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Iran has produced approximately enough nuclear material to assemble an atomic weapon, according to several nuclear experts quoted in the New York Times Thursday. The experts, who were analyzing data from the latest UN atomic watchdog's report on the Iranian nuclear program, added, however, that the existent material would have to first undergo added purification.Iran,the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in Wednesday's report, has to date produced some 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium suitable for nuclear fuel.That milestone is enough to produce a single nuclear weapon, about the size of the bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki, Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington group that monitors atomic arsenals, was quoted by the Times as saying.Cochran qualified his remarks, however, adding that although "they have a weapon's worth," the milestone was still a "virtual" one, because Iran would still need the technological knowhow to purify the fuel and produce a grapefruit-sized warhead. A bomb with a cruder design, Cochran said, would require twice as much fissile fuel.The same figure has been quoted by UN officials."They clearly have enough material for a bomb," Richard L. Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb, was quoted by the Times as saying. "They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that's another matter."The UN nuclear watchdog's report cautioned that Teheran's continued stonewalling of inspections meant the IAEA could not "provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities."A senior UN official characterized the UN's attempts to elicit answers from Teheran on allegations that it had drafted plans for nuclear weapons programs as at a standstill.The Foreign Ministry on Thursday released a statement, saying the IAEA report "illustrates Iran's continuous violation of UN Security Council resolutions.""The report expresses the IAEA's deep concern regarding the Iranian nuclear program. There is nothing in the Iranian response to remove the international community's concern regarding the real aim of the Iranian nuclear problem," it was written in the statement.The ministry said Israel reiterated its call to members and institutions of the international community to increase pressure on the Iranian government to abandon its threatening scheme of nuclear proliferation.Meanwhile, Ephraim Asculai, a former top official in the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, refuted the New York Times report, telling The Jerusalem Post Thursday that Iran will only have enough highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to produce its first nuclear weapon by the end of 2009.According to the IAEA report, Iran was enriching uranium with just over 3,800 centrifuges it had installed in an underground facility in Natanz, and was working to install another 2,200 centrifuges in the near future.Asculai said that Iran was working to integrate the P2 - a more advanced centrifuge it has developed based on blueprints received from Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Kahn - into the facility. The new centrifuge is capable of enriching uranium faster and at higher levels.Asculai said that Garwin's assessment was alarming but that ultimately, Iran was still about a year away from obtaining enough HEU for its first nuclear weapon.
Yaakov Katz and AP contributed to this report.
As in the days of Noah...
