Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report

[clear eye]

Source: The Guardian

Exclusive: Watchdog fears Tehran has key component to put bombs in missiles
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 November 2009 20.45 GMT

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

...The dossier, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program", is drawn in part from reports submitted to it by western intelligence agencies.

The agency has in the past treated such reports with scepticism, particularly after the Iraq war. But its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said the evidence of Iranian weaponisation "appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/05/iran-tested-nuclear-warhead-design

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I don't know about this one. The Guardian hasn't been one to bang the drum for imperialistic wars, but this info is sketchy. "from intelligence sources". It's reporting that the UN watchdog seems to believe it.

[arcane1]

1. Lots of "mays" and "possibles" and "suggests"

That being said, if I were Iran, I would sure as hell be working on a nuclear deterrent, asap!

[Arctic Dave]

2. Instead of one "curveball" they have three?

[malakai2]

4. Curveball, Slider, and...

Screwball

[ShortnFiery]

3. BFD ... not

:eyes:

[slackmaster]

5. Two-point implosion designs have been around since the 1940s

:hide:

[Poll_Blind]

8. I did some research and found you were correct. Not only that but diagrams...

...outlining how the process works were quite easily found on that eldritch tome of digital devilment- Wikipedia. Oh, the star-spangled horror.

It's funny. Everything the Iranians do is supposed to be just soooooo spooky. What the Indians, Israelis and Pakistanis do in their actual, existing nuclear programs never makes the news.

Odd, that.

[hunter]

6. Iran already has a two point implosion device.

The West moves against Iran, China and Russia flex their muscles, and the Western economies implode.

[Poll_Blind]

9. A stock trade, a currency sale move far faster than the fastest ICBM. n/t

PB

[daleo]

7. Some day, there could be 10 nuke states instead of 9

That would be unimaginable.

[Psephos]

10. How many of those states are run by fundy thugs in love with eschatology?

Right now the answer is zero.

[tkmorris]

11. Well, since last November anyway.

[Psephos]

12. lol n/t