For instance, the movement to the Fordow or Natanz enrichment plants of uranium hexafluoride gas made from any reconversion of research reactor metal fuel plates would be detected within a matter of days.
He may have been referring to MEU in the form of uranium hexafluoride that Iran's enrichment process produces rather than the amount of 20% enriched uranium itself.
The ceremony was neither a private affair nor a state one, but reflected an uneasy compromise.See articleTests were said to have shown strong signs that uranium hexafluoride surrendered to international inspectors by Libya last year came from North Korea.
Or another secret plant could prepare uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the compound that is spun and enriched as a gas in the centrifuges, from Iran's uranium ore.
It has already built up a stockpile of uranium hexafluoride, the raw material for enrichment into reactor fuel or bomb-grade material, and is bound to store it deep underground.
It has converted yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride gas.
That is because 250kg of hexafluoride would produce about 165kg of MEU, which is about right for one bomb.
Iran has to dismantle all but up to 4,000 of its IR-1 centrifuges and all of its IR-2m centrifuges, ship out most of its current low enriched uranium hexafluoride stocks, address the International Atomic Energy Agency's questions regarding possible military dimensions and agree to a robust verification scheme by the IAEA.
The conversion of oxide back to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas is not "time-consuming", is not necessarily "detectable", and is not particularly "technically demanding".What both your briefing and Sir Richard failed to point out is that Iran's conversion of some of its 20% UF6 gas into a solid oxide form does little to allay fears that it is well on the path to getting nuclear weapons.
This is done either with mineral oils, which present a fire hazard, or with sulphur hexafluoride, the most potent greenhouse gas.
The latter includes sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
