As I wrote in a previous article titled, It Just Didn’t Add Up, I think the USA and Israel are not two different entities, but one and the same team, with the Israeli PM being the CEO and the US president being the CFO of that team. The American strikes inside Iran in the early hours of 22 June, pretty much confirm that the Israelis and the Americans do everything in tandem, there is not one following the other, and not one leading the other. And their beef with the Iranians is not that the Iranians are capable of making nuclear weapons, nor that the Iranians will make nuclear weapons, and not even that the Iranians do or do not want nuclear weapons. It has absolutely nothing to do with Iran’s (lack of) nuclear weapons, and EVERYTHING to do with Iran’s nuclear ENERGY.
Going forward, it seems that nuclear energy is going to be required by all nations. This is because pretty much everything nowadays relies on digital information, and this will only increase more and more in the future. Not only do we have digital payments, but also digital IDs, digital medical records, digital communities, and digital communications, both civil as well as military digital communications.
Add to that, the growth of cryptocurrencies as well as artificial intelligence, most notably the recent advent of ChatGPT, and there is now a dire need for energy sources. The exponential growth in digital data, especially AI, requires an insane amount of energy to power the data centres. Data centres will not be able to run merely on oil, gas, and/or renewable (wind & solar) energy. So in comes the need for nuclear energy. Or so we are told anyway - whether or not that is the case, I have no way of knowing, since I am neither a chemist, nor a physicist. But it seems plausible.
All major digital companies in the West, including Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, are investing heavily in nuclear energy for their data centres. One example: in 2024, Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement with CEG (Constellation Energy Corporation) to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The $1.6 billion investment aims to restart the reactor, which has been dormant since 2019, to provide electricity for Microsoft’s expanding data centres. Nuclear energy companies such as GEC have already been paid billions of dollars by tech giants to refurbish nuclear plants that have been dormant for years, or to build brand new nuclear plants.
Since the advent of AI, power consumption has been rising rapidly. Using AI requires significantly more computational power than conventional computing. Experts expect energy needs will skyrocket as AI becomes more common. Nuclear is the most cost-effective source of energy. Wind or solar energy are too intermittent, and the size of the battery needed next to a data centre in order to support these workloads, would be enormous and incredibly expensive. Data centres of the future will be very power intensive, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, independent of whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. AI-driven data centres are expected to increase power demand by over 160% by 2030 compared to 2023 levels, requiring a mix of nuclear, natural gas, renewables, and battery technology to meet round-the-clock energy needs. If big tech needs nuclear industry, then the nuclear industry may need big tech even more! Challenges such as high construction costs, hurdles in obtaining permits, specialized labour shortages, and constraints in the supply of uranium, all limit the availability of nuclear energy in the near-term, leaving natural gas and renewables as the go-to short-term solutions.
The benefits of nuclear energy are as follows:
High energy density: A small amount of nuclear fuel can generate a vast amount of electricity, minimizing fuel storage requirements and reducing transportation needs.
Scalable power output: A single nuclear reactor typically generates 800 megawatts (MW) or more, of electricity, readily meeting the power demands of even the largest data centres (50 MW to 100 MW) and the burgeoning requirements of AI-focused facilities (up to 5,000 MW).
Low-carbon emissions: Nuclear power produces virtually no greenhouse gas emissions during operation.
Enhanced land use efficiency: Nuclear power plants require relatively small land areas compared to other energy sources.
As to the Iranians making, having, or wanting nuclear weapons, Israelis need to take a chill pill, and have no fear of the Iranians nuking them. Israel is the LAST place on earth where the Iranians would drop a nuclear bomb if they had it. The Iranians have been the staunchest supporters of the Palestinians, in every which way possible, so why would they nuke Israel and kill all the Palestinians there too?!! I doubt that the Iranians have the capability to make a nuclear weapon that targets only Israelis and leaves Palestinians unharmed. So please, no more nonsense talk about Iran dropping a nuke on Israel.
