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It’s not radiation-poisoned, it’s just sleeping!

Since I hadn’t heard from my friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a while, I figured he must be busy with his new uranium-enrichment hobby. My suspicions weren’t alleviated by this excellent piece in the New York Review of Books. What I hadn’t realized is that Mahmoud is quite the joker! And no, I’m not talking about the obvious gag of funding a peaceful nuclear energy program by oil exports — I’m talking about the following Pythonesque routine, which I’m not making up:

IAEA: Iran, if your nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, then why did we find traces of 36%-enriched uranium at the Natanz facility, whereas you’d only need 3% enrichment for a reactor?

Iran: Oh, that’s just because the equipment we bought from A. Q. Khan on the black market was contaminated.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 10:44 pm and is filed under The Fate of Humanity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “It’s not radiation-poisoned, it’s just sleeping!”

  1. Anonymous Says:
    Comment #1 May 11th, 2006 at 9:31 am

    Not that I’m suggesting that Iran is on the up and up about their enrichment goals. However, Reactors typically use material enriched up to 5% (depending on reactor type).

    As Iran would have been hard pressed to enrich over 20% with their current equipment – it is possible that the trace U findings were actually contamination.

  2. Scott Says:
    Comment #2 May 11th, 2006 at 9:39 am

    However, Reactors typically use material enriched up to 5% (depending on reactor type).

    OK, thanks.

    it is possible that the trace U findings were actually contamination.

    Well, of course! One doesn’t expect A.Q. Khan’s black-market equipment to be 100% clean…