Iran fills Arak nuclear reactor core with concrete

www.bbc.com...

Iran has removed the core of its Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor and filled it with cement, according to the country's official news agency Fars.

The fate of the reactor was one of the toughest sticking points in Iran's long nuclear negotiations last year.

Under the terms of the deal, Iran agreed the heavy-water reactor would be reconfigured so it was not capable of yielding material for a nuclear weapon.

The removal of the core is one of the final steps required by the deal.

Iran continuing to make good on the nuclear deal. Now I can breath a sigh of relief that 30 year in the making nuke continues to be delayed.
Not that this will stop Netanyahu from crying wolf because according to him this Deal will give Iran this long await nuke. Seems legit.

a reply to: Swills

I never really doubted their sincerity against the acquisition of weaponized nukes, ad it is good to see they actually live up to their end of a bargain. Ghadaffi made good on his deal, and look what it got him so many years later. If anyone reneges, on the deal, it will likely be NATO member or ally.

a reply to: Swills

Oh yeah??...some will still say bomb bomb bomb Iran for good measure, remember the Qaddafi situation he gave up his nuke program and promised to be a good lil tyrannical dictator but that didn't help him in the end now did it.

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Swills

Oh yeah??...some will still say bomb bomb bomb Iran for good measure, remember the Qaddafi situation he gave up his nuke program and promised to be a good lil tyrannical dictator but that didn't help him in the end now did it.

a reply to: Swills

Yeah right, I don't believe a single word of it. Whatever. Cemented core with concrete. Ahhh ha,ha,ha

a reply to: Spider879

must not have been that tyrannical considering his people were treated better than nearly any other in Africa, The Middle East, and damn near anyone on Earth

Here are some Facts you probably do not know about Libya under Muammar Gaddafi:
• There was no electricity bills in Libya; electricity is free … for all its citizens.
• There was no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
• If a Libyan is unable to find employment after graduation, the state would pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.
• Should Libyans want to take up a farming career, they receive farm land, a house, equipment, seed and livestock to kick start their farms –this was all for free.
• Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
• A home was considered a human right in Libya. (In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.”)
• All newlyweds in Libya would receive 60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000 ) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start a family.
• A portion of Libyan oil sales is or was credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
• A mother who gives birth to a child would receive US $5,000.
• When a Libyan buys a car, the government would subsidizes 50% of the price.
• The price of petrol in Libya was $0.14 per liter.
• For $ 0.15, a Libyan local could purchase 40 loaves of bread.
• Education and medical treatments was all free in Libya. Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the Arab and African World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of charge.
• If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government would fund them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US $2,300/month accommodation and car allowance.
• 25% of Libyans have a university degree. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. Today the figure is 87%.
• Libya had no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – though much of this is now frozen globally.

Gaddafi wrote, “They want to do to Libya what they did to Iraq and what they are itching to do to Iran. They want to take back the oil, which was nationalized by these country’s revolutions. They want to re-establish military bases that were shut down by the revolutions and to install client regimes that will subordinate the country’s wealth and labor to imperialist corporate interests. All else is lies and deception.”

Many believe the NATO-led invasion of Libya was/is about oil and a vast wealth of other natural resources. Yet another critical element that few are aware of is the fact that Gaddafi had planned to introduce a single African currency made from gold. [Of this proposed African currency] Dr James Thring stated, “It’s one of these things that you have to plan almost in secret, because as soon as you say you’re going to change over from the dollar to something else, you’re going to be targeted … There were two conferences on this, in 1986 and 2000, organized by Gaddafi. … Most countries in Africa were keen.” This would have eradicated the US Dollar and Euro as trade currencies for Africa.

It would not be false to say, it is very possible the Gaddafi may have been the single most selfless leader of a country to its citizens of the last 500 years based on all that. Unfortunately, it is the Devil who has domain over the world of men.

Isn't Netanyahu due for another bogus claim of "Iran is only 3-5 years away from getting nuclear weapons" ??

a reply to: Swills

In the past Iran was an ally and its a shame we don't recognise that. Most people don't realise that the Iranians are not Arab so a cultural tie with extreme arabic countries is not automatic.

We have total double standards when we accept Saudi with all its demonic wahabism (currently busily bombing schools and hospitals with our help in Yemen, yet its in charge of human rights! Then our governments and media tells us that Iran is the devil when various groups of differing religions live in Iran in relative peace. That doesn't happen either in Israel but our government loves and sucks up indiscriminately to that remarkable demonstration of people's democracy and human rights.

Iran nor any of its citizens have been found to be found to be involved in 9/11 though both the above countries actions on that are questionable nor any other terrorist activities such as the Spanish or London train/underground station atrocity, Paris etc etc.

Our countries are at threat today because of a few elite greedy men's manipulations of our governments for their own personal power and profit. Perhaps people could wake up and start looking and naming the culprits behind the problems that initiate the current ME wars and make them face up to their actions. Unless we do, it doesn't matter if Iran has filled her reactor with concrete or balloons!

