An IAEA report tentively concludes that Iran has the necessary scientific expertise and knowledge to build a nuclear weapon. Therefore, all Iran has to do now is enrich its current stocks of uranium to the 90% level required to create a nuclear explosion, and somewhere covert to do so.
The newly-announced Qom site is out of the question because it isn’t operational yet and inspectors are going to be working there by the end of the month, according to reports from today.
The report also confirms that from 2002-2003, Iran worked on reconfiguring the Shahab-3 to carry a nuclear warhead. The New York Times also reports:
“The atomic agency’s report also presents evidence that beyond improving upon bomb-making information gathered from rogue nuclear experts around the world, Iran has done extensive research and testing on how to fashion the components of a weapon. It does not say how far that work has progressed.”
This means either Iran has a covert site somewhere else, which would require massive construction efforts that can be detected by satellites easily, or they are just trying to build the infrastructure necessary to later produce an arsenal, rather than one bomb or two at a time at the earliest possibility.
My guess is that the second, wiser option is the one they are pursuing.
Source: World Threats
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