Thursday, March 03, 2005

More from the "Hate to say I told you so" department..

This from a country who Russia wants to give nuclear material to for peaceful purposes:

Iran is said to build atom storage tunnels
The Associated Press, Friday, March 4, 2005

Facility would be resistant to an attack
VIENNA Iran is using reinforced materials and tunneling deep to store nuclear components - measures meant to make the facility resistant to "bunker busters" and other special weaponry in case of an attack, diplomats said Thursday.

The diplomats spoke as a 35-country meeting of the UN atomic agency ended more than three days of deliberations focusing on Iran and North Korea, another nation of nuclear concern.

An agency review read at the meeting faulted Tehran for starting work on the tunnel at Isfahan without informing the International Atomic Energy Agency beforehand.

The review said Iran, following prodding by the IAEA, has over the past few months provided "preliminary design information" on the tunnel in the central city that is home to the country's uranium enrichment program, and said construction began in September "to increase capacity, safety and security of nuclear material."

The IAEA also said Iran was ignoring calls to scrap plans for a heavy water reactor and continuing construction. Commenting on that Thursday, a diplomat said satellite imagery had revealed that work in the city of Arak had progressed to the point where crews "were pouring the foundations."

Spent fuel from heavy water reactors can yield significant amounts of bomb-grade plutonium.


The Ice Palace opines....
I've already stated my reservations regarding the deal made between Russia and Iran (with U.N. blessings, of course). This story does nothing to allay those reservations, nor should it allay the reservations that anyone should have regarding giving radical mullahs access to the nuclear genie.


-Psycmeistr-