IRAN may be just six months away from developing a nuclear bomb, despite international attempts to thwart the program through sanctions and cyber attacks.Two years after an underground installation in the city of Qmo was revealed in a joint presser by US President Barack
B.O.Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
and former British prime minister Gordon Brown
... the hapless former British PM ...
, Iran has significantly advanced its uranium enrichment program at the site.
The latest report from the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency concludes that Iran has not only boosted production but upgraded the level of enrichment from 3.5 per cent to almost 20 per cent and has installed more sophisticated centrifuges, which it is moving to the bunker in Qom, apparently to protect them from
Low-enriched uranium is used for nuclear power, which Iran insists is the purpose of its program.Weapons-grade uranium is about 90 per cent enriched.
"We believe if Iran broke out now they could have a bomb in six months," said David Albright, a former weapons inspector who runs the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. "They've done this right in front of our faces." Greg Jones, a defence analyst at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, calculates that Iran could now produce a bomb within 62 days.
IAEA inspectors reported last weekend that Iran had installed its new centrifuges after evading Western attempts to block supplies of the special steel required. These IR-2 centrifuges have replaced unreliable and antiquated machines. The new ones, which Iran claims to have developed in its own laboratories, are more reliable, speeding up production.
Iran had got away with moving from 3.5 per cent to 20 per cent enrichment by saying it was to produce medical isotopes at the Tehran Research Centre, Mr Albright said. "We're worried they now say they need to go to 60 per cent, or even 90 per cent ... saying it's all civilian for the Tehran Research Centre."