BULLSHIT ALERT: "Iran said to have enough nuclear fuel for one weapon"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Regarding Drudge's hysterical "First test for Obama" story de jour:

Iran has "enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb"

And I have enough metal in my kitchen in the form of silverware to make, with added refinement, an AK-47.

My dirty fireplace has enough powdered carbon to make, with the addition of sulfur and potassium nitrate and a housing and detonator a big bomb.

In fact, I have flu viruses in my system that could with a few microscopic genetic changes wipe out almost all human life on Earth!

Not that it matters, of course, because there are thousands of comets lurking in the Oort Cloud that would, if deflected by only a few degrees smash into the Earth causing the extinction of 80% of all plant and animal species.

(I am reminded of the guy in BALL FOUR who said, "I had the makings of a great lay last night. I had a hard-on and plenty of time. All I needed was a woman.")

During WWII the United States used about 10% of all electricity produced in the US and a big chunk of the defense budget to turn literal mountains of uranium into enough material for two uranium-235 bombs. (I am thinking of Trinity and Hiroshima. Nagasaki was a plutonium bomb IIRC.)

Enriching "low-enriched uranium" the rest of the way up to weapons grade is an incredibly slow, difficult and expensive under-taking.

"Iran said to have enough nuclear fuel for one weapon"
By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger Published: November 20, 2008

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran's progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country's main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

"They clearly have enough material for a bomb," said Richard Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. "They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that's another matter."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/20/africa/20nuke.php

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I can go to the supermarket and buy sugar, flour, eggs, butter, sour cream, cocoa, and milk.

Just having the ingredients does not necessarily mean I have the ability or knowledge to bake a cake.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. And in this example you would be going to the seed store, not the supermarket.

You would have to buy seeds for sugar cane, wheat and cocoa, and a few chickens and cows.

[11 Bravo]

3. If the Mossad believes this, the facility will soon cease to exist.

[rvablue]

4. But even if this is true....Bush is President for the next two months

although by the way he is acting you would never know it.

That being the case, isn't it Bush's last challenge, not Obama's first?

In this case I would rather, of course, have Obama dealing with Iran, but I'm just sick and tired that everything is suddenly becoming "Obama's"......and that scoundrel will leave office having mucked everything up and bearing no responsibility.....

[benld74]

5. AND if brains were dynamite, * wouldn't have enough to blow his nose!

[Life Long Dem]

6. Just add water

No if's but's or maybe's about it, you have to love those high ratings!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. It's a 'serving suggestion'

[BlooInBloo]

8. Thank fucking gawd Clinton didn't win. Else they'd have been obliterated by now.