December 2, 2012 (TSR) – Two nuclear scientists have strongly criticized as “either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax” a report by the Associated Press about a diagram according to which the news network claimed that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapon.
The Associated Press on Tuesday presented a diagram in a report and claimed it was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran’s nuclear energy program. The report said that Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in Japan. The diagram showed a yield of 50 kilotons.
Nuclear scientists Yousaf Butt and Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, writing on the website of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, said the AP report contained a “massive error.”
They said the “level of scientific sophistication” to draw the diagram “corresponds to that typically found in graduate or advanced undergraduate-level nuclear physics courses.”
Meanwhile, diplomats working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also conceded on Friday that the AP document against Iran’s nuclear energy program was “scientifically flawed.”
The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
Source: Press TV
