Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has today announced on state television that he ordered the country’s scientists to begin working on the design and production of nuclear-powered marine vessels, presenting the move as something of a retaliation for the US passing the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA).
Iran has claimed the ISA to be a violation of the P5+1 nuclear deal, and while it perhaps violates the spirit of the deal, it doesn’t actually impose any new sanctions itself, and subsequently doesn’t violate the deal, but simply enabled future presidents to do so if they want to.
The retaliation from Iran isn’t a violation either, with the White House noting that the Iranian development of nuclear vessels is not a violation of the P5+1 deal either, which prohibits Iran’s creation of atomic weapons, not of using nuclear energy for propulsion of military vehicles.
Nuclear-powered ships have been the norm in the fleets of major countries for generations, with early nuclear submarines hitting the water in the 1950s. It’s unclear if Iran will follow through on this plan, however, as their navy is geared toward small, coastal defense ships, and not the long-range submarines and hulking leviathans that tend to benefit from nuclear reactors.
The US Navy gave up on nuclear-powered ships smaller than supercarriers a few years ago because they turned out to be uneconomic. Iran is likely to come to the same conclusion. However, until they do Benny is going to absolutely freak out.
Given the huge oil and gas reserves of Iran the only reason to go nuclear is that such ships can remain active much longer than oil-propelled ships.
They can remain active longer. They have a longer range and no need of distant bases for refueling. They can carry a bigger payload because large amounts of onboard fuel storage can be converted to hold. A diesel submarine is pretty quiet when running on batteries, but loud when the engines are running to charge the batteries; a nuclear sub is pretty quiet all the time. And the technology and expertise involved in building them are probably marketable to clients in other countries.
The point of nuclear ships for Iran is that their reactors are fueled by the sort of highly enriched uranium we don’t want them to have and say they don’t “need.” The high enrichment allows much smaller, much lighter reactors more suited to ships.
Brazil said the same things about building nuclear subs, and that appears to have been part of their sub rosa nuclear efforts. Iran is not inventing this work-around/subterfuge.
The Iranians say “ships” and the agreement allows them that. What they mean is a return to highly enriched uranium. It is tit-for-tat, we don’t honor the spirit of the agreement on sanctions by citing “other” justifications, so they do the same.
What degree of U235 enrichment do you suggest? I think that it is near 20% the grade used for small on-land research and medical-purpose reactors. Iran used to be one of the major producers of radioactive argon for diagnosis. I believe that the only source is now the Petten reactor in the Netherlands.
I doubt it’s ships they’re interested in, more likely a particular kind of boat, submarines.
August 11, 2015 Retired generals and admirals back Iran nuclear deal in letter
WASHINGTON — Three dozen retired generals and admirals released an open letter Tuesday supporting the Iran nuclear deal and urging Congress to do the same.
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/retired-generals-and-admirals-back-iran-nuclear-deal-in-letter-1.362469
I can see some new supertankers being developed. It would be a good industry for Iran if they can pull it off.