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Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN!
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Frostradamus
User ID: 810557
11/6/2009 5:29 AM
Report abusive post | Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN!
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The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.
The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
Documentation referring to experiments testing a two-point detonation design are part of the evidence of nuclear weaponisation gathered by the IAEA and presented to Iran for its response.
The dossier, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program", is drawn in part from reports submitted to it by western intelligence agencies.
The agency has in the past treated such reports with scepticism, particularly after the Iraq war. But its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said the evidence of Iranian weaponisation "appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran".
Extracts from the dossier have been published previously, but it was not previously known that it included documentation on such an advanced warhead. "It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material," said a European government adviser on nuclear issues.
James Acton, a British nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "It's remarkable that, before perfecting step one, they are going straight to step four or five ... To start with more sophisticated designs speaks of level of technical ambition that is surprising."
Another western specialist with extensive knowledge of the Iranian programme said: "It raises the question of who supplied this to them. Did AQ Khan [a Pakistani scientist who confessed in 2004 to running a nuclear smuggling ring] have access to this, or is it another player?"
The revelation of the documents comes at a time of growing tension. Tehran has so far rejected a deal that would remove most of its enriched uranium stockpile for a year and replace it with nuclear fuel rods which would be much harder to turn into weapons. The Iranian government has also balked at negotiations, which were due to begin last week, over its continued enrichment of uranium, in defiance of UN security council resolutions.
There are fears in Washington and London that if no deal is reached to at least temporarily defuse tensions by the end of December, Israel could set in motion plans to take military action aimed at setting back the Iranian programme by force, with incalculable consequences for the Middle East.
Iran has rejected most of the IAEA material on weaponisation as forgeries, but has admitted carrying out tests on multiple high-explosive detonations synchronised to within a microsecond. Tehran has told the agency that there is a civilian application for such tests, but has so far not provided any evidence for them.
Western weapons experts say there are no such civilian applications, but the use of co-ordinated detonations in nuclear warheads is well known. They compress the fissile core, or pit, of the warhead until it reaches critical mass.
A US national intelligence estimate two years ago said that Iran had explored nuclear warhead design for several years but had probably stopped in 2003. British, French and German officials have said they believe weaponisation continued after that date and may still be continuing.
In September, a German court found a German-Iranian businessman, Mohsen Vanaki, guilty of brokering the sale of dual-use equipment with possible applications in developing nuclear weapons. The equipment included specialised high-speed cameras, of the sort used to develop implosion devices, as well as radiation detectors. According to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, the German foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, testified at the trial that there was evidence that Iran's weapons development was continuing.
The IAEA is seeking to find out what the scientists and the institutions involved in the experiments are doing now, but has so far not been given a response. The agency's repeated requests to interview Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whose name features heavily in the IAEA's documentation and who is widely seen as the father of the Iranian nuclear programme, have been turned down.
The agency has also asked Iran to explain evidence that a Russian weapons expert helped Iranian technicians to master synchronised high-explosive detonations.
The first implosion devices, like the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, used 32 high-explosive hexagons and pentagons arrayed around a plutonium core like the panels of a football. The IAEA has a five-page document describing experimentation on such a hemispherical array of explosives.
According to a diplomat familiar with the IAEA documentation, the evidence also points to experiments with a two-point detonation system that represents "a more elegant solution" to the challenges of making a nuclear warhead, but it is much harder to achieve. It is used in conjunction with a non-spherical pit, in the shape of a rugby ball, or explosives in that shape wrapped around a spherical pit, and it works by compressing the pit from both ends.The IAEA has expressed "serious concern" about Iran's failure to give an account of the research its scientists have carried out.
Descriptions of "two-point implosion" warheads designs have occasionally appeared in the public domain (there are extensive descriptions on Wikipedia) and they were first developed by US scientists in the 1950s, but it remains an offence for American officials or even non-governmental nuclear experts with security clearance to discuss them.
[link to www.guardian.co.uk]
Hmmmm.....
