Subject: Re: US Intel: Iran Only Set Back Months
The designs of centrifuges used for nuclear enrichment around the world closely guarded secrets.
But it is well known designing to withstand a shock like an earthquake or nearby bomb is difficult.
Both Iran and North Korea supposedly obtained centrifuge designs and centrifuges from Pakistan's Khan Research Laboratory
In September 1981, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale shook Islamabad and the surrounding area. Some four thousand centrifuges operating in the Khan Research Laboratory had crashed. The earthquake had unbalanced the rotors, operating in a vacuum at some 64,000 revolutions per minute (RPMs); they hit their casings and turned to powder, making sounds like hand grenades exploding.
But I think it is prudent to wait a few weeks and let the information consensus override the politically biased initial noise. Remember Pakistan recovered from their earthquake and is believed to have ~170 fission warheads.