This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Bachelors.

Earlier in August, the Wall Street Journal headline, Iran slows build-up of uranium needed

for weapons, subhead, Lawrence Norman reporting. Steps to ease tensions as Iran releases

four U.S. citizens from prison. I welcome Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for the

defensive democracies to help me understand what this headline means technically because

this is about weapons-grade uranium almost, and the building of a bomb almost, and how

many bombs almost in the negotiation between the United States and the Islamic Republic

of Iran involving, of course, the watchful eyes of our European partners and the United

Nations. Andrea, a very good evening, too. The citizens released from Iran prisons were

not part of the conversation about weapons-grade uranium if I understand correctly. So, even

though the headline seems to put them all together, we're putting the prisoners over here.

They're now released. We're concentrating on weapons-grade uranium, some technical

details. 114.1 kilograms of 60 percent weapons of uranium and rich uranium is now in the

possession of the Islamic Republic. What does that mean, Andrea? Good evening to you.

Good evening to you, John. So what happened in the spring is the Biden administration reached

some kind of informal understanding with Iran that they could exchange prisoners, but

first Iran had to take some steps in the right direction on its nuclear program. So in

particular, they asked for Iran to reduce some of their 60 percent enriched uranium stocks.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran may have reduced part of this stockpile that

it had made since May, which is when the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IEA, had

last reported this figure. It's unclear thus far whether the current total of the stockpile falls

underneath the May quantity. That was 114 kilograms at the time, or enough for almost three nuclear

...