[extropy-chat] nuclear non-proliferation as energy strategy ?

[Robert Bradbury]

On 1/17/06, Brian Lee <brian_a_lee at hotmail.com> wrote:

> The 911 hijackers being Saudi does not mean the Saudi government supports
> terrorism. To suggest this link is misguided.


Actually, you may want to read the Wikipedia entries on Wahhabism [1].  If
one supports the spread of Wahhabism and schools that educate people to
think along the "party line" (such as the madrassas in Pakistan) and those
schools teach you to follow an irrational belief set then one is coming
dangerously close to promoting terrorism.

The discussion about Iran and the European Nuclear Reactor offer is in [2].
[3] appears to be a good source about Iran uranium mining.

It is hard to take seriously the Asefi statement quoted in [2] in light of
"Known Recoverable Resources of Uranium" [5] which lists the top countries
as Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa and Nambia.  The geology of
Iran might be close enough to Kazakhstan that they could have significant
reserves but how they expect to compete in the world market is a bit murky.
The Russians obviously have significant enrichment capability as does Japan
[5] and presumably China.  I find it very difficult to believe Iran could
compete against them if they chose to become enriched uranium exporters.

While Iran's choice to go with a heavy water reactor would allow it to use
its own (unenriched?) uranium (thus preventing an cutoff from international
suppliers) it also apparently allows it to produce plutonium at a more rapid
rate [6].

I personally find the idea that Iran wants to (or could) become a major
supplier of nuclear fuel rather stretched.

Robert

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi
2. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Iran_rejects_EU_nuclear_reactor_offer
3.
http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-operation/28445.html
4. http://www.uic.com.au/nip01.htm
5. http://www.jnfl.co.jp/english/our_business/uranium-enrichment/
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressurised_Heavy_Water_Reactor
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