Tag: 1950’s

Phipps Bend Missing Nuclear Reactors- part of Carter’s hostage negotiations with Iran?

1981: Did the U.S. trade A Phipps Bend nuclear reactor for the release of the U.S. embassy hostages in Iran?

The National Security Archive at George Washington University, Electronic Briefing Book No. 268 states:

“…two U.S. presidents dealing with the Shah of Iran, Ford and Carter, put concerns over proliferation and the Shah’s possible desire to build a nuclear bomb front and center when they approved negotiating positions for a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Iran.” (1)

We’re told the Iranian Revolution of 1979 killed the deal- but did it?

November 4, 1979: 52 Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were taken hostage, and held for 444 days. Remember, up until this crisis and the revolution, plans had been made to sell nuclear reactors to Iran.

Is it possible the U.S. was pressured to honor the original agreement? Did we send the second missing Phipps Bend reactor pressure vessel to Iran in order to secure the hostages’ release? We are given the fake news article about its arrival in Phipps Bend in June, 1981:

(2)

The Chicago Iron and Bridge worker interviewed in May of 2016 said he wasn’t sure what ultimately happened to the second vessel, but he did know it had not been sent to Phipps Bend. He said, “several RPVs were being stored onsite in Memphis” at the time.

Sending a nuclear reactor to Iran wouldn’t have been the most popular move an already unpopular President could have made. If this did happen, it well explains the lies and secrecy fed to the American public concerning the second reactor.

The U.S. had given Iran a nuclear reactor once before

In 1957, The United States and Iran signed the Atoms for Peace nuclear cooperation agreement:

“…an agreement that provides for technical assistance, the lease of several kilograms of enriched uranium, and cooperation on research on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.” (3)

In 1967, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center is built:

“It has a 5-megawatt pool-type thermal research reactor supplied by the United States and is to be operated by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran…(In November) the reactor at Tehran Nuclear Research Center goes critical, using 93 percent enriched uranium supplied by the United States.” (3)

In the article, “How Iran became a “Nuclear State” by Jeremy Bernstein, the author states:

When the TRR (Tehran Research Reactor) initially needed new fuel elements it was shortly before the 1979 revolution, and the Iranians chose simply to replace the TRR with a new, safer model of reactor designed in part by Freeman Dyson and manufactured by the San Diego firm General Atomics, which they ordered and paid for. Before it could be delivered, however, the revolution came and General Atomics’ export license was revoked. (4)

Iran has now paid for a nuclear reactor it appears they won’t receive, in addition to paying an additional $400 million to the United States for military equipment prior to the 1979 uprising. But the nuclear reactor they paid for back in 1979 was never brought up again. Was this reactor a secret part of the 1980-1981 hostage negotiations?

“The major issue between the two governments was a $400 million payment for military equipment made by the government of the Shah of Iran, prior to the 1979 uprising that toppled him. The U.S. banned delivery of the jets and other weapons amid the hostage crisis, but froze the $400 million advance payment.”(5)

Notice the issue of the paid-for reactor they (supposedly) did not receive is not mentioned.

The Barack Obama administration repaid the $400 million 35 years later…in addition to $1.3 billion in interest. This payment happened to coincide with a new nuclear agreement with Iran and another hostage release, the five Americans held in Tehran:

The White House repeatedly insisted that the nuclear deal must be kept a separate issue from the cases of the detained Americans, but the nuclear talks have helped significantly open up avenues of communication between the two countries that had been little used since the U.S. cut ties in 1980. (6)

It’s almost as if Iran has learned how to make the United States keep its nuclear promises.

(1) The National Security Archive. “The Nuclear Vault: U.S.-Iran Nuclear Negotiations in 1970s Featured Shah’s Nationalism and U.S. Weapons Worries.” Burr, William., Jan. 13, 2009. 

(2) The Kingsport Daily News. “Unit 2 on Way.” June, 1981.