Last Edited by Frostradamus on 11/6/2009 at 5:30 AM |
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ChildofGod
User ID: 191018
11/6/2009 5:34 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This is what Israel has been waiting for. GAME ON! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 798349
11/6/2009 5:36 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This is what Israel has been waiting for. GAME ON! Quoting: ChildofGod
they got the technology from Russia...
if it's game on, it's game on for all of us |
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ChildofGod
User ID: 191018
11/6/2009 5:59 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Isn't this huge information? Why only 2 replies? Wake up people!
Last Edited by ChildofGod on 11/6/2009 at 5:59 AM |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 773473
11/6/2009 6:06 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Rock on Iran!!!!! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 809254
11/6/2009 6:12 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
I think it was summed up best on this forum by the words...
.....TICK-TOCK.....TICK-TOCK.....TICK-TOCK.....
The way this is all coming together after months of speculation is hair raising! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 6:33 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
I have reasearched the AQ Khan network and posted about my research. I believe AQ Khan was not only selling completed nuclear devices, but electronic blueprints for advanced nuclear warhead design have been recoverd at different locations around the world.
Iran has had nuclear weapons for several years. Why the rush to attack now? |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 811710
11/6/2009 6:38 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
and here we proudly present
the united zioidiots warmongering thread again |
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lime flavoured
User ID: 811694
11/6/2009 6:39 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Israel will be getting ready to go as soon as possible I think. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 636686
11/6/2009 6:59 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Iran has had nuclear weapons for several years. Why the rush to attack now? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Because Iran is now producing fuel at a rate which can support both offensive use, and sale to terrorist groups.
Iran is also developing longer range missiles which can threaten civilizations beyond just Israel.
You don't really believe Iran has a large stockpile of nukes, do you? Do you believe they would send Bin Laden and his cronies after the infidels with Iran's one-and-only warhead, do you?
Once Iran has nukes to spare, all hell will break loose. |
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Truthseekr
User ID: 757308
11/6/2009 6:59 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
i said it before ill say it again. they talk bout war ALLLLL the time.... idc bout them... i WILL care when bombs are dropping big time.. and other sides get involved... |
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BRIEF AND TO THE POINT
User ID: 800757
11/6/2009 7:01 AM
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Isn't this huge information? Why only 2 replies? Wake up people! Quoting: ChildofGod
Yeah big info but it's early here in the US and the Aussies are drunk.
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 453926
11/6/2009 7:06 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Netanyahu leaves Sunday for Washington According to Haaretz. I don't imagine anything would happen until he returns. |
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lime flavoured
User ID: 811694
11/6/2009 7:13 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Isn't this huge information? Why only 2 replies? Wake up people!
Yeah big info but it's early here in the US and the Aussies are drunk. Quoting: BRIEF AND TO THE POINT
lol. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 7:13 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Iran has had nuclear weapons for several years. Why the rush to attack now?
Because Iran is now producing fuel at a rate which can support both offensive use, and sale to terrorist groups.
Iran is also developing longer range missiles which can threaten civilizations beyond just Israel.
You don't really believe Iran has a large stockpile of nukes, do you? Do you believe they would send Bin Laden and his cronies after the infidels with Iran's one-and-only warhead, do you?
Once Iran has nukes to spare, all hell will break loose. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 636686
AQ Khan network did a cash for clunkers nuclear weapons sale several years ago. They sold to everyone who had cash. Libya, North Korea, Iran, and yes even terrorist groups were in on it. Western corporations sold AQ Khan centrifuge equipment and other machined parts he needed to manufacture nuclear weapons. One of those companies was Halliburton operating offshore of the U.S. to shirt the law.Anyone who wanted a nuke has one. Therefore, no reason to attack Iran now.That cat's been out of the bag for years. Horse already left the barn.The end result will be we start lobbing nukes at each other. That won't end well now, will it? |
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lime flavoured
User ID: 811694
11/6/2009 7:15 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Netanyahu leaves Sunday for Washington According to Haaretz. I don't imagine anything would happen until he returns. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 453926
It could happen before then though. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 7:16 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
When is the new moon? |
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ChildofGod nli
User ID: 191018
11/6/2009 7:26 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
16 November is the new moon. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 636686
11/6/2009 7:34 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
That cat's been out of the bag for years. Horse already left the barn.The end result will be we start lobbing nukes at each other. That won't end well now, will it? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Really? What nuclear plants have been producing the fuel? How much fuel do you think Iran has stockpiled? Enough for one warhead, ten warheads, or maybe a hundred warheads?
