Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Idea

How plausible is it to bomb an idea, a program and knowledge. No one is talking of bombing North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and its nuclear facilities.

Iran US Nuclear Deal

Credit;Good Morning America

The Iran – USA nuclear agreement, termed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was an accord reached between Iran and several world powers in 2015 and under its terms Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to extensive international inspections in exchange for billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief. At the core of negotiations were the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) , Germany and the European Union .

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Israel explicitly opposed the agreement. Does the negotiating team of US President Donald Trump and his lead negotiator understand the technicalities of uranium enrichment. Claims by Steve Witkoff, a former real estate developer who has been leading US negotiations with Iran along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner , exhibit a lack of command over the nuclear enrichment domain .

Uranium Enrichment

About 99% of naturally occurring Uranium is the relatively fission-resistant isotope uranium-238 and only 0.7 % of naturally occurring uranium is uranium-235 and in order to be used as fuel for nuclear reactors uranium is “enriched” to increase the concentration of uranium-235.

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The enrichment process is primarily accomplished via gas centrifuges, until the desired concentration of uranium-235 is achieved, and different levels of enrichment have different strategic significance . Uranium enriched above the natural 0.7 % level of uranium-235 up to a 20% concentration is considered low-enriched uranium suitable for civilian purposes. Uranium enriched beyond 20% is considered highly enriched uranium and uranium enriched above 90% is considered weapons-grade. It becomes exponentially easier to enrich 20% uranium to 60 % and enriching from 60 % to 90 % is easier. Uranium enriched above 20% can technically be used to produce a crude weapon, requiring 400 kg , which is impractical. However when the enrichment level rises to 60 %, the critical mass drops down to about 42 kg and can be fixed in a missile warhead. Reports from the UN’s nuclear watchdog estimate that Iran has about 45 kilograms of 20 % enriched uranium stored in fuel assemblies at its reactor which was bombed last year , not even enough for one bomb.

Credit;The Guardian

Money for Nukes

The money ($ 1.7 billion) that Iran received from complying with the agreement was not a direct payment from the U.S. government instead the funds are Iranian foreign assets which the international sanctions regime prevented Iran from accessing. Under the JCPOA, these nuclear-related sanctions were waived after Iran verifiably completed its initial obligations with the accessible amounts being about $ 100 billion and after adjusting for Iranian foreign debts would be considerably lower .

Author : Nadir Mumtaz

Trademark Blue Economy (IPO)

Credit:

https://armscontrolcenter.org/does-the-trump-administration-understand-how-enriched-uranium-is-made-into-weapons/

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/what-iran-nuclear-deal

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/01/us/word-of-week-enriched-cec

https://armscontrolcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Fact-check-iran-deal-1.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/22/steve-witkoff-trump-gaza-ukraine-envoy