Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh assassinated

[wetkingcanute]

Iran's most senior nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has been assassinated near the capital Tehran, the country's defence ministry has confirmed.

Fakhrizadeh died in hospital after an attack in Absard, in Damavand county.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, has condemned the killing "as an act of state terror".

Western intelligence agencies view Fakhrizadeh as being behind Iran's secret nuclear weapons programme.

He was reportedly described as the "father of the Iranian bomb" by diplomats.

News of the killing comes amid fresh concern about the increased amount of enriched uranium that Iran is producing. Enriched uranium is a vital component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.

[wetkingcanute]

It will probably turn out to be Mossad although Iran is referring to the attackers as "terrorists" at the moment.

But the "three to four individuals, who are said to have been terrorists, were killed".

They have their bodies so they should find out soon who they actually are.

[flatandy]

Wouldn't have happened if the US had just stayed in the nuclear deal that the UK and France and everyone else was abiding by.

I suspect Mossad. It might be US secret services. Either way, they're probably trying to provoke a conflict now before Biden gets into the White House.

[mids]

Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Alternatively, Biden's declaring war already.

[voice]

Oh look, another nasty legacy of the disastrous Trump regime. What joy.

Iran's atomic energy chief says country could build a bomb

www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62372366

[perrykneeham]

TBF, they would say that and they probably can. The science is well-understood. Delivering it is quite another thing.

[voice]

Could have been avoided though had the orange idiot not been so intent on undoing everything his betters had arranged to stop it.

[flatandy]

Given that the technology required was developed three quarters of a century ago, I'm always surprised when countries aren't capable of making a nuclear weapon rather than not willing. As Baloo says, the hard part is getting a big enough one to somewhere you want it to explode, and then exploding it there.

[flatandy]

But Voice is also right, this is a consequence of appalling decisions made by the Trump-morons. Iran had effectively signed up to non-proliferation stuff, were not making nuclear weapons, not enriching uranium, had an inspection regime, and sanctions had been eased making the lives of Iranian people less miserable. It was a good result for everyone. And Trump just, er, blew it up.

[perrykneeham]

Agreed, Trump was and remains a total fucknuckle, but there comes a time .....

[perrykneeham]

Also, TBF I think everyone seems to have fallen asleep on the job when it comes to nuclear weapons.

[mids]

Biden seems to spend most of his days asleep.

[voice]

and yet is still doing a far better job.

[moggyonspeed]

An additional threat, of course, is a dirty bomb using spent nuclear fuel armed with a conventional charge. Whilst arguably less immediately lethal than a nuclear weapon in the classic sense, the clean-up after the use of such a thing could run into billions.

[voice]

Yeah, its not so much that due to Trump Iran can now build a bomb, its that they have the means now to sell one or at least the processed uranium to some potentially very unsavory types.

[flatandy]

As it happens, I think people place too much weight on "nuclear weapons" in and of themselves. People totally freak out about a small nuclear bomb yet seem completely chilled out about a conventional bomb with the same explosive power. There's a mystique about non-conventional weapons that slightly unbalances they way people think about equivalent conventional ones. If Iran builds 50kt of nuclear bombs but has several million tonnes of conventional explosives, which should we be more concerned about?

[voice]

It's cos one bomb can flatten an entire city where as it would take a huge amount of conventional bombs to the same amount of damage, plus the effects of the explosion on people is absolutely devastating and keeps on killing for years after.

[mids]

So Biden fcuked up. Again.

[flatandy]

Aug 1, 2022 14:32:18 GMT voice said:

It's cos one bomb can flatten an entire city where as it would take a huge amount of conventional bombs to the same amount of damage, plus the effects of the explosion on people is absolutely devastating and keeps on killing for years after.

The thing is that Little Boy took something like 70kg of enriched uranium - plus the stuff to make it detonate. And that's a 15kt yield which will give a heavy-damage radius of about 300m. It's bad, but not much worse than conventional firebombing that people are largely blase about because it's conventional.

It's not actually that easy to deploy a uranium bomb that will do the kind of really massive damage most people are scared of. People over-react to the idea of it. They think it'll be worse than it actually is.

[rick49]

'Tickling the dragon's tale':
www.theblaze.com/news/tickling-the-dragon-s-tale-us-to-prepare-for-underground-testing-of-nuclear-weapons-without-any-explosions