Iran Dilutes 20% Uranium Supply by Half, Meets Commitment

April 16, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

Compliance - “The United Nations will release a report this week certifying that Iran's ability to make a nuclear bomb has been greatly reduced because it has diluted half of its material that can be turned most quickly into weapons-grade uranium,” George Jahn reports for the AP. “The move is part of Iran's commitments under a deal with six world powers in effect since January that mandates some nuclear concessions on the part of Tehran in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions crippling its economy.”

--“A key concern for the six was Iran's stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium, which is only a technical step away from the 90-percent grade used to arm nuclear weapons. By late last year, Iran had already amassed almost enough of the 20-percent grade for one nuclear bomb, with further enrichment. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to halt its 20-percent enrichment program and to turn half of its nearly 200-kilogram (440-pound) stockpile into oxide for reactor fuel. As well, it pledged to dilute the other half into low-enriched uranium. Making weapons-grade uranium by reconverting from oxide or from the lower level would take much longer than doing so from the 20-percent enriched material, giving more time for the international community to react.”

--“Iran has until June to fulfill all of its commitments under the deal. But it has to show progress in exchange for sanctions relief, and one of the diplomats said it apparently decided to complete dilution now because it was eager to get its hand on the next tranche of some $4.2 billion of oil revenue funds frozen under international sanctions meant to force it into nuclear compromise.” Full report here. http://apne.ws/1eQDsa0

Next installment - “Iran expects to get a fifth installment this week of previously blocked overseas funds, a senior official was quoted as saying, a payment that would confirm Tehran's compliance with an interim deal with world powers to curb its nuclear program,” report Fredrik Dahl and Mehrdad Balali in Reuters. “It says it has already received four transfers in February and March, totaling some $2.1 billion. A fifth payment of $450 million was due on April 15, contingent on Iran having diluted half of its most sensitive stockpile of nuclear materials. Diplomats say Iran is meeting its commitments under the accord.” Read the full article here. http://reut.rs/1nbxNDy

Not not containment - “I am not for containment in Iran,” writes Sen. Rand Paul in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. “I am also not for announcing that the United States should never contain Iran… To be against a ‘we will never contain Iran’ resolution is not the same as being for containment of a nuclear Iran. Rather, it means that foreign policy is complicated and doesn’t fit neatly within a bumper sticker, headline or tweet. Those who reduce it to such do a disservice to their reporting and, potentially, to the security of our nation.”

--“I believe all options should be on the table to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, including the military option. I have voted repeatedly for sanctions against Iran and will continue to do so. But I will also continue to argue that war is a last resort and that, as Reagan wrote, we should be reluctant to go to war but resolved to do so if necessary… Containment of Iran is a bad idea, but our leaders need to think before they speak and consider that preemptively announcing responses to every hypothetical situation may well damage our ability to keep the United States safe and strong. I have often said that we have, for too long, had a debate between the extremes of foreign policy — and that to be on either end of the extremes can have life-or-death consequences… Real foreign policy is made in the middle; with nuance; in the gray area of diplomacy, engagement and reluctantly, if necessary, military action.” Read the full piece here. http://wapo.st/P49Hf0

Tweet - @abuaardvark: Photo of UAE FM shaking hands w/Zarif and calling Iran a strategic partner making the rounds pic.twitter.com/MdExEQwoZr

Productive talks - “The United States and China have held ‘productive’ talks on North Korea, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, part of stepped up international diplomacy after Pyongyang warned of plans to conduct a new type of nuclear test... The talks follow meetings last week between the United States, Japan and South Korea, the countries that along with China and Russia were trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with North Korea until Pyongyang declared the so-called six-party talks dead in 2008.” David Brunnstrom has the story in Reuters. http://reut.rs/1nqkPPr

Thwarting nuclear smuggling - “Scientists may have discovered how they can reprogram X-ray scanners to more effectively spot bomb-usable nuclear materials in airline bags,” reports Diane Barnes for Global Security Newswire. “Common X-ray systems might become more capable of identifying tiny amounts of uranium and plutonium with help from a new computer algorithm written in the United States, the American Institute of Physics announced on Tuesday.”

--“The code is based on a close examination of how radiation passes through various substances and how the resultant X-ray image should look, according to a development team at University of Texas-Austin and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state… The group now plans to try scaling up the technique, possibly for use in ‘high-energy X-ray systems’ to monitor compliance with arms-control agreements, said Deinert, who co-authored the study.” Full report here. http://bit.ly/RoV7AW

Hurdles ahead - “A new audit has found that the U.S. military is likely to encounter hurdles in the operations of deployed anti-missile assets in Europe,” reports Rachel Oswald in Global Security Newswire. “The deployment in recent years of an early-warning radar and Patriot missile-interceptors in Turkey revealed a lack of holistic planning by the Defense Department, the Government Accountability Office said in a Friday report. Because the Pentagon has no plans to alter its approach to the deployment of anti-missile assets in Europe, the Defense Department ‘risks continuing to encounter implementation issues ... which may lead to significant delays and inefficiencies,’ the performance audit concludes.” Full article here. http://bit.ly/1hJwnNo

Quick-hits:

--“Rouhani Says Iran Sanctions Will Unravel in Months” by Mehrdad Balali in Reuters. http://reut.rs/1qZZQU5

--“Nuclear Weapons Accidents” by Michael Krepon in Arms Control Wonk. http://bit.ly/RoU83L

Events:

--“Crisis in Ukraine, the Budapest Memorandum and Extended Deterrence.” Discussion with Steven Pifer. April 22 from 12:30 to 2:00 at National Defense University, 408 Fourth Ave., Fort McNair, Washington. RSVP by email to Nima.Gerami@ndu.edu

--“Garwin: Witness to History.” Film screening and panel discussion with Richard Garwin, Richard Breyer, Anand Kamalakar, and Charles Ferguson. April 22 from 5:00-8:00 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, auditorium, 1200 New York Ave. NW. RSVP by email to rsvp@fas.org.

--“Making a Difference: Faith Communities Speak to the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.” Discussion with Andrew Kanter, Daryl Kimball, and eight other speakers. April 24 from 9:30-4:00 at the U.S. Institute of Peace, 2301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington. http://conta.cc/1ssfg70

--“The United States and Iran: Can Diplomacy Prevent an Iranian Bomb?” Discussion with former Amb. Thomas Pickering and Shaul Bakhash. April 28 from 6:00-7:15 at American University, Abramson Family Founders Room, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington. RSVP here. http://conta.cc/1eEMAyC