Iran: We can live with U.N. uranium deal
MSNBC
02-Feb-2010 (5 comments)

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the U.N.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision in an interview with state Iranian television.
He said Iran will have "no problem" giving the West its low-enriched uranium and taking it back several months later when it is enriched by 20 percent.
The U.S. said it was ready to listen if Iran was proposing a new offer to the nuclear impasse.
Iran's decision could signal a major shift in its position on the issue.
Still, it was unclear how much of a concession the Ahmadinejad comments represented, even though he appeared to be saying for the first time that Iran was willing to ship out its enriched uranium and wait for it to be returned in the form of fuel for its Tehran research reactor.
But his time frame of four or five months appeared to fall short of the year that Western officials say it would take for Iran's enriched fuel to be turned into fuel rods for the reactor.
If that difference cannot be bridged, it could allow Iranian officials to assert that the deal failed due to Western foot-dragging, despite their readiness to accept the proposed formula of shipping out the bulk of their enriched uranium and waiting for it to be converted and returned as fuel.
Key condition not addressed
Ahmadinejad also did not address whether his country was ready to ship out most of its stockpile in... >>>

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MOOSIRvaPIAZ

The west wants zero enrichment with Iran

by MOOSIRvaPIAZ on Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:05 PM PST

and knowing Israel's problem with Iran supporting Hamas/Hezbollah the US will remain in confrontation with Iran.


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Bavafa

I agree with Abarmard, knowing the history of the West

by Bavafa on Tue Feb 02, 2010 10:28 PM PST

The West has a long history of breaking their agreements and shipping the LEU without any REAL guarantees would not be good for Iran and Iranians.

Having said this, AN goverment so far has shown not to fall for this sort of trap.  Now whether this is a trick on AN part or he really going to fallow thru with it remains to be seen.

Mehrdad


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Ari Siletz

Abarmard, the numbers argue on your side

by Ari Siletz on Tue Feb 02, 2010 09:31 PM PST

To convert Iran's 1200 kg @ 3% to 120 kg @ 20% in 4 months, it takes 80 advanced centrifuges (40 swu) or 640 low-tech ones (5 swu). Unless it takes another 8 months to make fuel rods out of the enriched product, Iran isn't asking the West to dedicate too much enrichment capacity to this extremely small project (small in comparsion to the enrichment capacity you need to run an electricity generating reactor).

 Here's a very good article explaining why Iranians really need their medical reactor to work .

Here's the uranium enrichment calculator I used for my figures. SWU= Separative work units, a measure of centrifuge power.


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Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Who cares?

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on Tue Feb 02, 2010 07:34 PM PST

 

Real issue in Iran is freedom and regime change. Getting rid of the Mullahs and IRR. Who  cares about Uranium? This is a diversion!


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Abarmard

The West will take the Uranium

by Abarmard on Tue Feb 02, 2010 06:39 PM PST

And will not give anything to Iran. I don't buy it. Since when it takes the developed countries ONE YEAR to enrich low grade to higher grade Uranium?They are going to buy time and when delivery time comes, forget about it. There must be some sort of guarantee that they will respect the deal, and I doubt the sneaky Western governments would ever do that.


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