Iran moves fuel above ground

[FireGarden]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/world/middleeast/27iran.html?ref=world

So imagine the surprise of international inspectors almost two weeks ago when they watched as Iran moved nearly its entire stockpile of low-enriched nuclear fuel to an above-ground plant. It was as if, one official noted, a bull’s-eye had been painted on it.

Why take such a huge risk?

[...] “There’s no technical explanation, so there has to be some other motivation,” one senior administration official who studies the Iranian strategy said after a White House briefing last week following the atomic agency’s revelation.

The strangest of the speculations — but the one that is being talked about most — is that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is inviting an attack to unify the country after eight months of street demonstrations that have pitted millions of Iranians against their government.

[...] But the simplest explanation, that the Iranians had no choice, has its proponents. The fuel is stored in one big, specialized cask. When someone ordered that the fuel begin being fed into the giant centrifuges for further enrichment, engineers moved it to the only spot available — the exposed plant. Or, as one American intelligence official said, “You can’t dismiss the possibility that this is a screw-up.”

 

[Pardalis]

Maybe the US and Israel won't need to bomb Iran afterall. Iran is going to save them the trouble and go Chernobyl before then.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Maybe the US and Israel won't need to bomb Iran afterall. Iran is going to save them the trouble and go Chernobyl before then.

All very well but the US will be blamed anyway and the majority of the planet will believe it to be true.

 

[casebro]

What is the prevailing wind direction for the above ground storage lot? What happens if somebody blows it sky high?

What kind of political gain would there be if the Iranians blew it themselves, and blamed ___ ?

 

[rjh01]

<snip>

What kind of political gain would there be if the Iranians blew it themselves, and blamed ___ ?

This is not 100% far fetched. Similar things have been thought about in the past. Here is one recent news report

Twenty military officers have been formally charged in Turkey with attempting to overthrow the government.
<snip>
Reports of the alleged plot first surfaced in the liberal Taraf newspaper, which said it had discovered documents detailing plans to bomb two Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane over the Aegean Sea.

Ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8531486.stm

As to your question it would benefit some extremists in Iran, as in the anti USA anti Israel people.

If the Iranians decide they cannot make a bomb then this is what they could do instead. They need to make several. One to explode to make sure it works and to tell the world that they have a bomb and then one or more to use.

 

[FireGarden]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6203MR20100301

Iran has moved a stock of enriched uranium back underground after drawing what it needed to refine the material up to 20 percent purity, Tehran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

 

[The Fool]

low-enriched nuclear fuel?

how would you destroy that with bombs? If you bombed it they would just go and pickup it all up after its been scattered a bit by the bombs.....surely?

 

[McHrozni]

low-enriched nuclear fuel?

how would you destroy that with bombs? If you bombed it they would just go and pickup it all up after its been scattered a bit by the bombs.....surely?

Speaking hypothetically, if you put a large amount of conventional explosives below it - say 50 tons of TNT - it would be scattered enough for any such operation to require literarily a fine comb. Health effects to the population would be, well, interesting, but I don't really see the Iranian mules as particularily caring for the well-being of their people.

McHrozni