posted on Apr, 18 2007 @ 09:04 AM
“Made in the USA” is a huge oversimplification.
In the 1950’s many nations desired to have nuclear programs after Eisenhower began to push the Atoms for Peace initiative inside the UN. It is true
the Shaw was looking into nuclear development at this time, but the Shaw’s goals were set for certain domestic production levels by the year 2000 by
seeking current and future aid of nuclear nations (including the US).
Under the Shaw, Iran did have the help of the US in the early 1970’s to begin civilian programs…but Germany and France were also aiding in the
physical creation of a domestic nuclear power programs,
all after Iran signed the NPT. Very soon after, the revolution soon occurred and a
vast majority of Iran’s fledgling nuclear scientists fled.
Also at the time of the revolution, only two partial plants existed and were under construction; these were under
German contract at Bushehr
(not US). All contracts were nullified or cancelled following the revolution…including dual use items coming from the US and Europe.
China, Pakistan (mostly Khan) as well as North Korea picked-up the ‘cooperation packages’ from here and Russia began openly negotiating to
complete the Bushehr reactors in the 1990’s.
However, it was Iran that operated outside the NPT by opening undisclosed plants, one in Arak the other in Natanz during this entire period. And
illegally importing nuclear related items and researching extraction etc. These were not verified until 2003 and many, many of issues have not been
resolved as of 2007.
Additionally, Iran admitted to having imported from China 1.8 tons of nuclear material (UF6, UF4 and UO2) used to manufacture uranium metal,
which is essential in weapons production. During its meetings with IAEA officials in August 2003, Iran for the first time provided evidence of its
technical violations of the NPT by revealing that in the 1990s, it had carried out 113 uranium conversion experiments involving the production of
uranium metal from imported UF4 and the production of UF4 from imported UO2, as well as laboratory-scale experiments in the 1980s involving the
production of heavy water.
---[snip]---
Mohamed El-Baradei stated, "Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement"
NPI
It can easily be argued that it is Iran that has dug and is continuing to “dig their own hole”, much more so than laying the blame at the feet of
the US.
All the annual and GG IAEA reports on Iran are available online...
mg