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Iran's Smart Concrete Can Cope With Earthquakes and Bombs
PolygamousRanchKid writes "Iran is an earthquake zone, so its engineers have developed some of the toughest building materials in the world. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) could also be used to protect hidden nuclear installations from the artificial equivalent of small earthquakes, namely bunker-busting bombs. UHPC is based—like its quotidian cousins—on sand and cement. In addition, though, it is doped with powdered quartz (the pure stuff, rather than the tainted variety that makes up most sand) and various reinforcing metals and fibers. UHPC can withstand more compression than other forms of concrete. UHPC is also more flexible and durable than conventional concrete. It can therefore be used to make lighter and more slender structures. All of which is fine and dandy for safer dams and better sewers, which threaten no one. But UHPC's potential military applications are more intriguing—and for many, more worrying. Deep bunkers can be tackled in other ways. America's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has looked at what is known in the jargon as functional defeat, in other words bombing their entrances shut or destroying their electrical systems with electromagnetic pulses. They are also working on active penetrators—bombs which can tunnel through hundreds of meters of earth, rock and concrete. Development work is also under way on esoteric devices such as robot snakes, carrying warheads, which can infiltrate via air ducts and cable runs."
Go to the US with a few copies of the Qur'an and see what happens.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant was built 20 feet underground; they later reinforced it with concrete and put another 60 feet of dirt on top. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime secretly developed a second nuclear facility a second locality, the Fordow plant. Fordow is built under 200-300 feet of mountain, and according to the Washington Post, "Western analysts think Fordow has not only the protection afforded by natural rock but also additional hardening that draws on North Korean bunker-building expertise. A report last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said the facility was thought to include multiple 'blast-proof doors, extensive divider walls, hardened ceilings, 20-centimeter-thick concrete walls, and double concrete ceilings with earth filled between layers.'" That is not a civilian plant. That is the underground lair of a James Bond super villain.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has found evidence that Iran is pursuing work on a bomb. That includes research into turning uranium into the core for a nuclear weapon, the explosives, detonators, and firing devices needed for an implosion weapon, and modifications to put the bombs on a ballistic missile.
So as far as Iran being a threat... well, no, Iran isn't a threat. Not unless you think the idea of a radical theocracy armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs is a potential threat. Apparently the Arabs do. If you'll recall the diplomatic memos released by Wikileaks, the Saudis were constantly trying to persuade the U.S. to bomb Iran.
And you've bought the media sale-fire hook, line, and sinker. Congratulations you get to decimate another hapless population but this time you get to lose some of your own family members in the charade! Johnny what else does he win? Show him the BONUS - "The world breaks out into catastrophic war as the 9 nations with nuclear weapons all vie for their place on the totem pole of the next tiny refreshing but teetering equilibrium, squashing every other voice in the world and tamping down on any hope of this civilization leaving this, now too small, planet."
You're nothing; like me.