(New York Times) Michael R. Gordon and Thomas Erdbrink - Iran is expected to offer to scale back its effort to enrich uranium, a move that a year ago would have been a significant concession to the West. But Iran's nuclear abilities have advanced so far since then that experts say it will take far more than that to assure the West that Tehran does not have the capacity to quickly produce a nuclear weapon. Today, Iran has at least 19,000 centrifuges, 1,000 of which are highly advanced. That is more than enough, experts say, to transform low-enriched uranium to weapons grade in a few months. That would provide Iran with a breakout capability that is unacceptable to the West and Israel, even if Iran proposes a moratorium on enrichment to 20%.
2013-10-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive