WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned Wednesday that Iran is “frighteningly close” to developing weapons-grade enriched uranium.
Speaking to lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Wright stressed that Iran’s enriched uranium, which President Trump is deadset on confiscating, puts the regime just weeks away from the threshold needed to get a nuke.
“They are a small number of weeks away to enrich that to weapons-grade uranium. There’s still a weaponization process that happens after that, but they’re quite close,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff publicly claimed that Iran boasted about having enough 60% enriched uranium, which, if further enriched to 90%, would be enough to make 11 nuclear bombs. Getting to 60% enrichment is a much larger technical leap than the jump from 60% to 90%, which is weapons-grade enrichment, top nuclear experts have claimed.
There is about a ton of that level of enriched uranium, where they are “only weeks away” from making it weapons-grade, according to Wright and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) But Iran also has another 11 tons at a lower level of enrichment.
“They have some 20% enriched uranium, and that’s several more weeks behind [the] 60%,” Wright added. “[With] unenriched uranium, it’s a long process to get it to weapons-grade. But when you’re at 60%, you are, although the numbers don’t sound that way, you’re way [closer to] 90% of the way there for the enrichment necessary for weapons-grade uranium.”
“It’s very concerning.”
Blumenthal mused that Trump would likely have to get the other 11 tons of 20% enriched uranium in addition to the 1 ton of 60% enriched uranium that is theoretically close to being ready to make 11 nukes, if he were to fully eliminate the threat.
“I think that’s the wise strategy. Ultimately, the goal is to prevent future enrichment of uranium as well. Yes, to have a safe world, we need to end their nuclear program,” Wright replied.
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Trump has been adamant that the US will get Iran’s enriched uranium “one way or another.”
The US and Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last year in Operation Midnight Hammer and did so again earlier this year via Operation Epic Fury. For now, the US is monitoring Iran’s nuclear sites from satellites and has threatened to bomb them if Iran starts making moves toward them.
During Operation Epic Fury, Trump reportedly contemplated a highly risky operation of sending ground forces into Iranian territory to retrieve the nuclear material. That process would be difficult because troops would have to dig out the uranium and deal with the risks of radiation exposure while deep behind enemy lines.
For the time being, he’s been attempting to solve the issue diplomatically. Currently, talks between Washington and Tehran are being mediated by Pakistan. Trump recently rejected Iran’s latest offer as “unacceptable” this past Sunday. Trump called the cease-fire with Iran on “massive life support.”
“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” he told reporters Tuesday.
