Iranian Reactors Are Not Earthshaking News...Well Actually--They Are

Iranian scientists are warning events in Japan suggest that Iranian reactors may be too close to earthquake-prone areas:

The leaders of earthquake-prone Iran have rejected concerns by the country's top scientists about a plan to build a national nuclear reactor network, according to intelligence shared with The Associated Press.

Even those scientists though, came to their conclusion recently--very recently:

An official from a member nation of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency says the Iranian decision was reached shortly after Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, spewed radiation into the atmosphere and evolved into the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The scientists are not just relying on what happened in Japan--they've done their due diligence too:

According to the official, key Iranian leaders reviewed a 2005 report on Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province — site of a planned nuclear plant near the town of Darkhovin on the northern tip of the Persian Gulf — that was updated in 2010 and early this year with a study of earthquakes that have hit other Iranian provinces in the last decade.

The official said Tuesday the report by Iranian scientists warns that "data collected since the year 2000 shows the incontrovertible risks of establishing nuclear sites in the proximity of fault lines" in Khuzestan and 19 other Iranian provinces.

There was a meeting between the government and scientists, who presented a report with their findings.

The results were predictable:

• The Iranian government has decided to go ahead
• The government also restricted access to the report and deleted it from computers at the Tehran University's Geographic Institute

This is all the more dangerous, considering that there are few places in Iran that are not prone to earthquakes.

Considering how determined Iran is to build those reactors--do you think they want them for the energy they produce, or for their weapons value?

Well, considering the news that Iran is building rocket bases in Venezuela, I think the answer to that question is getting clearer all the time--especially since Iran is building those bases for Venezuela.

Iran is paying Venezuela to let them build those bases.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Venezuela.