How Technology Will Help Enforce the Iran Deal - and Cheat on It

(Defense One) Patrick Tucker - The technology for enforcement of the Iran deal has advanced considerably over the last decade as sensing devices have gotten much smaller and more capable. Yet monitoring Iran's nuclear activity will be incredibly challenging, said David Kay, a former UN chief weapons inspector who ran the Iraq Survey Group. For one thing, the agreement allows Iran scientists to continue some nuclear research. The Iranians will be allowed to keep centrifuges and uranium hexafluoride. The Arak heavy-water reactor will be modified to reduce plutonium enrichment but will still have fuel cores. All this radioactive residue will make it far more difficult to figure out what's new and what's old. "The Iranians have an easy out," said Kay. "They can say, 'That's from the old program.'" "If I had to place a bet on the first violation, it would be in the procurement of potentially nuclear-related - in other words, dual-use equipment. The Iranians have the best clandestine procurement at work that I've ever seen."


2015-07-17 00:00:00

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