IAEA: Iran Amasses Enough Low-Grade Uranium for Single Nuclear Bomb

Via Debka -

A report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna estimates Iran has accumulated low-enriched uranium (1,339 kilos produced since November 2008 plus 839 kilos in stock) enough to convert into the quantity of high-enriched uranium needed for making a single nuclear bomb.

More than 7,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges were now installed at Natanz, 2,000 more than reported in February, the watchdog said.

DEBKAfile: Iran can be assumed to have amassed more fissile material than the agency has discovered. Its officials admit that their investigations are stymied both in Iran and Syria, where the IAEA reported Friday, June 5 that its inspectors had found new traces of man-made uranium.

The particles were found at a nuclear site in Syria, but the inspectors say their composition does not match the kind of uranium associated with that site and is therefore suspicious.

The nuclear watchdog confirms that Iran continues to expand uranium enrichment despite three UN Security Council resolutions banning the process and imposing sanctions.

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Natanz is a hardened Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) covering 100,000 square meters that is built 8 meters underground and protected by a concrete wall 2.5 meters thick, itself protected by another concrete wall. In 2004, the roof was hardened with reinforced concrete and covered with 22 meters of earth. The complex consists of two 25,000 square meter halls and a number of administrative buildings. This once secret site was one of the two exposed by Alireza Jafarzadeh in 2002.

DigitalGlobe satellite image (via Google Earth) of the Natanz FEP from Sept 2006