It has More to do With Politics, Not Physics: US Official

 

Tehran, February 12, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Some Western nations and above all the United States have expressed disbeliefs at Iran’s claimed nuclear enrichment achievement.

 

Yesterday Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told thousands of gatherers at Tehran’s landmark Azadi square about Iran having produced its first consignment of higher enriched uranium fuel just two days after the beginning of a complex process. ‘By God's grace ... it was reported that the first consignment of 20 per cent enriched uranium was produced and was put at the disposal of the scientists,’ Ahmadinejad said.

 

But US specialists say even enriching a microscopic amount of uranium fuel from 3.5 to 20 percent would be next to impossible for Iran to accomplish in such short time. The White House press secretary told reporters that such a claim had more to do with politics, not physics.

 

Another leading nuclear scientist John Large told agencies that it was impossible for Tehran to produce the fuel in such a limited time. ‘For Iran to actually move to a 20 per cent enrichment would mean it would have to devote its somewhat limited enrichment facilities and the gas facilities it requires to prepare for that.

 

You can't have a complex material manufacturing process like this and suddenly change the policy at whim.’ He told Al Jazeera.

 

It seems that the Iranian engineers knowledge of the complex process has taken Western circles by surprise. Years ago when Tehran started its enrichment program, similar comments were made against the Iranian nuclear program. A familiar line was that Iran’s low enriched uranium contained impurities that caused centrifuges machines to crash. Another one was that Iran could not setup centrifuges cascades to begin with. Historically speaking, certain Western countries tend to view themselves as forbearers of important scientific matters ever since James watt invented the steam engine in Scotland in the year 1765.

 

Iran plans to produce 3to5 kg of uranium fuel for Tehran medical reactor, but Western countries and above all the IAEA whose job is to transfer peaceful nuclear technology to all NPT members have repeatedly failed to fulfil their duty and instead used such a transfer as a bargaining chip against Iran on may occasions.