May 10, 2026
Iran Pursuing Plutonium?
Timothy Birdnow
Remember, North Korea skipped using uranium for a nuclear device and went straight to the more difficult plutonium.
A while back I read a Union of Concerned Scientists report about how Iran was developing implosion technology for triggering an uranium bomb (which cuts down on the weight). The same technology works wonderfully for plutonium (and was the trigger for Fat Man, the Nagasaki bomb.)
If Iran has produced plutonium in secret..
FTA:
The concern is not academic. According to reporting by Benjamin Weinthal at Fox News Digital, Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and a former Pentagon nonproliferation official under President George H.W. Bush, has argued that Iran already possesses enough plutonium in spent fuel at Bushehr to fashion more than 200 nuclear weapons. The figure is staggering, yet barely registers in the public debate over Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
That blind spot is precisely the problem. Washington has spent two decades obsessing over uranium enrichment percentages, breakout timelines, and centrifuge cascades. Meanwhile, the mullahs have quietly maintained a parallel route to a weapon — one that requires no spinning rotors, no cascade halls, and no obvious enrichment signature for satellites to photograph.
Of course building nukes and testing them are two different things and the Iranians have not tested them yet (although the U.S. does virtual tests using computers and perhaps that may work for Ian as well.) So if they have nuclear weapons they can't be sure they won't be duds.
I wonder; when Iran fired thos missiles at Diego Garcia was that perhaps to test the delivery system? These bombs did not damage but proved such weaponry can go that far. I'm not sure of the weight restrictions of those missiles but I suspect they are pretty close to an implosing device weight - especially a plutonium device.
Fat Man weighed 10,300 lbs. Of course Fat Man was very primitive; no doubt our modern plutonium bombs are far more svelt.
The most likely candidate was the Khorramshahr missile, which has a single stage and certainly couldn't carry that much weight. But the Israelis think it was a two stage rocket which would rule out the Khorramsahr.
So we do not know what they shot at our forces but it went a heckuva lot farther than we thought was withing their capabilities.
I wonder if this wasn't a dry run test.
The article continues:
Not every expert agrees the plutonium threat is imminent. David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security told Fox News Digital he is "highly skeptical” Iran would actually use Bushehr’s spent fuel for weapons. He noted that Iran would need a plutonium-bomb design it has not developed, that any diversion would likely trigger Russia to suspend uranium fuel supplies and shut down a multibillion-dollar investment, and that most of the plutonium in Bushehr’s spent fuel is reactor-grade rather than weapons-grade.
But of course North Korea has this capability and would be happy to do it for them, no doubt. Also, anyone who thinks the Russians would suspend suspend nuclear fuel supplies in the middle of a war in which they need Iranian drones is smoking something besides the peace pipe.
The reality is Iran has the means, the motives, and has had the opportunity before now. We cannot base our policy on wishful thinking. Iran has played games with us to the point where we can't trust anything they say, and thus we have to assume the worst.
If Iran has no enriched uranium or plutonium then fine - but we have to act on the assumption they have it, just as George W. Bush had to act on the assumption Iraq had it based on Saddam's behavior. This is not something you risk.
Iran is rather like Kudzu; a nasty weed that you chop back and it just grows right back. I fear the only way to truly guarantee our safety is to overthrow the regime or bomb the place back into the stone age - both things we aren't going to do.
Iran is an apocalyptic nation and will likely trigger the Big One in time. All we can do is trust that God will not allow it.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
12:56 PM
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Little Kim seems to have learned a valuable lesson sending his troops into Ukraine. A war with the West is unwinnable. The constitution of NK has been rewritten excluding all language of reunification with the South and a whole lot of anti-west rhetoric. Seems Kim's health is questionable and he is paving the way for his 13 yr old daughters eventual take over with a friendlier eye towards the west. The so-called Iranian Republic is nothing more then organized crime hiding behind a false religion.
Posted by: Mike at May 10, 2026 07:18 PM (z9ZkW)
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