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Blix: Iran Years Away From Nuke Weapons
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Thursday it would take many years for Iran to achieve the capability to produce highly enriched uranium needed for an atomic bomb.
| If God has a sadistic streak in Him, the Iranians test a nuke this afternoon. |
Blix also dismissed worries about a new nuclear reactor being built in Iran, saying it was not suitable to produce weapons-grade material. "They have many years to go before they will be able to produce highly enriched uranium for a bomb and I believe there is plenty of room for negotiations," Blix said in an interview with Swedish Radio.
| And he knows this, of course. |
Blix dismissed worries about a nuclear reactor Russia is building in the Iranian city of Bushehr, which the United States fears could help Tehran develop nuclear weapons.
Iranian state television on Thursday quoted Asabollah Sabori, deputy head of Iran's nuclear agency, as saying the Bushehr reactor will become fully operational by end of 2006. "These type of reactors are not very suitable to produce plutonium. It is possible, but it is very difficult," Blix said.
"The way to go normally is to build a research reactor. The Iranians have such plans for a 40-megawatt reactor and to use heavy water, which has led to some suspicions. "But these plans are very much in their infancy and the West is not particularly worried and maybe (can) count on being able to talk the Iranians out of it."
| The EU3 having such success with such things. |
Blix, a former Swedish foreign minister, said in 2003 he believed Iraq had destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction years before, but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack.
He now heads a Stockholm-based independent retirement home commission on weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-24 |
