Monday, January 2, 2012

Iran Produced Its Furst Nuclear Fuel Rod

Iran "is getting desperate and will take some drastic step", according to Bloomberg News.

From Bloomberg News (1/2/2012):

Gold and silver gained after reports that Iran produced its first nuclear fuel rod, spurring investors to buy the precious metal as a haven.

Gold for immediate delivery advanced 0.2 percent to $1,566.27 an ounce as of 2:50 p.m. in New York. Silver was 0.1 percent higher at $27.8625 an ounce. Gold rose 10 percent last year, the 11th straight annual gain, and silver dropped 9.9 percent.

A domestically made rod was inserted into the core of Tehran’s atomic research reactor after performance tests, the Iranian Students News Agency reported today, citing the country’s atomic energy agency. The Tehran reactor produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment, according to Mehr news agency. Nuclear fuel rods contain pellets of enriched uranium that provide fuel for nuclear power plants.

“Iran’s nuclear plans have raised fears that it is getting desperate and will take some drastic step,” Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, a director at Commtrendz Risk Management Services Pvt., said by telephone from Mumbai. “More sanctions are expected from the U.S. and other nations. This will have a positive impact on gold prices as ideally people would try to buy gold.”

The U.S. and allies are increasing pressure on Iran to halt what they say may be a covert nuclear weapons program. Sanctions signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 31 aim to deter dealings with the Iranian central bank, and the European Union is considering a ban on imports of oil from Iran, the world’s third-largest oil exporter. Iran denies seeking to develop atomic weapons.
Reserves Climb

Gold reserves increased in November in Belarus, Turkey, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Mauritius and Morocco, and declined in Mexico, according to data on the International Monetary Fund’s website. Turkey’s holdings increased to 5.758 million ounces from 4.429 million in October, and Mexico’s declined to 3.413 million ounces from 3.417 million, the data showed. Morocco’s holdings were 710,000 ounces in November compared with 708,800 in October, according to the data.

I wonder what has happened to the Stuxnet infection in Iran's nuke facilities.

By the way, Iran's first commercial nuclear power plant, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on the Persian Gulf, uses the VVER reactor, a Russian (Soviet)-designed pressurized water reactor. Dr. Jassem al-Awadi, a geologist at the University of Kuwait, says the plant sits at the junction of three tectonic plates.

One thing from history is very clear. People never learn from history, even the most recent one.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stuxnet is no longer an issue, old news. One would think that it has taught the Iranians to air-gap SCADA systems, too.
Also, Bloomberg writers are stupid scaremongers. Remanufacturing fuel is NOT an easy, cheap or practical way of making bombs.

Anonymous said...

Whoever wants to fear-monger about Iran should consider this as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

I'm a million percent against anything nuclear, but the childish parroting of US media cliches against Iran only obscures the real power relations in the "Middle East" (British colonial term).

To be clear: I am pro one-state solution in Israel/Palestine, and many people whose ancestors perished in the Holocaust have nowhere else to go should stay there and lead a good life. However, the current set-up of Israel is that of a colonialist state which treats Palestinians as dirt. Israel will get abandoned one day by the US, which is only bound to its own interest, and then the chickens will come home to roost. It could have been different...

Of course, I am ready for the barrage of outrage following this post. Just as a reminder: I'm an agnostic/communist female who speaks both Persian and Arabic without being from the area.

John said...

Given that Obama has expanded the U.S. military in ways Bush could only dream of and that nations like Japan do not stand against U.S. militarism, Iran needs nuclear weapons as the only possible check on U.S. aggression. And you need nuclear reactors to make nuclear weapons. Of course, it is not cheap. Nuclear energy is not cost effective. Neither are nuclear weapons. Einstein argued that one can make no distinction between nuclear energy production and nuclear weapons production. Of course, I am against both, but what should nations like Iran (and North Korea) do that have have been victims of imperialism and who face the real threat of U.S. invasion in the immediate future?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@John, I don't know. But certainly not building a nuke plant on a triple junction.

