Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Iran Has Now Produced Roughly Enough Nuclear Material For One Atom Bomb

Iran: On Ground Updates
Iran Has Now Produced Roughly Enough
Nuclear Material For One Atom Bomb
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File Photo by DOE.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The New York Times brings us this troubling bit of news late this Wednesday evening and it starts off like this... 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...
Read the rest at link below...
Iran Said to Have Enough Nuclear Fuel for One Weapon

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POST UPDATE:
Thursday
, November 20, 2008

* FoxNews.com has this take on the news this Thursday morning and it goes in part like this...
..."They clearly have enough material for a bomb," Richard L. Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades, told the newspaper. "They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter."... The report found the Islamic Republic was installing, or preparing to install, thousands more of the machines that spin uranium gas to enrich it - with the target of 9,000 centrifuges by next year... The report on Iran - which also went to the U.N. Security Council - cautioned that Tehran's stonewalling meant the IAEA could not "provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities." And it noted that the Islamic Republic continued to expand uranium enrichment, an activity that can make both nuclear fuel or fissile warhead material... While that conclusion was expected, it was a formal confirmation of Iran's refusal to heed Security Council demands to freeze such activities, despite three sets of sanctions meant to force an enrichment stop...

Read the rest at link below...
Iran Produces Enough Uranium to Build Nuclear Weapon
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* Bloomberg.com reports it this way...
Iran Has Enough Low-Level Uranium for Work on Bomb

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POST UPDATE:
Friday, November 21, 2008
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* TimesOnline.co.uk has this report posted on their website early this Friday morning and it goes in part like this...
... The timing of the talks, between two lame duck leaders with only weeks to go before they leave office, is intriguing. Israel has stated repeatedly that it would be unacceptable for an Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons. Although Tehran insists that its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes, President Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth... During his visit to Washington, which begins on Sunday, Mr. Olmert is expected to meet the Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary... Intelligence sources have told The Times that the prospect of Israel taking preemptive military action to knock out Iran’s nuclear facilities appears to have become significantly more likely in recent weeks. Such an operation would require at least tacit US cooperation because it would almost certainly involve Israeli warplanes flying through US-controlled airspace in Iraq...
Read the full report at link below...
Bush and Olmert to Meet Monday over Iran's Nuclear Ambitions
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I’m sure there will be a lot of fuss over this during Thursday’s news cycle and I’ll update this post if/as needed.
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One other thought -- One cannot help but think that Israel’s fixing to light up some Iranian Nuclear sites now. Time’s UP!!!
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AubreyJ.........

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