[sorcerer-mar]

Except that it is literally not weapons grade.

It turns out there's a big gap between most peaceful purposes and weapons grade, and this was in that gap.

[twothreeone]

Wikipedia points to a source that says it is used for parts of a multi-stage fusion bomb:

> Uranium with enrichments ranging from 40% to 80% U-235 has been used in large amounts in U.S. thermonuclear weapons as a yield-boosting jacketing material for the secondary fusion stage

Source: http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq6.html#nfaq6.2

[sorcerer-mar]

Ah yes, alongside the weapons grade steel and weapons grade copper.

[Retric]

There’s no minimum qualification for steel to be useful in a bomb, there is for uranium which this meets.

[mindslight]

Just to be clear, this isn't "useful [to make] a bomb" - it's useful in a thermonuclear warhead that already has a primary fission stage using the originally-mentioned highly enriched weapons grade uranium, plus a second fusion stage that (as far as I'm aware) Iran is not working to develop.

edit: phrasing. it feels like we're going around in circles nitpicking based on a poor framing and the tendency for innuendo on this topic

[Retric]

You might want to rephrase that as a thermonuclear warhead is obviously a bomb making it “useful in a bomb.”

Also, you can use 60% enriched uranium in the primary stage at the cost of a much larger, less efficient, and dirty device.

[05]

> plus a second fusion stage that (as far as I'm aware) Iran is not working to develop.

All modern nukes are two stage designs, Iran would be insane not to have a fusion stage. It would basically be a Hiroshima style dirty bomb with just 1.5% fissible mass actually fissioned.

[mindslight]

I'm well aware of the difference in yield, but I thought a second fusion stage required modeling and testing well beyond basic development? Like I take a quick look at Wikipedia for what devices (for example) India has, and it seems to say whether they contain a significant fusion stage is an open question.

Hiroshima was pretty terrible as it was. And I thought the capability that everyone focuses on because it gets nations a seat at the nuclear table was just basic fission weapons. But please correct me if I am wrong.

[fallingknife]

When the only purpose of stepping into that gap is to get to weapons grade, it doesn't really work as a gray area.