I heard Iran is enriching uranium. Is that true?

Question

I heard Iran is enriching uranium. Is that true?

Answer 1

Currently, there are issues over Iran and the level that they are enriching to. Iran claims that they are enriching uranium to medical level (about 20), but they have not allowed IAEA inspectors to look at their facilities. The UN had previously agreed to take Iran's raw uranium and return it to them in nuclear rods (which can not be turned into weapons), but Iran refused.



For the uranium to be at nuclear level, it would have to be enriched to around 90. While it is not clear that Iran has the ability or energy to do that, their stubborn rejection of previous UN proposals has been a cause for some concern. Currently, Western powers are threatening increased sanctions if they do not provide the uranium to outside facilities (I believe French) to be turned into nuclear rods.



Despite everything, Iran is still a legitimate state and that is why we can't just barge in there and take their uranium. The UN and the Security Council are doing everything within their power to limit Iran's enrichment, but they do not have the ability to force Iran to allow IAEA inspectors into the country and into all the plants. Regardless, it is fairly unlikely for terrorist to ever get their hands on nuclear weapons (as they are currently) because they lack the facilities to hold and launch the weapons. Nuclear missiles have to be kept in certain conditions prior to launch.



Hope this helps...

Answer 2

Yes they are. They have been for years but they are still years away. They need to get to 80% and they are somewhere between 8% & 20% , depending on who you listen to.

Answer 3

The organic state of uranium is composed of ninety 9% U238 and 2 million% U235. weapons grade uranium modifies the U235 to ninety%. U235 is the quite fissionable area of uranium. something over approximately 5% must be utilized in a reactor.

Answer 4

i think you need to really understand the question before u can get an answer: any country which enriches uranium is capable of enriching it to certain levels, 20% is good enough for nuclear power and creating isotopes which make medical procedures like MRIs available, imagine it that MRIs are not possible without nuclear power? :) imagine a USA without nuclear power or MRI imagery? :)



iran somedays wants nukes to be able to defend against israel (which the US totally supplies nukes)



whether they're gonna do it or not, i dunno :)

Answer 5

Iran's leader is a short man (with correlative ego) who wants to be taken seriously. The demonstrators in Iran are potentially embarrassing (he and the religious leaders who are the real power may "lose face" internationally as well as among the Iranian people), so Ahmadinejad is doing a bit of posturing---a banty rooster strut similar to what North Korean leader Kim Jong IL (also very short) does to gain leverage at any bargaining table and to remain relevant on the world stage.

Our intelligence for the region is very sophisticated and precise, but if this intelligence is discussed openly, there is a chance Ahmadinejad (and the Ayatollah) would take this as a CHALLENGE and would choose to defy us, so everything has to be played close to the vest and kept low-key. Since the biggest rises from the international community he is able to elicit come when (a) he denies the Holocaust (not something he actually believes, but it always stirs up a defensive response from Israel), or (b) when he spouts off about having a "nuclear program," Ahmadinejad uses these to draw attention away from the demonstrators (an embarrassment for the Iranian government) and to "strut" a bit (similar to what Palin does when she wants to create a phony "issue" in order to score a few media hits.

Answer 6

yes to try and get to weapons grade for building a nuke or two .

Answer 7

the facts about current affairs u must know



1. Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel refused.



2. The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.



3. The IAEA asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.



4. Iran's formal notification to the IAEA of the planned construction of the backup fuel-rod facility underscores that Iran is playing by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which Iran has signed.



5. Iran allows IAEA inspections of all its facilities.



6. Contrary to face-saving claims, it appears that the US and Israel were both caught off guard by Iran's announcement. The reasoning is simple. Had the US or Israel announced the existence of he new facility before Iran's notified the IAEA, it would have put Iran on the defensive. As it is now, the US and Israel seem to be playing catch up, casting doubt on the veracity of Israel's claims to "know" that Iran is a nuclear threat.



7. The IAEA and all 16 United States Intelligence Agencies are unanimous in agreement that Iran is not building and does not possess nuclear weapons.



8. In 1986, Mordachai Vanunu blew the whistle and provided photographs showing Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons factory underneath the reactor at Dimona.