Anonymous said...

With the Rothchilds being the Major Stock holders of all Nuclear plants world wide, in Japan they made sure they did not lose money, as old man Rothchilds said, he who controls all the gold makes all the rules, they find themselves in a bad spot, so they get laws passed to put down any form of protest by Americans with the NDAA Act now law, Americans are all now a terrorist, 9 men & a camel has cost Americans more freedoms lost, the Bill Of Rights was buried on 12/31/2011 by Obama. 2012 will be a trying time on the world, very trying for Americans. In 1560 a young Queen of England has a fleet of ships slip in to replace the coinage that had been debased, those holding those coins had to trun them in at a huge loss of any wealth they had & the Queen made a huge profit, does this sound like the dollar, Nixon set in motion the full debasement of the dollar, will wake up to the same fate one day soon?

Anonymous said...

On Iran hear what Seymour Hersh has to say.

no6ody said...

This is kabuki theater, BoomBlerg style. The Iranians want nuke power so they can sell more nat gas and oil and make even more money. (Money makes people blind to earthquake faults.) If Iran wanted nuclear bombs, they would have sent a suitcase full of money to Russia or Pakistan.

The big reason for this crappy article is in this line from BoomBlerg: "Gold rose 10 percent last year, the 11th straight annual gain, and silver dropped 9.9 percent." I remember last year at this time when silver registered an 80% year over year gain, yet they ran an article that featured a bunch of other less worthy investments and didn't mention silver at all. Since when are 0.2% changes in a volatile market any sort of news but boring, useless, and trivial? Short-term and long-term, the PMs are going higher as the little paper rectangles are reverting to their intrinsic value. No6ody has spoken.

Atomfritz said...

I wonder why all western MSM point at Bushehr and associate it with nuclear weapons. Israel, for example, did a very different thing and the west closed both eyes. Double standards. I agree with anon 3:52.

Bushehr indeed could be a nuclear weapon, but in a different manner than the MSM suggest.
If the West attacks Iran, the religious armageddon fanatics could blow up Bushehr to hit the Western colonies (Saudi, Kuwait, Iraq) and make the Gulf a no-go area for foreign warships. Just remember how fast the USS Ronald Reagan fled when it got near the Fukushima plume.

Anonymous said...

You're taking your news from the "official" general media, owned by the israeli zionists.

They WANT a war with Iran. They hate the world with such a VIRULENT HATRED - they'll do anything, to convince the rest of the world to a nuclear conflagration, to KILL ourselves.

You, newspaper people, actually THINK that you will be taken in by the Elite, your Masters, in a nuclear war? No. No. YOu're simply "peasants" same as us. They'll close the doors of their fortress in your faces, and set the dogs on you!


So, continuing, to spread lies, misinformation, et all, for your Masters, the Soul-less creatures in israel, is hardly going to help you survive, in any problems you have.

When the fortress dors are closed in your faces, you'll have your backs against the walls, to face the same horrors, that the rest of us will.

From one "peasant" to another.

Atomfritz said...

Very interesting information, thanks anon 3:31.

To think one step further, who rules Israel?
Who paid, for example, the erection of the Supreme Court of this country that has NO constitution (!). And so on.

Anyway, Bushehr is a real problem.
A hybrid mixture of 1970 German Technology and 1990 Russian Technology.
Many parts more than 35 years old when the reactor got in operation, and falling apart like that antiquated pump that disintegrated now.
Built on a seismically critical place.
And, around the corner, the rogue state of Israel...

Atomfritz said...

OT: More news from nuclear Orient:

The Dimona reactor, almost 50 years old, will be shut down when belligerent actions begin.
Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz (one of the major ones there) reports:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-to-shut-down-dimona-nuclear-reactor-should-war-break-out-1.405151

Western media practically _never_ report about this methusalem reactor, reprocessing plant and nuke bomb factory in the Negev desert, inmidst of a crisis zone.

(found via a link on radioactive.com.eu)

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