Well, I was right. The Iranian surprise that all the rightwing pundits thought was going to be a nuclear bombblast turned out to be...a heavy water production plant. I don't have to eat my hat after all.
Not that you would know if all you read were the American media and rightwing blogs. They call it a nuclear reactor, a plant to produce plutonium, an enrichment plant, even the Iranian Manhattan Project.
I guess that's what happens when you let science become something to be scorned in favor of faith-based pontificating. Some education is in order.
Heavy water allows the use of natural non-enriched uranium to fuel a heavy-water reactor, such as the ones Canada (the world's largest producer of heavy water) have.
To my knowledge, Canada doesn't have nukes. Nor is anyone suggesting bombing it's plants.
That plutonium can be used to make a bomb, true, but it can also be used to fuel further reactors, thus cutting any reliance on uranium enrichment or foreign supplies of uranium. That's why Japan uses that type of reactor. Japan has the world's largest stockpiles of plutonium.
To my knowledge, Japan doesn't have nukes. Nor is anyone suggesting bombing it's plants.
It's fairly plain that this doesn't put any kind of "stake in the heart of the argument that Iran only wants peaceful nuclear energy", no matter what the neocon Heritage Foundation's blogger, Captain Ed, may want us to think. If it does, then it puts the same stake in the Canadian and Japanese programs too.
Furthermore, the NPT allows the production of heavy water to use in civilian plutonium reactors to any NPT member.
India, Pakistan and Israel also use heavy water reactors to produce more plutonium for nukes. None is a member of the NPT. All have nukes. No-one is suggesting bombing their plants.
More scary stories from the ultra-right. They are the true traitors. They have become a greater threat to the stability and security of the West than any terror group or "rogue state". Three failed adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon have created more instability than they were ever supposed to solve and now they want us to have another disasterous war. Meanwhile, their fearmongering at home in pursuit of their waning political power is an attempt to undermine what enables the West to be free and liberty-loving...a refusal to be ruled by fear.
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