Preventing Iran From Going Nuclear

The Debka File released a report today that there had been an explosion at Iran‘s Arak heavy water reactor last week. The government of Iran had attempted to keep the news of the explosion quiet.

The article reports that the Iranian Atomic Council is investigating four possible causes of the explosion:

1. Sabotage.
2. A virus planted in the computers that control the systems administering the test.
3. An error in engineering calculations in the design of the coolant containers which underestimated their strength for standing up to the required level of pressure.
4.  The deliberate sale to Iran of inferior steel materials that were not strong enough to withstand such pressure.

The article concludes:

Last August, Iran informed the nuclear watchdog that the test with real fuel would be the final one before the reactor entered its running-in stage. The damage caused by the explosion will have postponed that stage indefinitely.
The Arak reactor, known as IR-40 and designed for a capacity of 40 megawatt, is the cause of deep concern in Israel because it is capable of producing plutonium for use in nuclear bombs as an alternative to enriched uranium

Obviously I have no idea what caused this explosion. What I do know is that explosions at reactor sites are a much better way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons that an actual attack on Iran.

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