by Chance Palm

President Obama has found enough Senate Democrats to pass the nuclear deal with Iran. That has been under negotiations for several years. So what is this “historic” deal the Obama administration has been boasting about? How is the Iran deal supposed to help prevent nuclear Iran? An Iran where they can threaten America and Israel and have legitimate firepower to back them up.
Well, it could take Iran two to three months to make a single nuclear bomb right now. There are two things needed to build a bomb: Uranium and centrifuges. Uranium is a highly radioactive material, and centrifuges are the thing that makes the fissile.
Additionally, there are two isotopes, or types, of uranium needed: U-238 and U-235. The reason you want the U-235 is because it is more fissile, which means it is more ready to absorb a neutron. But when uranium comes out of the mine, both U-238 and U-235 are mixed together. So you have to find a way to get the U-235 by itself.
Centrifuges are the second thing you need to build a bomb. Centrifuges can remove the U-238 from the U-235. In light of this, right now, Iran has 20,000 centrifuges, more than enough to enrich the uranium to the point to make a nuclear bomb. To add on to this, they have enough uranium stockpiled to make 8-10 highly enriched nuclear bombs.
Iran has 20,000 centrifuges, which under the Iran deal have to be reduced to 6,104. This is just enough to build a bomb, though it would take a long time to enrich the uranium to do so. Also, those 6,104 centrifuges are the oldest and least efficient ones, which definitely would come into play. Plus, the enriched uranium stockpile is currently at 10,000 kilograms. Under the deal, Iran would have to be downsized by a dramatic 97-percent, leaving Iran 300 kilograms of enriched uranium. This is still, enough for a bomb, before what level the uranium is allowed to be enriched.
When you pull uranium out of the mine, it is 99.2-percent U-238. As said, U-235 is the stuff needed.
When you want to make a bomb, you have to have the level of enrichment at 90-percent. Whereas in the Iran deal, they are only allowed to keep the level of enrichment at 3.67-percent. This is far below the level of enrichment to construct a nuclear bomb. But what if Iran decides to cheat on the deal? What if they try to construct a secret nuclear building under the radar? Would they be able to? Under the new deal, if the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) suspects any suspicious activity, Iran has agreed to let them have basically free reign of the entire country and investigate any place the IAEA deems suspicious. The IAEA also can have unannounced inspections at all of the uranium mines, conversion plants, enrichment centers, fuel manufacturing sites, nuclear reactors and even how they spend their nuclear fuel.
It is not like the USA can turn away from the deal, Europe have already approved the agreement, and turning away now would be a naive plan. If we vote “no” to the deal, it would do nothing but stop our funding to the IAEA, which is bad because the IAEA is the main thing that would be keeping a nuclear Iran imaginary. A possibly underfunded IAEA could be threatening to the safety of the citizens of America and Israel.