Russia To Build Nuclear Plant in Syria

[Dari]

link

With Iran already going that route, and Syria getting on the ball, Israel is going to have to think of something quickly before the major islamic states have nuclear reactors in about a decade or two. Of course they could take pre-emptive action like they did against Iraq.

 

[Scarpozzi]

This is a Nuclear power plant...not an arms factory.

I can understand why they'd want to build a desalinization plant and have clean power that would keep them from having to burn the oil that they'd rather sell. But I do see a little bit of threat. I just hope they have plenty of security there.

 

[Dari]

I'm not a nuclear expert, but how hard is it to turn a Russian nuclear power plant into a plutonium-making factory, then weaponizing the extracts?

 

[Zugzwang152]

you can bet the US is gonna be watching them like a hawk.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Dari
I'm not a nuclear expert, but how hard is it to turn a Russian nuclear power plant into a plutonium-making factory, then weaponizing the extracts?

Depends on the type of reactor. There are basically two types of reactors made in former SU. The "western type" and "Chernobyl type". Chernobyl type uses graphite to slow down the reaction. It's more dangerous than the western-type reactor (as demonstrated in Chernobyl) but it has the side-benefit of producing material for nukes. That was the reason they built them in former SU.

 

[Dari]

nemesis77, is the 'western-type' that harder to extract plutonium?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: Dari
I'm not a nuclear expert, but how hard is it to turn a Russian nuclear power plant into a plutonium-making factory, then weaponizing the extracts?

Depends on the type of reactor. There are basically two types of reactors made in former SU. The "western type" and "Chernobyl type". Chernobyl type uses graphite to slow down the reaction. It's more dangerous than the western-type reactor (as demonstrated in Chernobyl) but it has the side-benefit of producing material for nukes. That was the reason they built them in former SU.

Some of my friends are Nuclear engineers....(one of them is good at making beer too)... Anyhow, he was telling me that the U.S. has all these restrictions on their nuclear facilities that actually create more waste than other nuclear power plants. There's a process that the french do that runs the radio-active waste through a second time to use it again. The power/material ratio is lower, but it essentially makes something out of nothing.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Dari
link

With Iran already going that route, and Syria getting on the ball, Israel is going to have to think of something quickly before the major islamic states have nuclear reactors in about a decade or two. Of course they could take pre-emptive action like they did against Iraq.

Try not to make it about the religion, please. The country has a shady past with harbouring terrorists.....not the religion.

 

[Dari]

I mentioned religion because that is what links them. I can't say arab because Iran is persian. In that region, religion means everything and nothing when it comes to conflicts.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Dari
nemesis77, is the 'western-type' that harder to extract plutonium?

to my knowledge yes. the "western type" reactor isn't that good at producing material for nukes as the "Chernobyl-type" is.

 

[Dari]

A bit off-topic but I just noticed your sig, nemesis. The fact is corporations are far more efficient than governments. And corporations can be seen as mini-governments. I prefer the american model.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Dari
A bit off-topic but I just noticed your sig, nemesis. The fact is corporations are far more efficient than governments. And corporations can be seen as mini-governments. I prefer the american model.

well, that's completely different discussion, but corporations are after the allmighty profit. If people get screwed in the process, then so be it. Just look at MS's antitrust "punishment", Nike's slave-labor factories, DMCA, RIAA, MPAA, Disneys perpetually extended copyrights etc. etc.

Personally, I wouldn't want either of those systems.

 

[KenGr]

The news article doesn't make it clear, but the proposed Syrian plant would probably be either the existing VVER (Light water reactor) type or a proposed advanced gas reactor concept. Both of these are realatively proliferation proof in that it would be harder to produce weapons grade material from these than to just produce it from a Uranium enrichment plant.

The French plants mentioned above are really no different than the US plants. The French just have established a reprocessing program that takes the plutonium and other long term waste materials and puts them back into fuel to be fissioned (and destroyed) in the reactor. We don't allow this to be done to prevent separation of plutonium but we are blending Russian weapons material into fuel for US reactors to dispose of it.

