'Iran already has enough nuclear material for one atomic weapon'

Iran has produced approximately enough nuclear material to assemble an atomic weapon, according to several nuclear experts quoted in the New York Times Thursday. The experts, who were analyzing data from the latest UN atomic watchdog's report on the Iranian nuclear program, added, however, that the existent material would have to first undergo added purification. Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in Wednesday's report, has to date produced some 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium suitable for nuclear fuel. That milestone is enough to produce a single nuclear weapon, about the size of the bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki, Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington group that monitors atomic arsenals, was quoted by the Times as saying. Cochran qualified his remarks, however, adding that although "they have a weapon's worth," the milestone was still a "virtual" one, because Iran would still need the technological knowhow to purify the fuel and produce a grapefruit-sized warhead. A bomb with...............

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