But if the Americans believe that the Iranians will drop a nuclear bomb on the USA, as that demented Senator Ted Cruz said in his interview with Tucker Carlson last week, - the one where he showed off his painting of Reagan, with the German text saying to tear down the wall of the Brandenburger Tor (dear Lord, the stupidity!!) - then the Americans themselves should have started the war with the Iranians, not get their patsies, the Israelis, to fight America’s wars for her. But the Americans are cowards, they send others to fight and die for them, and pat themselves on the back for being great puppet masters. As if that’s something to be proud of. Anyway, if you haven’t seen that interview with Cruz & Carlson, good, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time. It’s like watching two white chimps howling at eachother for two hours straight.
So what is really going on? Well, simply put, the American and Israeli BFFs do not want the Iranians to have nuclear energy. They themselves are investing heavily in nuclear energy, building new nuclear plants and reviving old, dormant ones, while they forbid and prevent the Iranians from having nuclear energy. They want Iran to be a crippled, failed, impoverished state. With nuclear energy, Iran would become a superpower, alongside the USA, Russia, and China. You cannot be a great power without nuclear energy.
I can think of only one reason why the Americans & Israelis would not want the Iranians to have nuclear energy, and that reason is: Racism. Imagine, if you will, a nation that is a sovereign, independent superpower, comprised not only of brown people, but also Muslim people!!! Such a nation CANNOT be allowed to exist [note: sarcasm]!!! And I believe the three current superpowers - the Americans, the Russians and the Chinese - are united in their desire that only they remain the world’s superpowers. So it remains to be seen to what extent the Russians and the Chinese will “help” the Iranians in their current war with the Satanic Duo, Israel & America. Time will tell. But if racism is not the reason, then, pray, tell, what is?
To write this article, I have had to do extensive research, all of which came from online sources. I did not question any scientists, but did use reputable sources as much as possible. So consider this article an opinion piece - hopefully an informative one - as I do not have the scientific background to verify the information I found. And if you, reading this, are a nuclear scientist and find any information here to be inaccurate or incomplete, please message me so I can make the necessary corrections.
Nuclear energy begins with uranium, a mineral that is notable for the extremely high density of its metallic form; it is 68.4% more dense than lead. Two thirds of the world’s uranium ores come from mines in three countries: Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. Other significant mines are in Namibia, Niger, and Uzbekistan.
Unenriched, or natural uranium, contains about 0.7% of the fissile uranium-235 (U-235) isotope ("fissile" means it's capable of undergoing the fission process by which energy is produced in a nuclear reactor). The rest is the non-fissile uranium-238 isotope. Most nuclear reactors need fuel containing between 3.5% and 5% U-235, also known as low-enriched uranium, or LEU. More recent reactor designs that are being developed, as well as research reactors which are needed to produce radioisotopes for medical purposes, require higher enrichments, typically up to 60%.
60% Of the world’s uranium is enriched in Russia and China. The enrichment process is as follows:
1. Uranium ores are mined.
2. The ores are crushed and ground into a powder.
3. The powder is treated in a chemical solution to dissolve the uranium oxides.
4. An ion exchange is used, which is a method of removing dissolved uranium ions from a solution using a specific resin. The uranium ions bind reversibly to the resin, while impurities are washed away.
5. The uranium is stripped from the resin.
7. It is put into another solution.
8. It is extracted from the solution by precipitation.
9. It is dried.
10. Packed, as uranium oxide concentrate (U3O8) powder - often referred to as "yellow cake".
11. Conversion takes place by means of a chemical process to refine the U3O8 to uranium dioxide (UO2).
12. It is then converted into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which is a solid at room temperature, and turns into gas by slight heating.
13. Enrichment takes place by increasing the concentration of the fissile isotope by passing the gaseous UF6 through centrifuges for gasses.
