This isn’t an issue I’ve really worked on, but I found “this June 1995 report”:http://pogoarchives.org/m/nss/doe-cong-rpt-heu-naval-fuel-19950600.pdf a little while ago on POGO’s site and thought it might be of interest. Prepared by the Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion and titled _Report on Use of Low Enriched Uranium in Naval Nuclear Propulsion_, the report seems to have been cited in a few places (I first found a reference in “this”:http://cns.miis.edu/npr/pdfs/81mahip.pdf Spring 2001 NPR piece), but it’s not the easiest thing to track down via Google.

Anyway, the report states that “Naval [reactor] cores use fuel enriched to a minimum of 93%” U-235. That’s the highest official USFG figure I ran across during a quick search; “IPFM”:http://fissilematerials.org/library/gfmr10.pdf describes fuel containing 97.4% U-235 as “the standard for U.S. submarine fuel.”

As I “said,”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/2246/iaea-gov-2012-48 I need to put up some housekeeping posts. You have likely seen “this”:http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-comments/past-issues/volume-18-2012/july/iran-sanctions-halt-long-range-ballistic-missile-development/ from IISS’s Michael Elleman. Entitled “Iran Sanctions Halt Long-Range Ballistic-Missile Development,” the piece concludes that

bq. …if future applications of sanctions prevent Iran from establishing a reliable source of propellant ingredients regulated by the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Islamic Republic will not be able to create missiles capable of threatening western Europe, much less the United States, before the end of this decade.

However, you may not have seen Elleman’s “presentation”:http://youtu.be/FHSYYETNGH4 from this past July, which is a great tutorial on missiles in general and Iran’s missiles in particular.

You can view it here:

I’ve written about this subject “before,”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/2230/yet-more-on-the-iranian-nuclear-fatwa but Fars News, for whatever reason, published this past August “an article”:http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9106060212 titled “Iranian Supreme Leader’s Fatwa on Nuclear Weapons” which contained an April 2010 speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei.

In addition to stating that

bq. We believe that using nuclear weapons is haraam and prohibited and that it is everybody’s duty to make efforts to protect humanity against this great disaster

the report contains one of the most detailed accounts from Iran about nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

I was looking for something else and ran across “this document”:http://www.iranwatch.org/international/OPCW/opcw-iran-compliancearticle7-070199.htm from Iran Watch. It’s a 1999 paper about the CWC presented by Iran’s current ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Soltanieh. At the time, he was the country’s Secretary of the National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention.

One of the paper’s most interesting parts is an attachment describing the role of Iran’s constitution regarding “the ratification and implementation of international treaties.” I don’t know whether and to what extent these provisions are still valid, though I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does.

Anyway, the first part of the attachment spells out some articles of the constitution relevant to the Majlis, the main one being Article 77, which states that “All international conventions, protocols, treaties and pacts shall receive approval by Majlis.”

The document also explains that

bq. The ministry which has the most concern as regards to adherence to the convention in question, has to take the issue to the cabinet. The Commission in charge of the bills will consider the text (identical text in both English and Farsi). The Commission makes an inquiry from the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its views and preferably its approval (if the MFA is not the proponent of the approval of the text ).

Of course, the Guardian Council is required to review any legislation “to ensure that it conforms to the principles of Islam and the Constitution.” The attachment also describes the Judiciary’s role. The most germane constitutional article appears to be 160, which states that “the Minister of Justice shall be responsible for all matters concerning the relations of the judiciary with the Executive and the Legislative Branches.”

Well. A handy “org chart”:https://recruitment.iaea.org/documents/orgchart.pdf from and of the IAEA.

In case you need a map of many Indian nuclear facilities (and who doesn’t?), click on “this handy map”:http://www.dae.nic.in/?q=node/9 from India’s DAE.

More regular blogging anticipated for the near future.