"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.
It is mystifying that mention of a directive involving the free access and security of space assets is transformed into a ruthless drive for space weaponization ("Weapons in Space," editorial, May 24).
At the Oxford English Dictionary, Jesse Sheidlower, the principal editor of the North American editorial unit, said weaponization and weaponized were already in the dictionary and they would add weaponize as a verb.
Weaponization is only a part of the process, but there are other parts as well, including enrichment and the development of delivery systems.
Not all poisonous substances are considered suitable for weaponization, or use as chemical weapons.
"Iran continues to maintain that these alleged weaponization studies related to conventional weapons only are fabricated," Dr. ElBaradei said in a speech to the agency's 35-country policy-making body.
(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).
The U.S. wanted Iran to take the very modest step of exporting its nuclear fuel so it can be processed in Russia, rather than Iran, as a safeguard against weaponization of Iran's nuclear program.
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.
"They were mostly researching better methods for weaponization," Dr. Kay said.
