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Analysis: Not-so covert Iran war buys West time, raises tension
A backseat passenger on a motorcycle weaving through the crush of Tehran’s morning traffic reaches out and places a small magnetic device on the door of a silver-grey Peugeot 405.
When the directional bomb explodes seconds later, blasting through the sedan’s door and instantly killing nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a 32-year-old father of one, the motorcycle has already vanished, accelerating into the ranks of the Iranian capital’s rush hour.
The proficiency of the latest assassination to deplete Iran’s community of atom specialists suggests that violent actions by one or more of Iran’s adversaries form an increasingly active – and public – element in a multifaceted international drive to impede Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran successful in producing and testing nuclear fuel rods, state TV says
Iran has successfully produced and tested fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants, state television reported on Sunday, in a snub to international demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work.
The rods, which contain natural uranium, were made in Iran and have been inserted into the core of Tehran’s research nuclear reactor, the television reported.
Nuclear fuel rods contain small pellets of fuel, usually low-enriched uranium, patterned to give out heat produced by nuclear reaction without melting down.
“This great achievement will perplex the West, because the Western countries had counted on a possible failure of Iran to produce nuclear fuel plates,” the Tehran Times newspaper said.
The development was announced at a time of growing tension between Western powers and Iran after the U.N. nuclear agency reported in November that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon. Secret research to that end may be continuing, it said. (Photo: Caren Firouz/Reuters/Files)
Analysis: Iran will have bomb on months: studies
Iran may be two months away from being able to create a nuclear bomb and there is little the international community can do to stop it, two new studies say.
Using data released last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles and the operations of its nuclear program, U.S. weapons expert Gregory Jones calculates it could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb in just eight weeks.
“It is unclear what actions the U.S. or Israel could take (short of militarily occupying Iran) that could now prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons,” Mr. Jones wrote in a study published last week by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre. (Photo: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)
Japan Earthquake Graphic: The newly expanded nuclear evacuation zone
With the discovery of radioactive water at a second reactor at the Fukushima nuclear complex, the fear of a possible meltdown and of serious contamination of the countryside northeast of Tokyo has escalated.
Highly radioactive water leaks from Japanese nuclear plant
Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan’s crippled nuclear complex, the plant’s operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
National Post front page for March 17, 2011
‘Fukushima 50′ risk lives to prevent meltdown
Next 48 hours will be decisive’
Black swan-like events leave markets confused
Our complete coverage of the Japan earthquake
Graphic: How much radiation is being released by Japan’s runaway reactors?
Japan continues to struggle to control a number of nuclear reactors whose cooling systems were damaged in last week’s devastating quake and tsunami. But just how much radiation is being pumped out by the malfunctioning reactors in Japan? The graphic above puts the numbers in context.
Japan Earthquake Graphic: Monitoring a meltdown
Photos: Crisis deepens in Japan
Japan Earthquake Graphic: The battered coastline
Graphic: Nuclear plant blasts
Graphic: Meltdown fears: Inside a boiling water reactor
Graphic: Disaster in Japan The Aftermath
Videos of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami
Jonathan Kay: Imagining an Iranian ICBM — The ambitious nature of Teharan’s weapons program suggests Iran wants to do more than just take on Israel: It wants to become a full-fledged global superpower. (Illustration by Richard Johnson)
