Iran nuclear program: Clock is ticking as uranium collects

Every day, the whirling centrifuges at the Natanz Fuel Enrichment plant produce about 2.75 kilograms of the stuff, according to International Atomic Energy Agency data. At 2.75 kilograms a day, Iran by February 2010 will have produced enough LEU to serve as feedstock for two bombs, according to Ploughshares Fund grantee David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). Day after day, this amount is added to Iran's existing stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU), estimated by the U.S. to total about 1,600 kilograms. This material can be used as the feedstock for weapons-grade uranium. As of February, Iran had produced enough low-enriched uranium to serve as the feedstock for fissile material for one bomb, according to Mr. Albright's calculations. The U.S. intelligence community officially estimates that Iran will be technically capable of producing enough HEU for a weapon at some point between 2010 and 2015.