Dear Editor:

There should be no fear that Iran would make nuclear weapons, then or now. We’ve heard far too much recently about how eliminating Iran’s nuclear weapons program is a principal reason for the war. 

After years of negotiations, in 2015 Iran, China, France, Russia, Germany, the U.K., U.S., and EU signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that banned every possible way to make nuclear weapons in return for lifting economic sanctions which cripple Iran’s economy and people. 

Unfortunately, in 2018 President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the plan and reimposed sanctions. This ill-advised move led to the mess we see today, including the Iran war. 

Iran was an early signer of the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This gives it the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The International Atomic Energy Agency has inspected Iranian facilities ever since. We built Iran’s first reactor under Ike’s Atoms for Peace Program; it still runs for research, training and radiopharmaceuticals. 

After the end of the Iraq-Iran War in late 1988, Iran began a clandestine program to research fabrication of nuclear weapons. It learned a great deal. During this time the IAEA continued inspecting Iran’s peaceful facilities. In 2003, the U.S. provided information to the IAEA which cited Iran for violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran admitted its work and said it was all ended. 

During the Summer War of June 2025, Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo and other sites. They were not obliterated but were damaged considerably. 

The remaining issue cited daily involves 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, in the form of UF6. If Iran still has an enrichment capability, it could enrich the gas to a weapons grade. The gas must be converted to metal, molded and machined into appropriate shapes, and then configured with other materials before it can be a nuclear explosive.

This takes months, if not a year or more. The notion that Iran was weeks away from obtaining nuclear weapons is sheer poppycock.

Dr. T. Douglas Reilly

Los Alamos, New Mexico

and Sprucewold