 

[Dari]

Ahhh Nemesis, you couldn't be more wrong. You've seem to have taken an anti-globalist view on corporations. Ever heard of social responsibility? Investor relations? Laws?

 

[Nitemare]

Yay! Now they can use spent Uranium to make weapons grade plutonium so we can all die so much more sooner when they inevitably give it to terrorists...

<---heads off to Canada to join a Doomsday cult and get himself cloned

 

[0roo0roo]

and u thought americans were the cause of much trouble in the world..bah. stupid countries like russia and france selling nuke reactors to the highest bidder really help.....

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
and u thought americans were the cause of much trouble in the world..bah. stupid countries like russia and france selling nuke reactors to the highest bidder really help.....

nuke plants, tanks, planes, guns, any other weapons system you can think of... they've always sold it to whoever wants it, consequences be damned

 

[amdskip]

I'll have to ask my dad what type of nuke plant he works at. He works at Quad Cities station.

 

[JellyBaby]

uke plants, tanks, planes, guns, any other weapons system you can think of... they've always sold it to whoever wants it, consequences be damned

The U.S. is a large arms dealer as well though there are more restrictions and consequences are sometimes considered.

Some of the weapons go toward a defensive role but there are always dozens of armed conflicts occuring at any given time (IIRC during the O.J. trial the number was over 100).

Syria already probably has nuclear weapons so I'm not sure why I should get hot and bothered by this event.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Dari
Ahhh Nemesis, you couldn't be more wrong. You've seem to have taken an anti-globalist view on corporations. Ever heard of social responsibility? Investor relations? Laws?

Me anti-globalist? Hardly. What I stated were facts. Disney made millions from stories that were in Public Domain (Sleeping Beauty, Cindrella etc.), but when it comes time for their creations to fall in to public domain, they just extend the copyrights. Disney can make money from works of others, but no-one can touch the works of Disney. RIAA and MPAA are nothing but money-hungry thugs who harass customers and limit choice etc. etc. MS broke the law, falsified evidence, destroyed companies and jobs... What was their punishment? They were asked not to do it again. End of story.

But, that's a different discussion altogether

 

[Pocatello]

Everyone in the Middle East will have nuclear weapons in the future, Israel, Syria, Iran...before you know it, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be seen as small stuff. Let's find another fuel source and get out as soon as we can.

 

[KenGr]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
and u thought americans were the cause of much trouble in the world..bah. stupid countries like russia and france selling nuke reactors to the highest bidder really help.....

Again, again again! Light water reactors are not proliferation risks and are allowed, under the international non-proliferation treaties to be sold to any country that has signed the treaties and agreed to inspections and safeguards. While it is technically possible to create weapons from light water reactors, the plant design and economics prevent this. Basically, a large nuclear reactor plant costs about 2 billion dollars. After you build this, you need to build a reprocessing and separation plant which uses a large portion of the electrical output and costs another 4 or 5 billion. On the other hand, you can build a Uranium enrichment plant, forgo the reactor and only spend a couple of billion. The Uranium plant is also much harder to detect.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: Pocatello
Everyone in the Middle East will have nuclear weapons in the future, Israel, Syria, Iran...before you know it, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be seen as small stuff. Let's find another fuel source and get out as soon as we can.

Right now the Mid East countries have billions of dollars coming into them to feed their people. What will happen to that region when they have no more money coming in?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: etech

Originally posted by: Pocatello Everyone in the Middle East will have nuclear weapons in the future, Israel, Syria, Iran...before you know it, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be seen as small stuff. Let's find another fuel source and get out as soon as we can.

Right now the Mid East countries have billions of dollars coming into them to feed their people. What will happen to that region when they have no more money coming in?

Why they will do what everyone else does. Either start producing something else they can sell, or kill each other for resources. Now, it is unlikely they will wake up one morning and say "WTF! What happened to the oil?", but the US isn't serious about getting off it, so they might keep their head in their abundant sand too.