General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBarbra Boxer on The Ed Show just said...
...that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make 10 nuclear bombs.
Did I hear that right?
That can't be right.. can it?
randys1
(16,286 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,393 posts)Under the terms of the deal, they won't have enough to make a single bomb.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And under previous agreements they stopped enriching it.
You need ~90-95% enriched uranium to make a bomb. Iran previously agreed to diluting its stockpile to at most 20% enriched.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)The way she said it, it sounded to me as if they were ready to make 10 bombs right now.
Thanks for posting.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)They would still need a reliable delivery system.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)You just need to put a little under 15 pounds of 95% enriched uranium it in one place. It will go off all on its own.
That's why "Little Boy" was never tested. We didn't need to.
Implosion bombs like "Fat Man" are much harder. Which is why we had the Trinity test first.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)Send 15 people with one pound to the target and have them stack it in a pile?
That's what I mean, they would need a reliable means of delivery. Considering its radioactivity, that's hard.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)Then jam them together with HE when you are ready for a bang.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)Carry the bomb parts to the target, place them carefully, set up high explosives, light the fuse, and run like hell (as fast as possible in lead suits). Nobody notices. Right.
You can't just tote enriched uranium around, it's highly radioactive.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)depending on what the target is.
You don't really need an aircraft to deliver it (assuming the people delivering it are willing to die in the blast, or are unaware of what they are delivering).
jeff47
(26,549 posts)They can use those to drop a copy of "Little Boy" just like we did.
Or you put the warhead on the top of a rocket, like Hezbollah has fired into Israel in the past. They could easily carry two 7.5lb hunks and the small amount of explosives to push them together.
There are also terrorists happily blowing themselves up with conventional explosives. One of them could just slam the two parts together. No need to shield the terrorist from the radiation when they're going to die anyway. Keep the two halves in shielded boxes until they are "deployed".
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)They are talking about breakout time, which is the amount of time required for Iran to enrich enough weapons-grade uranium to make one bomb. That implies that they don't yet have enough...(article was from March 2015).
Methinks Boxer is exaggerating - but surely, this information must come from intelligence sources and would therefore be classified. Interesting that they can have access to, and tell us about, secret intelligence regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program, but they can't see or say squadoosh about the TPP.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)She did not say at what level the uranium was enriched. I could have easily misunderstood.
But if that information you posted is accurate, it looks like they could turn out one bomb a month if operating at peak efficiency.
That is a little scary, but it also makes me wonder why they didn't go ahead and do it. It looks like they could have at least one bomb by now if they really wanted it, maybe more.