Thursday, March 22, 2012

Iran nuke

This may sound a bit technical but I want to prove my idea that Iran is not trying to produce a nuclear bomb. When Uranium comes out of the ground it is primarily in two isotopes called U 235 and U 238. The U 235 is the active one used in bombs but it is only .7% so it must be separated from the U 238 to make a bomb. This is done by mixing the ore with hydrofluoric acid which changes the uranium into a gas called uranium hexafluoride. The slight difference in the weight between the two isotopes is the means to separate them. The gas is placed into a centrifuge and the lighter molecules move to the outside and this is done over and over through a series of centrifuges and slowly the concentration of U 235 is increased. When it gets to five percent it can be used in a reactor to produce electricity. It must be close to 90% to make a bomb.
This was the procedure used in the Manhattan Project by the US to make the first nuclear bomb. It took the US about 2 years to make enough U 235 for the bomb that was dropped over Japan. Iran has been working on this same procedure for ten years and using centrifuges that are more efficient they and have not yet made enough for a bomb. The only logical explanation is that they are not trying.
If that is the case what are they up to? To answer that look back to Saddam Hussein. He was selling oil for food and medical supplies but he was using the money to buy arms and build castles for himself. He wanted that process to continue. He would invite inspectors in and after a while say you can’t go there. Or sometimes just before the inspectors arrived at a site he would have a whole convoy of trucks leave the area. He wanted the world to think he was up to mischief so he could continue the rues of building WMD. It worked for many years.
Now how does this relate to Iran? Every time Iran spooks the world about a nuke bomb it creates tension which causes the price of oil to spike. Since oil sales are over 50% of Iran’s GDP they want to keep the price as high as possible.
They will keep this little game going on forever if they can so I see no need to bomb their centrifuges. Let’s not get sucked into another war.

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