Possibly Notable
Iran, Tehran has warned that it would exceed the JCPOA’s caps developing a nuclear war head.
More recently, Tehran has warned that it would exceed the JCPOA’s caps, Davenport explained.
According to a May 31, [2019] report from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s implementation of the nuclear deal, Iran moved closer to the caps on enriched uranium and heavy water set by the deal, but did not exceed them.
The agency reported that as of May 20, Iran had stockpiled 174 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent uranium-235, which is less than the 202 kilograms permitted by the JCPOA. In its previous report in February, the IAEA reported that the stockpile was 168 kilograms.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on June 17 that Iran was quadrupling its uranium-enrichment capacity and would breach the limit set by the deal within 10 days.
Exceeding the limit of uranium enriched to 3.67-percent U-235 would reduce the so-called “breakout time,” or the time it takes Iran to produce enough nuclear material for a weapon, but it does not pose an immediate risk. Currently, due to restrictions put in place by the nuclear deal, the United States estimates that timeline at 12 months.
Any reduction in the 12-month timeline will depend on how quickly Iran continues to enrich and stockpile uranium. Tehran would need to produce about 1,050 kilograms of uranium hexafluoride gas enriched to 3.67-percent U-235 to produce enough weapons-grade material (more than 90 percent-enriched U-235) for one bomb.
Kamalvandi also said that Iran was increasing its production of heavy water and would exceed the JCPOA’s 130-metric-ton cap in two-and-a-half months. According to the IAEA, Iran had 125 metric tons as of May 26.
Kamalvandi also said that Iran within two and a half months could exceed the JCPOA’s 130-ton cap on heavy water. Iran as of May 26, 2019 had 125 metric tons of heavy water, which is used to moderate reactions in nuclear reactors.
The IAEA also reported that Iran had installed 33 IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz plant. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced in April 2019 that the country would install another 20 IR-6s at the same facility.
Citing the number of centrifuges, Wolcott on June 11, 2019 insisted that Iran “is now reported to be in clear violation of the deal.”
Iran’s effort to shorten the time to produce a nuke “does not pose an immediate risk,” wrote Kelsey Davenport, an expert with the Arms Control Association in the United States.
“Currently, due to restrictions put in place by the nuclear deal, the United States estimates that timeline at 12 months,” Davenport explained in a July 2019 assessment.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/be-afraid-donald-trump-iran-could-build-nuclear-weapon-1-year-84441
More about the SAUCE: considered to be Neo-conservative/conservative bias???
Dimitri Kostantinovich Simes (Russian: Дмитрий Константинович Симис b. 1947) is the president and CEO of The Center for the National Interest and publisher of its foreign policy bi-monthly magazine, The National Interest. Simes was selected to lead the Center in 1994 by former President Richard Nixon, to whom he served as an informal foreign policy advisor and with whom he traveled regularly to Russia and other former Soviet states as well as Western and Central Europe.
Before the center was established, Simes served as chairman of the Center for Russian and Eurasian Programs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In September 2018, historian Yuri Felshtinsky published an investigation about the involvement of Simes in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, including his help to Maria Butina.[6] After the publication Simes went to Moscow[7] and became a moderator of the political program Большая игра ("Big Game") on Channel One Russia, together with Vyacheslav Nikonov.[8][9]