Thursday
21Sep2006
Iranian President's News Conference
Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 08:17PM Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a news conference in New York today and was asked about Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad said,
"Well, we are not seeking the nuclear bomb."
Right, and there was no holocaust.
One must wonder why Iran needs nuclear energy for power, as Ahmadinejad says, if Iran produces 3.979 million barrels per day of oil making it the worlds top 5th oil producer, and is one of the top 10 natural gas producers in the world. Doesn't sound like they need nuclear power for energy.
The full text of the press conference can be read HERE.
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Reader Comments (24)
All of this brings to the fore, once again, our shameful lack of a serious effort to develop sustainable renewable fuel sources.
If we really want to address our security, we should immediately embark on a new Manhattan Project (aptly named in this instance) to develop just such sources, and the capacities to store such energy.
I wonder why this isn't being done already......
Cal, I couldn't believe Ahmadinejad when I heard him through the translator. He's so cocky. That little lady translator has a chip on her shoulder, too.
Your comment contains a classical example of linguistic erosion, so typical of trouble times.
"Thermonuclear weapons" are explosive devices that use fusion, they are commonly referred to as "H-bombs". Whether Iran is actually or not seeking to use nuclear technology for weapons is a different question but what they are accused of is developing "nuclear weapons". The latter use fission of U235 or Pu239 and are commonly referred to as "A-bombs".
The step from an A-bomb to an Hbomb is rather a gigantic leap forward or in your case a leap of your overheated imagination.
Amy:
"The little lady translator had a chip on her shoulder"???
Try and keep it real...
You're right Gert. Iran, who openly declares they'd like us to die is in no way trying to make nuclear weapons. I'm sure they just want the energy, even if they are sitting on a galaxy of oil.
I'm glad you agree with me about the Manhattan Project approach. See, we can agree on something!
Unfortunately, no one in Washington seems to be able to look beyond their own pockets. And that's on both sides of the aisle.
the US has all we need to be energy independant, there is no reason for us to buy oil from self-important little tin god dicators who want US dollars to destroy us with, we don't even need any new technology, we just need the will from our leaders to lead, not follow special interest groups. a power plant, oil well, refinery etc. cannot be even proposed without a half million lawsuits and kooky EPA beurocrats screaming hysterically about some inchworm being inconvinienced.
we need to quit buying the gun for our enemies to kill us with, a little change in priorities is in order.
Come on, we're talking nukes here.
Manhattan Project.
A-bomb.
WWII.
Don't you know how we figured out so fast what it takes to make 'em?
Sorry Gert, you tried to make fun of my correct knowledge of a particulate in nuclear weaponry. However, your blunder only diminishes your credibility, would get you laughed at in any classroom, and although I have to say you had seemed to try hard to trick people here you had some type of intelligence, nice try.
Your definition would get you an F- in any University identification test because contrary to your flumsy-wrong definition - a simplistic but correct distinction between the two can accurately be describes as - thermonuclear bombs use a hydrogen atom in which to split (H-bomb), and uses an advanced method of imploding the fission material which makes it stand apart from the A-bomb, by producing a more powerful yield; as opposed to a carbon atom which are used in atom-bombs (A-Bomb), and use single and simple methodological implosion technique. Both use nuclear fuels ( nuclear fission material) in which you haphazardly inserted to try trick people into thinking you actually had something to say, to try to make me look bad.
Maybe what you were trying to get across was that H-bombs are not anymore harder to produce then A-bombs today (possible 30 years ago). All the general components and designs are on the internet. Only the enrichment processing is seen today as the longevity factor in obtaining large quantities of high-density fission material for use in hydrogen bombs. That doesn’t seem a problem for Iran. Once Iran gets Enriched uranium processing plants working fast enough ( they are already working them now) , and they have ordered more and already have received from Russia ( billions of dollar’s worth) and China the components for these processing plants and on a large scale production factor, they can then turn Uranium into Plutonium in large enough quantities and fast enough to use for H-bomb production in the near future.
I do not see Iran like Pakistan who we believe doesn’t have thermonuclear capabilities due to money issues; Iran has much Oil to sell to the world – they are rich compared to Pakistan in resources – thus wealth - in which to purchase more of these processing components to make thermonuclear weaponry more easily – as I correctly stated. As far as knowledge in which you lack much of Gert, if you look at places Like Harvard University, or many of the other fine academic institutions in America, you will find many Iranian graduate nuclear physicists who are tops of their classes and can understand how to make a thermonuclear bomb – something that you cannot even explain – which is quite pathetic Gert.
