beggars belief that Blair did not know that. The main reason was oil. O'Neill was shown a Pentagon document entitled Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts, which outlined the carve-up of Iraq's oilfields among the major Anglo-American companies. Under a law written by American and British officials, the Iraqi puppet regime is about to hand over the extraction of the largest concentration of oil on earth to Anglo-American companies.

Nothing like this piracy has happened before in the modern Middle East. Across the Shatt al-Arab waterway the other prize: Iran's vast oilfields. Just as non-existent weapons of mass destruction or facile concerns for democracy had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq, so non-existent nuclear weapons have nothing to do with an American onslaught on Iran. Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran has abided by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never cited Iran for diverting its civilian programme to military use. For the past three years IAEA inspectors have said that they have been allowed to "go anywhere". The recent security council sanctions against Iran are the result of Washington's bribery.

Until recently the British were unaware that their government was one of the world's most consistent abusers of human rights and backers of state terrorism. Few knew that British intelligence set out systematically to destroy secular Arab nationalism and in the 1980s recruited and trained young Muslims as part of a $4bn Anglo-American-backed jihad against the Soviet Union. The fuse of the bombs that killed 52 Londoners was lit by "us".

In my experience, most people do not contort their morality and intellect to comply with the double standards of rampant power and the media's notion of approved evil - of worthy and unworthy victims. They would, if they knew, grieve for all the lives, families, careers, hopes and dreams destroyed by Blair and Bush. The sure evidence is the British public's wholehearted response to the 2004 tsunami, shaming that of the government. Certainly, they would agree with Robert Jackson, the chief counsel of the United States at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders. "Crimes are crimes," he said, "whether we do them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct which we would not be willing to have invoked against us."

Like Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld, who dare not travel to certain countries for fear of being prosecuted as war criminals, Blair as a private citizen may no longer be untouchable. On March 20 Baltasar Garzon, the tenacious Spanish judge who pursued General Pinochet, called for indictments against those responsible for "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history" - Iraq. Five days later, the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, to which Britain is a signatory, said that Blair could one day face war-crimes charges.

These are critical changes in the way the sane world thinks - again, thanks to the reich of Blair/Bush. However, we also live in the most dangerous of times. On April 6 Blair accused "elements of the Iranian regime" of "financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq". He offered no evidence, and the MoD has none. This is the same Goebbels-like refrain with which he and his coterie, Brown included, brought an epic bloodletting to Iraq. How long will the rest of us continue looking from the side?

[Rasputin]

Iran to seek bids for two atomic power plants

Iran, embroiled in a row with the West over its nuclear ambitions, will issue tenders in the next few days for two new atomic power plants, a senior official said on Sunday.

Ahmad Fayazbakhsh, an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the power plants would each have capacity for 1,000 to 1,600 MW and would be built at Bushehr, the southwest port city where Russians are building Iran's first atomic plant.

The West fears Iran's civilian nuclear plans are a smokescreen for a military program, a charge Tehran denies.

"Two international tenders in the coming days will be issued by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization ... and they (the two plants) will be built at Bushehr," Fayazbakhsh, in charge of the nuclear power reactors at the Atomic Energy Organisation, said.

"Because we have the capability to produce nuclear fuel inside the country, in the long term, part of the fuel for the reactors will be provided by Iran and the rest will be imported," he told a news conference.

Western capitals are mainly concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment work to make nuclear fuel because the work involves a process that can also be used to make material for atomic bombs.

Russia is due to supply fuel for the plant it is building, but the first shipment that was due in March has been delayed ostensibly because of a row over payment delays, Iran denies missing payments. The plant has taken years to complete.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday at Iran's uranium enrichment facility that the country had begun making nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. Its refusal to stop this work has prompted two rounds of U.N. sanctions since December.

The U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran's plans were still in the early stages and said it was only running several hundred centrifuges not the thousands normally associated with industrial enrichment.

