Edition

Iran's Atomic Dreams

IN THIS ISSUE: Atomic dreams, a troubling shift in Iran's nuclear program, US blueprint for new nuclear arms, NISA: no criticality in Fukushima reactor 2, N. Korea says new reactor to start soon, Russia dismisses US antimissile test proposal as propaganda.

Published on November 10, 2011
 

Atomic Dreams

Mark Hibbs | Foreign Policy

Ahmadinejad

The International Atomic Energy Agency's newest report on Iran's nuclear program, a document that has been quietly under preparation for several months, brings forth evidence that the Islamic Republic has covered a lot of technical ground to develop a nuclear weapon over the past two decades.

But it stops short of the most incendiary charge: that Iran's political leadership masterminded a secret program to possess atomic arms. In view of the wealth of incriminating detail that the IAEA presented in the report, that omission may be the only face-saving argument left to Tehran to permit diplomacy to continue as usual.

And because the report draws no conclusions about how far along Iran's nuclear weapons program is, it will be irrelevant to Israel's calculus of whether to attack Iranian nuclear installations. Since 2008, Iran has described allegations that it is working on nuclear weapons as based on falsified intelligence, similar to the kind that led the United States in 2002 to mislead the IAEA and the world that Iraq had resumed its defunct nuclear weapons program.     Full Article



Follow the Nuclear Policy Program
 RSS News Feed Facebook Twitter
Footer information begins here
More from Proliferation News


Council on Foreign Relations
The International Atomic Energy Agency's latest report says that Iran "is working on research and development of nuclear weapons in a very systematic way" but falls short of confirming that Iran actually has such weapons. Mark Hibbs, a leading expert on nuclear development, says "the impression you have is that all of these things together look like a nuclear weapons program. That's of great concern."     Full Article

Elaine M. Grossman | Global Security Newswire
The U.S. Defense Department expects by the end of the year to update its plans for the nation's nuclear weapons posture, potentially setting the stage for further reductions in the arsenal, a senior defense official said last week. The so-called "NPR Implementation Study" will build on last year's Nuclear Posture Review, a major Pentagon-led assessment of forces, strategy and readiness.     Full Article

 
 
Related News
Japan Times
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Monday it supports Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s view that the recent detection of radioactive xenon at one of the crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was not a result of a sustained nuclear chain reaction, as earlier feared. NISA said what is known as "spontaneous" fission created the xenon-135.     Full Article

Asia One News
North Korea will soon start operating a new home-built nuclear reactor, its official news agency said Thursday in a commentary one year after Pyongyang publicly disclosed the plant. "The day is near at hand when a light-water reactor entirely based on domestic resources and technology will come into operation in the DPRK," the agency said.     Full Article

 
 
Global Security Newswire
Russia on Tuesday appeared to turn down an invitation made last month by the United States to participate in a U.S. missile interceptor trial, according to an Interfax report. The offer was extended by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency as a means of reassuring Moscow that U.S. missile interceptors pose no threat to Russia's long-range nuclear weapons.     Full Article
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.