14. The enriched uranium is then converted from a gas into a powder.
15. Finally, the powder is fabricated into nuclear fuel.
So basically, when uranium is mined, it consists of approximately 99.3% uranium-238 and 0.7% uranium-235 (and < 0.01% uranium-234). The nuclear fuel used in a nuclear reactor needs to have a higher concentration of uranium-235, or “enriched uranium,” than that which exists in natural uranium ore. Enrichment increases the concentration of the fissile isotope by passing the gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6), through gas centrifuges, in which a fast spinning rotor inside a vacuum casing, makes use of the very slight difference in mass between the fissile and non-fissile isotopes to separate them.
Nuclear reactors which produce the nuclear energy, can use three options:
- fuel containing between 3.5% - 5% U-235;
- fuel containing between 5% - 20% U-235;
- natural uranium as fuel, which doesn’t require the enrichment services producing fuel for nuclear energy.
Now here’s the clincher: the same technology that is needed to enrich uranium to 3.5% - 5% U-235 for use in nuclear energy plants or research reactors, can also be used to enrich uranium to the much higher level of 90% U-235, and above, which is nuclear weapons grade. The difference between 3.6% enrichment and 90% enrichment sounds like a lot, but in fact, it isn’t since once you have reached 3.6%, you have already done half the work to get to 90%. This is why there are strict international controls by the IAEA to ensure that civilian enrichment plants are not used to enrich uranium to nuclear weapons level.
Every country that is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty of July 1968, has the inalienable right to have nuclear energy for civilian purposes. But this treaty was founded, in my opinion, on an unrealistically altruistic premise, namely that the non-nuclear-weapon states signatories to the treaty, agree to never acquire nuclear weapons, and in return, the NPT nuclear-weapon signatory states (Russia, France, the UK, the USA and China) agree to share the benefits of civilian nuclear technology, and to pursue their own nuclear disarmament with the ultimate goal of the elimination of their entire nuclear arsenal. No date was ever established for the attainment of this noble goal. India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, and South Sudan, are the only countries that are not party to the NPT. North Korea originally signed but withdrew in 2003. And no, I did not make a mistake and write the permanent members of the Security Council instead of the five nuclear-weapons signatories to the NPT; they are the EXACT same five countries.
The Case Of Iran
In 2010, Iran’s Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa (Islamic decree), stating that the use of nuclear weapons is forbidden under Islamic law, and that Iran would not be pursuing them. Five years later, in July 2015, the Iranians negotiated a nuclear deal with the Chinese, the French, the Russians, the Brits, the Americans, and the Germans, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA,) in order to lift the sanctions on Iran in exchange for increased verification by the IAEA of Iran’s nuclear programme. The Iranians have had several bouts of sanctions imposed on them (mostly by the Americans), the first being in November 1979 by the Americans, when 66 Americans were taken hostage from the US Embassy in Tehran. In May 2018, three years after the signing of the JCPOA, President Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
According to Professor Paolo Cotta Ramusino, the IAEA inspectors reported that they had found uranium particles enriched up to 83.7% (nuclear-weapons levels) in Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, in January 2021. This was seen by the inspectors as breaching the NPT, despite the fact that it was found in centrifuges that had been brought to Iran from Pakistan, where weapons-grade enriched uranium is used. Ramunsino suggests that this uranium was likely remnants in the Pakistani centrifuges. The IAEA’s findings resulted in the full force of the international community assembled at the United Nations Security Council, coming down on the Iranians like a tonne of bricks in the form of severe sanctions. When weapons-grade enriched uranium was also found in South Korea however (more than once), they were merely reprimanded by the IAEA inspectors and told to do better next time, and the international community didn’t take any punitive measures like imposing sanctions on the South Koreans. Ramusino says, “there has been, at the beginning, an unfair treatment of Iran, which has been very important in understanding of all the controversy that happened afterwards… So you have a set of strong constraints on Iran, which no other country has. Iran, in 2015 [under the JCPOA], accepted a series of constraints that no other country accepted.” For Prof. Ramusino’s presentation, see my article from April this year, titled, “The Future Of The Iran Nuclear Deal And Its Importance On Regional Security.”
