# How can Iran’s enriched uranium be destroyed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-iran-s-enriched-uranium-be-destroyed/1030478>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-iran-s-enriched-uranium-be-destroyed/1030478 "2026-05-29T17:32:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-iran-s-enriched-uranium-be-destroyed/1030478/21 "2026-05-31T12:16:22Z")

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> [@md-2000](#):
>
> Or they could mine more. They obviously got the original material from somewhere; and I agree, the leftovers must be somewhere, even if in a discard pile.

They have at least two uranium mines in Iran:

> **[Nuclear program of Iran | Secret expansion and weaponization efforts (1990s–2002)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran#Secret_expansion_and_weaponization_efforts_(1990s%E2%80%932002))**
>
> By the early 1990s, Iran's nuclear program accelerated on two parallel tracks: one overtly civilian and one covert. Openly, Iran continued working with Russia and China to build peaceful nuclear infrastructure. Bushehr's reactor project moved forward under Russian engineers (though plagued by delays until it finally came online in 2011), and China helped Iran with nuclear research and uranium mining expertise. Less transparently, Iran was building a secret enrichment capability and exploring Ira...

And that’s the fundamental problem with the notion of Iran “Never” being able to make a bomb. So long as they have access to a native source of uranium, they have what it takes to make a bomb. Maybe they stop trying for a few years or a few decades, but there’s no way to say for sure that they’ll never develop a bomb.

Even the solutions of diluting the enriched uranium just postpones the development of the bomb. We know how to enrich it, and the Iranians have shown they are capable of it if they want it badly enough, and that knowledge can’t be destroyed.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2026, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-iran-s-enriched-uranium-be-destroyed/1030478/22 "2026-05-31T13:04:25Z")

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Great explanations all. One micro-nitpick:

> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Or - you could feed low-enriched Uranium into a giant mass spectrometer, called a Caultron.

That’s a typo. It’s a **[Calutron - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron)**. Which typo doesn’t matter until somebody tries to look it up.

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