The more centrifuges Iran operates the quicker it could enrich enough fuel to the high levels needed for a bomb, if that was its aim, but Western experts say Iran is still several years away from building a warhead.

Iran had said it would announce tenders for two new nuclear plants last year but the final tender announcement was not made. Iran has said it wants to build a network nuclear power plants with a capacity for 20,000 MW by 2020.

Asked if Europeans had shown any interest in Iran's tender plans, Fayazbakhsh said: "In private meetings, they showed serious interest to participate." But he did not name any firms.

"Any company can participate," he said.

Documents showed to reporters said firms wishing to participate should register within 15 days from April 25 in Tehran or at the organization's representative office in Vienna. Bids would be opened on August 8, the documents said.
Iran said it wanted 36 percent of the work to be carried out by local contractors on what it said would be light-water reactors and also wanted bidders to submit financing offers.

It said it expected prices in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion for each 1,000 MW plant. Fayazbakhsh said he expected each plant to take nine to 11 years to complete.

"By putting these two reactors out to tender, technology will be transferred to Iran gradually and it can help improving Iran's technical knowledge in the next 20 years," he said.

[Rasputin]

As the World Nuclear Association prepares to discuss how to meet the huge surge in demand for nuclear power, the BBC's Humphrey Hawksley wonders if the so-called "nuclear renaissance" could also prompt a complete re-examination of global nuclear policy.

Demand for nuclear fuel is increasing around the world

Dressed in a white coat, plastic protective glasses and gloves, I pick up five pellets of compressed uranium from a factory process line and hold them in the palm of my hand. Each is about the size of a peanut.

"Those five will power a household for more than a year," says Kim Clark. "That's all you need. That's the fuel."

She is guiding me through General Electric's plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, offering a rare glimpse of the nuclear fuel supply chain. Kim leads me to an area where bunches of metallic rods stand in lines filled with uranium pellets.

"There are about 380 UO2 pellets inside these rods," she explains pointing to the nearest batch. "They go into the reactor core like a battery."

"And we're standing here with all this radioactive material?" I begin.

"Yes," she laughs. "And it's perfectly safe."

Next stop is a huge warehouse gleaming with silver boxes stacked up with labels warning that they hold fissile material.

It is like a supermarket store room, with trucks backing up to ship them out all over the world.


Green concerns

The demand for nuclear fuel is increasing at such a pace that General Electric is gearing up for what is being called the "nuclear renaissance".

As country after country opts for nuclear energy, will we face more and more Iran-style crises?


The worry about global warming, the unpredictability of fossil fuel supplies and the scramble for energy - particularly in the developing world - have focused attention on the carbon-free nuclear alternative where supplies are assured and constant.

Except of course nuclear energy has always been linked to nuclear weapons.

The technology did, after all, emerge from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the craving for it has resulted in high-stakes politics that often determine the relationship between nations.

In fact, one of those relationships is being re-drawn now in a way that is turning global nuclear policy on its head.

India's nuclear journey

Driving up along the coast from India's financial mega-city, Mumbai, we started by edging through jammed rush-hour traffic and emerged onto a half-built motorway, flanked by high-rise suburban apartments and shopping malls, all massive developments demanding more and more electricity.

Then turning off the main road we were in rural India, on a narrow, pot-holed road with bullock carts and bicycles, and finally we reached the Tarapur Nuclear Complex.


At the gate was a sun-bleached plaque heralding the friendship between India and the United States and stamped with the logo of General Electric.


Back in the sixties, GE built two reactors here, both still working, the control room lovingly preserved with dials flickering like the dashboard of a vintage car. We drove a short way to two brand new reactors that are built, designed and fuelled entirely by India.


The present system is a fraud, a few countries can't continue to tell the rest of us what to do

India's Foreign Minister


But shortly after Tarapur opened in 1969, things went wrong. It was the height of the Cold War and America thought India was too close to the Soviet Union, so it sent warships to the Bay of Bengal to warn it off.

