France to sell UAE nuclear technology

France to sell UAE nuclear technology

news.bbc.co.uk

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that he will sign a nuclear co-operation deal with the United Arab Emirates during his regional tour.

It will be the third such deal Mr Sarkozy has made with Muslim countries since taking office in May last year.

He said the Arab world should have the same rights to civilian nuclear programmes as enjoyed by others.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well this makes for an interesting turn of events - on one side we have the US slamming iran for wanting nuclear power and the other France is selling it to the highest bidder - can forsee Saudi Arabia and Qatar start building reactors as well very soon.


but

Mr Sarkozy has been working to ensure that France benefits from any such proliferation - just as he has helped sell French nuclear know-how to China.

what game is he playing?

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I don't think it's that big a deal, there's a difference between civil nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. The problem with Iran is that a civil nuclear energy program can lead to a nuclear weapons program, they can enrich weapons grade uranium in secret. Also, don't forget that if France doesn't do it, then Russia will. I would prefer France.

So true, a difference between civil nuclear energy and nuclear weapons program. Which is why certain countries sell fuel for nuclear power plants to other countries, to be used for energy production only.
I guess we're witnessing the slippery slope of using nuclear power for energy. Fuel production independence becomes a national interest, but that entails the trust that no further enrichment takes place. And how many people can even trust a friend/relative to borrow a car, etc.

Originally posted by Cthulwho
..The problem with Iran is that a civil nuclear energy program can lead to a nuclear weapons program, they can enrich weapons grade uranium in secret.

Substitute Saudi Arabia (or any other nation, for that matter!) for Iran.

Originally posted by Cthulwho
...if France doesn't do it, then Russia will.

Substitute China for Russia.

A related report:

Australia's new government revoked a bill allowing it to sell uranium to India. The bill was put in place by the previous Howard Government. The new government said that it was fullfilling its promise to uphold explicit adherence to NPT clauses.
Previously Australia had toed the American line for lowering nuclear restrictions on India even though India was not an NPT signatory.

news.bbc.co.uk...

reply to post by Daedalus3

In my opinion Australia should not sell raw uranium, but rather enrich it first then sell it. That way there won't be any need for countries like Iran etc to enrich it themselves, we then won't have to worry about them enriching weapons grade uranium.

the LPW type reactor built at Bushehr is one that really cannot be used in a weapons programme - the design makes it horribly hard to get at the material needed.

The reactor is a VVER-1000 [aka WWER-1000] 950-1,073 MWe (electrical) light water reactor.

reply to post by Cthulwho


I ain't no nuclear scientist, but here's my logic:

Uranium required for nuclear fuel needs to be enriched only a wee bit, IIRC

reply to post by Harlequin


As in..? Its not suitable for a high enrichment process? I ain't no nucular scientist you see!

yes basically - its not really a MOX type reactor and usually requires quite speciaifc fuel for it