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Nuclear Talks with Iran: Diplomacy and Diminishing Time
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Olli Heinonen and Simon Henderson - The IAEA's regular reports on Tehran's activities have raised four main concerns: 1.Iran continues to enrich uranium in quantities far in excess of its present and future requirements for a peaceful nuclear program. 2.Iran's ability to break out from its international commitments by producing sufficient amounts of weapons-grade uranium can now be measured in a few weeks - perhaps less time than the international community would need to agree on an appropriate diplomatic or military response. 3.Iran is also making advances toward obtaining plutonium, another nuclear explosive. 4.Iran has apparently worked on aspects of nuclear weapon designs. If Washington engages Iran via diplomatic contact or further negotiations, it should be mindful of several specific concerns about the nuclear program: 1.Iran's increasing number of centrifuges and the use of more-advanced IR-2m centrifuges. 2.Iran's growing stockpile of 20% UF6. 3.The perhaps-impregnable centrifuge plant at Fordow. 4.The possibility that Iran has unreported centrifuge plants. 5.The Arak heavy-water reactor. 6.Weaponization work. 7.Massive stocks of uranium. Olli Heinonen is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center and a former deputy director-general for safeguards at the IAEA. Simon Henderson is director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute.