Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Iran

IAEA Predicts Iran Could Make Bomb Within Six Years

The enrichment facility at Natanz (file photo) (Fars)

April 11, 2007 -- A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran will have the capacity to build its own nuclear bomb in four to six years.

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April 11, 2007

Melissa Fleming told German Deutschlandfunk radio that this estimate still leaves time for diplomatic efforts to counter the potential threat.

Fleming said it is incomprehensible that Tehran is not opening its uranium-enrichment program to international inspection.

She also said that Iran has a basic right to operate nuclear facilities, provided that this is done in a transparent and legal way.

Fleming's remarks came days after Iran announced that it is now capable of producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale through enrichment.

Two sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on Iran over its refusal to halt such work.

"We have a schedule that's laid out in [UN Security Council] Resolution 1747 and yesterday's comments and statements by the Iranian president suggest we will be back at the Security Council dealing with this yet again," acting U.S. Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff told journalists on April 10. "We have two resolutions dealing with this issue. Yesterday's rejection of the approach laid out in those resolutions I think makes clear that Iran continues to disregard its obligations."

Western nations suspect Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Tehran denies this.

(dpa)

Talking Technical

A control panel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant (Fars)

CASCADES AND CENTRIFUGES: Experts and pundits alike continue to debate the goals and status of Iran's nuclear program. It remains unclear whether the program is, as Tehran insists, a purely peaceful enegy project or, as the United States claims, part of an effort to acquire nuclear weapons.
On June 7, 2006, RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel spoke with nuclear expert Shannon Kile of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden to help sort through some of the technical issues involved. "[Natanz] will be quite a large plant," Kile said. "There will be about 50,000 centrifuges and how much enriched uranium that can produce [is] hard to say because the efficiency of the centrifuges is not really known yet. But it would clearly be enough to be able to produce enough [highly-enriched uranium] for a nuclear weapon in fairly short order, if that's the route that they chose to go...." (more)

Tehran Says It Is Working On Advanced Nuclear Fusion

Would Light-Water Reactor Suit Tehran's Needs?

Satellite Images Raise Questions About Iran's Nuclear Program

Centrifuges And Political Spin?

How Close Is Iran To Getting Nuclear Bomb?

Iran: The Worst-Case Scenarios

THE COMPLETE STORY: RFE/RL's complete coverage of controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program.

CHRONOLOGY

An annotated timeline of Iran's nuclear program.

Many Iranians have been claiming that their access to social networks and Internet-based e-mail sites has been blocked in recent days.

Iran Tightens Internet Control

Iranians are reporting that their access to Facebook and Internet-based e-mail sites like Gmail has been blocked, without any explanation from the government. Not even the strongest antifiltering programs have penetrated the firewall, they say. Some speculate the move is related to Iran's plan to launch a national internet, which might sever Iranians' ability to access the World Wide Web. More

Web-savvy Iranian oppositionists are renowned for their ability to use proxies and other means to circumvent Tehran

Explainer: Iran's National Internet

Reports that Iran has stepped up its Internet censorship in recent days -- as evidenced by a general slowdown of the web, Internet blackouts, and the blocking of sites such as Google -- has raised speculation that the country might be testing its controversial "national Internet." More

A cardboard Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini arrives in Tehran to mark the 33rd anniversary of his triumphant return to Iran following the Islamic Revolution.

Iran's 'Cardboard Khomeini' Faces Criticism, Condemnation

Iran's "Cardboard Khomeini" is fueling a firestorm of criticism in the Middle Eastern country after cutouts of the Islamic republic's founder appeared at a number of events, and photos mocking the mock-up went viral. More