My definition may have been simplistic but broadly speaking correct: the term "thermonuclear" comes from the fact that hydrogen fusion requires immense temperature and presure to get going (typically a fission "lighter" is used to create these conditions).
Your "thermonuclear bombs use a hydrogen atom in which to split (H-bomb)," is completely incorrect: hydrogen cannot be split or used for fission. H-bombst are lit by a nuclear (fission) fuse, after which fusion then delivers an amount of energy that's simply a few oreders of magnitude away from a "traditional" nuclear (fission only) weapon. But I guess that's all "liberal twaddle"...
Amy:
"Gert, is your point that you support Iran's endeavor to build their nuclear energy?"
Always quick to jump to conclusions and miss the mark, aren't you?
“Your "thermonuclear bombs use a hydrogen atom in which to split (H-bomb)," is completely incorrect:” Wow, you got me - they actually use two hydrogen atoms - to break apart to set up the helium, the next-lightest element. Funny that you think they have no need for hydrogen in these bombs as it’s wholly named after the material itself. Just because A-bombs use fission and the H-bombs use fusion ( Slamming fission into a separate compartment to create the massive heat necessary for fusion) doesn’t mean anything to your initial argument. Both designs are found on the internet. Iran has the money, the sponsors, and the capability to make both sets of nuclear warheads. You still didn’t address your main point that Iran cannot develop these weapons in your first response, trying to make me look bad. So I patiently await your reasons, as I have laid out my response claims – you didn’t address in this last response.
Gert, what exactly is your point, then? I don't call this blog Bottom Line Up Front for nothing. Don't be afraid to own your beliefs.
Unclear?
Yikes! For one who likes to pontificate on world affairs you don't know this? My goodness, as Rumsfeld might say.
You're welcome to provide a link.....
This is not the popular story, but this is my view of what was the Manhattan Project. Anyone else want to jump in and provide more detail, because I put generalized things I understood, in a generalized notion which may not be a totality of what the encompassed details of such a massive project - one of the most successful scientific projects ( including its secrecy) in the history of mankind, and more or less the most argued about in dealing with morality.
The Manhattan Project refers to the effort to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II by the United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada. That is what you will find in most identification. However, the story is much better from my vantage point.
Known colloquially as "the father of the atomic bomb", J. Robert Oppenheimer ( Professor at U.C.B.) created at U.C. Berkeley the Cyclotron, a machine that allowed the acceleration of nuclear-particles to reach high-speeds and then smash them to see what happened, in the 1930s ( I believe the first one was 1929, and was very small). Quickly citing historiography, The production of plutonium and neptunium by bombarding uranium-238 with neutrons ( in theses generational cyclotrons) was predicted in 1940 by two teams working independently: Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Plutonium was first produced and isolated on February 23, 1941 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg (U.C.B. Professor) ,Dr. Michael Cefola, Edwin M. McMillan (U.C.B. Professor), J. W. Kennedy, and A. C. Wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch cyclotron at Berkeley. The room’s number was Room 40, and was on the main part of the campus, later demolished and the nuclear-research facilities moved to the edge of the hill above campus for safety reasons, ordered by the Regents of California. To keep thing’s short,
Some of these men, received laureates which made them internationally famous – at least to the scientific communities worldwide. This caught the eyes of the Federal Gov. which said we need to cap and keep our secret findings to ourselves. Even Japanese scientists came over to the campus to try to get the knowledge from U.C.B. scientists ( actual photos still survive from the Los Angeles Times, about this). Meanwhile, the Federal government created the Manhattan Engineering District (MED), it refers specifically to the period of the project from 1942-1946, along with the Atomic Energy Commission headed at first in this secret mission to understand this new genre of Nuclear-Physics.
Again, to make a long story short, McMillan and huge team of Berkeley graduate students and other scientists descended on Chicago where McMillan ( he took the train with the substance in a modified vile) brought with him his little amount of Plutonium to reproduce at a new lab that was being designed by Oppenheimer and some of his scientist friends . From Chicago's meetings, it was deemed a good procedure to create the bombs before Germany ( Hitler's men were also working on the process), but Berkeley scientists beat them to it apparently. So the famous Caltrons ( A processing plant that could produce quickly large amounts of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium were created by U.C. Berkeley scientists), note Cal (abbreviation of the University of California, Berkeley) created by U.C. Berkeley scientists, began to process large quantities of this new nuclear-material and then other scientists form Canada, Britain and America led by U.C.B professor Oppenheimer began to design castings for placing the material to detonate the first atomic bomb; and New Mexico was the place for the first national laboratory - to test the bomb, and places near Washington were set up with Caltrons ( Processing plants) for the massive production; and then much brainstorming by professors from all around the U.S. ( Canada and Britain) created the first nuclear weapons, which right after the successful detonation of the first nuclear bomb, the castings were ready for the two bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ( one uranium based and the other plutonium based). This was the Manhattan Project.
