Possible Weapons Applications
The Associated Press in an exclusive report published today quotes an unnamed IAEA official that Darioush Rezaeinejad, the scientist shot dead on a Tehran street by motorcycle-riding gunmen last Saturday, was an expert on high-voltage switches which are key components in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead. AP named the late Rezaeinejad as the co-author of an abstract on the subject, entitled “Designing, Manufacturing and Testing a Closing Switch.”
Last May, IAEA reported seven “areas of concern” related to Iran’s nuclear program. Four of those areas dealt with high-voltage switches and suspected “high voltage firing equipment and instrumentation for explosives testing” for possible weapons applications.
The AP report states that Rezaeinejad’s abstract was presented to the 16th Conference of Iranian Power Engineering in Tehran three years ago. The slain scientist reportedly claimed success during his presentation. If accurate, the technology moves Iran closer to capability of setting off a nuclear explosion if it so chooses. Nuclear warheads are triggered by a series of conventional explosions, and the switch in question is a key piece of hardware in the process.
7 comments:
"The Associated Press in an exclusive report published today quotes an unnamed IAEA official".
There you have it. And the world wonders why Iran doesn't want to cooperate with the IAEA?? They're exposing Iran's scientist for assassination. All of the recently assassinated Iranian scientists where on IAEA database.
There's a leak in the IAEA and Iran is justified in calling for a full UN investigation into who's actually responsible. But this is a battle they can't win.Iran trains thousands of nuclear scientists every year from her universities. Unless the West/ Israel wants to kill them all?? Having said that, two can play that game.
Kinda funny how you have it backwards.
The world does not wonder why Iran doesn't want to cooperate with the IAEA.
The world pretty much has made up its mind that Iran is simply full of shift and isn't going to do anything but continue to do thing to develop nukes, continue to lie about it, and continue to make up flimsy excuses.
Iran is very practiced at blaming other folks for just about anything.
Shoot some young girl walking in the street because she wants her vote counted rather than tossed in the garbage?
Must have been some other folks and not Iranian government goons.
There are no high-voltage switches needed to set off a nuclear explosion.
To save on (valuable) fissile material, a nuclear device is usually made with an amount of fissile material well below criticality. During detonation, criticality is reached with the shock wave emanating from a mantle of conventional explosives around the fissile core. The shock front must be extremely even to achieve the highest possible compression inside the fissile core, and thus pushing it into criticality.
This requires a carefully balanced ignition scheme, which sets off all the explosive segments simultaneously. There is no high voltage required to to this, but high speed and a very exact timing.
Maybe AP (Associated Press) was mixing up high voltage with high speed, but frankly said I tend to rate their whole piece as unfounded speculation.
Thanks, Steve. Perhaps you'll enlighten the IAEA that they needn't worry about one of their areas of concern.
I'm sure that they'll be relieved.
Steve,
Are you familiar with the abstract reportedly written by the late Rezaeinejad? Or the Conference of Iranian Power Engineering? Do you believe AP has made up these references? If they had said high speed instead of high voltage, would their story have become more reliable? Aside from the switch name, what else is wrong with their story? I personally have no clue on the subject of switches and would appreciate your thoughts.
AP is justifying a murder..
Whoever and whatever he was Mr Uskowi.. this discussion now is irrelevant.. UK/US/Mossad have killed an Iranian citizen and a drop of Iranian blood is worth more that the whole population of them 3
Karma shall bite back as it did with Iraq. Iranian blood is very expensive... you shall see.
Steve comes across as someone who knows what he is talking about. I am by no means an expert in nuclear physics or in rocket technology but my guess is that the high-voltage switches may be of important use in ballistic missile technology rather than nuclear technology. It may be that high-voltage batteries onboard missiles need high-voltage switches – I am guessing here. It is probably true that for detonating a nuclear bomb one does not need a high-voltage switch but only the ability to simultaneously detonate conventional explosives wrapped around two semi-sphere metallic U235 enriched to >80%. The simultaneous ejection of neutron absorbers and injection of neutron sources may also be necessary. Technology aside, this is probably a proxy murder carried out by some organised criminal elements inside or a minority opposition groups under Mossad/CIA auspices. I feel so sorry for the family of this young man who was so cruelly murdered by those who lecture Iranians on human rights, compassion and civility. He was doing a job that any one of us proudly would have done for our country. The western governments need to be reminded that they are far more vulnerable to proxy terrorism of this nature than Iran is. I am impressed with IRI’s patience for not reciprocating similar act of proxy terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan where the western forces are virtually sitting ducks for sponsored terrorism. Iran nuclear programme can not be stopped or slowed down by Mossad/CIA terrorism. The tiny gap left by the cruel elimination of this young scientist will soon be filled by a more determined and talented Iranian scientist from a pool of many thousands. Those who underestimate the ability and ingenuity of Iranian scientists do so at their peril.
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