Radioactive Decay

Iran has announced that they've gotten their 3,000 centrifuges up and running in Natanz. That's yet another step forward in their quest to obtain highly enriched uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons and mated to various missiles in their inventory.

Yet, there are those who think that Iran's release of the British 15 somehow means that the Iranians will be more amenable to negotiation to give up their quest. Right.

The Iranians are thumbing their noses at the world, including the United Nations, because there is no one out there who is willing to put the Iranian chicanery to an end.

The announcement suggests Iran has succeeded in operating a larger number of centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran. The country has said its goal is to install and start working with 3,000 centrifuges.

Ahmadinejad did not specify how many centrifuges were now operational as he spoke at a ceremony at the facility, marking the one-year anniversary of Iran's first success in enriching small amounts of uranium.

"With great honor, I declare that as of today our dear country has joined the nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale," Ahmadinejad said.

The U.N. has imposed limited sanctions on Iran until it suspends enrichment a key process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the basis of a warhead. The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, a claim the country denies.

"Now we are entering the mass production of centrifuges and starting to launch industrial scale enrichment, another step toward the flourishing of Islamic Iran," Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh said earlier at the ceremony at Natanz.

Iran has repeatedly demonstrated that it seeks to obtain weapons that will obliterate its enemies, including Israel and the US, and will take out the Saudis and other Sunni-dominated countries to show the dominance of the Shi'ite theology.

As Hot Air points to an ABC News exclusive, the Iranians are bringing centrifuges online at a faster clip than the intel community thought possible. Yet another example of how the intel can't get things right - over or underestimating threats posed by totalitarian regimes. That's a very dangerous situation to deal with since the timeframe in which Iran can obtain nuclear weapons becomes that much closer because the more centrifuges that are in operation for longer periods of time, the quicker the Iranians will succeed in producing highly enriched uranium.

Meanwhile, the international community, the UN, the EU, and the IAEA are condemned to do nothing more than issue sternly worded letters denouncing the latest technical achievements, while Russia and China make deals with the devil to tacitly back a regime that repeatedly has shown itself to be reckless and destabilizing to the region.

UPDATE:
The experts have been wrong before, and it looks like they're overoptimistic in thinking that technological hurdles will keep Iran from having the tech means to make nuclear weapons sooner rather than later.

If they're getting technical experience from their contact with France and the Europeans, let alone the Russians (who have been in negotiations over building a reactor in Iran), all bets are off.

Of course, the Iranian participation in the European nuclear consortium could also explain the Europeans' reluctance to clamp down - they need the Iranian oil, and if they push too far, they might lose a key source.