The Case Of Iran’s 60% Enriched Uranium
As a response to the IAEA’s accusations against Iran and the Security Council’s sanctions on Iran, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, a nuclear physicist, said in April 2021, that Iran's move to produce uranium up to 60% purity is in line with the parliamentary ratification, noting that this level of enrichment is needed for producing radiopharmaceuticals. Salehi said, “We do not want to use 60% enriched uranium as fuel for the Tehran reactor. We want to produce U3O8 (uranium oxide, or yellow cake) targets, which needs uranium with 60% purity. Thus, we produce targets, using 60% uranium.” He went on to explain that a substance called molybdenum is the raw material needed for the manufacture and production of many radiopharmaceuticals. “Iran used to import a significant amount of molybdenum from abroad,” Salehi said (more info later on in this article about molybdenum). He also said the decision to enrich uranium to the level of 60% is entirely within the framework of the JCPOA, which is referred to as molar fusion.
Radiopharmaceuticals
Radiopharmaceuticals, or medicinal radiocompounds, are a group of pharmaceutical drugs containing radioactive isotopes. Radiopharmaceuticals can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Radiopharmaceuticals emit radiation themselves, which is different from contrast media which absorb or alter external electromagnetism or ultrasound. Radiopharmacology is the branch of pharmacology that specializes in these agents. The main group of these compounds are the radiotracers used to diagnose dysfunction in body tissues. While not all medical isotopes are radioactive, radiopharmaceuticals are the oldest and remain the most common of such drugs. Radiopharmaceuticals are radioactive drugs that healthcare providers use for special imaging tests and for treating certain types of cancer. While they involve radiation, radiopharmaceuticals are established as safe by the medical community and are used for many medical imaging tests.
The IAEA describes Radiopharmaceuticals as: “drugs that contain, among other ingredients, radioactive forms of chemical elements called radioisotopes. Depending on the type of radiation that those radioisotopes produce, they can be used to diagnose or treat several medical conditions.” And further: “Through its technical cooperation programme, the IAEA supports countries with technical advice, training, and equipment related to the production, the handling, and the use of radiopharmaceuticals.”
The journey of discovery of radiopharmaceuticals began in 1896 with Henri Becquerel’s accidental discovery of “rays” emitted from uranium, a phenomenon later termed “radioactivity” by Marie Curie. Curie’s research further proceeded in the field by discovering the radioactive elements polonium and radium in 1898. In 1936 phosphorus-32 was used for the treatment of leukaemia. This was the first example of the use of radionuclides in medicine. There are currently 67 radiopharmaceuticals that are approved worldwide, of which 54 are used for disease diagnosis and 13 for cancer therapy.
Radioactive Molybdenum is produced with highly-enriched uranium at 60%, and is a key material in producing radio-isotopes for medical imaging, via Technetium-99.
The Iranians, often being under strict sanctions, have rarely been able to buy Technetium-99 from foreign suppliers, including ones in South Africa. Instead, Iranian nuclear scientists used the research reactor in Tehran that is 50+ years old, to produce Tc-99, probably with enriched uranium 3.6% - 5%, possibly with uranium enriched between 5% and 20%, and when they had no fuel for it, they were having difficulties, or couldn't secure sufficient Tc-99 for medical needs. Assuming that there are benefits in terms of engineering simplicity, cost, safety, and output-weight-for-input-weight to using 60% enriched uranium, it would make sense for the Iranians to use such a process in the production of Tc-99. As Salahi explained, “We have been researching this process for a long time and will use 20% targets for testing in the next week or two, but the further we go, the higher the richness, because the higher the richness, the higher the efficiency and quality of our products in a shorter duration”
Ignoring Iran’s precarious position as a heavily sanctioned country, the IAEA stated, “While safeguarded enrichment activities are not forbidden in and of themselves, the fact that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon State in the world that is producing and accumulating uranium enriched to 60% remains a matter of serious concern, which has drawn international attention given the potential proliferation implications.”
Last week, on 16 June, as a result of the Israelis attacking them, the Iranians announced that their members of parliament are drafting a law to withdraw from the NPT.
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