Iran Set To Double Nuclear Fuel Capability

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Iran has finished installing nearly 3,000 nuclear-fuel production machines at its underground military facility near the holy city of Qom, providing Tehran the capability to double its production of medium-enriched uranium in the coming months, a new report said. 

These advances, outlined in a report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, could allow Tehran's Islamist leaders to accumulate in as little as three to four months enough uranium enriched to 20% purity for one atomic weapon, according to nuclear experts. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cited this level of nuclear-fuel production by Tehran as the "red line" for when the Jewish state might launch military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran was likely to amass this stockpile of fissile material by next summer, Mr. Netanyahu estimated in a September speech at the U.N.

The installation of the nearly 3,000 centrifuge machines at Qom could allow it to reach this point much quicker, experts say, if the machines there and at a second nuclear-fuel site at the city of Natanz are utilized. 

"The number of centrifuges are steadily increasing, which diminishes the time for a breakout for a nuclear weapon in two ways," said Olli Heinonen, a former chief weapons inspector at the IAEA. "Iran's inventories will increase as well as its pace of production."

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