U.S. says Iran Could Have The Bomb in 16 Days

At least, that’s what Bloomberg is
reporting:

Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear
bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

Iran will move to “industrial scale” uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press
quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.

“Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,” Stephen
Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow.

Considering the recent revelation that Iraq’s mobile weapons labs were really just porta-potties… I’m finding it a little challenging to accept those claims at face value.

Of course, with things not going so well for the administration these days, it’s awfully tempting to suspect that another war would be started to divert Americans’ attention.

Snarking aside, I do have to point out that this is a bit of sloppy reporting, I think. I thought the goal to have 54,000 centrifuges running in sync was expected to take quite a bit of time to meet. If that’s true, the 16 day-count doesn’t start until some point in the future.

So, does anyone want to start laying odds as to whether it will be Americans or Israelis that bomb the enrichment plant first?