Iran’s Uranium: Everyone Is Watching the Wrong Pile
You have heard one number: 440.9 kilograms. That is Iran’s uranium enriched to 60 percent, the stuff closest to a bomb. This is what experts call “highly enriched” uranium. It sounds scary, and it is a real problem. But it is only 4.5 percent of the uranium Iran actually holds.
The other 95 percent, more than 9,400 kilograms, gets almost no attention. Most of it, about 8,600 kilograms, is enriched to 2, 5, and 20 percent, and the physics of enrichment make that “low-grade” pile far closer to a bomb than the label “reactor fuel” suggests. This is the story of the pile nobody is watching.
https://x.com/Osint613/status/2062616188480344575?s=20
@realDonaldTrump
The Governor of the Great State of Maryland, Wes Moore, has put a halt to all work being done at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base, concerning the renovation and restoration of their two old and dilapidated Golf Courses, into two, World Class, Jack Nicklaus Designed Courses, plus nine additional holes, also designed by Jack, specially adapted for our Wounded Warriors. By doing this, the Governor is attacking the United States Air Force, and our Military, not a smart thing to do. These Courses exist, they are terrible, Jack Nicklaus will make them GREAT. Why should the Air Force and other Military personnel be forced to wait through a long Legal Review process and, perhaps, even more so, why should Wounded Warriors be forced to travel long distances to play Golf somewhere else or, worse yet, not play Golf at all. Our Soldiers and Veterans deserve THE BEST — NO WAITING, NO GAMES! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Add it up: 9,874.9 kilograms. The 2015 nuclear deal capped Iran at 300 kilograms, at no more than 3.67 percent. So Iran was sitting on about thirty times the limit.And it was still climbing. A snapshot from 17 May 2025 had the total at 9,247.6 kg. By 13 June it was 9,874.9 kg, a rise of more than 600 kilograms in under a month. The pile was growing right up until the strikes froze the public record.
. . . . .
A power reactor runs on about 5 percent. A bomb needs about 90 percent. So 5 percent sounds harmless, a world away from a weapon. However, It is not... Here is the truth:"Enrichment is a process that speeds up as it goes, so that when uranium has been enriched to 5 percent, two-thirds of the work of enriching to 90 percent is already done."Matthew Bunn, Harvard nuclear scientist, Arms Control Today, May 2026
In plain terms: getting uranium up to 5 percent is the slow, hard part. By the time you reach it, two-thirds of the total work to bomb-grade is already finished. The public hears "5 percent" and thinks "5 percent of the problem." It is really about two-thirds of the problem.
AND, at FR, we wonder just where did the uranium come from...
Problem is this makes regime change all the more important.
If Iran doesn't get regime change it looks like there will always be a move to generate more and more enriched uranium for multiple bombs to be produced.
As a fellow freeper reminded me you only need one submarine with the capablity to shoot off a nuke to do some real damage.
.........................
https://abcnews.com/Politics/inside-submarine-capable-launching-nuclear-missiles/story?id=84832056
Off the coast of Hawaii, ABC News visited the USS Maine, one of 14 Ohio Class U.S. Navy submarines capable of launching nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
Measuring two football fields in length and weighing 18,000 tons, the massive submarine carries 20 Trident 2 D5 missiles capable of striking targets up to 4,000 miles away.
Each missile is capable of holding up to 12 nuclear warheads -- one reason why these submarines are able to carry about 70% of the nation's active nuclear arsenal allowed by the New START Treaty.
put this sub in the wrong hands and its disaster time...
