Dude- I thought everyone knows that Israel's nuclear. Even "End of Ze World" knows :) - so what does NPR mean that America hasn't acknowledged Israel's nuclear capabilities? Americans haven't crusaded against them? And I didn't read your links yet (don't worry I'll totally check them out) but I can't help but be skeptical that a nuclear Iran wouldn't be a major threat to Israel. Are you also saying that Iran isn't actually trying to get nuclear weapons? I would be interested to find out exactly what the differences are between the ingredients necessary in building nuclear power plants and nuclear missiles
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hey, sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this =(cjceejAugust 2 2009, 16:19:24 UTC
yes it's true everyone (americans, israelis, palestinians, iranians... everyone) has been implicitly exposed to the knowledge that israel possesses nuclear weapons, but neither the states nor israel has actually acknowledged to the united nations (or wherever this sort of thing is voiced aloud) that "yes, israel is a nuclear state." if america acknowledges publicly that israel is a powerful nation on its own due to its nuclear arsenal, it's possible that the average american (who currently doesn't spend much time thinking about the implications of israel having powerful weapons) would not be agree that we should send aid, guns, support, whatever so that israel can defend itself... meaning, if israel has nukes, they aren't really as helpless a nation as is commonly perceived
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also i looked up the difference between material needed for nukes and power plants, hope you don't mind that i am also citing wikipedia =) as you probably know uranium is a naturally occurring element containing 92 protons. in its most stable form it contains 238 neutrons; enriched uranium contains 235 neutrons, and this form is considerably more radioactive and dangerous. this is the only type of uranium that is useful when considering nuclear power or nuclear weapons.
iran is reported to have produced enriched uranium that contains about 3.5% U-235. this is reactor grade uranium, the kind that is used in nuclear power plants. this amount of enriched uranium is physically incapable of being used in a nuclear fission bomb. a nuke must contain at least 80% U-235 in order for it to detonate. at the time it appears that iran is physically incapable of producing such highly enriched uranium, and their claims that they are only processing uranium for use in nuclear reactors seems to be in line with the data we know about their
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and yeah, you're right -- we definitely don't have the right to invade another country on the basis "they deny rights to homosexuals" because we do the same thing here. the only difference is the degree to which it's done, and while we've made tremendous progress we still have a long way to go
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iran is reported to have produced enriched uranium that contains about 3.5% U-235. this is reactor grade uranium, the kind that is used in nuclear power plants. this amount of enriched uranium is physically incapable of being used in a nuclear fission bomb. a nuke must contain at least 80% U-235 in order for it to detonate. at the time it appears that iran is physically incapable of producing such highly enriched uranium, and their claims that they are only processing uranium for use in nuclear reactors seems to be in line with the data we know about their ( ... )
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