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Source: http://jcpa.org/prime-minister-netanyahus-red-lines-on-iran/
Prime Minister Netanyahu's Red Line on Iran
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dore Gold - In his UN address on September 27, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the advances that had transpired in the Iranian nuclear program. He broke down the progress Iran has been making into three stages which mark the extent to which the uranium the Iranians have in stock contains higher percentages of the fissile isotope U-235: a first stage in which they produced low-enriched uranium (3.5% U-235), a second stage in which they produced medium-enriched uranium (20% U-235), and a third stage in which they hope to reach high-enriched or weapons-grade uranium (90% U-235). What the prime minister disclosed was that the Iranians have completed the first stage. To make his point, he characterized this first stage as "70% of the way there," because nuclear physicists explain that enriching uranium feedstock to the 3.5% level requires 70% of the total energy needed to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for a bomb. Similarly, once Iran reaches the next stage of enrichment - which is 20% U-235 - then it has already used 90% of the energy needed to make a bomb, so one could say that it is 90% of the way there. Unfortunately, despite six UN Security Council resolutions since 2006 which prohibited Iran from enriching uranium even to the low-enriched level, Iran went ahead in 2010 and began to enrich to the 20% level, placing itself in a far better jumping-off point to reach a bomb.