UN plays hardball with Iran!

[Richelieu]

Finally! They've decided they weren't going to be made fools of anymore...

U.N. nuclear agency may halt funding for Iranian reactor

The board tentatively agrees to finance seven of Tehran's projects, but not one that could produce a bomb.

By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
November 23, 2006

PARIS — The international community tentatively decided late Wednesday to halt financial support for a controversial nuclear reactor in Iran that could be used to help produce plutonium for atomic bombs, but to continue to fund seven other Iranian civilian nuclear projects.

The decision to stop funding was a victory for Western countries that suspect Iran's ultimate goal in its nuclear program is to build a bomb.

These guys have balls the size of Wisconsin!

Can't believe any money would be sent to Iran for anything remotely related to nukes...

[SlowwHand]

I wouldn't vote to finance a single thing.

[Flubber]

I'm not that up on the Iranian economy but why oh why would the UN be supporting them in much of anything? Don't they get a gazillion dollares from oil revenue?

[Lazerus]

Alot of arab states do, regular Mohammed doesn't see one shiny coin of it though.

[Richelieu]

I doubt they'd see much of that (the UN's) money too.

[SlowwHand]

If they can afford nuclear plants, they're doing fine on their own.

[GePap]

The article is pretty badly written, in terms of making the reader understand what actually happened.

Iran is building the Arak heavy water reactor on its own, claiming it needs it to create isotopes for medical uses (like the stuff used in chemotherapy). They asked for IAEA technical assistance to ensure its safe running. Technical assistance is one of the basic jobs of the IAEA.

Obviously given the current political climate, western countries opposed giving Iran technical assistance. They obviously could not convince the board and all the other states on the panel to outright reject the assistance, because that has never been done before, and many third world nations don't like the idea of the IAEA doing its job based on political whims. So as the article does note, the IAEA will simply exclude that Iranian request from the things it will vote on now. Iran will continue to build the Arak reactor, and will either have to wait for the next turn for it to be considered, or won't get the assistance it asked for. Either way, the project continues.

[Peter Triggs]

Why Iran Produces Heavy Water: Drinking It Helps Fight Cancer and AIDS

Mohammad Sa'idi: One of the products of heavy water is depleted deuterium. As you know, in an environment with depleted deuterium, the reception of cancer cells and of the AIDS viruses is disrupted. Since this reception is disrupted, the cells are gradually expelled from the body. Obviously, one glass of depleted deuterium will not expel or cure the cancer or eliminate the AIDS. We are talking about a certain period of time. In many countries that deal with these diseases, patients use this kind of water instead of regular water, and consume it daily in order to heal their diseases.

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1251

Yeah. Suuuuuure thing.

[The Mad Monk]

How, exactly, does one "deplete" deuterium, anyway?

[Pekka]

What? You mean UN has been funding Iran all this time? No money to Iran, nothing what so ever. We should do that medieval thing, where you occupy the city limits and .. we won't starve them but a surrender would be nice.

[The Mad Monk]

He must have stock in this company.



BTW, heavy water is a known toxin -- something about having to swing the extra mass in the deuterium oxide molecules really slows metabolic processes down. whoda thunkit?

[snoopy369]

There are a lot of cranks out there that think that any given toxin is beneficial in some way

Just be careful of the ones that are toxic toxins.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
How, exactly, does one "deplete" deuterium, anyway?

Given that it's an individual isotope, no idea.

Relatively modest quantities of heavy water are non-toxic, by the way. Drinking a glass of the stuff wouldn't cause you any harm.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
How, exactly, does one "deplete" deuterium, anyway?

thats london tap water