India responded in 1974 by carrying out a nuclear test. It was put under sanctions and General Electric cut off all support for the reactors.

"What on earth did you do?" I asked the station manager, U. Ramamurty.

He smiled. "Oh, we managed. First we bought uranium from France. Now we get it from Russia. We even got some from China once."

"So, the sanctions didn't work?"

"Come," he said.

Rewriting the rules


Iran's determination to have nuclear power has angered the West

Through monitors we could see deep inside the highly radioactive areas that India can use to research weapons and other projects. International inspectors are banned from here.

We were only let in because the sanctions imposed on India since 1974 are about to be lifted and General Electric hopes, once again, to sell uranium pellets to Tarapur.

The decision by America to accept India into the nuclear fold has prompted a crucial debate.

As country after country opts for nuclear energy, are we going to face more and more Iran-style crises over the coming years?

"The goal is to figure out how to recognise the aspirations of these states," Congressman Ed Royce, chair of the non-proliferation sub-committee told me in Washington.

If we fail, we'll just end up with higher oil prices and dirty coal."

"He's right," said Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian Foreign Minister, when I put that to him in Delhi.

"The present system is a fraud. A few countries can't continue to tell the rest of us what to do."


While great diplomatic minds work out how to rewrite the nuclear rules, I asked Mr Ramamurty if - once the sanctions were lifted - he would actually be happy to buy uranium from General Electric.

"Ah!" he said, hand on his chin, pretending to think hard. "It all depends on the price."

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Iran has started enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its underground plant at Natanz, according to the UN's nuclear agency, the IAEA.
The agency said eight cascades of more than 1,300 centrifuges, the machines that spin uranium gas into enriched material, were now operating.

Earlier this month Iran's president said Natanz was ready to enrich uranium on an industrial-scale.

The West suspects Iran of seeking atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Teheran for its failure to scale back its nuclear programme.

Inspections continuing

Diplomatic sources have confirmed to the BBC the contents of what was a confidential letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian officials.

The document - a letter signed by the IAEA's director general, Ollie Heinonen - said the Agency took note of the information provided by Iran that it is running more 1,300 centrifuges - the machines used to spin the gas into enriched uranium.

It said some UF6 uranium gas was being fed into the centrifuges. The disclosure of the inspectors' findings comes after the head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, downplayed Iran's claim that it was beginning industrial-scale production.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia last week, Mr ElBaradei said Iran would need thousands of centrifuges, but had only hundreds operating at present.

He also said that Iran would not be able to produce the highly enriched uranium needed for a nuclear bomb as long as it remained under the supervision of IAEA inspectors.

Iran says it plans to install 50,000 centrifuges at the Natanz plant.

[Rasputin]

Iran, EU to resume nuclear talks on April 25: news agency

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold talks next Wednesday on the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, the ISNA news agency said on Friday.

ISNA said Larijani and Solana spoke by telephone on Thursday. It was believed to be their third exploratory contact since the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran last month over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Iran is embroiled in an escalating row with the West over its nuclear work, which the United States and major European powers suspect is aimed at making atom bombs. Tehran denies this and says it only wants to generate electricity.

Solana and Larijani discussed the nuclear issue and the resumption of negotiations during Thursday's phone conversation, ISNA said.

It quoted Larijani as telling Solana: "While Iran keeps its obvious right in developing a peaceful nuclear program, it is always ready to have constructive negotiations with other parties."

ISNA added in its report: "Based on the agreement of the two parties, the new round of Larijani's and Solana's negotiations will start on April 25, Wednesday."

[Rasputin]

Iran needs several years to produce nuclear fuel: official

Iran still needs several years to be in a position to manufacture enough nuclear fuel through uranium enrichment for industrial use, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency said on Friday.

"Installation of centrifuges continues and each month inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), when they come to Tehran, will see important changes" at the Natanz nuclear plant, said Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

"We have reached the industrial stage, but we need several years to create an industrial unit capable of producing fuel for our power stations," he said, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.

