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By contrast, Turkey's announcement that it would pursue a civilian nuclear program "is clearly a hedge against Iran," says proliferation expert Joseph Cirincione, referring to Tehran's suspected A-bomb efforts. Nevertheless, in explaining the decision last fall, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler stressed to journalists that nuclear energy is "environment friendly, with its carbon-free emissions." Indeed, Iran itself has cited global warming as justification for its uranium enrichment program, parroting the Bush administration's promotion of nuclear energy. "By trumpeting the potential benefits of nuclear power, the United States is essentially crafting an excuse for other countries," explains Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The problem here, as any casual Iran watcher can tell you, is that the same technology that is used to produce uranium fuel for nuclear reactors can be exploited to make the explosive core of a nuclear weapon. The danger then lies not in the reactors themselves, but in the facilities that enrich uranium--as well as in the facilities that reprocess spent uranium fuel into plutonium, which can also be used in both reactors and weapons. Of course, as the number of nuclear reactors around the world increases, so will the demand for fuel and the opportunities for nuclear mischief. According to Charles Ferguson of the Council on Foreign Relations, under certain scenarios the fuel supply might need to double, triple, or even sextuple by 2050 to meet demand.