Iranian Nuclear Accident?

wikileaks.org

60 points·jackdawjack··7 comments

This might be old news, but did anything more come of this?

1. Aghazadeh resigned as he had supported Mousavi in the presidential elections and had had enough of Ahamdinejad. He was replaced by the much better qualified, and very well respected Ali Akbar Salehi (MIT PhD): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Akbar_Salehi

2. Natanz is under full IAEA supervision (cameras, sampling devices, etc) and subject to frequent IAEA visits. If there was any type of an accident or radiation release, you would have heard it by now, or you will see it in the next IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activities.

My guess is a criticality accident. They are very hard to avoid without [institutional] experience.

I've been expecting one for quite a while.

True... but even supposing that it were to happen, it may not have been a big deal, in the grand scheme of things. It happened twice to the US A-Bomb program and life went on. General Leslie was not forced down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian,_Jr.

Isn't this an underground facility? Radiation released if any was probably contained?

When you say radiation do you mean radioactive matter, or actual radiation (like gamma rays)?

Because there is nothing to contain if it was gamma rays since they dissipate (like light). If it was neutrons then it can make other things radioactive, but again, there is nothing to contain.

Contain sort of implies an explosion. But nuclear accident does not necessarily mean an explosion.

I wonder how many of these rumors they hear, and how unlikely it is that they'd find corroborating evidence.

Inflaming outside pressure on Iran regarding its nuclear program via anonymous leaks at this time will result in internal pressure against the still flourishing opposition movement.

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