Iran can likely build several atomic bombs with its current stockpiles of enriched uranium, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear agency said Thursday.

“They have enough material for several nuclear warheads,” the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told Bloomberg News Thursday during an interview in Davos, Switzerland.

Iran appears to be storing the enriched uranium, not making it into warheads, Grossi said, while adding that the stockpiling was “not banal.”

Iran is speeding up its uranium enrichment process, and its domestic nuclear industry is now fully independent, even as the country continues to stymie international efforts to monitor its nuclear program.

  • Tujio@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Kinda? That is the logic that the cold war superpowers employed, but it isn’t necessarily true. Having one nuclear-armed ICBM or cruise missile within range of a US city would be one hell of a deterrent.

    China at least partly holds to this. Their logic is that nuclear security does not necessitate nuclear parity. So while the US and USSR made thousands of warheads and delivery systems, China maintained an arsenal of roughly 80-100 warheads with viable delivery systems.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, exactly. Nobody’s going to attack China even if technically they can’t cripple the entire country with their retaliation. Losing a few key cities should be enough of a deterrent.