On May 13 (US time), Washington Examiner reported that US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned that Iran is "very close" to the possibility of possessing weapons-grade nuclear material, although the US has launched Operation Epic Fury to prevent Tehran from exceeding this threshold.
Speaking before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Wright said Iran currently only has "a few weeks" left to enrich part of its nuclear material to weapons-grade uranium levels.
However, he also noted that after the uranium enrichment phase, Iran still needs another weaponization process lasting many months if it wants to build a complete nuclear weapon.
According to Mr. Wright, Iran currently has about 12 tons of uranium at different levels of purity. Uranium is often considered to reach weapons level when enriched to 90% or higher. Iran is currently said to have approached this threshold, but has not reached that level.
The US Energy Secretary said that about 1 ton of Iran's 60% enriched uranium is only "a few weeks" away from weapons level. Meanwhile, about 11 tons of 20% enriched uranium is also assessed to have gone quite far in the enrichment process.
With unenriched uranium, the process of bringing it to weapons level is very long. But when it is at 60%, although the figures may not sound like it, in fact it has gone more than 90% of the way to reach weapons-grade uranium," Wright explained.
He added that 20% enriched uranium, which Iran also owns in large quantities, has also reached a remarkable level in the enrichment chain.
This is very worrying," the US Energy Secretary concluded.
Iran's nuclear activities have increased in the years after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal reached under former President Barack Obama in his first term.
Some nuclear experts believe that this decision has lost important limits, creating conditions for Tehran to increase uranium enrichment levels, expand production and develop more modern centrifuges.
For many years, Iranian leaders have affirmed that the country has no intention of making nuclear weapons, but only developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. However, the US and many of Tehran's opponents remain skeptical of this stance.