Why she would have left herself so vulnerable though to an attack from Israel who hates Iran or Saudi though seems to be questionable. But that I suspect is what America has been aching for and probably a secondary benefit of the deliberate destruction of Syria, one of her allies. That benefits Saudi's wish to be the Islamic head state and Israel who wants land for expansion, pity Damascus was not further North.

a reply to: AmericanRealist

You know most people are ignorant because they believe what they are told by their government's media puppet on the tv and papers etc.

Gadaffi was reputed to have warned Tony Blair what would happen with the jihadists if he was deposed. Blair and Bush also had the lesson from Iraq when Sadam went and now Syria is being destroyed.

We need governments who don't seem to be hell-bent on reinventing the wheel with each foreign policy they issue because the destruction repeated again and again is not acceptable even for am 8 year old not to see it.

The big question is why should ordinary people have to live in fear today from terrorist attacks when those who are actually responsible don't and are invariably surrounded by security for them, their families and assets etc ordinary citizens foot the bill for, yurt are left vulnerable?

a reply to: AmericanRealist

AmericanRealist I give the man is props but he killed and his hands is not blood free, and like so many African and Mideast leaders of his era, did not know when to quit or even groom others to take power, if I were to line him up against others of his era in Africa and the Mideast he would be better than most, Mugabe is another that started out a hero but is now what he is an old man who just can't call it quits and trust someone else to do better.

a reply to: Spider879

ok, so please do me favor then, and be very honest about it. Would you please show me a single world leader now, or in history who did NOT have blood on their hands?? Blood on your hands IS the price to pay to lead a people. I believe history shows this to be fact.

His people were content with his leadership, there did not seem to be a cry for him to step aside until NATO funded rebels and propaganda made it seem that way.

originally posted by: AmericanRealist
a reply to: Spider879

ok, so please do me favor then, and be very honest about it. Would you please show me a single world leader now, or in history who did NOT have blood on their hands?? Blood on your hands IS the price to pay to lead a people. I believe history shows this to be fact.

His people were content with his leadership, there did not seem to be a cry for him to step aside until NATO funded rebels and propaganda made it seem that way.

I would say Jimmy Carter being the closest, never fired a shot in anger.

a reply to: operayt

I guess when the IAEA releases their report you'll believe it eh?

a reply to: Swills

Not

IRAN OFFICIAL DENIES REPORT OF NUCLEAR REACTOR BEING SEALED

Jan 12, 6:25 AM EST
AP

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's deputy nuclear chief on Tuesday denied a report that the core of the country's nearly finished heavy water reactor has been dismantled and filled it with concrete as part of Tehran's obligations under the nuclear deal with the West.

Ali Asghar Zarean, in remarks to state TV said that Iran will first sign an agreement with China to modify the Arak reactor, a deal that is expected next week.

"Definitely, we will not apply any physical change in this field until a final agreement is finalized,"

a reply to: oletimer

So, more excellent BBC fact checking in it's reporting? Whodathunkit!

I resent paying the TV license and funding the BBC more with each passing day!

Who should I believe this time?

Iranian sources? or Iranian sources?

a reply to: Swills

Now I can breath a sigh of relief that 30 year in the making nuke continues to be delayed.
Not that this will stop Netanyahu from crying wolf

And you dont see it as ironic that Israel is unaccountable when it comes to their own nuclear arsenal?

If this is true it is very good news. The only way it could have been better is if they filled the core with concrete and Congress.

a reply to: operayt

Yeah right, I don't believe a single word of it. Whatever

notice...

The removal of the core is one of the final steps required by the deal.

So you think that it wont be checked that the core has been removed? Tell me again which country is currently occupying the Middle East?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
The only way it could have been better is if they filled the core with concrete and Congress.

oh man, OMG that is quote of the month right there. You have outdone yourself AM, that was #ing gold!


a reply to: Spider879

Unfortunately much of the Middle East blood is on his and, ironically from his attempt NOT to get blood on his hands. Inaction can be just as deadly as direct force, both are equally culpable as far as a leader is concerned. But some may not see it this way.

No one summed up this abysmal Carter legacy of war and terror better than the late Christopher Hitchens, who wrote the following in Slate back in May of 2007:

I once had quite an argument with the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy [the liberal Democrat from Minnesota], who maintained adamantly that it had been right for him to vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 for no other reason. “Mr. Carter,’ he said, ‘quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had.”

Hitchens added:

In the Carter years, the United States was an international laughingstock. It was because, whether in Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq — still the source of so many of our woes — the Carter administration could not tell a friend from an enemy. His combination of naïveté and cynicism — from open-mouthed shock at Leonid Brezhnev's occupation of Afghanistan to underhanded support for Saddam in his unsleeping campaign of megalomania — had terrible consequences that are with us still. It's hardly an exaggeration to say that every administration since has had to deal with the chaotic legacy of Carter's mind-boggling cowardice and incompetence.

You may say "but he never pulled the trigger (metaphor here)" , but then again, neither did Gaddafi. Fact is, the Libyan citizens had it better then even Americans when considering actual quality of life, and not measured by the volume of Ipad's, dishwashers, smart phones, or video games and Hollywood.

a reply to: xuenchen

Lol, did you ever think the day would come where you would ask yourself such a thing?!