Why Iran Can’t Build a Nuke
From Maxinomics.
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It takes just 50 pounds of enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon—an amount small enough to hold in one hand. Yet after more than 50 years, Iran still hasn't built a single nuclear bomb, and the reason comes down to the physics of Uranium-235, a stolen Dutch centrifuge design, and the hidden economic cost of a nuclear Middle East.
Nearly 99.3% of natural uranium on Earth is Uranium-238, which cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction. Hidden inside every thousand atoms are just seven atoms of Uranium-235—the only naturally occurring fissile material on the planet. Separating those nearly identical atoms requires cascades of gas centrifuges spinning at 100,000 RPM for an entire year.
In the 1970s, Pakistani metallurgist A.Q. Khan walked out of a European enrichment facility (URENCO) with the classified blueprints and supplier list for those centrifuges. What began as Pakistan's effort to counter India turned into the world's most dangerous catalog-manufacturing network—shipping centrifuge technology through Dubai to China, North Korea, Libya, and Iran.
In this video, we break down how uranium enrichment actually works, how one engineer became the "Michael Dell of nuclear weapons," and what nuclear wargame simulations show would happen to global oil markets and the Strait of Hormuz the morning after an Iranian nuclear test.
CHAPTERS
00:00 50 Pounds of Uranium
01:07 Who Has Nuclear Weapons
03:11 Uranium Ore & Radiation
05:07 The Game of Atoms (U-238 vs. U-235)
07:40 Why Enriching Uranium Is So Hard
11:22 A.Q. Khan & the URENCO Centrifuge Secrets
18:44 Simulation: If Iran Tests a Bomb
21:36 The Nuclear Black Market
25:12 The $750B Cost of a Nuclear Middle East
28:32 The Nuclear Deterrence Paradox
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Producer: Phil Andrews (the guy in the videos and the comments)
Video Editor: Sebastian Vega, Christie Muldoon, and Greg Jacobs
Motion Graphics: Seth Laupus & Tom Grillo
Director of Production Services: Sam Wolf
Thumbnail: Xingpei Shen
Franchise Content Producer: Tariq Abdellatif
Subscribe for more stories about the systems shaping the economy.
#Uranium #NuclearWeapons #Geopolitics #Economics #Maxinomics
It takes just 50 pounds of enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon—an amount small enough to hold in one hand. Yet after more than 50 years, Iran still hasn't built a single nuclear bomb, and the reason comes down to the physics of Uranium-235, a stolen Dutch centrifuge design, and the hidden economic cost of a nuclear Middle East.
Nearly 99.3% of natural uranium on Earth is Uranium-238, which cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction. Hidden inside every thousand atoms are just seven atoms of Uranium-235—the only naturally occurring fissile material on the planet. Separating those nearly identical atoms requires cascades of gas centrifuges spinning at 100,000 RPM for an entire year.
In the 1970s, Pakistani metallurgist A.Q. Khan walked out of a European enrichment facility (URENCO) with the classified blueprints and supplier list for those centrifuges. What began as Pakistan's effort to counter India turned into the world's most dangerous catalog-manufacturing network—shipping centrifuge technology through Dubai to China, North Korea, Libya, and Iran.
In this video, we break down how uranium enrichment actually works, how one engineer became the "Michael Dell of nuclear weapons," and what nuclear wargame simulations show would happen to global oil markets and the Strait of Hormuz the morning after an Iranian nuclear test.
CHAPTERS
00:00 50 Pounds of Uranium
01:07 Who Has Nuclear Weapons
03:11 Uranium Ore & Radiation
05:07 The Game of Atoms (U-238 vs. U-235)
07:40 Why Enriching Uranium Is So Hard
11:22 A.Q. Khan & the URENCO Centrifuge Secrets
18:44 Simulation: If Iran Tests a Bomb
21:36 The Nuclear Black Market
25:12 The $750B Cost of a Nuclear Middle East
28:32 The Nuclear Deterrence Paradox
Follow Maxinomics on social:
X: https://x.com/maxinomics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxinomicsmb
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maxinomics
Follow Phil Andrews on social:
X: https://x.com/phlndrws
Producer: Phil Andrews (the guy in the videos and the comments)
Video Editor: Sebastian Vega, Christie Muldoon, and Greg Jacobs
Motion Graphics: Seth Laupus & Tom Grillo
Director of Production Services: Sam Wolf
Thumbnail: Xingpei Shen
Franchise Content Producer: Tariq Abdellatif
Subscribe for more stories about the systems shaping the economy.
#Uranium #NuclearWeapons #Geopolitics #Economics #Maxinomics
