🚨Iran Has A Forgotten RADIOACTIVE STOCKPILE Worth 200 Nuclear Bombs, Are We Too Late to Stop It?

**Ben Hilton** (0:00)
So far, the US negotiating team has been focused like a laser on the 11 bombs worth of uranium buried by American munitions in Iran, and for good reason. But did you know Iran also has access to another site with enough plutonium to make 200 bombs, and that site is largely being overlooked? Obama's nuclear deal left a huge back door wide open for Iran, and as this current war continues to develop, the threat it poses is increasingly becoming harder to ignore.
Iran has a nuclear power plant located in Bashir, which has been producing waste plutonium for over 15 years. There's a lot of it, and non-proliferation experts are sounding the alarm. The plant was originally constructed with the help of German engineers back in the mid 1970s, and was 80 percent complete when the Ayatollahs took over Iran, bringing construction to a halt. The site was then bombed during the Iran-Iraq War in the 80s, but a few years later, Iran and Russia reached a deal to continue construction. The plant was completed in 2010 and came online in 2011 But there was one rather large detail that never actually got sorted out, and it's raising some major red flags. Naturally, there was international opposition to Russia building a nuclear plant for Iran. And ultimately, the only reason that the West actually ended up green lighting this project was because Russia agreed to not only supply the nuclear fuel for the plant, but also to take the spent fuel rods back to Russia. And this is exactly where the problem begins. To date, by all credible sources, Russia has not removed any significant quantity of the spent nuclear fuel rods.
The backlog of nuclear material has grown to a staggering 210 tons. According to work done by Henry Sikolsky, who is a former senior raking official in the US Department of Defense and currently executive director of the Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center, these spent fuel rods can indeed be turned into nuclear bombs. Or in this case, because there are 210 tons of it, enough material to make over 200 nuclear bombs. And Sikolsky isn't alone in thinking nuclear waste like this could be turned into weapons. In 1962, the US used reactor-grade plutonium to build and successfully detonate a nuclear bomb. And in 1974, India allegedly did the same. But while this isn't exactly the same material that Iran has, it is similar enough to cause major concern. On a good note, though, the process wouldn't be simple or easy.
The spent-fuel rods are incredibly radioactive and thereby difficult to transport safely. Also, extracting the necessary plutonium from the rods is quite complex. But according to Sikolsky's research, the process would be about as complex as turning the buried uranium the US has been guarding in Isfahan into a weapon, meaning this is a viable alternative for Iran. This risk isn't just theoretical, especially since thanks to Obama's horrible deal he signed with Iran back in 2015, there has been very little supervision of the Bashir nuclear plant. The International Atomic Agency was originally supposed to have access to the site under the Obama Agreement, but oddly enough, real-time video or in-person access for the specific location was denied. This is especially odd because at a similar time in Iran, according to the agreement, digital cameras were installed that took pictures every five minutes and transferred them via satellite links to remote locations where they could be inspected by monitoring agents. But at Bashir, pictures from the installed cameras could only be accessed in person when an inspector visited something that could only be done every 90 days. This was a major red flag for the atomic agency and they specifically asked Obama to pressure the Iranians to allow more monitoring. But the Iranians said no and Obama didn't press it. Unfortunately, American and Israeli options to deal with this nuclear threat seemed to be limited. If the spent fuel storage facilities were simply bombed, the destruction could cause the release of enormous amounts of radiation. Setting aside the massive environmental damage this would cause, it is also especially concerning because the plant is surrounded by some 250,000 local residents. Extracting the spent nuclear fuel rods from Iran would also be very difficult because the rods themselves weigh some 210 tons and that's not including the heavy shielding equipment that would be required to safely transport the highly radioactive material. To zoom out a little bit, there's a major elephant in the room that needs to be addressed and that is, does Iran acquiring nuclear weapons actually matter in the long run? If Iran secretly acquired a nuclear warhead and mounted it on a missile, I don't think it would significantly shift the balance of power in the Middle East. Even if, god forbid, Iran managed to slip a warhead through Israel's air defense systems, Israel would immediately counter with dozens of much more sophisticated, higher-powered nuclear missiles turning Iran into a pile of dust. Israel would be damaged, but Iran would cease to exist. But all of this changes if Iran acquires nuclear weapons in large numbers. And to get those large numbers, Iran only has to survive this current war with Israel and the United States, survive, then secretly build. And in this effort to survive, Iran is currently wielding a weapon that is proving to be just as effective as a nuclear bomb. The US and Israel can bomb Iranian military infrastructure all day long, but when Iran introduces a threat to the Strait of Hormuz, like they have been doing, shipping companies halt their transports. Suddenly the US and all of their allies come to the table to talk. As maddening as it is, when gas prices soar to a national average of $4 or $5 a gallon in the United States, immediate pressure is put on the president to negotiate with the enemy like little else. And Trump is feeling that pressure, especially with midterms quickly approaching. We need to remember that this isn't Iran's first rodeo. The Islamic Republic started its reign of terror by kidnapping 66 Americans and holding 52 of them for over a year. Iran knows how to drag out negotiations and how to use time to its advantage. Right now, if Iran were to actually build a nuclear warhead, it would actually increase American support of Trump's war in Iran, and it would give Trump the public backing he needs to complete this war with a clear victory. But if Iran drags its feet and keeps the strait closed, then gas prices suddenly become the driving factor. If you can't afford to get your kids to school in the morning or keep food on the table, suddenly little else seems relevant. This is why Iran creating one or two nuclear bombs right now may not be in their best interest. Iran already has and is using a very powerful weapon against the United States, a weapon that is driving negotiations much more successfully than possessing a nuclear weapon ever would. And if Iran can use their leverage to create a deal with the United States that leaves the uranium from Isfahan, the plutonium from Bashir in their possession, they would be set up to possibly create hundreds of nuclear bombs. And remember that Iran isn't a secular state. They believe the power they're building can and will be used to usher in apocalyptic Islamic dominance over the entire globe. And combining that mindset with hundreds of nuclear weapons is, frankly, terrifying. The mess that we're in right now with Iran is extremely complex and unlikely to end with a clear victory, unfortunately. I believe that we as Christians should continue to pray for our leaders for a lot of wisdom with this whole thing, especially for President Trump. We must also be praying for Israel, the peace of Jerusalem. And let's also not forget to pray for Iran. It's estimated that only 20% of the population of Iran actually supports the IRGC.