What many people didn't realize, is that Japan was 11 days away from nuking San Francisco ( This is a fact or highly speculative, and reported on the Discovery Channel and History Channel recently, with plenty of documentation and speculation) the gist of this is that Japan had eventfully commandeered info from the U.S. and had taken top-German-escaped-scientists and formed their own program - The documentary-program actually showed historic WWII nuclear-research -facilities in Japan. The bomb to be used on San Francisco was to be delivered by plane ( a tough thing to do in those days for the distance & logistics), and most likely was a dirty-nuke or modified version of our own. I recently learned about this and this little diversion from the Manhattan Project was only to show the necessity for why we used the bombs – that is “if” our scientist, intelligence, and President knew more than we did about what was to happen to us. Anyway,
The Manhattan Project is much suppressed in regards to U.C. Berkeley's historiography - they ( the newer liberals feel ashamed) the scientists, professors and students working on this new genre, the national government and the University controllers actually set up Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about 40 miles away from Campus, and new created Bevatrons and other stuff which were built in the hills on U.C.B's facilities for secret research after the war ( and later for other peaceful stuff), became synonymous with cutting edge technology.
To sum this up, The University of California, Berkeley played a vital role in creating nuclear weapons over the decades and at one time, Russia called Livermore the most feared place on the earth. Today, it services peaceful missions and discoveries.
There is much more detail to the story, but that is the inside look at the famous Manhattan Project, from my point of view.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/manhattanproject.cfm
http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/f/fat-man-and-little-boy.shtml
But no one seems to have the guts to go against the powers that be to do what it takes to provide real security for us.
Man, you're funny! I've never commented on Amy's blog but you're really getting me into the swing of things...
Where did I say that H-bombs don't need hydrogen (well, deuterium or tritium to be more precise)?
H-bombs contain heavy isotopes of hydrogen. To get fusion going and release the incredible amounts of energy associated with the process that also fuels the stars, the right conditions of extremely high temperature need to be created. For this a nuclear "lighter", usually based on Pu239 is first detonated and the million or so degrees celsius that briefly result from this nuclear fission chain reaction then "lights" the hydrogen into fusion. Where's your hang-up?
"What many people didn't realize, is that Japan was 11 days away from nuking San Francisco ( This is a fact or highly speculative, and reported on the Discovery Channel and History Channel recently, with plenty of documentation and speculation) the gist of this is that Japan had eventfully commandeered info from the U.S. and had taken top-German-escaped-scientists and formed their own program - The documentary-program actually showed historic WWII nuclear-research -facilities in Japan."
Whoaaaa! What nonsense, based nonetheless on a few kernels of thruth.
Japan did have its's own nuclear research program albeit very limited in scope. So did many other nations: it was well understood, after the discovery of fission (Hahn and Meitner), that exposive uses of the fission phenomenon were very probable. The French (Joliot and Curie) were also working on something.
The German initiative, led by Heisenberg, was also very limited because Hitler considered nuclear physics as "Jewish physics" and preferred to sponsor the well-advanced V2 program (von Braun in Peenemunde and Camp Dora). Heisenberg had heavy water (reactor moderator) and a half-completed reactor, similar to the Manhattan reactor (replacing graphite with D2O). No attempts were made to make it go critical. Heisenberg later claimed he had also deliberatly stalled the program but he did nonetheless decide to side with Germany and break from Bohr et al, at the start of the war.
For a very thorough reading of the history of the A- and H-bombs (and of course the Manhattan project) I suggest "The Making of the Atom Bomb".
Keep watching that Discovery Channel: you might learn something about the "birds and the bees" as well...
Amy:
Like Mr Bush, I'm not opposed to Iran's use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, if that was your question.
The problem with you Gert is you are hard to understand. I cannot make out what you are trying to say - there’s one September 23, 2006 & September 22, 2006 as far as can see only on this thread.
"I've never commented on Amy's blog" - September 25, 2006 Gert.
Yes it looks like you have contrary to your own statement. I kind shy away from confused-minded bloggers. Therefore, I guess I should end my conversations with you.
You know what? I'll apologise for my absent-mindedness regarding two comments made a year ago (although you're gettin the year wrong on the last comment you quote).
You're quitting the table on a very feeble excuse: the equivalent of trying to win a game of chess by knocking over the board. Very feeble indeed...
Anyway, good riddance!