Mystery: Why Is Plutonium Present In Iranian Waste?

Mohammed El Baradei, Hans Blix said to be "baffled" and "befuddled."

International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.

And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

"The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Such cooperation is a "prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," it added.

As expected, the four-page report made available to The Associated Press confirmed that Iran continues uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

Both highly enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Iran is under intense international pressure to freeze activities that can produce such substances.

The Iranian Nuclear Train is rolling, and no one's doing a damn thing. Not even Bush, who's vowed to not permit Teheran to have a bomb.

Of course, it's not as if Iran is seeking a partnership with Al Qaeda or anything. As Allah (inevitably) snarks, it's impossible for Sunni and Shiite extremists to join forces against the infidels and Jews.

Where are the grown-ups?

posted by Ace at 03:15 PM

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