Quote:
Originally Posted by XabbaRus
My point was that the Bushehr reactor isn't capable of enriching or producing enriched uranium or plutonium, so I don't get the big deal of it going nuclear.
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Technically the Bushehr reactor can produce Plutonium. Pretty much every fission reactor produces PU as a byproduct. The issue is what can the Iranian's do with the PU that will be produced at Bushehrr?
Not much. Even if they were allowed to keep the irradiated fuel rods (which is not part of the agreement) the Iranians do not have a Uranium reprocessing capability (e.g. PUREX) nor do they have a reprocessing facility (which are very hard to hide). Additionally, the Bushehr reactor will be monitored so that the burn-times of the rods will be known, which helps determine the isotope of PU being produced.
So this means
a. The Iranians will not be keeping the irradiated fuel rods with PU byproduct.
b. The Iranians will not be able to cook the rods to minimize the production of 240PU without everyone in the world knowing about it.
c. If they were able to keep them, they do not have the capability of extracting the PU.
And we have not even touched on whether Iran has the capability of constructing an implosion device. If you ask the North Koreans, they can tell you that it ain't easy.
There is a lot to worry about concerning Iran. This reactor is not one of them.