Re:Trump says US has bombed Fordo nuclear plant in attack on...
by fastball on Sunday June 22, 2025 @12:11AM
(#44343528)
Enriching uranium is the hard part of building a nuke (esp once you've already been building 1000s of ICBMs like Iran has). The fact that there is no actual "nuclear weapons program" is just tactics on the part of Iran, so that they can say "we don't have one". But there is no other reason to enrich uranium to 60% (IAEA reported number). Energy production requires < 10%. Weapons require ~90%.
No the US was claiming: "We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so." in it's 2025 Threat Assessment. The reports believes they were not working on them and Khamenei has the final authority to restart the program which he had not done. However, they believe there was growing pressured to do so.
Trump just gave the guy reason to green light a weapons project he had so far not wanted.
[pdf] https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-202...