Capturing Iran's highly enriched uranium would require a large US ground force, sources say

[In It to Win It]

Recovering Iran’s remaining highly enriched uranium stockpile believed to be sitting in a storage facility deep underground, an objective the Trump administration has been discussing, would require a significant number of US ground troops beyond a small special operations footprint, seven current and former officials familiar with the military planning told CNN.

The US bombing campaign that struck three Iranian nuclear facilities last June did not destroy all of that country’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, the material needed to create a nuclear weapon. Much of it is believed to be at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site, said three of the sources. President Donald Trump has made complete elimination of Iran’s nuclear capability one of his stated aims of the war.

If the Trump administration went ahead with an operation to retrieve the uranium, it could mark the first major commitment of US ground forces as part of the campaign, an escalation that would put a large number of troops in harm’s way as part of a complex mission to move or render safe tons of highly radioactive material.

The uranium at Isfahan is accessible to the Iranians, who had been working for months after the US military strikes last year to clear the rubble of the facility’s aboveground structures and access the underground tunnels where the uranium was hidden, two of the sources said. UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday that around 200 kilograms of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is probably still at Isfahan, with some also at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/capturing-iran-highly-enriched-uranium-223637157.html

[Prairie Gates]

1. These journos are true clowns

"Recovering" - You don't recover what doesn't belong to you.

"An objective" - Robbing the money out of a vault is also an "objective," I suppose, but the press would not likely describe a robbery this way

"one of his stated aims" - Have there actually been stated aims of the illegal and unprovoked attack?

"an operation to retrieve" - We retrieve things that we have lost. We don't retrieve things that don't belong to us. An operation to retrieve something that belongs to somebody else is called a robbery or a heist.

"a complex mission to render safe" - a heist

"where the uranium was hidden." - Yes, like money is hidden in a safe

[newdeal2]

2. Thought it was obliterated

This seems like a near certain death trap. Iran will be waiting to pounce.

[Boo1]

3. It would be tough

Isfahan is in the middle of the country. You can't just drop the 82nd in to seize it because you wouldn't have a way to exfil them. You'd have to drive in from Iraq. We're talking Calvary, Armour, the works.

Its not something you can just send in a Seal team or Delta to do either. Your going to have to take and hold the site with a perimeter and excavate the site to find it buried under the rubble from last summer.

And it would be the same deal as in Iraq. You attract every jihadist in the region who wants to kill some Americans to come.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Not to mention it would be risking toxic irradiation on the military

that remove it.

It reminds me of how atomic bombs were exploded as an experiment in the desert and troops were commanded to walk towards the mushroom clouds.

[Blue Full Moon]

5. George bush's yellow cake again.