About the Iranian Uranium Enrichment: In your Opinion, Are they Pursuing a U-235 Bomb or Nuclear Power?

Question

regerugged, How Do you Know this?

tylertxan, No Doubt, the Chief Effect of a Dirty Bomb is Psychological, your Answer Demonstrates this, Realistically How Many Deaths From Radiation (Immediate and Late) Would you Expect From a Dirty Bomb? BTW, What Radiation Sources Would you Expect to Be Present?

In my Estimation, There Are Numerous Real Things to Have Concern About, Spending Time/Effort On that Which is Irrational/Imaginary is a Waste.

Old Scout, Were you Expecting Many "Thumbs Down"?

Answer 1

they are a long way off from building a bomb at this point

they dont have enough centrifuges and they have apparently been having trouble with the ones they have

on top of that they dont have a missle capable of delivering a bomb beyond the middle east (not to mention Israel or the US could retailiate with many more nuke should Iran ever launch one)

so the idea that they will build one and then actaully use it is pretty far fetched

Pakistan is the only country proven to allow the proliferation of nuclear materials and knowhow having provided the knowhow and equipment to North Korea (who had a sucessfull though small nuclear test last year) and Libya (who has since dismantled thier program)

i would be much more worried that Pakistan the country that harbors Al-Quida and the Taliban, that is run by an unstable and unpopular military dictatorship and is rife with jehadist schools and theology than i would the idea that Iran "might" be building a bomb in 6 to 10 years

Answer 2

The U.S. decides who should have nukes and who shouldn't. At this day in time Korea and Iran are bad, India and Pakistan are good. Give it 10-20 year and it will be the opposite. Our foreign policy is fluid. Back in the 80s Iran was our friend and Iraq was the enemy. When Islamic fundamentalists took over Iran, Iraq was our friend Iran the enemy. Then we gave Iraq the 'green' light to attack Kuwait, and we attacked Iraq because of this act of aggression.

Answer 3

They are a signer of the IAEA nuclear nonproliferation pact and are allowed to have nuclear energy. The IAEA has sent inspectors and have found no evidence of an attempt to create a nuclear weapon. What people don't understand is you don't need to enrich uranium much for energy, but it needs to be about 90% enriched for military use.
Even if they did make a bomb, they have never been able to build more than a one stage rocket, which would not even reach Israel. I could not imagine them just handing over a bomb to "terrorists", as you can see in Pakistan, they know a terrorist will be just as willing to use it against Iran as they would against the US or others.
All this fear of Iran is just Bush trying to further destabilize the middle east, it seems his big hope is to create WWIII.

Answer 4

The heart of the question is not whether they pursue a working atom bomb or not--the heart of the question is should they be allowed nuclear enrichment via reactor technology. Fear Iran not for the possibility of a nuclear bomb-that is years off--fear Iran if they possess highly radioactive enriched nuclear material. Iran has ties to Al Queda, islamofascist terror organizations around the world, they publicly state they want the "zionist regime erased from the pages of history". They send materials and men into Iraq to further the violence there. 1/2 pound (200 grams or so) of finely divided highly radioactive material released in New York, or London, or Berlin--will render those areas of a major city uninhabitable for a century or so. The casulties from such an event would run into the hundreds of thousands--with a long term death toll due to latent cancers running it even higher. This is the so called dirty bomb, requiring only explosives to disperse it and radioactive material. (No explosion--the radiation from the material itself is lethal). Unless you are absolutely sure than Iran will not allow these materials to fall into the hands of terrorists....... When exposed to this type of material, the gums bleed, hair falls out, skin sloughs off, agonizing pain felt as the internal organs shut down. Unless one is completely sure that Iran will not give out these materials to terrorist organizations--one risks that kind of horrible death for fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, lovers. As noted before--stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear material via force may be a bad choice--not acting and allowing them to have it however, is a much worse choice.

Answer 5

How about: both?

Also add to the mix the desire of the Iranian government to maintain a low level international crisis in order to distract their people from internal problems.

One thing to remember is that those ballistic missiles the Iranians are developing will be useless without a nuclear warhead.

Answer 6

Iran is sitting on a lake of oil. They are not interested in building an oil refinery.

Ahmendinijad has threatened to wipe Isreal off the map.

They are very clearly building a nuclear weapon.

Answer 7

Absolutely they are planning build a bomb! The Iranian leadership is insane. They will build one or more bombs and smuggle them to Israel and let some Islamist fanatic detonate them possibly causing a world war. If you believe anything else you are a fool.

Answer 8

nuclear power. i have seen no evidence to the contery.
and if they did use nuclear material to construct a dirty bomb, it would do very little actual damage, most would be caused by the fear and panic.

Answer 9

Even if they are pursuing a nuclear bomb, how does that make it worse then all the other countries that have them.

Answer 10

They are building an Islamic Bomb, and they have made it pretty clear why since 1980: to destroy Israel.