Intelligence Report Shows Iran Is Trying To Recover Highly Enriched Uranium

Okay, this report here from Breitbart spells out some pretty confusing details of an intelligence report put together by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency that shows that Iran is up to no good with its nuclear program ...like we didn't know that by now. But what's interesting is how the U.N. still CONTINUES to appease the Iranians on these violations. Here's some of the details:

Iran has recently tested ways of recovering highly enriched uranium from waste reactor fuel in a covert bid to expand its nuclear program, according to an intelligence assessment made available to The Associated Press.
The alleged tests loosely replicate Saddam Hussein's attempts to build the bomb nearly two decades ago. But experts question the conclusion by those providing the intelligence that Tehran, too, is trying to reprocess the fuel to make a nuclear weapon.
They note that the spent fuel at issue as the source of the enriched uranium is not enough to yield the approximately 30 kilograms (65 pounds)of weapons-grade material needed for one simple warhead.
Still, they say that the alleged experiment appears plausible—if not as a fast track to weapons capability then as an incremental step that could move it further along that path.

Now, let's look at how the IAEA is trying to soft peddle all of this and do ANYTHING to avoid a confrontation with Iran:

"On the surface it may have nothing to do with making a bomb, but in the end that's what it could be about."
IAEA spokespeople were unavailable Thursday but an official of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog said the agency would have no comment. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.

It has gotten to be almost comical. This U.N. body, the IAEA, is absolutely worthless as tits on a boar and the Iranians clearly know that. They fear that investigative evidence about as much as they do an attack from Bali. I'm sure there is no Western country or leader at this point who holds out any hope that Iran will halt their nuke operations - well, perhaps none except for one Barack Hussein Obama. All this news shows is the ineptness of the U.N. - it just reinforces all of the suspicions of the West, once more.

Intel says Iran plans secret nuclear experiments

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has recently tested ways of recovering highly enriched uranium from waste reactor fuel in a covert bid to expand its nuclear program, according to an intelligence assessment made available to The Associated Press.
The intelligence, provided by a member of the 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency, also says a report will soon be submitted to the Iranian leadership for a decision on whether to go ahead with the project.
The alleged tests loosely replicate Saddam Hussein's attempts to build the bomb nearly two decades ago. But experts question the conclusion by those providing the intelligence that Tehran, too, is trying to reprocess the fuel to make a nuclear weapon.
They note that the spent fuel at issue as the source of the enriched uranium is not enough to yield the approximately 30 kilograms (65 pounds)of weapons-grade material needed for one simple warhead.
Still, they say that the alleged experiment appears plausible—if not as a fast track to weapons capability then as an incremental step that could move it further along that path.
With Iran's nuclear program already under international scrutiny, any new efforts by Tehran to increase its nuclear expertise and its store of enriched uranium would set off alarm bells. The concerns would be particularly serious if that stock was highly enriched. The higher the enrichment the less time and effort it takes to reach the 90-percent level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
The 3-page intelligence report, drawn from Iranian sources within the country, says the source material would be highly enriched—some at above 90 percent, the rest at 20 percent.
In contrast, Iran's enrichment program under constant IAEA monitoring has churned out material that is less than 5 percent enriched, in line with the fuel needs of modern reactors.
"Procedures were evaluated for recycling fuel by dissolving fuel rods" for irradiated waste and then reprocessing the material into uranium metal, says the intelligence assessment. Uranium metal is used for nuclear warheads.
"Sufficient data was collected for planning production lines for recovering the fuel," says the assessment, which gave Tehran's Jaber ibn Hayan Laboratories, run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as the location for the experiment.
Top officials of AEOI are "in the final stages" of writing a report for the Iranian leadership for assessment on whether to go forward with reprocessing, according to the intelligence.
The laboratories and the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, where the research reactor is located, have figured in numerous experiments that have raised the suspicion level about Iran, including plutonium separation attempts that Iran owned up to only after it was pressed by IAEA experts probing its nuclear past.
If the information is accurate then Iran is "trying to get their nose in the tent" of reprocessing material potentially suitable for a warhead, said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspect secret proliferators.