Chris, it’s the one percent doctrine all over again, ain’t it.

As for this article; weaponizing isn’t particularly difficult or expensive?  Tell that to North Korea, who with posession of plutonium for decades, nuclear weapon plans courtesy of Dr. A.Q. Khan, an economy devoted almost entirely to its military it still couldn’t produce a definitive experimental nuclear explosion.

Poppycock.  This article is nothing much more than whinging over blueballs.

Iran, signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, fully compliant subject of inspections by the Internation Atomic Energy Association and (save for the possibly inflammatory rhetoric of a powerless figurehead) demonstrated rational state actor, gets to proceed with its nuclear program unimpeded now that it is found it has been telling the truth for four years?  Call me crazy but I can think of much, much greater threats to world peace.

KS - Iran signed and doesn’t have nukes; Israel, India and Pakistan didn’t sign and they all have nukes.

JS - The Norks had Pu for a decade, not plural. For all their work and money spent, while the population starves, only could produce a fizzle. Tell the US, USSR and other original nuclear countries that a a-bomb program isn’t cheap.
http://www.brookings.edu/projects/archive/nucweapons/manhattan.aspx

Site/Project Then-year Dollars Constant 1996 Dollars OAK RIDGE (Total) $1,188,352,000 $13,565,662,000 —K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant $512,166,000 $5,846,644,000 —Y-12 Electromagnetic Plant $477,631,000 $5,452,409,000 —Clinton Engineer Works, HQ and central utilities $155,951,000 $1,780,263,000 —Clinton Laboratories $26,932,000 $307,443,000 —S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant $15,672,000 $178,904,000 HANFORD ENGINEER WORKS $390,124,000 $4,453,470,000 SPECIAL OPERATING MATERIALS $103,369,000 $1,180,011,000 LOS ALAMOS PROJECT $74,055,000 $845,377,000 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT $69,681,000 $795,445,000 GOVERNMENT OVERHEAD $37,255,000 $425,285,000 HEAVY WATER PLANTS1 $26,768,000 $305,571,000 Grand Total $1,889,604,000 $21,570,821,000

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/intro.htm

Since their introduction in 1945, nuclear explosives have been the most feared of the weapons of mass destruction, in part because of their ability to cause enormous instantaneous devastation and of the persistent effects of the radiation they emit, unseen and undetectable by unaided human senses. The Manhattan Project cost the United States $2 billion in 1945 spending power and required the combined efforts of a continent-spanning industrial enterprise and a pool of scientists, many of whom had already been awarded the Nobel Prize and many more who would go on to become Nobel Laureates. This array of talent was needed in 1942 if there were to be any hope of completing a weapon during the Second World War. Because nuclear fission was discovered in Germany, which remained the home of many brilliant scientists, the United States perceived itself to be in a race to build an atomic bomb.
(snip)
At an intermediate level, the Republic of South Africa constructed six quite simple nuclear devices for a total project cost of less than $1 billion (1980’s purchasing power) using no more than 400 people and indigenous technology.

Site/Project Then-year Dollars Constant 1996 Dollars OAK RIDGE (Total) $1,188,352,000 $13,565,662,000 —K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant $512,166,000 $5,846,644,000 —Y-12 Electromagnetic Plant $477,631,000 $5,452,409,000 —Clinton Engineer Works, HQ and central utilities $155,951,000 $1,780,263,000 —Clinton Laboratories $26,932,000 $307,443,000 —S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant $15,672,000 $178,904,000 HANFORD ENGINEER WORKS $390,124,000 $4,453,470,000 SPECIAL OPERATING MATERIALS $103,369,000 $1,180,011,000 LOS ALAMOS PROJECT $74,055,000 $845,377,000 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT $69,681,000 $795,445,000 GOVERNMENT OVERHEAD $37,255,000 $425,285,000 HEAVY WATER PLANTS1 $26,768,000 $305,571,000 Grand Total $1,889,604,000 $21,570,821,000