The PROCESS

Iran has the technology and material to produce fuel for power or a weapon.

WHAT IRAN HAS ALREADY DONE

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20%

0.7%

Centrifuges

3.5%

90%

Only 0.7 percent of natural uranium ore is uranium 235, the isotope needed for bombs and nuclear plants. To work as fuel, it needs to go through a process called enrichment.

During the process, uranium is placed in thousands of centrifuges, that gradually work to increase the percentage of uranium 235.

Iran enriches uranium to 3.5 percent, which it says it plans to use at a nuclear power plant that it has by the Persian Gulf.

If Iran were to make a bomb, it would need to continue the enriching process until 90 percent or higher. Iran has the technology to do this, but has not yet done so.

Iran has also been enriching uranium to 20 percent. This raises concern because a stockpile of 20 percent uranium makes the process of accumulating fuel for a bomb much faster.

IRANIAN CAPABILITIES

Iran could quickly move to a nuclear “breakout.”

Iran today has enough enriched uranium and centrifuges to produce fuel for a weapon — a nuclear breakout — in one to two months, according to a study by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based group that has been skeptical of Iran’s peaceful claims. Despite Iran’s ability to produce fuel quickly, according to the study, it would take additional time to make a reliable warhead for a missile.

Iran’s nuclear stockpile IN AUGUST

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3.5% URANIUM

20% URANIUM

90% URANIUM

CENTRIFUGES

6,774 kg

186 kg

19,000

1.6 months

Possible PATHS TO AGREEMENT

Increasing the amount of time that it would take for a nuclear breakout

To reach a more definitive deal, Iran would probably need to agree to some steps back in its program, which would increase the time needed to achieve a nuclear breakout. The examples here, from the Institute for Science and International Security, show a few combinations of measures that could elevate the breakout time to more than six months.

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3.5% URANIUM

20% URANIUM

90% URANIUM

CENTRIFUGES

6,774 kg

186 kg

6 months or more

19,000

Frozen

3,000 to 5,000

Option 1

Iran freezes its 20 percent uranium at its August level and gets rid of materials that could easily be converted into 20 percent uranium. Iran also reduces the total number of centrifuges it has and does not use the second-generation centrifuges it has developed, which are thought to work 3 to 5 times faster than the old ones.

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3.5% URANIUM

20% URANIUM

90% URANIUM

CENTRIFUGES

6,774 kg

186 kg

19,000

6 months or more

5,800 to 6,800

Iran gets rid of all of its 20 percent uranium, reduces the number of centrifuges and limits them to first-generation machines.

Option 2

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3.5% URANIUM

20% URANIUM

90% URANIUM

CENTRIFUGES

6,774 kg

186 kg

19,000

6 months or more

16,600 to 20,900

Iran gets rid of all its enriched uranium and is allowed to have from 16,600 to 20,900 of its first-generation centrifuges. The country would retain ability to enrich, but would not be able to keep any uranium that it produces.

Option 3

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3.5% URANIUM

20% URANIUM

90% URANIUM

CENTRIFUGES

6,774 kg

186 kg

19,000

6 months or more

1,000 kg

7,700 to 9,200

Option 4