Iran's "Plan B" for a Nuclear Bomb
If only this were fiction.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
Water vapour, circled, is seen being emitted from forced air
coolers at the Arak heavy water production plant earlier
this month, showing that the facility is operational Photo:
DigitalGlobe Inc/McKenzie Intelligence Ltd
(Washington, D.C., February 27, 2013) --
If only this were fiction, friends. Unfortunately, it's not.
"The Telegraph can disclose details of activity at a heavily-guarded
Iranian facility from which international inspectors have been barred
for 18 months," reports the London Telegraph. "The images, taken earlier
this month, show that Iran has activated the Arak heavy-water production
plant. Heavy water is needed to operate a nuclear reactor that can
produce plutonium, which could then be used to make a bomb. The images
show signs of activity at the Arak plant, including a cloud of steam
that indicates heavy-water production."
"Iran has told the IAEA that it will begin operating the reactor at Arak
in the first three months of 2014," notes the Telegraph. "The country
still lacks the technology to reprocess plutonium and use it for a
weapon. But North Korea has successfully developed that technology, and
some analysts speculate that Iran could do the same."
"Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official at the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, suggested that Arak could
be part of a process that might trigger Western strikes on Iran,"
reports the Telegraph. "One option for the Iranian regime would be to
acquire the necessary reprocessing technology from North Korea, he said.
'By then, the option of a military strike on an operating reactor would
present enormous complications because of the radiation that would be
spread,' he explained. 'Some think Israel's red line for military action
is before Arak comes online.'"
"I think there's time, but there's not much time" for sanctions to work,
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told USA Today. "There's a window for
diplomacy, but the window is closing....We know that given the
centrifuges that they have now, they will pass a red line. That's the
point where we will no longer be able to prevent them from making a
nuclear weapon, and that line is coming up in the summer. If they
install the next generation of centrifuges - and they're installing them
right now -- (and) if those centrifuges begin to spin, then the time
will be even shorter."
http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/irans-plan-b-for-a-nuclear-bomb-some-think-israels-red-line-for-military-action-is-before-arak-comes-online/
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