Iran said to have enough nuclear fuel for one weapon

[Phx_Dem]

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?page=1

[anonymous171]

1. It's all about enrichment.

[Hydra]

2. Funny how Iran dropped off the radar

Are they trying to put it back on?

[Mugweed]

3. They'll need it.

It may end up being the only thing keeping them from getting attacked by another country that wants to force it's ideology on them.

[Occam Bandage]

4. "with added purification."

I have enough metal in my house, with added purification, to make a sword I could use to cut someone's head off.

[Mugweed]

5. We need to stop all 7-Eleven stores

They sell gasoline, bottles you can put the gas into, cheap t-shirts you can tear into strips and stuff into the mouths of the bottles, and lighters to ignite the cloth strips.

There's a bomb-factory on every other corner of my city!!!

[Phx_Dem]

6. Iran using 'fraud and evasion' to promote nuclear agenda

Israel accused Iran of continued "fraud and evasion," pursuant to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and said that "there is nothing in Iran's response that should lessen the concern of the international community vis-à-vis its nuclear program."

According to the IAEA report, the Islamic republic was continuing to defy United Nations demands to suspend uranium enrichment - a process used to make both nuclear fuel and the fissile material for an atom bomb.

"Regrettably, as a result of the lack of cooperation by Iran in connection with the alleged studies and other associated key remaining issues of serious concern, the agency has not been able to make substantive progress on these issues," said the restricted report.

"This report emphasizes again that Iran is repeatedly violating UN Security Council decisions. It underscores the military elements in Iran's nuclear activities," the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3626316,00.html

[EFerrari]

7. Speaking of fraud and evasion, is there still a humanitarian blockade of Gaza?