Iran Said to Have Enough Nuclear Fuel for One Weapon

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.

“They clearly have enough material for a bomb,” said Richard L. Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. “They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter.”

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U.S. Readies To Detect Nuclear Material At Sea

Dozens of law enforcement and emergency boats in one of the nation’s largest and most congested waterways will be outfitted this fall with radiation detectors aimed at preventing terrorists from smuggling deadly weapons into the country.

The first-of-its kind test in Washington’s Puget Sound will try to find out whether radioactive or nuclear bomb-making components could be picked up if they’re hidden on board a small boat cruising into a busy harbor.

“We’ll all suffer the consequences if we’re not able to detect something,” says Coast Guard Capt. Chip Strangfeld, who is working on the project with the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO).

DNDO chief Vayl Oxford says he puts the nation’s coasts “at the top of the list” of security challenges. “It’s one of the most difficult threats we have,” he says.

Puget Sound was chosen for the tests because it is so big and so busy, both with small recreational boats and cargo ships.

The area is home to two commercial ports and the nation’s largest ferry system. It’s the nation’s top region for non-commercial pleasure boats from overseas, and 750,000 cruise ship passengers and 15 billion gallons of oil move through its waters each year, according to Seattle Fire Department Assistant Chief A.D. Vickery.

“There’s a huge amount of movement of people, ships and cargo,” he says. “We’ve got some big, big challenges here, and the federal government has recognized there are some porous areas we need to address.”

The detector testing comes in response to security concerns about the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction on U.S. soil.

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Georgia: Terror Fears Over Whereabouts Of Region’s Nuclear Material

When the breakaway region of Abkhazia split from Georgia in 1993, the world’s only known case of enriched uranium going missing was reported after up to 2kg of the potentially devastating material was stolen from a laboratory.

There are now fears that the organized criminal gangs that are rife in the region could exploit the confusion of the current conflict to loot other stocks. Read more