9. Israel made the same accusations against Iraq that it is making against Iran, leading up to Israel's bombing of the power station at Osirik. Following the invasion of 2003, international experts examined the ruins of the power station at Osirik and found no evidence of a clandestine weapons factory in the rubble.



10. The United Nations has just released the Goldstone Report, a scathing report which accuses Israel of 37 specific war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza earlier this year. Israel has denounced the report as "Anti-Semitic (even though Judge Goldstone is himself Jewish), and the United States will block the report from being referred to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, thereby making the US Government an accessory after-the-fact.



We all need to be Joe Wilson right now. We need to stand up and scream, "LIAR!" at every politician and every talking media moron that is pushing this war in Iran. And we need to keep dong it until they get the message that we will not be deceived any more.



Israel wants to send your kids off to die in Iran, and YOU are the only one that can stop them.



Please forward this comment to your social networks.

Answer 8

A few straight answers:



1. Iran IS enriching uranium. They have stated so publicly and have allowed UN inspectors to visit their facilities. They are using technology supplied to them by rouge scientists from Pakistan (the same people who supplied information to Lybia).

They are using a centrifuge process and have declared they have some 6000 centrifuges in operation.

According to published reports, the centrifuges are connected in such a way as to be capable of only low level enrichment (approximately 3%). Most of the centrifuges in service are a fairly old (P1) design

The main enrichment facility is an underground complex in Nataze. This is the plant that the UN has been allowed to inspect. Iran announced last year that they had been building a second smaller facility about 20 km from Qom. This plant is smaller than Nataze and has a capacity for about 3000 centrifuges. However, the centrifuges reportedly being installed are of the more advanced P2 model



2. Iran has been enriching uranium for several years. They currently have a reported stockpile of over 1000 tons of 3% enriched uranium hexafluoride gas.



3. Iran recently rejected a proposed deal where they would swap their stockpile of 3% enrichment material for 20% enriched fuel rods for their medical research reactor.

The rods would have powered their research reactor, but would be nearly impossible to convert to weapons grade material.

After rejecting the proposal, Iran announced they were changing the configuration of some of their centrifuges (or binging the new plant on line) in order to enrich some amount of their stockpile to 20%. They announced on Feb 11 that this process was underway.



4. What does all this mean?

The Iranians have an operating enrichment system. By changing the configuration of the centrifuge cascades, they can enrich uranium to whatever level they wish. The higher the purity they desire, the longer the process takes (or the more centrifuges are required). But no new science need be done. The enrichment process is the same.



5. Should we be scared?

Not Yet. The Iranians have often made statements that were later proven to be false, misleading, or just plain wrong. There have been many reports that the program is not going all that well, that there have been many breakdowns and failures, and that they have not achieved as much as they claim. But verification has been very slow and spotty. There are as many guesses out there as there are hard facts.



6. What can happen if Iran gets Bomb Grade material?

Given the current accepted numbers for the Iranian stockpile, they have enough feed stock to create 1 or 2 Hiroshima type weapons. It is not believed that Iran has enough raw uranium ore to make more than that. They have been trying to purchase more from outside the country, but have not had any luck so far.

A Hiroshima type weapon will do Iran no good at all. They do not have any aircraft that could carry such a device and still penetrate the airspace of a target such as Israel. The device would take a shipping container to transport, making it hard to smuggle into a target. It is obviously too large to be carried by any missile that they have.

The most likely use for the material would be to create a man portable atomic weapon. The United States created several such devices. The W54, the warhead for the Davy Crockett and the Genie missile, weighed in at just over 50 lbs.

So the bad news is that the threat of a terrorist nuke has a basis in fact.

But the good news is that it took the United States nearly 20 years using a budget the Iranians can only dream about, (and several failed tests which used up more bomb grade uranium that the Iranians can make) to produce a weapon that small. The physics behind shrinking a weapon down to that size are difficult, and not foolproof. The techniques for creating the weapon are still well guarded secrets and are unlikely to be recreated.without live tests. Replicating that science and technology will be a major challenge for Iran. I would not expect to see them produce a "backpack nuke" anytime soon.



7. So what will they do?

For now they seem hell bent on mortgaging their county's future and neglecting their people and their infrastructure as they chase the nuclear genie and the power they believe it brings. As they chase their genie, they will blather and bluster and see if they can scare the pants off the other states in the Middle East, because like all bullies, they are cowards at heart.