[Peace-discuss] Fitgerald mtg- Nuclear Rhetoric

[pfmueth at pop.ameritech.net]

>  Playing off that i asked him what he was doing to insure the 
>security of actual nuclear material around the world (furthering 
>Nunn-Lugar Act and the G-8 initiative) rather than just worrying 
>about Saddam Hussein's desire to have a nuclear bomb.  Without 
>fissile material, all the aluminum tubes he want are inconsequential.

To improve the discourse, I must point out that the accusation 
regarding aluminum tubes was that they would be used in a centrifuge 
enriching system to produce fissile material, not that they would be 
used directly to produce bombs. ElBaradei's finding was that the 
tubes (which were probably prohibited by other sanction restrictions) 
were not strong enough for the enriching purpose and further that 
there was no evidence that Iraq was trying to get the other 
components that would be necessary to operate a large industrial 
plant that separates U-235 from U-238.

BTW when Pakistan was using centrifuges, it was very easy for the US 
to ascertain this using technical means of the day. Satellite 
imaging, etc has gotten better subsequently. There's no way Iraq 
could hide such a project .. .

cheers
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20030203/37f8c0cb/attachment.htm