March 2, 2009 - Experts at the nonpartisan Arms Control Association (ACA) urged senior U.S. officials and the media to exhibit greater care to accurately state what is known about Iran's nuclear capabilities.
The experts highlighted the confusion created over the weekend by inaccurate portrayals of the type of nuclear material Iran has produced which suggested that Tehran was closer to a nuclear weapon than public U.S. intelligence and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports indicate.
Responding to a question on CNN's "State of the Union" Mar. 1 regarding whether Iran has enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen stated "we think they do, quite frankly, and Iran having a nuclear weapon, I've believed for a long time, is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world."
The question was based on a Feb. 19 IAEA report which found that Iran has now stockpiled approximately 1010 kilograms of low-enriched uranium (LEU), an amount which, theoretically, could be enough to make material for a weapon if enriched further. The question confused this stockpile with fissile material, which is either highly-enriched uranium (HEU) or plutonium. LEU cannot be used in a nuclear weapon. More >>>