If it's going to come down to a nuclear exchange, I say do it NOW before the die-for-allah types have a large stockpile. |
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ºCRAPº
User ID: 728223
11/6/2009 7:43 AM
 | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Netanyahu leaves Sunday for Washington According to Haaretz. I don't imagine anything would happen until he returns. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 453926
Or he will run the war from out of town like a coward. Fearing he may be taken out in war with Iran.
Those who give up a little freedom for a little security deserve neither and lose both. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 8:12 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
That cat's been out of the bag for years. Horse already left the barn.The end result will be we start lobbing nukes at each other. That won't end well now, will it?
Really? What nuclear plants have been producing the fuel? How much fuel do you think Iran has stockpiled? Enough for one warhead, ten warheads, or maybe a hundred warheads?
If it's going to come down to a nuclear exchange, I say do it NOW before the die-for-allah types have a large stockpile. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 636686
AQ Khan bought from western corporations enough centrifuges to do the enrichment. That's how Pakistan got the bomb. The problem is that AQ Khan then became the wal-Mart of nuclear weapons procurement. Everybody-and I mean everybody bought on Khan's black market.
I would say Iran has at least 12 completed nuclear weapons. They also have long range delivery systems in the shahib which is a version of the Korean Dong missile. Of course Iran is working on more, but they have had nuclear weapons for several years now.
The problem with your theory is that Russia has stated they will respond to a pre-emtive nuclear attack on Iran. What form that response takes is unknown. There are Russian and Chinese subs off both the east and west coasts of the U.S.. They are nuclear armed and ready. |
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CanadianGuy
User ID: 729560
11/6/2009 8:22 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This is what Israel has been waiting for. GAME ON! Quoting: ChildofGod
Sheet of glass.....anyone.....anyone.... |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 8:23 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This is what Israel has been waiting for. GAME ON!
Sheet of glass.....anyone.....anyone.... Quoting: CanadianGuy
Glass Factories. With lots of Crispy Critters..Lots.. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 636686
11/6/2009 8:46 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
AQ Khan bought from western corporations enough centrifuges to do the enrichment. That's how Pakistan got the bomb. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Centrifuges are used for REFINEMENT, not production. Again, I ask: From what plants did Iran get its fuel?
The problem is that AQ Khan then became the wal-Mart of nuclear weapons procurement. Everybody-and I mean everybody bought on Khan's black market. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Information and tools, not fuel.
I would say Iran has at least 12 completed nuclear weapons. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Sorry, but I've got to raise the flag... 
Why do you think Ahmadouchebag made such a big deal of advertising small quantities of fuel to the world a year or so ago? He was bragging that Iran was now capable of producing fuel. It had not been enriched at that point, but the centrifuges were spinning, and more were on the way. Iran may have gotten their hands on a nuke, but not a dozen. Whatever they may possess weapon-wise was not produced in Iran's wn basement.
The problem with your theory is that Russia has stated they will respond to a pre-emtive nuclear attack on Iran. What form that response takes is unknown. There are Russian and Chinese subs off both the east and west coasts of the U.S.. They are nuclear armed and ready. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 442346
Neither Russia, nor China is stupid enough to launch nukes at the U.S. in response to something Israel does. The U.S. also has plenty of nuclear-armed subs. NOBODY wants to go there, and it's not necessary to simply bring Iran back in line. Muslim extremists are irrational, and not to be trusted with nukes. Just ask the Russians how they would feel about a nuclear Chechnya... |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 442346
11/6/2009 9:24 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This NY Times article is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg:
"Four years after his confession, international inspectors and Western officials confronted a new mystery over who may have received blueprints for a sophisticated and compact nuclear weapon found on his network's computers. Investigators know that the network sold uranium enrichment technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, but are still pursuing leads that he may have done business with other countries.
