So we’re giving the 9/11 guys some nukes now…
Blow me up once, shame on you…
Blow me up twice…
Hey… quick question…
What the fuck are we doing here guys?
As a reward for flying planes into buildings and killing Americans…here’s some killing fuel
FUCKIJG SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE ALREADY
WTF??? The USA attacked Iraq and Iran screaming about nukes and now they to give the lunatic Wahhabis nuclear weapons…WTF???
September 11th 2: Nuclear Boogaloo!
The 21st century will be the century of nuclear proliferation.
…pardon?
New stupidity tier unlocked
Setting up the ball for the next administration’s war.
Give the nutcases who attacked us on 9/11 nuclear weapons. Brilliant!
But Israel already has nuclear weapons.
This is the dumbest shit. Like the guardian article says, you don’t need to enrich uranium to make nuclear power. Canada has been doing it for decades using the CANDU system.
There are exactly two reasons to enrich uranium:
-
providing starting material for the more efficient U-238 -> Pu reactors, which burn 100% of the uranium instead of less than 1%, or thorium reactors. Both of these require much more pure fuel, just to get going. Probably not this one, because this requires very sophisticated technology that pretty much only France has ever managed to do at scale with Superphénix.
-
bombs
There are advantages that CANDU had for Canada that aren’t as great for most other countries in the world. The main benefits are that you don’t need to enrich which is industrially demanding (enrichment requires you develop and maintain those capabilities or rely on another party that does) and that you can do online refueling. That was attractive for Canada because they had a relatively underdeveloped industry so doing all the heavy upfront costs of establishing it for enriching while not being able to make fuel for many plants was a tall and seriously expensive order while buying enriched fuel kind of puts you at the whim of someone else. Plus didn’t need to make a large pressure vessel which would have been difficult for Canada back then. And back in the day light water reactor capacity factors were hot garbage with outages all the time (and not quick outages either but long sustained ones) so refueling while still generating was awesome though eventually you do need a very extended retubing outage after a few decades. It also benefited Canada because Canada has both a massive amount of uranium ore and the largest water resources of any country. So they have ample inputs for the relatively simple processing of uranium into unenriched fuel and water to produce heavy water.
These are not as much the case for Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia doesn’t really have a problem with being somewhat dependent on foreign suppliers and throwing around money (otherwise the deal wouldn’t be happening), they will apparently be testing over the next two years if they consider it a better deal to develop indigenous enrichment through this or not bother and just rely on the US doing it in their country. Generally though they are looking to spend money to carve out non-hydrocarbon areas of the economy to diversify out to so if they can do indigenous uranium mining and enrichment and sell that to others that would be considered a win. In any case, American companies will provide substantial assistance on setting this up since it’s not being developed independently. Light water capacity factors really tightened up and are now in like the 90%s rather than 60-70% so online refueling isn’t quite as attractive as it once was. And, unlike Canada, they don’t have tons of water resources and have to do a lot of expensive processing of seawater to even get water for drinking; you have to process an enormous quantity of water to get heavy water, particularly in the purity needed for reactor water grade.
Consider that even Canada is building a light water reactor rather than CANDU for the latest expansion at Darlington, a site which is otherwise all CANDU and had the latest actually built CANDU reactors in the country. Evidently they felt the economics worked out better that way or the people who have been doing CANDU for the longest would not be swapping horses like that.
-
The same Saudi that helped plan 9/11? Good call, they seem like a strong ally.
Planned and funded with Saudi nationals
Either the US does it and can at least keep an eye on the program, or another country helps them and it’s the same situation just worse.
KSA involvement in 9/11 was purely a a proxy arm of US empire. ie. under full approval of US establishment.
Not that I’m a fan of Saudi Arabia, but they had nothing to do with 9/11. Some of the people who planned and executed 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, but that’s it.
Omar al-Bayoumi’s primary connection to the Saudi royal family stems from substantial financial stipends routed to him and his wife from Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was the longtime Saudi Ambassador to the United States. Declassified FBI documents and findings from the “28 pages” of the Joint Inquiry reveal that thousands of dollars in cashier’s checks issued by the Saudi Embassy—tied directly to the Ambassador’s wife—changed hands and were deposited into the bank accounts of al-Bayoumi’s wife. [1, 2, 3]
Key Royal Connections and Financial Links
- Prince Bandar bin Sultan: As the prominent Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. and a high-ranking member of the royal family, his embassy oversaw the operations and stipends of numerous Saudi nationals. The FBI confirmed al-Bayoumi received a monthly stipend through entities tied to Saudi authorities during the time he assisted the hijackers. [1, 2, 3]
- Princess Haifa bint Faisal: The Prince’s wife sent a series of monthly cashier’s checks, ostensibly meant for charitable and medical assistance for another Saudi national’s family, but the FBI determined that some of these funds were redirected into the bank accounts of al-Bayoumi’s wife. [1]
- Saudi Intelligence Apparatus: Declassified FBI documents confirm that al-Bayoumi was a covert Saudi intelligence agent. In the Saudi governance structure, the intelligence services report directly to senior members of the royal family. [1, 2]
I could have sworn that they were also receiving funding from Saudi as well.
I believe you’re right.
According to Wikipedia, and as I’m learning just now, there are allegations but nothing in the way of evidence, which makes sense since Saudi Arabia was already a willing US vassal by that point.
I guess you spelled an owner wrong there.
Some!?
“15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi”
Elect conservatives (regressives), get a more expensive and less safe world. Simple as that.
Next foreign terrorist attack on the U.S. will involve nuclear material and then Americans will act all surprised when it happens.
Not a fan of Saudi Arabia, but… what?
Saudi Arabia nationals were responsible for 9/11
So naturally the USA went off and attacked Iraq and Afghanistan in revenge
True, but why would that give hypothetical future 9/11-ists to Saudi Arabian uranium? The Saudi government, being a willing and committed US vassal, had almost certainly has no intention of letting anything like that happen.
One real issue is that the Saudi government is really just a bunch of minor princes and royal family members in a trenchcoat.
So yes, it may be the case that the King and senior officials don’t want to enable the proliferation of nuclear materials, but that doesn’t mean the Saudi government isn’t a leaky seive.
The Saudi gov was already a “willing and committed US vassal” when 9/11 took place and that obviously didn’t stop it from happening
Sure, but it didn’t happen using Saudi government anything. My point is: Why the assumption that hypothetical future terrorists would be able to get access to Saudi Arabian nuclear material?
Because it will now be available to them… you seem to be under the impression that the SA gov will have 100% control of everything as if illegal material does not constantly find its way into black markets
I mean, if it was that easy it’d have already happened somewhere.
What could go wrong?
Just a bunch of terrorists etching weapon of mass destruction deals. Nothing could possibli go wrong.
But Iran can’t have a nuclear program because they’ll make nuclear weapons.
Why? Build solar farms on a small fraction of the land and the population has energy.
Is this some crazy logic reaction to cocking it up in Iran?
My guess is because they saw what happened to Iran who do not have a nuclear weapon. They saw what happened to them when they don’t have a nuclear weapon. And they saw how the US moved defensive assets to protect Israel while their neighbours turned into missile targets.
Ok, I can see that logic from SA. But what is Trump (or rather the adults I the room around him…) thinking here?
Pulling out of the enrichment agreement, attacking Irans nuclear facilities, going to war with Iran - all with at least some pretence about keeping them from getting nukes.
And then he turns around and grants enrichment (and possibly a weapons program?) to Saudi Arabia…!?
Iran won’t pay Trump enough.
