Debka is reporting on information from the German Bundes Nachtrichten Dienst (BND) that Iran has successfully simulated the detonation of a nuclear warhead under laboratory conditions.After this breakthrough, the German BND intelligence believes it will take Tehran no more than a year to perfect its expertise and stock enough highly-enriched uranium to make the last leap toward building the first Iranian nuclear bomb or warhead.
DEBKAfile’s military sources confirm that simulated detonation of a warhead takes Iran to the highest level of weapons development.
Analysis. This probably means that they used U238 shaped to the same parameters as a U235 or plutonium core and detonated it. The result was a properly compressed core. Everything happened except the core was non-fissile.
This kind of experiment allows the testing of all components and the recovery of the compressed core for examination. The only thing they really need to find out now is if the fuzing and firing mechanisms will work in a missile warhead on reentry. Than can be done with the appropriate telemetry and recovery of the warhead after impact. Causing the high explosives surrounding the core to detonate would pretty much confirm operation.
Which means that with the addition of the appropriate amount of highly enriched uranium or plutonium Iran is a nuclear country. Then the real fun starts!
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