The Israelis, who have delivered veiled threats of a military strike, say they believe that Iran has restarted these "weaponization" efforts, which would mark a final step in building a nuclear weapon.
Nor does the deal in any way address Iran's clandestine weaponization efforts, which it has denied and hidden from the International Atomic Energy Agency with great skill.
"Did this begin as an intelligence-gathering operation and later turn into a data-weaponization effort?" Schiff said.
Not all poisonous substances are considered suitable for weaponization, or use as chemical weapons.
(Uranium enriched between 3.5 and 5percentt is sufficient for energy reactors; research reactors require enrichment closer to 19percentt. Anything above 20percentt is considered sufficient for weaponization, although most proper nuclear weapons use uranium that is enriched to 85percentt or more).
"I think Iraq paralyzed the community, and its first N.I.E. on Iran was disastrous, in my view, because it conflated weaponization with the process of developing a nuclear weapon.
In trying to evaluate the potential perils of Iran's nuclear program, the United States' spy agencies have spent years trying to track its efforts to enrich uranium and develop missile technology, and watching for any move toward weaponization — designing and building a bomb.
"They were mostly researching better methods for weaponization," Dr. Kay said.
Rouhani cannot claim credit for halting the weaponization program because officially it never existed.
Courts around the country have long grappled with the question of canine weaponization.
