Iran, Uranium, and the UK "nuclear deterrant" that is owned by Uncle Sam

Now that everyone is so concerned about Iran enriching Uranium an interesting and timely 173 page report report "Highly Enriched Uranium: Striking A Balance," U.S. Department of Energy, January 2001.has been released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists.

The study "was commissioned [in 1996] to facilitate discussions of HEU storage, safety, and security with stakeholders, to encourage other nations to declassify and release similar data, and to support the national policy on transparency of nuclear materials."

The newly released report contains details of the U.S. HEU inventory as of September 30, 1996, ( TEN YEARS AGO) and provides a historical material balance that summarizes over 50 years of U.S. activities that produced, acquired, and utilized HEU and also outlines the prodigious effort and cost of the program which took place throughout the US. It also, if needed stresses the hurdles to overcome that any johnny come lately would be Uranium purofiers must overcome.

"From 1945 through 1996, a total of 1,045.4 metric tons of uranium containing 859.2 metric tons of uranium-235 was produced in the United States at three facilities utilizing two different production technologies."

"As of September 30, 1996, the total U.S. inventory of HEU was 740.7 MTU containing 620.3 MTU-235."

To read the report ,which is only slightly redacted (sanitised for public use) go here. PDF Alert

To the reader in the UK a significant note records that in 1946 President Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act (McMahon Act) to ensure "that the development of nuclear energy was consistent with the security of the United States". What this meant was that the US refused to share any further information with it's wartime allies - this resulted in the abortive attempts of the UK to produce the Hydrogen bomb and the comical PR effort at the 1957 Christmas Island H bomb tests and the subsequent agreement in 1958 to amend the McMahon Act for the UK to buy it's nuclear weapons from the US and cease all further research on nuclear weapons.

This means that all nuclear missiles held by the UK in it's Trident submarines (and maybe elsewhere) which are to be upgraded are in fact owned by and under the control of the US Government... although paid for by the UK taxpayer... the "special reslationship at work" ...for more see and an article in the Sunday Herald last year (subscription) here

Incidentally De Speigel on line has just re-visited Bikini Atoll the site of the first US H bomb explosions go here to read it. This extract might encourage you to read it ..

Even today, there are no exact figures divulging how many people fell victim to radiation. Citing "military constraints" the U.S. has locked away data, and since it has proven very difficult to obtain data from independent sources reliable information is extremely rare and hard to come by. According to an estimate by the IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) several thousand people died of cancer as a result of the tests on the Marshall Islands alone. Their numbers must be added to the approximately 430,000 cases of incurable cancer which can be - again according to the IPPNW - attributed directly to world-wide nuclear testing during the twentieth century.

To this day, the U.S. has paid a total of $1 billion in compensation to the people of the Marshall Islands. The victims took the money - what else could they do? Besides, it had become something of a tradition. "We have learned how to dry our tears with the American's dollar bills", they say.