"We must install 50,000 centrifuges to be able to provide the fuel for two nuclear stations," said Aghazadeh.

Iran has started feeding uranium gas for enrichment at a nuclear plant where it has installed over 1,300 centrifuges, in defiance of UN resolutions, the IAEA said on Wednesday.

It said Iran has assembled eight cascades of 164 centrifuges each -- a total of 1,312 of the machines which turn uranium gas into enriched uranium for use as either nuclear reactor fuel or to be the fissile core of atom bombs -- at a heavily bunkered underground facility in Natanz.

Aghazadeh said Iran had also put into operation a plant in the central town of Isfahan for producing the zirconium tubes that will encase the fuel rods for Iran's nuclear reactors.

"The factory for producing the tubes has been brought into service in Isfahan... and next year the plant for producing the nuclear fuel pellets will begin work in Isfahan," he said.

The second facility will take the enriched uranium dioxide powder produced at Natanz and convert it into ceramic pellets for insertion into the zirconium-encased fuel rods.

Pushed by fears Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, the UN Security Council has imposed two sets of sanctions on the Islamic republic for failing to halt enrichment.

A close observer of the IAEA said earlier this week "enrichment has not really started. The centrifuges are running at low pressure," a first step to getting them up to speed.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, has reduced cooperation with the IAEA since the Security Council last month imposed the second round of sanctions on Iran.

On the diplomatic front, however, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is to hold new talks on April 25 with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

During the main weekly Muslim prayers, influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on Friday for world powers to opt for "negotiation and dialogue" to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran.

"We will not give up on our rights but we can give a guarantee that we are following the peaceful path in the nuclear sector and will not take the military path," he said in a sermon.

[Rasputin]

EU and Iran to hold nuclear talks

The European Union and Iran are to hold direct preliminary talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, the first since UN sanctions were imposed in March.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, on 25 April, to discuss a possible resumption of formal talks.

The EU wants Tehran to stop enriching uranium, but Iran has insisted on its right to a peaceful nuclear programme.

Some in the West fear Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr Larijani and Mr Solana spoke by telephone to arrange the talks next week, Iranian media reported.

The Iranian negotiator told his EU counterpart Iran was always ready for "constructive negotiations", the student news agency Isna quoted him as saying.

Tighter sanctions

A spokeswoman for Mr Solana said the talks next Wednesday would not be held in either Brussels or Tehran.

The pair last met face-to-face in February, but the UN Security Council has since then imposed tighter sanctions on Iran over its refusal to stop enrichment.

Sanctions were first imposed in December 2006, but Mr Solana has always insisted that the EU is seeking a diplomatic solution to the issue.

Iran has installed 1,312 centrifuges needed to enrich uranium gas at its Natanz plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said this week.

Iranian officials say they need 50,000 centrifuges to generate enough enriched uranium for power generation.

[Rasputin]

Iran expressed hope on Sunday that talks with a senior EU official next week could lead to a solution to its row with the West, but made clear it would not halt a nuclear fuel enrichment program, which the West fears could produce an atomic bomb.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign police chief Javier Solana are due to hold talks on Wednesday in their first such meeting since the United Nations last month slapped new sanctions on Iran over its atom activities.

Major powers suspect Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons and are demanding a suspension of its uranium enrichment, a process to make fuel for power plants or, if enriched to a much higher degree, provide material for nuclear bombs.

Iran says it wants to generate nuclear electricity to allow it to export more of its valuable oil and gas.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said no definite decision had yet been taken on where Solana and Larijani would meet on April 25. They have talked several times on the phone in recent weeks.

"We hope (the negotiations) would follow a serious goal ... and find the main basis for a solution to the issue," he told a regular briefing.

"What is more important is safeguarding and providing the right of the Iranian nation ... for obtaining atomic technology," he added. "You should delete (the phrase) 'suspension of enrichment' from Iran's atomic literature."

