Has Iran initiated a slow motion breakout to a nuclear weapon?
July 12, 2010 by David Albright, Paul Brannan, and Andrea Stricker Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced today that Iran intends on producing 120 kilograms of 19.75 percent uranium by September 2011, purportedly for use in the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). Salehi also announced that Iran is working on producing fuel plates. This announcement raises concern that Iran is conducting a “slow motion breakout,” and that it could seek to make larger quantities of 19.75 percent enriched uranium as a way of bringing it closer to producing weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons. Last month, ISIS released a report examining Iran’s production of 19.75 percent uranium and estimated that Iran would need between 125 kilograms and 210 kilograms of 19.75 percent uranium feedstock to further enrich up to weapon-grade in sufficient quantity for one nuclear weapon. The range reflects the amount of weapon-grade uranium needed in a nuclear weapon. The estimate assume
