Thursday April 27, 2006

I've Been Thinking:

An "interested" intelligence agency has just made the following revelation:
Iran has successfully enriched uranium to a level of 4.1%.
Until this information was released Ahmadinajad had said that Iran’s uranium enrichment level was at 3.5%.

There are different levels of uranium enrichment.
Low level means anything lower than 20%.
Slightly enriched uranium is between 0.9 and 2%
Nuclear energy reactors use uranium enriched between 3% and 5%.
Research reactors use between 12% and 19 %.

Highly enriched uranium is 20% and higher.
Usable for weapons, but not very efficiently, is 20% enriched uranium.
Weapons grade is 85% and higher, typically over 90%.
Nuclear subs use 50%, but the most efficient subs use close to 90% uranium.

Iran is making the transition.
They are almost out of the low level, light water commercial reactor range and into the experimental range. From there it's the submarine and then bomb range.
Iran has a significant way to go, but they are moving ahead efficiently.
Iran's efficiency - that is the real worry.