Israel Matzav

IAEA: Iran has enough centrifuges for two nuclear weapons per year

In a report issued on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the Iranian government has enough centrifuges to produce two nuclear weapons per year.

The report, one of a series made quarterly to the agency’s board, described how the pace of enrichment and the installation of new centrifuges is accelerating at an enormous underground bunker in the desert at Natanz. It said that nearly 4,920 centrifuges were currently enriching uranium, and that 2,300 more were ready to go. That represents an increase of 30 percent in the total number of installed centrifuges since a February report.

Campaigning for re-election next week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed that he will never bend to demands from the West or the United Nations that Iran halt its uranium enrichment. His political opponents have largely agreed, but have urged a more cooperative attitude.

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Significantly, the agency’s Iranian report disclosed an expansion not only in the number of centrifuges, but also in the production of nuclear fuel, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation. “They’re improving the output,” he said. “And they can do better” by feeding uranium into the 2,300 machines that now stand empty.

Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a research organization in Washington, said Iran’s 7,200 centrifuges, if suitably arranged, could annually produce enough nuclear fuel for up to two bombs. “The facts on the ground continue to change,” he said in an interview, “and not in our favor.”

The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency noted that Iran is refusing not only to let inspectors visit a heavy-water reactor that Tehran has under construction, but also to let them verify design information about the sprawling project, as the agency’s statutes require.

The report also said Tehran had refused to give access to “relevant Iranian authorities” who could address allegations surrounding Iran’s research on the design of nuclear warheads. In the absence of that cooperation and enhanced powers of inspection, the report said, the agency “will not be in a position to provide credible assurance” about nuclear materials and activities.

I guess the Iranians aren't feeling the love from the Obama administration yet. Something tells me they won't anytime soon either. And don't hold your breath waiting for Obama to wake up and smell the coffee. The only thing that will get him to act is an Israeli attack on Iran. And by then, it will be too late.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:56 PM