Iran and "the bomb": while Iran does appear to have the uranium-enrichment capability needed to make an atomic bomb, that is not the same as having a bomb and being able to deliver it.(IRAN)

Does Iran have the atomic bomb? If so, how many? Are they deliverable? If not, is Iran attempting to build them? How close to completion are they? What are plans for the reactor complex at Bushehr? And what's going on Natanz?

Just like Colonel Sanders and those 11 herbs and spices, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't want us to know. They understand the poker players' credo: it's often not what you're holding, but what others think you're holding that counts.

What can an interested and concerned private citizen do to be as informed as possible? I would suggest understanding something about the mechanics of nuclear weapons, seeking out truthful clues as to what is going on in Iran, and applying logic to reach a conclusion.

Not a Simple Task

One of the wisest things the Creator of the universe did was to make atomic bombs difficult to construct. A description of this complexity is spelled out in magnificent detail in Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb. While most of the heavy lifting was done by the United States during the forties, bomb construction remains anything but simple.

Most of us are aware that chain reactions occur in our nuclear power plants. Simply put, when an atom of uranium fissions, i.e. disintegrates, it expels on average two high-energy neutrons. If one of these is absorbed by exactly one other atom causing it also to disintegrate, the "chain reaction" is termed "critical." In U.S. power reactors, water is used to slow down the neutrons so that they can be effectively captured by the uranium nuclei and this process can proceed. If the coolant water heats up appreciably, the reaction rate slows down because the neutrons are not slowed down as much. Alternatively, if the water cools down, the reaction rate increases. In other words, the system is self-regulated. Lose the coolant water and the reaction automatically stops.

Atomic bombs reverse these principles. First, they must be constructed from "bomb grade" material. Not all uranium atoms are fissile, only those of the [U.sup.235] isotope. In nature only 0.7 percent of uranium is [U.sup.235]. For a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to 90 percent of the isotope. By comparison, uranium fuel for a nuclear power plant is enriched to only 3.5 percent [U.sup.235]. Even with bomb-grade uranium, the atomic explosion will occur only if the sub-critical elements of the bomb are held together for several microseconds against the burgeoning force of the reaction.