Lest anyone missed it, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, long on life support, has become un-officially obsolete. Iran is taking the final steps to become a “peaceful” nuclear power under the treaty, but the enrichment centrifuges keep spinning and spinning.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has begun loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, one of the last steps to realizing its stated goal of becoming a peaceful nuclear power, state-run Press TV reported on Tuesday.

A government spokesman said the fuelling showed Iran’s nuclear program was on track despite international sanctions aimed at forcing it to curb uranium enrichment activities which many countries fear are aimed at developing atomic weapons.

“Iran has started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr,” the English-language Press TV said on its website.

Amid great media fanfare, fuel rods were transported into the reactor building in August, but they were not inserted into its core and the plant’s start-up was delayed due to what were described as minor technical problems.

Iran expects the Russian-built 1,000-MW plant finally to begin generating energy by early next year.

Reuters

This is really past the drop-dead date for any pre-emptive strike by America to stop this plant from going on-line. Any strike from here on out will have radiological consequences for the Iranian people that are beyond anything that America would be willing to cause. While we (Blogmocracy, not necessary the US Government) might breathe a sigh of relief over an Iranian Chernoybl, American bombs are not going to help bring that about.

This does not, in theory at least, bring Iran any closer to nuclear weapons. The Iranian uraniam enrichment facilities are located elsewhere, and have not paused (to my knowledge) in their operation. It is the enrichment facilities at Natanz (and perhaps elsewhere) that arre the biggest potential building blocks in an Iranian Manhatten Project. So why the fuss?

Simply put, this lets the nuclear proliferation genie out of the bottle. If the Islamic Republic of Iran has a nuclear program (the largest exporter of terrorism on the planet), and the world acquieses, who, therefore, may not? Other than America, of course, but that is a domestic issue and not a matter of proliferation as we are already a nuclear power. Venezuela is the next nation in the process to build nuclear energy facilities with Russian technology and assistance:

Russia first offered Venezuela nuclear power in 2008, during an intense spell of anti-Western sentiment in Moscow after the war with Georgia. The agreement on Friday fleshed out that offer.

It specified that the Russian state nuclear power company, Rosatom, would build one nuclear plant with two large pressurized water reactors to generate power, and one small research reactor to make medical isotopes and what was described as nuclear materials that could be useful as pesticides for agriculture.

Mr. Medvedev said Friday that Russia would help Venezuela build “an entire range of energy opportunities.” He added that “even such an oil- and gas-rich country as Venezuela needs new sources of energy.”

New York Times (requires login)

Nuclear pesticides? That is a new one for me, but that is what the article says.

With an active reactor in Iran and plans for one in Venezulea, it would seem that many rising American enemies are on their way to nuclear power. For peaceful purposes, of course. No one should be concerned. After all, the Russians are in charge. What could possible go wrong?