Former UN Weapons Inspector Claims That Iran Has Enough Uranium To Produce 12 Nuclear Bombs

(PatriotWise.com) — A former weapons inspector with the United Nations last month warned that Iran could have enough enriched uranium within six months to make 12 nuclear bombs, the UK Express reported.

David Albright, who was an IAEA weapons inspector in Iraq, said in a recent report for the Institute for Science and International Security that Tehran could begin mass-producing enriched uranium within weeks.

Nuclear weapons require uranium that has been enriched to 90 percent. IAEA (International Atomic Energy Authority) inspectors believe Iran is close to reaching that level of enrichment.

Last year, inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog found uranium particles in Iran’s Fordo underground nuclear site with enrichment levels of 83.7 percent.

According to David Albright, while Iran still has “some unfinished tasks” to construct nuclear weapons, it “already knows how” to build them. Tehran could quickly enrich weapons-grade uranium today, something it could not have done 20 years ago.

Albright suggested that Iran could produce enough uranium for its first nuclear bomb in about a week. After five months, it could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build 12 bombs.

In his report, Albright argued that Iran already mastered the technology to enrich uranium and build nuclear-capable missiles, two of the three steps necessary to construct a nuclear weapon.

After President Biden’s 2022 visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, told Al Jazeera that Iran was technically capable of producing a nuclear bomb but had not yet decided whether to build one.

According to Albright, Iran has two “prominent pathways” to achieve nuclear weapons capability.

It could launch an “accelerated effort” to build crude nuclear weapons, or it could kickstart its Amad nuclear weapons program, which would enable it to produce warheads that could be delivered by ballistic missiles.

However, the latter pathway would require Tehran to maintain secrecy for several years while it reconstitutes its production facilities to accommodate the construction of nuclear warheads.