[Rasputin]

Possible further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear enrichment programme are on the agenda as EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg.
During the two-day meeting, the ministers will also hold talks with their Russian counterpart to review the increasingly troubled Moscow-EU ties.

Relations have been strained over trade, energy and political issues.

The future of Kosovo is also set to be raised in the ministers' meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

With diplomatic efforts stalled, the EU ministers are expected to push for a tightening of sanctions against Iran in an effort to get Tehran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions.

One proposal is to add about 20 senior Iranian officials to the existing travel embargo.

The EU is also pushing for a full arms embargo in place of the UN's current partial one.

Iran is one issue where Russia and the European Union have been working together constructively - a beacon of light in an otherwise increasingly troubled relationship.

Over the weekend the EU failed to resolve Moscow's ban on Polish meat exports.

This will have serious implications for next month's EU-Russian summit, with Poland vetoing moves to negotiate a new co-operation and energy pact with Moscow.

Setting an agenda for the summit is one of the main topics for discussion at talks later in the day with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

So is the future of Kosovo - the Kremlin is critical of the UN's proposal for independence for Kosovo, siding instead with Serbia which is bitterly opposed to the plan.

[Rasputin]

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed here Monday that he will meet this week with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Turkey.



Iran on Sunday rejected Western calls for a suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities just days ahead of the crucial talks on its atomic drive.

"I will be meeting Larijani on Wednesday in Turkey," Solana told reporters in Luxembourg ahead of an European Union foreign ministers meeting, adding that the talks would be held in Ankara.

Solana and Larijani held several rounds of discussions last year which failed to find a solution to the crisis. They last met face-to-face for informal talks on the sidelines of the Munich security conference on February 11.

It remains to be seen what result can come out of Wednesday's meeting, given Iran's insistence on enriching uranium and the EU position that Tehran must freeze the process before full negotiations can begin.

Solana declined to comment when asked what could be expected from the meeting given Iran had already delivered a hard line.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in Tehran on Sunday that "halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities."

"I will not talk about that," said Solana. "I expect to have a resumption of the talks that we had some time ago and see if we can move toward negotiations."

The UN Security Council has already imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt sensitive atomic activities and has threatened to take further punitive action if Tehran's defiance continues.

The EU has been adopting a carrot and stick approach. Solana is expected to renew an offer to Tehran of a major package of political, economic and cooperation in the civil nuclear sector.

At the same time Wednesday's meeting will come half way through a 60-day UN deadline for Iran to cease its enrichment activities with the threat of further Security Council sanctions.

"We remain confident that Javier will be able to assess, to explore the possibilities to come into a prenegociating phase that would eventually lead to negotiations via a package of incentives and positive elements which is still on the table," said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.

The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking to make nuclear weapons, has never ruled out the option of military action to bring Tehran to heel. Iran insists its nuclear drive is solely for generating energy.

Iran has shown no sign of yielding in the stand-off, saying that its uranium enrichment operations have reached an industrial level and announcing it wishes to install over 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at a plant in Natanz.

Western observers however have said the extent of Iran's progress remains unclear and diplomats at the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna have said it has installed only 1,300 centrifuges so far.

The prime minister of Iran's arch-foe Israel, Ehud Olmert, said that Tehran was "far from attaining the technology threshold and this country is not close to getting it, contrary to statements by its leadership."

Iran's first nuclear power station is being built with Russian help in the southern city of Bushehr but its completion has been delayed repeatedly and the nuclear fuel promised by Moscow has yet to arrive.

Iran on Sunday agreed on a plan to resolve a financing dispute with the Russian contractor building the country's first nuclear power plant, Russian news agencies reported, citing the company.

The semi-official Iranian Fars news agency said the EU-Iran meeting could go ahead following work by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Erdogan has been in talks with the head of the national security council (Larijani) and the EU foreign policy chief and agreed that the new round of talks on Wednesday will be held in Turkey," the agency said.