Iran moves closer to nukes capability

VIENNA, Austria

Two years? One? Even less?

Opinions differ on how close Iran may be to developing a nuclear weapon, but concerned governments and experts agree the time to stop Tehran is growing short - and the options are limited.

The time frame is increasingly important because of the possibility that Israel or the United States might opt for a military strike against the Islamic republic if either judged that all diplomatic options to end its nuclear defiance had been exhausted.

Also, with Tehran showing no signs of giving up uranium enrichment or heeding other international demands, the diplomatic window is growing increasingly narrow.

That fact gives special significance to a meeting this week of the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief focus of what to do about Iran.

Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his annual appearance in New York at the U.N. General Assembly this week, where he told fellow heads of state on Tuesday that Iran has an “inalienable right” to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes.

Mr. Ahmadinejad also appeared to stoke the flames on Sunday, declaring that Iran’s military will “break the hand” of anyone targeting his country’s nuclear facilities. He spoke during a military parade displaying various types of Iranian-made missiles. Also in the parade was a military truck carrying a huge banner saying, “Israel should be eliminated from the universe” in both English and Farsi.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are geared only toward generating power, but Israel says the Islamic republic could have enough nuclear material to make its first bomb within a year. The European Union warned Wednesday that Iran is nearing the ability to arm a nuclear warhead, but the United States estimates that Tehran is still at least two years away from that stage.

At the low end is physicist and former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright. He says Tehran could reach weapons capacity in as little as six months through uranium enrichment.

An IAEA report drawn up for the IAEA board meeting says Tehran has increased the number of centrifuges used to process uranium to nearly 4,000 from 3,000 just a few months ago.

Mr. Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security closely tracks suspect secret proliferators, also has been able to extrapolate other information from the report that is less obvious but of at least equal concern.

Iran, he says, has managed to iron out most of the bugs in the intensely complicated process of enrichment that often saw the centrifuges breaking down. The machines, he says, “now appear to be running at approximately 85 percent of their stated target capacity, a significant increase over previous rates.”

That, he says means they can produce more enriched uranium faster. Though the IAEA says the machines so far have spewed out only low-enriched material suitable solely for nuclear fuel, producing enough of that can make it easy to “break out” quickly by reprocessing it to weapons-grade uranium suitable for the fissile core of a warhead.

To date, Iran has produced nearly 1,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium, the report says - close to the 1,500-pound minimum Mr. Albright says is needed to produce the 45 to 60 pounds needed for a simple nuclear bomb under optimal conditions.

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