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Comment by dardeaup | Hacker News Reader

Why would any country enrich uranium to 60% or more?

Radiopharmaceuticals are enriched to 60%. Iran is one of the top producers in the world. Iran has a natural abundance of radioactive isotopes- the background radiation of spots in Iran is extremely high: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar,_Iran

https://www.energy.gov/science/ip/articles/harnessing-power-...

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/04/08/723301/Iran-among-t...

Iran imports radiopharmaceuticals from Canada and that import was never restricted. Besides, radiopharmaceuticals are done with cyclotrons and do not require 60% HEU.

There are dozens of elements and isotopes used in radiopharmacology. Highly enriched uranium is absolutely one of them -hence why energy.gov is posting about it- and it's significantly cheaper than using a particle accelerator to create radioactive isotopes.

HEU is not directly used in radiopharmacology for obvious reasons, the energy.gov posting is about a non-fissile isotope of Uranium and not HEU.

It's much cheaper to use a cyclotron than get massively sanctioned - unless you what you really want is a weapon.

To negotiate back to a prior deal that was actually pretty great for all parties involved.

Cato institute has argued it was for leverage in talks with the US. Iranians were quite clear about this, setting timelines for enrichment targets to amp up the pressure after the us withdrew from JCPOA.

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