Does Iraq have the A-bomb?

[Steve Shellans]

Last Sunday, on the TV program "60 minutes", they speculated
that Iraq has (or shortly will have) A-bombs. They showed
satellite photos of what was purported to be a uranium mine
high in the mountains, and they obtained evidence that Iraq
had purchased from a German company the rights to manufacture
gasious diffusion equipment.

My questions:

1. If that mine is indeed a uranium mine, could that fact be
ascertained by radiation detected from a satelite?
If the answer is 'no', what about a high-flying (100,000 ft)
spy plane.

2. Same question with respect to a gasious diffusion plant.

Thanks,
Steve Shellans

[Arnie Frisch]

In article <70...@tekchips.LABS.TEK.COM> ste...@tekchips.LABS.TEK.COM (Steve Shellans) writes:
>
>Last Sunday, on the TV program "60 minutes", they speculated
>that Iraq has (or shortly will have) A-bombs. They showed
>satellite photos of what was purported to be a uranium mine
>high in the mountains, and they obtained evidence that Iraq
>had purchased from a German company the rights to manufacture
>gasious diffusion equipment.
>
>My questions:
>
> 1. If that mine is indeed a uranium mine, could that fact be
> ascertained by radiation detected from a satelite?
> If the answer is 'no', what about a high-flying (100,000 ft)
> spy plane.

Maybe using specially designed hardware and lots of signal processing?
It would take a lot of time (averaging), lots of passes, and probably
cost a lot of money to do.

> 2. Same question with respect to a gasious diffusion plant.

Probably a lot harder (read nearly impossible).

If we wait long enough to do something like this to prove he's
trying to build a bomb - we'll probably be too late!

[William Johnson]

In article <70...@tekchips.LABS.TEK.COM> ste...@tekchips.LABS.TEK.COM (Steve Shellans) writes:
>

>Last Sunday, on the TV program "60 minutes", they speculated
>that Iraq has (or shortly will have) A-bombs. They showed

[etc.]

*****FLAME WARNING*****

PLEASE GET THIS GARBAGE OUT OF SCI.PHYSICS.FUSION!!

This group has a VERY explicit charter involving a particular branch of
science. That charter has absolutely NOTHING to do with spy satellites, or
Iraqi geology, or mines, and only by the most extreme twisting of the charter
can it be construed as relating to bombs, atomic or otherwise. The questions
raised in the referenced posting are perfectly germane for places like
sci.military; you might even have a chance of picking up something useful
there. They are NOT germane to the science of fusion, cold or otherwise;
*please* do not discuss them here, as the signal/noise ratio in this group is
already bad and getting worse.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled polemics.

--
Bill Johnson | "A man should never be ashamed to own he
Los Alamos National Laboratory | has been in the wrong, which is but saying,
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA | in other words, that he is wiser to-day
!cmcl2!lanl!mwj (m...@lanl.gov) | than he was yesterday." (A. Pope)