Would it not be possible for some enterprising (perhaps, recently elected) leader of some political party in Canada to enable our fair land to take a more prominent place on the world stage by proposing a deal between Iran and Canada to build natural uranium fueled CANDU reactors, thus skirting the whole enrichment issue completely?

To reiterate, I may be hopelessly naive, but if UNSEC's only objection to Iran's nuclear program is their processing and enrichment of uranium, and Iran's only purpose in pursuing nuclear technology is, as they have repeately stated, the peaceful pursuit of atomic energy, wouldn't this ease many arguments between Iran and the USA, somewhat?

http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cnf_sectionA.htm#candu_control

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor

From the limited amount I have read, CANDU seem to be a little more expensive to build than LWRs, but latest designs seem to be on par with other designs in terms of safety, efficiency and power generation...

Could this not be a big diplomatic win for Canada, a net gain for World Peace and possibly a way to divert a disastrous war between Iran and USA/Israel?
Might this not be a way to make some major political hay for both whomever first proposes it and whomever negotiates it?

How about using other nations, or even the USA as intermediaries, if the USA or nations on more favourable terms with Iran could be persuaded to act?

There may sound reasons that the USA could get behind a deal like this as well, either as a negotiation strategy or as a justification, I suppose (if one were to be so cynical to suggest).

On an even more purely cynical level, this could be another way for Stephen Harper to further ingratiate himself with BushCo by giving them both a valid negotiating argument and a pretext for a request for UN sanctions or military intervention, if Iran refuses to negotiate?

To mitigate this, I suppose it could be proposed in the UN as a kind of Oil for Energy programme? The since the AECL has already spent some $17 billion of Canadian taxpayer capital to build CANDU reactors at home and abroad, perhaps another few billion dollars toward Peace in the Middle East would not be money badly spent...and if negotiations were successful, I don't think it would be overly optimistic to hope that other member nations would offer to help fund such an effort...

Wow - soft/trade diplomacy - and they say it can't be done...I can dream, I guess - it is, after all, just a wish!!!

Peace.

[ 18 December 2006: Message edited by: Village Idiot ]