Iran could soon become capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium to power a nuclear weapon, the European Union told the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation governing board yesterday

... While intelligence gathered by a U.N. nuclear watchdog probe into Iran’s nuclear ambitions 'remains to be verified, the IAEA's exhaustive and detailed [findings] leads one to think that … Iran has methodically pursued a program aimed at acquiring the nuclear bomb,' the statement said.

Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges, now estimated at nearly 4,000, “appear to be running at approximately 85 percent of their stated target capacity, a significant increase over previous rates,' said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

Iran is now using its growing enrichment capability to produce low-enriched uranium that can fuel nuclear power plants, but the Middle Eastern state could potentially tap the process to generate highly enriched uranium for use in a bomb.

Albright said Iran would need at least 1,500 pounds of low-enriched uranium to produce enough material for one unsophisticated nuclear bomb; the nation now has nearly 1,000 pounds of the material. It “is progressing toward this capability and can be expected to reach it in six months to two years,” Albright said (George Jahn, Associated Press/Google News, Sept. 24). ...