Bloomberg: Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched to 84% Purity
(Bloomberg) -- International atomic monitors in Iran last week detected uranium enriched to levels just below that needed for a nuclear weapon, according to two senior diplomats, underscoring the risk that the country’s unrestrained atomic activities could prompt a new crisis.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date, and a concentration just 6% below what’s needed for a weapon. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity.
Inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material, or whether the concentration was an unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes. It’s the second time this month that monitors have detected suspicious enrichment-related activities.
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WNU Editor: Iran is denying these reports .... Iran denies enriching uranium to 84 percent purity amid IAEA row (Al Jazeera).
Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched To 84% Purity
Iran’s uranium processing has almost reached nuclear weapons-grade purity: inspectors -- FOX News
Iran 'takes major step towards acquiring a nuclear weapon' -- Telegraph
IAEA says it is in discussions with Iran after report of enrichment -- Reuters
Report: UN inspectors find Iran has enriched uranium to 84%, near weapons-grade -- Times of Israel
4 comments:
This will get Israel all twisted up for sure. Time for Bombs over Tehran
Israeli attack in 4..3...2...1..
The sooner they stabilize the nuclear balance in the ME the better. Only then will Israeli bombs stop dropping all over Iraq, Lebannon, Syria, and Iran.
A lot of people don't know that the "military grade" enrichment threshold of 90% is largely arbitrary. For example, the Hiroshima bomb Little Boy was a Uranium weapon enriched to about 80% and it killed as many as 140,000 people. All this to say, enrichment levels like 84% are more than sufficient to make an effective nuclear weapon.
Sure, it's an order of magnitude less effective than the more advanced nuclear weapons fielded by the militaries of the nuclear club...but one could make a compelling argument that even if it's not "weapons grade", Iran has already enriched Uranium for "effective use in weapons." We know they have good missile technology, and the enrichment is a much more significant scientific and engineering hurdle, and much more time consuming, than weaponizing that material.
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