Iran Has Uranium Enriched to 84 Percent Purity, Just Shy of a Nuke

NewsMax ^ | 19 February | Eric Mack

[Paal Gulli]

"...Iran has uranium enriched to 84% purity, just 6% below that needed to produce a nuclear weapon, Bloomberg News reported Sunday...."

Then Bloomberg News doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. All you need is 10% enrichment (and possibly less) to make a working nuclear weapon, but the less pure it is, the larger the critical mass is. Critical mass for 15% HEU is about 600 kg, which makes for an impractically heavy bomb, but it'll go BANG! just the same.

The purest uranium in Little Boy was only 89%, and some of it was as low as 50%.

[Paal Gulli]

"...Uranium has two isotopes and enrichment seperates the the two....

The bulk of natural Uranium is U-234, U-235 or U-238 but there are a couple more trace isotopes, making five in total that are naturally. Plus another couple of dozen or so that occur as fission byproducts.

[steve86]

Plutonium is plutonium. There isn’t any such thing as “weapons grade”.

[Organic Panic]

When The big Guy gets his check they will have nuclear grade plutonium in no time.

[Postel]

Asides from other “accident” at a drone lab...

[Vermont Lt]

I have no proof, but would it shock anyone to learn they have plenty at 90% already?

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

[JohnnyP]

Lecture on nuclear weapons shows a slide listing weapons grade plutonium:

https://youtu.be/zVhQOhxb1Mc?t=2465