Reported at FT: "Iran holds enough uranium for bomb" LINK

[Blackhatjack]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f367aada-fec8-11dd-b19a-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

"Iran holds enough uranium for bomb
By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: February 19 2009 21:18 | Last updated: February 20 2009 00:51

Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.

In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, UN officials said Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought.

They said Iran had accumulated more than one tonne of low enriched uranium hexafluoride at a facility in Natanz.

If such a quantity were further enriched it could produce more than 20kg of fissile material – enough for a bomb.

“It appears that Iran has walked right up to the threshold of having enough low enriched uranium to provide enough raw material for a single bomb,” said Peter Zimmerman, a former chief scientist of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency"

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[BlooInBloo]

1. Actually they report that the *UN says* that.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. "If such a quantity were further enriched"

Oh, so in fact Iran does not hold enough uranium for a bomb as the uranium it holds is not weapons grade enriched uranium. This is another bullshit report.

[Blackhatjack]

3. This has ratcheted up the likelihood that Israel will act alone without notice against Iran...

... now that Obama has replaced Bush.

Israel has stated this would be unacceptable, and I expect they will take unilateral action.

[Idealism]

4. The reuters article on this was much better

less propaganda.

The amount of uranium that Iran has (slightly over 1,000 kgs) is potentially enough for a bomb although some estimates say they need up to 1500 kgs to ensure enough fissile material to produce a decent payload. Either way, the 1050kgs or so of uranium they have is low-grade, and needs to be enriched just to make the bomb. So IF they were to have enough low-grade uranium in the first place, and then they STARTED to enrich the uranium to high-grade, they COULD theoretically have the bomb in a year or so- if they continued their enrichment unabated.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. SO ??????? - big fricken deal

.
.
.

Israel has hundreds

China Russia and the USA have THOUSANDS

WTF is Iran going to do with ONE other than maybe keep the USA of it's ass?

ONE

yayzuss

Iran knows that if it ever nuked another country it would get bombed into oblivion

IF Iran is indeed pursuing nuclear arms, I'm quite sure it is for a deterrent, not offensive

USA can't even beat the shit outta two little countries that do not even have Air Forces!

USA needs to bomb their way to - - to where exactly ?

Respectability?

ain't workin'

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. they would take 8 years to get a bomb

Pakistan has some already and they are more dangerous.

[Canuckistanian]

6. I have enough hydrogen on my property to make an H-bomb

But that doesn't mean I have the processing facilities, specialized tools or know-how to actually make one.

A CIA special report a few years ago said essentially the same thing about Iran's bomb-making capacity.

[SergeyDovlatov]

8. lol. that is propaganda they keep recycling to keep us scared

This is not the first time this has been reported with nearly identical sensational title over the last year.

Iran DOES NOT have material for the bomb.

It has reactor grade nuclear fuel (3-5% enrichment). If they want to get a bomb, they need to keep refining to get to the weapon grade 85% enriched.