Iran’s Last Atomic Gambit Could Make Crafting a Bomb Harder
- IAEA monitors report gram-scale experiment with uranium metal
- U.S. weapons engineer says turning metal to fuel reduces risk
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Iran’s decision to cast its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium into metal for a research reactor reduces the risk that the Islamic Republic will move swiftly to build an atomic bomb, according to Robert Kelley, a U.S. nuclear-weapons engineer and former senior inspections official.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported late Wednesday that Iran took another step to bring the country further out of compliance with its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. The country produced 3.6 grams of natural uranium metal -- about the size of an eraser on a pencil -- at its fuel plate fabrication facility on Feb. 6, according to a restricted two-page document seen by Bloomberg.