stevo, I'm telling you that the folks, Joseph and Rademaker, appointed to "convey" the message of fear and concern are probably the best the administration can muster:
Quote:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...top_world_news
Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says (Update1)
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. State Department official said.
``Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifuges,'' Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow. ``Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days.''
In fact, Iran will move forward to ``industrial scale'' uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at Natanz, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday the country had succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time, using 164 centrifuges. That announcement defies demands by the UN Security Council that Iran shut down its nuclear program this month.
The U.S. and other countries fear Iran is pursuing a nuclear program to make weapons, while Iran says it is intent on purely civilian purposes, to provide energy. Saeedi said 54,000 centrifuges will be able to enrich uranium to provide fuel for a 1,000-megawat nuclear power plant similar to the one Russia is finishing in southern Iran, AP reported.
``It was a deeply disappointing announcement,'' Rademaker said of Ahmadinejad's statement.
Weapons-Grade Uranium
Rademaker said the technology to enrich uranium to a low level could also be used to make weapons-grade uranium, saying that it would take a little over 13 years to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon with the 164 centrifuges currently in use. The process involves placing uranium hexafluoride gas in a series of rotating drums or cylinders known as centrifuges that run at high speeds to extract weapons grade uranium.
Iran has informed the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to construct 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz next year, Rademaker said.
``We calculate that a 3,000-machine cascade could produce enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon within 271 days,'' he said.
While the U.S. has concerns over Iran's nuclear program, Rademaker said ``there certainly has been no decision on the part of my government'' to use force if Iran refuses to obey the UN Security Council demand that it shuts down its nuclear program.
Rademaker is in Moscow for a meeting of his counterparts from the Group of Eight wealthy industrialized countries. Russia chairs the G-8 this year.
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The "comments" of Mr. Joseph, and his underling, Mr. Rademaker, who I have posted about in <a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpost.php?p=2051207&postcount=36">another thread</a>, are ABSURD.
Their "credentials" as "truth tellers" are equally suspect. If there was a credible argument as to the nuclear "threat" that Iran actually poses, these two stooges would be the last two who I would want to hear making it.
I have to assume that these two jerks and their rhetoric is the best "evidence" that this administration can come up with. It makes it seem like a redundant and pathetic joke, rather than a serious threat apparaisal from respected experts in our govenrment.
Our "officials" don't act like we are "at war", or that there are any threats of actual meirt, rising to a level that supercedes my concern that they are destroying our currency's purchasing power, in record time....so....until they do....I have to regard this as a nonsense performance that precedes another illegal war of aggression.