Daniel Ben-Shmuel at
The Jewish Fist reports on the
Russian announcement that Iran's nuclear plant is going online. Despite assurances to the pResident from the Russian leadership that it would not bring Iran's nuclear reactor online this year, they will begin installing nuclear fuel rods at the Busheir nuclear plant on Saturday, August 21. Once the rods are installed there will be no way for Israel to attack the plant, and its outlying nuclear weapons facilities, without the potential for a widespread release of nuclear fallout.
It is important to note two things.
- When Israel bombed Iraq and Syria's nuclear plants it was done before any fuel rods were installed.
- This nuclear plant can be used to produce weapons grade plutonium.
In terms of radioactive fallout, attacking Iran's underground centrifuges poses less of a regional threat. Delaying an attack could have been a continued posture for a few more months. As of Saturday this will no longer be the case.
Complicating matters are
reports that Russia has installed S-300 anti-missile batteries in Abkhazia on the Black Sea, ostensibly in anticipation of an Israeli attack.
Friends, Israel's red line is here. The world's red line is here. After Saturday there will be no going back. Make no mistake; it will not simply be Israel in jeopardy. All of the world will be ensnared and in danger.
Let us not simply blame the current pResident for this. His predecessors, and the world community also stood idly by while Iran pushed forward with its nuclear aspirations. All of this is now out of our hands. All we can do now is pray.
May HaKadosh Borachu grant wisdom and strength to Israel's leaders to do what must be done. Should they be called upon to strike Iran, may He strengthen and protect the men and women of the IDF and bring success to their operations. May He be a shield for all of Israel, bringing His people's enemies down to utter ruin.
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4 comments:
I never considered that reactor a threat considering the fuel was supplied by Russia and once spent, would be sent back to Russia for reprocessing. It takes 3 years for the fuel to "cool down" before in can be reprocessed into usable fuel rods. Fuel rods are low yield uranium processed to about 3.5%. Iran can't make fuel rods for that reactor, only Russia can.
The fuel rods stay in the reactor for some period of time before they have to be replaced. Since Russia has to do the reprocessing, it's doubtful it'd give Iran the Pu byproducts.
If Busheir isn't an issue for Israel, the 8/21 date is irrelevant. If it is an important issue, is 4 days enough? Considering what Russia has put into that power plant, would Israel risk their ire by blowing it up?
Iran's nuke efforts must be stopped but I'm not sure blowing up that reactor is the way to do it.
If we were dealing with the realm of the "normal" it wouldn't be that big a deal...or would it? Sure, Russia SAYS it will be reprocessing the fuel rods. They also said they would not bring the reactor online this year. Now they say they will have it up and running by mid-September. The agreements of Russians and Iranians are worth about as much as the paper they are written on. And who exactly is going to verify this...the IAEA? That's like trusting UNIFIL to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.
There are a lot of "ifs" and wishful thinking in letting this take place.
The Russians knew going in that this was going to be a dangerous prospect. Russia's equivalent of Excelon is building it. I would imagine that they expect to be paid by Iran whether the plant is destroyed or not. As long as they get paid what does Russia care? But can Iran pay with it's economy rapidly going down the crapper?
Ask yourself this. If Israel moved against Iran's nuclear program would they simply leave the plant intact because of a reprocessing agreement with Russia? Of course they wouldn't. Is Russia going to go to war with Israel over Busheir? I doubt it. Will Israel come out of this unscathed? Not with Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, and Turkey as Iran's satellites.
A point of no return arrives on Saturday. No analysis is good, and every action is potentially bad. Doing nothing is potentially the worst option.
We are dealing with a regime that believes that it is okay for every Iranian man woman and child to die in the service of Islam. If memory serves it was the Ayatollah who said Iran could burn if it helped Islam.
I just read George Will's latest. He mentioned Israel would go after Iran within 2 years. Huh? If the Busheir reactor is important, it's now or never. Iran has other facilities that produce Pu. We keep hearing about U enrichment but nothing about the possibility of a Pu-based bomb. We also aren't being told about Iran's ICBM capability.
So, I agree, take it all out ASAP. Maybe the US will be forced to help.
All kinds of rumors are circulating. The main concern with Busheir is that no one knows for certain whether Iran possesses the technology to extract the plutonium from the spent rods before they are turned over to the Russians.
It has also been announced that Iran will begin construction of its next enrichment facility.
The United States and Israel have been uncharacteristically quiet about the Russian announcement. There's no telling what will happen.
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