Dr. Khan is an expert in centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium for bomb fuel, and much of the technology he sold involved enrichment. But it was only in the spring of 2008 that officials began to confirm that they had found the electronic design for a bomb itself among material seized from some of Dr. Khan's top lieutenants."
[link to topics.nytimes.com] |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 811799
11/6/2009 9:26 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
This is what Israel has been waiting for. GAME ON!
Sheet of glass.....anyone.....anyone.... Quoting: CanadianGuy
Beat me to it. 
Grid square removal service is booked and ready, SIR! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 713601
11/6/2009 10:22 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Yesterday this same article was posted but not pinned, but I will say here what I said there:
IMPLOSION Devices are used in PLUTONIUM Bombs ... NOT URANIUM Bombs.
Enrichment facilities (with centrifuges etc), such as we have been investigating, are only used to produce enriched uranium for use in URANIUM Bombs.
PLUTONIUM ONLY COMES FROM NUCLEAR REACTORS ... and Iran does NOT have one, so any plutonium that Iran has, IF it has any, HAS COME FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY!
Plutonium is made using a chemical extraction process and it is much harder to detect it being made/extracted from used reactor fuel than is the mechanical process used for making enriched Uranium.
As anyone who has ever been around a nuclear enrichment facility that deals with Uranium enrichment will know, it takes MASSIVE amounts of electric power to power all those thousands of centrifuges needed to produce enriched uranium ... thus by looking at where electric lines go and measuring how much electricity is moving along them one can easily determine if there is an enrichment process being done (one reason why Chenney and Bush were lying out their asses about Iraq trying to make Uranium enriched weapons ... there was no electricity disappearing from the Iraqi electric grid and NO electric lines going somewhere that would indicate that was where THOUSANDS of power hungry centrifuges were at work).
Plutonium extractions/enrichment is EASIER, if one gets the basic used up fuel from a power plant, BUT making the bomb is HARDER, ie: the need for sophisticated IMPLOSION types of devices/explosives.
The fact that Iran has/is working on IMPLOSION types of devices indicates that they are working on developing PLUTONIUM weapons. This is BAD.
Plutonium weapons only need about 1/10 to 1/20 the amount of material (in weight) that a Uranium weapon needs ... thus it can be made MUCH SMALLER and MUCH LIGHTER (ie: ability to be carried by a rocket versus an airplane), plus can pack a bigger "punch".
BAD NEWS ... but totally different bad news (and much worse bad news) than all the current broo ha ha over Iran's URANIUM ENRICHMENT facilities. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 781230
11/6/2009 10:40 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Iran has had nuclear weapons for several years. Why the rush to attack now?
Because Iran is now producing fuel at a rate which can support both offensive use, and sale to terrorist groups.
Iran is also developing longer range missiles which can threaten civilizations beyond just Israel.
You don't really believe Iran has a large stockpile of nukes, do you? Do you believe they would send Bin Laden and his cronies after the infidels with Iran's one-and-only warhead, do you?
Once Iran has nukes to spare, all hell will break loose. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 636686
do you ...do you??? do you???  |
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INSIDER
User ID: 811895
11/6/2009 11:03 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
IRAN HAS ACQUIRED THIS TECHNOLOGY FROM THE WEST. IRAN IS THE BIG STICK THAT THE WEST WILL USE TO HOLD ISRAEL IN CHECK. WITHIN TEN TO TWENTY YEARS, THERE WILL BE NO ISRAEL AS WE NOW KNOW IT. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 316858
11/6/2009 11:30 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
if it's game on, it's game on for all of us Quoting: Anonymous Coward 798349
Game over you mean... |
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DanfromtheHills
User ID: 671176
11/6/2009 11:42 AM | | Re: Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead...PIN! | Quote |
Hmm...
Islamic fundie slaughters unarmed US troops, Israel intercepts a huge load of arms destined for Palestien from Iran, Iran tests a nuclear device.
MSM is ramping up the reasons for an attack.
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