Thursday, December 5, 2013

Cause for concern, but not alarm

     I found a very interesting article on Al Jazeera America.  In this article, I found a lot of information that downgrades the actual threat that an Iranian nuclear program poses.  It states that the uranium being enriched in Iran is enriched at levels of 5% and 20% at which levels electricity and medical isotopes are produced.  A nuclear weapon would require a level of 80% enrichment, and would require a long process of re-enrichment.  The stockpiling of this enriched uranium has also not reached levels considered threatening to Israel.  Currently, Iran has stockpiled 185 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, and the "red line" set by Netanyahu is 250 kilograms.  Not only is the actual amount of enriched uranium currently posses by Iran too low to be considered a real threat, there are also weekly inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.  The IAEA is an agency that inspects nuclear facilities to ensure enrichment doesn't reach the required levels and production of nuclear weapon necessity.  So far, under IAEA inspections, no nation has ever assembled a nuclear weapon without their knowledge.  This is not to deny that Iran is completely incapable of creating a nuclear weapon.  It is to say that under the current monitoring by IAEA, it would be nearly impossible for Iran to create a nuclear weapon without the world knowing.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/9/iran-nuclear-programprimer.html

1 comment:

  1. This was a good post. I have been reading about this program and people's reactions to it, most of which were negative. A lot of people are worried about Iran developing their nuclear program further, but there is no real reason to panic at the moment. Iran is being watched closely and strictly, and they do not have the necessary resources to reach the capacity to make nuclear weapons, just as your article states. People should relax a bit because there really is no reason for alarm when it comes to Iran's nuclear program; only reason for concern.

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