Powers consider Iran nuclear proposal

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Powers consider Iran nuclear proposal

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

ANKARA, Turkey - The United States and other world powers
are willing to consider an Iranian proposal that would allow the
country to keep some of its uranium enrichment program intact
instead of dismantling it completely, foreign government officials
said Tuesday.

On the eve of talks between top Iranian envoy Ali Larijani and
Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, the
officials — some of them diplomats, others based in their capitals
— said the discussions were key because for the first time they
could try to sidestep the deadlock over enrichment by trying to
agree on a new definition of the term.

The officials were familiar with the negotiations with Iran or
specialized in non-proliferation issues.

-snip-

The approach on both sides ahead of Wednesday's talks, however,
might make a compromise easier, because of a new willingness to
examine possible ways of redefining an enrichment freeze, said
the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity because their information was confidential.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070424/ap_on_re_mi_ea/nuclear_iran

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EDIT: Replaced original with updated AP story

Original story: World powers may relent on Iran uranium - AP

[Tom Joad]

1. They have as much right to U enrichment as anyone, they do not

have a right to nuclear weapons, which should be outlawed for all nations. Including the US. Including Israel (that introduced that monster to the Middle East)

[Sirveri]

2. Except that the Admin's fears ARE valid.

Most LEU (Light enriched uranium) used for commercial power generation is only 5% fertile, the other 95% being u-238, which is fairly inert from the neutrons perspective. However, it does eat neutrons, and those neutrons are highly unlikely to cause fission and instead change the isotope to u-239. U-239 isn't anywhere near stable and will beta minus into Neptunium 239 then into Plutonium 239. Pu239 is a nuclear weapons component, and can be much more easily chemically seperated from uranium that the uranium enrichment process. The only problem therein is that you would then need the know how for a Pu implosion style nuclear warhead, which is substantially more complex than a U235 warhead.

What I would REALLY like to see pursued is the Thorium fuel cycle. I can see India definately getting on board with this. The Thorium cycle produces U-234 for fuel, which is much more difficult to sift out if you're using traditional LEU as a seed fuel for the breed reactions. In addition to its good anti-proliferation capabilities, it increases global energy stocks by unleashing a new nuclear fuel into the energy markets. It's too bad we didn't pursue it back in the 60's when we first thought it up.