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Israeli and U.S. intelligence differ on status of Iran’s nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued for decades that Iran
was on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. And he ordered the attack
on Iran because he believed Tehran was “marching very quickly” toward a
bomb. “The intel we got and we shared with the United States was absolutely
clear, was absolutely clear that they [the Iranians] were working, in a
secret plan, to weaponize the uranium,” Netanyahu said in an interview with
Fox News.

However, the U.S. intelligence community has long had a somewhat
different interpretation. The Americans say Iran suspended its nuclear
weapons program in 2003, shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq. While Iraq
did not have the weapons of mass destruction the U.S. claimed, the invasion
of a neighboring country appeared to rattle Iran, believing it too could
face a U.S. incursion.

 NPR 18th June 2025 https://www.npr.org/2025/06/18/nx-s1-5436758/israel-and-u-s-intelligence-differ-on-status-of-irans-nuclear-program-whos-right

June 21, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Israel’s Bombing Won’t Stop Iran from Going Nuclear

NPEC – Non Proliferation Policy Education Center, June 17, 2025 

Spotlighting  Greg Jones‘ latest research on the difficulty of targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Jones is one of the nation’s top nuclear analysts and has had close ties to NPEC for more than three decades.

Most of the analyses of Israel’s air campaign against Iran’s nuclear program have focused on two questions: Can Israel destroy Iran’s enrichment plants on its own? Or does Israel need Washington’s help to knock them out? 

The question too infrequently asked, however, is can any bombing campaign, with or without U.S. assistance, keep Iran from getting a bomb? Greg’s short answer is no.

As he points out, bombing Iran’s enrichment plants may temporarily put them out of commission, but the centrifuges and cascades can be repaired. Tehran, he argues, can remove undamaged centrifuges, build new cascades, and be back in business in four to six months. 

Fordow, for now, remains untouched. Conservatively, Fordow could produce a bomb’s worth of nuclear fuel every 2.5 weeks. Again, the centrifuges there can be removed to other locations.

Then, there’s the matter of the 440 kgs. of 60 percent enriched uranium that Iran already has – conservatively, enough to build 12 bombs. This material, Greg points out, is stored in hardy metal cylinders that are extremely difficult to destroy via bombing attacks and can be moved by truck to remote locations.  Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has determined that Iran has all but developed the nonnuclear components necessary to build a nuclear weapon. 

This is why Greg concludes that any quick military fix to prevent Iran from going nuclear is impractical and that the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon will remain until and unless Iran agrees to relinquish its entire stockpile of enriched uranium and eliminates its centrifuge enrichment program.

You can read Greg’s full, footnoted analysis here. 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://npolicy.org/israels-bombing-wont-stop-iran-from-going-nuclear/

June 21, 2025 Posted by | Iran, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Apollo to finance UK Hinkley Point nuclear plant with £4.5bn loan.

Funding for electricity group EDF, the UK’s largest ever private credit
deal, eases pressure on the troubled project. US private capital group
Apollo will provide £4.5bn in debt financing to support the UK’s Hinkley
Point C nuclear power station, easing mounting financial pressure on the
delayed and over-budget project. The investment-grade package will be
provided as unsecured debt at an interest rate just below 7 per cent,
according to people familiar with the matter. EDF, which is building two
new nuclear reactors at the site in Somerset, said it will be able to
borrow £1.5bn each year over three years as part of the package. The debt
has a maximum maturity of 12 years. The debt package addresses a
significant gap in the finances of the project, which has struggled with a
shortfall since China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), which was supposed
to provide a third of the cost of the project, stopped providing further
financing in 2023.

 FT 20th June 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/d4e6b540-ae57-434f-9eea-9d96431980e9

June 21, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

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