Centrifuge Use

[Chesterton]

I'm wondering if anyone has an answer for this. Iran claims they want to create nuclear power for civil energy purposes only, but many in the West believe they actually want to make nuclear weapons. I heard a politician saying that we can be sure they are intending to make bombs, because we know approximately how many centrifuges they're using, and how long they've been using them. I was wondering if that was valid so I went to Wiki and found this statement:

It takes many thousands of centrifugations to enrich uranium enough for use in a nuclear reactor (around 3.5% enrichment),[citation needed] and many thousands more to enrich it to weapons-grade (above 90% enrichment) for use in nuclear weapons.[citation needed]
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The interesting thing in this statement is that both parts include "citation needed". Aren't these things known? Are they true or not?

 

[[serious]]

Uranium enrichment is an iterative process, but I do not know how many cycles it takes for a given level of enrichment. I imagine it would be dependant on the type of centrifuge. In short, the idea is right, but the numbers given I can't comment on.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Are they true or not?

Yes, it's basically true.

Uranium is considered weapons-grade at 'about' 90% enrichment.

The most common nuclear power plants use 3%-5% enriched uranium. Other reactors may use up to 25% or so.

Naval reactors use 50% or more enriched uranium.

And yes, it's obviously true that it takes more passes with the centrifuge to continue enriching the uranium to higher and higher levels.

Whether we actually have solid numbers on their centrifuge capacity and time of operation, I don't know. Even if they have the capacity, they might be just using it to create large quantities of spare fuel. I think this is what we believe is the case, but is still cause for suspicion... that Iran has a large stockpile of 20% uranium, and what else are they going to use it for other than as feedstock for making bombs? They only have one operational power plant.

 

[HisMan]

I'm wondering if anyone has an answer for this. Iran claims they want to create nuclear power for civil energy purposes only, but many in the West believe they actually want to make nuclear weapons. I heard a politician saying that we can be sure they are intending to make bombs, because we know approximately how many centrifuges they're using, and how long they've been using them. I was wondering if that was valid so I went to Wiki and found this statement: Aren't these things known? Are they true or not?

A recent news report says Iran has 19,000 centrifuges. They're also getting help from North Korea so the situation is very scary indeed.

BTW, (and slightly off subject---hope that's OK), did you happen to catch that PBS special on cyber tec and sabotage? It's believed that Israel (with the possible help of the US) made a Trojan Horse virus that infected Iran's centrifuges and successfully destroyed several thousand of them. The virus isn't written in DOS and is therefore very, very effective and very hard to stop and some believe it has gotten into the hands of saboteurs.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

a security breach has been detected. everyone must now be blindfolded and made to walk the plank..... ...... please remain calm, no live horses have been injured in producing this episode.......

 

[Strathos]

Even if Iran has nuclear weapons, would they really be foolish enough to use them against another nation?