BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency believes Iran is capable of producing and testing an atomic bomb within six months, much sooner than most analysts estimate, according to a report in German weekly Stern. The report, which quotes BND experts, says the agency has information supporting the view that Iran has mastered the enrichment technology necessary to make a bomb and has enough centrifuges to make weaponised uranium.
"If they wanted to, they could detonate an atomic bomb in half a year's time," the story quoted a BND expert as saying. The BND did not return two calls from Reuters seeking comment on the report.
Some analysts say Iran may be close to having the required material for producing a bomb, but most say the weaponisation process would then take one to two years due to technical and political hurdles.
| What political hurdles? And what technical hurdles? It's a uranium bomb -- you slam two subcritical masses together and kaboom. |
"Weaponising" enrichment would not escape the notice of U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), unless it was done at a secret location.
| Oh no, the IAEA could never miss nuclear weapons developments, shucks no ... |
Until now there have been no indications of any such covert diversion, a point made by the IAEA's incoming director-general shortly after his election earlier this month. Current IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said it is his "gut feeling" that Iran is seeking at least the capability to build nuclear weapons, in order to protect itself from perceived regional and U.S. threats.
| His gut tells him where the free food is, and that's about it ... |
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