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Loopholes for the Mullahs
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - David Albright and Andrea Stricker of the Institute for Science and International Security, that specializes in nuclear issues, revealed Thursday that Iran's "compliance" with the nuclear deal came about thanks to a series of secretive exemptions and loopholes that the Administration and the deal's other signatories created for the mullahs sometime last year. Had those exemptions and loopholes not been created out of thin air, the authors report, "some of Iran's nuclear facilities would not have been in compliance" with the deal. Among the exemptions: Iran was allowed to keep more than 300 kilos of low-enriched uranium provided it was in various "waste forms." The deal was also supposed to cap Iran's production of heavy water at 130 tons, but another loophole now allows Iran to exceed that. In a third exemption, Iran was allowed to maintain 19 large radiation containment chambers, or hot cells, which are supposed to be used for producing medical isotopes but can be "misused for secret, mostly small-scale plutonium separation efforts." The report notes that Congress was secretly informed of the exemptions in January, but there was never public disclosure.