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“This is not a dash to a nuclear bomb. It is a calculated move designed to gain leverage in negotiations with the Europeans, Russia, and China on sanctions relief.” My latest @ForeignPolicy foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/01/how…
Iran announced today that it has breached the 300-kg limit on its stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. But how much closer does that make Tehran to obtaining a nuclear weapon? Not much, experts say.
Tehran would need 1,050 kg of low-enriched uranium to make the core of one bomb. Then, Iran would have to further enrich it, to 90 percent purity, using centrifuges until it had about 25 kg of what is called highly enriched uranium. Experts estimate this would take about a year.
Once Iran has enough weapons-grade uranium for a core, it would then have to convert that uranium from gas to metal, fit it with an explosive package that could ignite the fission reaction, and mount it on a ballistic missile.
Open-source intel is not good enough to say for sure how much time that adds, but experts estimated anywhere from a few months to another year.
Of course, Iran could choose to speed up the process of enriching enough uranium for a bomb by breaking with other parts of the 2015 deal, such as installing additional centrifuges, or enriching to higher than 3.67%.
The question is: will Iran actually pursue a nuclear weapon?
The question is: will Iran actually pursue a nuclear weapon?
