The General sat down and the Imam thanked him for the political introduction, refraining from saying political indoctrination. The Supreme Leader motioned for Dr. Fathi to continue his presentation.
Fathi's second slide showed a schematic of a simple gun-type atomic bomb "This is a schematic of "Little Boy", the atomic bomb that was used in war by the Americans to destroy Hiroshima. It was constructed with enriched uranium that the Americans manufactured. According to Wikipedia it was very heavy weighing 4,400 kg, used a lot of fissile material, 64 kg of uranium-235 with an average enrichment of about 80 %, and had a low efficiency as less than one kilogram underwent nuclear fission. On the next slide you can see a schematic of "Fat Man" that was used to destroy Nagasaki. It weighed slightly more than "Little Boy" and was fueled by 6.4 kg of plutonium. The main difference as you can see is that it had a more sophisticated implosion-type design that therefore required less fissile material. The next few slides show the more advanced designs that the Pakistanis, through AQ Khan's network, and North Koreans have given us. Our scientists have improved these designs with the help of schematics sold by a former Soviet-Union renegade scientist. As we have a very limited stock of fissile materials we have devised an innovative design in which plutonium is combined with enriched uranium. This is somewhat like the MOX fuel in nuclear power plants where a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide provides the energy for producing electricity. I must emphasize that this is an original approach to manufacturing atomic bombs, something the Iranian people should be proud of."
General Aslawi stood up again and interrupted Fathi's presentation. "I must emphasize that these designs have only been calculated numerically with a computer simulation program and to the best of our knowledge have never been actually tested. Dr. Fathi is taking a large risk relying on this unverified design. I demand that his work be examined by a knowledgeable and objective nuclear expert as he himself cannot be completely relied upon".
Fathi was deeply offended by this interruption. His face turned red and he stuttered "General, please allow me to continue. Before being interrupted, I was just about to say that we have consulted with a leading Chinese bomb designer and he said he would look into this design in depth". The general became silent and felt humiliated that his thunder was stolen.
The Senior Assistant saw that the debate had become personal and feared that the general would make sure to avenge this offense by making Fathi "disappear" as he had done to some of his real or perceived enemies. So he raised his voice and said "Quit quibbling. We are here to update the Supreme Leader and to gain his approval for continuing with our plan. We all know that both of you are patriots so please work together. Dr. Fathi, continue your presentation."
The shaken Fathi moved on to the next slide "Even our new design is too large and too heavy to fit into a long-range missile. We can adapt it to dimensions that would fit a bomb carried by an aircraft but we have no suitable planes that can penetrate the anti-aircraft defenses of the Israelis. Probably not even the Iraqi defenses if for some reason we decide to use Baghdad for target practice or for a full scale demonstration. That is why we are also working on the development of a "dirty bomb", shown in the next slide. As you can see this is much simpler to design, construct and test. We need some radioactive materials that are readily available in medical devices used for radio-therapy and even in common commercial products like smoke detectors. The RDD should preferably contain a mixture of short-lived highly radioactive gamma-emitting nuclides with long-lived gamma and alpha-emitting materials to contaminate the area for a long time and make decontamination extremely costly. These materials can easily be dispersed over a large area by conventional explosives, either in open areas or in built-up cities."
Once again General Aslawi interrupted, this time without bothering to get up. "Dr. Fathi has failed to mention that these "dirty bombs" are nowhere close to being weapons of mass destruction as a nuclear bomb is. At most they have a psychological effect as weapons of mass disruption with some economic damage but no real mass casualties. Any kid who could take apart a medical radiation source and get a few hundred grams of explosives can make such a bomb. I feel that Dr. Fathi has been wasting our time and money working on this."
The Supreme Leader shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The Senior Assistant sensed that and felt that Fathi was about to have a massive coronary so he quickly intervened "General Aslawi, I am asking you for the last time to stop this counterproductive behavior. Dr. Fathi, please conclude your presentation."
Fathi was encouraged by the support he just got and continued "This is my last slide. If we can get enough fissile material we can construct what is called an improvised nuclear device or IND that can be transported in a large box or the trunk of a car. We can combine this with a "dirty bomb" although a nuclear explosion, even a small inefficient one, would disperse enough radioactive materials to irradiate and contaminate everything within a radius of a few hundred meters or more. This IND can also be placed inside the cargo hold of any commercial aircraft or very easily in a standard shipping container and be disguised as an innocent piece of luggage or equipment. If I can get enough freshly enriched uranium I can make sure that commonly deployed radiation detectors would not be able to pick it up from a distance. Given some more time and logistical support I can make sure that our Islamic Republic is feared throughout the world and restore the greatness our nation had once enjoyed among the countries of the civilized world".
The Senior Assistant said "Thank you Dr. Fathi for your presentation and for your good work. I wish to remind everyone that this plan is a major component of our insurance policy because once the so called "nuclear deal" between our country and the six members of the other side is signed the inspectors of the IAEA will be everywhere. They will conduct intrusive inspections of all our declared nuclear sites, they will continue to prevent us from acquiring materials that may serve for production of nuclear weapons and they will impose restrictions on our scientists. You all know that this laboratory is located at the basement of Evin Prison in order to circumvent inspections. We assume that no sane person would believe that we are about to construct a nuclear bomb in the heart of our largest city. We have reckoned that it is easier to hide this laboratory in a busy place where all kinds of people enter, and some exit, during all hours of the day and where truckloads of supplies and equipment are regularly dropped off. It was Dr. Fathi's suggestion to name this Basement S — where S stands for the Great Satan and Little Satan that are our dreaded enemies. We are not sure how much longer we can draw out the signing of the agreement but we must ensure that Dr. Fathi's team is given the resources to complete the job."