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Iranian Scientists Sought Nuclear Weapon with Triple the Force of Hiroshima Bomb

(AP) George Jahn - Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a diagram leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last year that it had obtained diagrams indicating that Iran was calculating the "nuclear explosive yield" of potential weapons. The diagram seen by AP models a 50-kiloton weapon. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. Modern nuclear weapons have yields hundreds of times higher. The models were created in 2008 and 2009 - well after 2003, the year that the U.S. said Tehran had suspended such work in any meaningful way. An intelligence summary provided with the drawing linked it to other nuclear weapons work - indicating that Iran is working not on isolated experiments, but rather on a single program aimed at mastering all aspects of nuclear arms development.
2012-11-28 00:00:00
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