A Nuclear Renaissance in the Middle East?

Transcription

1 Milano, October 2008 A Nuclear Renaissance in the Middle East? Massimo Zucchetti Full Professor, Nuclear Power Plants Politecnico di Torino, Italy Adjunct Professor, Nuclear Engineering University of Shiraz, Iran Coordinator Italian Anti-War Scientists Committee

2 Iran - Universities Two main nuclear technology universitary schools are present in Iran: Tehran and Shiraz In Tehran, all branches of nuclear technology are covered, but mainly nuclear reactors design. An experimental smallscale research reactor is owned by Tehran University In Shiraz, nuclear reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics are mainly covered. I have a position there to teach nuclear safety, especially radiation protection

3 Iran s Main Nuclear Sites - 1

4 Iran s Main Nuclear Sites - 2

5 Iran - Natanz Pilot facility for uranium enrichment Centrifugation enrichment is the adopted technique IAEA inspections certify that enrichment up to 4% only is attained (reactor-grade fuel) Iran has refused to stop reactor-grade enrichment

6 Iran - Natanz

7 Iran - Natanz

8 Iran - Isfahan The Nuclear Technology Center at Isfahan was founded in the mid-1970s with French assistance in order to provide training for Bushehr reactor personnel. Located at the University of Isfahan and directed by Kazem Rassouly, the center houses four small research reactors. The facilities currently operating at the Nuclear Technology Center are not a direct proliferation threat: because they are safeguarded, because the research reactors can not produce significant amounts of plutonium-bearing spent fuel, because only minor amounts of heavy water and HEU are present.

9 Iran - Isfahan The following nuclear facilities are present at the Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center: Miniature Neutron Source reactor (MNSR) Light Water Sub-Critical Reactor (LWSCR) Heavy Water Zero Power Reactor (HWZPR) Graphite Sub-Critical Reactor (GSCR) Fuel Fabrication Laboratory (FFL) Uranium Chemistry Laboratory (UCL) Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) Fuel Manufacturing Plant (FMP)

10 Iran - Isfahan The planned UF6 production plant causes suspicion. There is no logical explanation for Iran to build such a plant, the product from which is used to feed a uranium enrichment facility. The country s lone commercial reactor, at Bushehr, will use nuclear fuel imported from Russia. Due to the absence of commercial nuclear power plants and the high investment costs associated with building nuclear facilities, the development of fuel cycle facilities such as the UF6 plant suggests that Tehran may wish to use them for non-peaceful purposes.

11 Israel and Nuclear Weapons Israel never signed the NPT (Non- Proliferation Treaty), one of the few nations in the world

12 Israel and Nuclear Weapons Israel began its nuclear technolgy program, strictly aimed to nuclear weapons production, in the midfifties All military-relevant activities are carried out in the DIMONA nuclear research Centre Israel first atomic weapon (a plutonium fission one) was ready in 1968 Since then, Israel nuclear arsenal has growed to around ready bombs (2005 data)

13 Dimona Nuclear Research Centre

14 Israel Mordechai Vanunu Israeli nuclear scientist MORDECHAI VANUNU revealed to the western countries the main aspects of Israel nuclear weapons programme Due to this, he was kidnapped by Mossad while he was in Italy, and spent several years in prison in Israel After being released some years ago, he is now imprisoned again, and suffering serious health problems

15 Israel Mordechai Vanunu Free Vanunu Campaign This talk is dedicated to him, as a fighter for Peace

16 Syria A Syrian site that Israeli aircraft bombed on Sept was most likely a plant for assembling a nuclear bomb, an Israeli nuclear expert said, challenging other analysts' conclusions that it housed a North Korean-style nuclear reactor. Tel Aviv University chemistry professor Uzi Even, who worked in the past at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, said satellite pictures of the site taken before the Israeli strike showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of reactors. The absence of telltale features of a reactor convinced him the building must have housed something else, he said. And a rush by the Syrians after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggests that the facility was a bomb-assembly plant left leaking lethal doses of radiation by the Israeli attack.

17 US Double Standard Iran and UN sanctions The silence on Israel atomic question The brand new collaboration with India Q: are they a credible non-proliferation defender?

18 CONCLUSION Iran s nuclear program dates since the Shah period (seventies) and it is aimed to the construction of a 1000-MWe power reactor in Bushehr All the related nuclear technologies are being developed in that country IAEA has not found any evidence of militaryrelated nuclear actvities in Iran In the meanwhile: Israel has 200 nuclear weapons ready-to-use US launch a great nuclear collaboration programme with India