(3) Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Real and Potential Threat. Cordesman and Al-Rodhan. The CSIS Press (Center for Strategic and International Studies.) 2006.

(4) “How Iran became a ‘Nuclear State.'” Jeremy Bernstein. The New York Review of Books. Feb. 19, 2010.

(5) “5 Things You Need to Know About the $400 Million America Sent to Iran.” Fortune.com. Shawn Tully. Aug. 5, 2016.

(6) “Iran releases 5 detained Americans, including Washington Post reporter.” Nahal Toosi. Jan. 16, 2016. Politico.

The Airplane Room: Deep Under Cumberland Mountain

The following was written by a guest author who wishes to be known only as The Mysterious Man from Rose Hill. We’ve decided to name this huge underground cave “The Airplane Room” in memory of his father.

This is a story that was told to me by my father when I was 8 to 10 years old in the late 50’s. It was an exciting story for a young boy and I still have vivid memories of him telling it.

Please understand that everything I’m relating is hearsay as I have no way to verify or corroborate the account. My father was a very truthful person. In fact he would often admonish me as a child to never exaggerate or embellish a story. “If you stretch the facts, then no one will believe you when you do tell the truth,” he said.

Following is a recounting of the story as told by my father, as  I remember it:

The setting is in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee where my father lived with his family. The time is the early 40’s. It was the war years, and my Dad was in his early teens.

One night, Dad and two of his friends decided to go exploring in Gap Cave, known at that time as Cudjo’s Cave. Arriving late at night, after everyone had gone home, they entered the cave and began their exploration to see how far they could travel inside the cave. After making their way through rough terrain, narrow passages, small openings, mud and water for nearly half the night, they were surprised to enter a huge room much larger than anything they could have imagined.

“We were so excited to have made this amazing discovery,” Dad said, “And to think we were the first people to see it.”

I said, “Dad, how did you know that you were the first people to discover it? How did you know no one else had been there?”

He said, “Well, when we first went in that big room, there was water dripping everywhere. The water had puddled on the floor, and on top of the water, minerals had hardened like a thin sheet of ice on a pond. Where we walked, we broke through the crystal, just like breaking though thin ice, and it left our footprints visible. When we first went in, there were no other footprints, so we knew we were the first.

“Dad,” I said, excited, “just how big was this room? How many feet across?!”

“I don’t know exactly,” he said, “we didn’t have anything to measure with, but I know how big a football field is, and you could put several in it.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Well, several, ” he said.

“Dad, could you see all the way across from one side to the other? Was the ceiling high enough to see the walls all the way around?”

“Oh yeah, he said, “it had a high ceiling.”

“How high would you estimate?”

He said, “Well, it was high enough that you could fly an airplane around in it!”

“Dad,” I asked, “could you fly a passenger plane in it?”

“I don’t know about that,” he said, “but there’s plenty of room to fly a small two-seater plane around inside!”

“Could a small plane take off in that room?” I asked.

“No,” he explained, “the floor is not smooth enough. There are big boulders strewn across the floor. We thought that, in time, there must have been an earthquake and part of the ceiling must have fallen.”

“Do you think that room might ever be open to the public?”

“I doubt it,” he said. “It’s too far back in the mountain and too hard to access. Some of the openings are very small.”

“How long were you there exploring?”

“Not too long,” he replied. “It was a long trek to get there, and we had to be out before morning.”

“Dad,” I asked, “did you carve your names and a date, so people would know you were there?”

“No, he said, “we didn’t do that.”

“Dad, if I ever had a chance to explore that cave, is there any way I could know you were there?”

“Well…” he thought, “we did leave one thing behind. We noticed how heavily everything was mineralized, and we wondered how long it would take for the mineralization to occur. We left a coke bottle under a dripping stalactite thinking that we might come back some day.”

“Dad, how did you get inside the cave?”

“Well,” he said, “there are several ways to get in, but that’s a story for another time, and I have a hard day tomorrow. It’s bedtime and we’d better turn in.”