"Stunning" Revelations
"Instead of seeing a few small cascades of centrifuges, which I believed to exist in North Korea, we saw a modern, clean centrifuge plant of more than a thousand centrifuges all neatly aligned and plumbed below us." Stanford University-based scientist Siegfried HeckerSurprise, absolutely stunning surprise. But then, that was precisely the response that was supposed to emerge from Dr. Hecker's guided tour of the Yongbyon nuclear complex. After all, North Korea is puffed with pride over its accomplishment. It is no mean feat for a poverty-stricken, backward country to invest extravagantly in attaining nuclear expertise and produce such startling results. Two fairly successful nuclear tests, thus far.
Of course North Korea did have assistance in this endeavour, and Pakistan is ready to take an ownership bow of acknowledgement at any time the applause is heard on the world stage. North Korea put up with quite a bit of condemnation over its insistence that it has a right and a divine duty to achieve nuclear sufficiency.
The aggravation, irritation it felt over UN sanctions only inspired them to greater patience and consistency in rigorously applying themselves and there are their dividends. As witnessed by Dr. Hecker, anxious to debrief the White House, infecting them too with the consternation he feels at his exposure to the spectacle of North Korea's capability of enriching uranium.
Iran is also stunning the world with arrogant impunity, cheered on by Syria, Venezuela, Turkey, Lebanon and Cuba. Ideological brothers-at-arms, as it were. Theocratic right-wing belligerency happily coupling with left-wing atheism. Of course enrichment of uranium, while ongoing, does not represent a search for nuclear weaponry to tip those newly-revealed longer-range missiles; Pyongyang's only purpose is peaceful, for civil nuclear use.
Reflecting precisely Iran's position. Both Iran and North Korea just incidentally, have withdrawn from denuclearization talks, from co-operation with the UN's nuclear watchdog, but to put things in perspective, they are still highly respected members of the United Nations, free to address the general assembly and to take their place on various committees if they so desire, for the UN at its heart is non-judgemental - but for one singular country.
Professor Hecker's guides during his privileged tour informed him that there were, in fact, two thousand centrifuges, producing low-grade-enriched uranium purposed for a nuclear power reactor, for their civilian nuclear electricity program. The good professor described the control room as "...astonishingly modern ... and would fit into any modern American processing facility".
And that North Korean scientists - his scientific peers as it were - informed him that the "Uranium Enrichment Workshop" has been a work in progress since April 2009, completed a mere few days before his private tour. And his beaming guides assured him that it had all been accomplished with their own brilliant and determined expertise.
With that confirmed data and hypotheses abounding for future prospects, we can anticipate what, precisely?
Labels: Technology, Traditions, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Monday, November 22, 2010
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