The major "roadblock" is getting the nuclear materials - getting enough of the correct isotopes and avoiding the "wrong" isotopes.
Counterproliferation is a tireless and thankless profession. The term for technologies that can be used for good or evil are generally called "dual use". One of the common ones is HF. Hydrogen Fluoride can be used in the uranium enrichment process as well as in refining gasoline/petrol. There have been no new oil refineries built in the US in the past half century, yet more gasoline, and higher octane fuel, has been produced (in the US) while closing some refineries. HF is used in a large number of industrial processes, I merely listed 2 which Iran would love to have. Their gasoline refineries are working with 1960s level technology, which burns up most of the crude oil they extract. Supplying them with HF would let them modernize their refineries to the point where they could export far more crude. Or let them make "yellowcake" for refining into highly enriched uranium. I'm aware that no sample of enriched uranium collected by IAEA shows enrichment past what is needed for their domestic nuclear reactors (about 4% enriched for power reactors and 20% for the one that makes radioactive chemotherapy stuff).
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [0] says that signatories of the treaty are forbidden from transferring dual-use materials & technologies to countries that have not signed the treaty. This was why a Bush-era trade deal with India [1] was so controversial. Neither India (nor Pakistan, nor Israel) have signed the NPT.
Counterproliferation is a tireless and thankless profession. The term for technologies that can be used for good or evil are generally called "dual use". One of the common ones is HF. Hydrogen Fluoride can be used in the uranium enrichment process as well as in refining gasoline/petrol. There have been no new oil refineries built in the US in the past half century, yet more gasoline, and higher octane fuel, has been produced (in the US) while closing some refineries. HF is used in a large number of industrial processes, I merely listed 2 which Iran would love to have. Their gasoline refineries are working with 1960s level technology, which burns up most of the crude oil they extract. Supplying them with HF would let them modernize their refineries to the point where they could export far more crude. Or let them make "yellowcake" for refining into highly enriched uranium. I'm aware that no sample of enriched uranium collected by IAEA shows enrichment past what is needed for their domestic nuclear reactors (about 4% enriched for power reactors and 20% for the one that makes radioactive chemotherapy stuff).
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [0] says that signatories of the treaty are forbidden from transferring dual-use materials & technologies to countries that have not signed the treaty. This was why a Bush-era trade deal with India [1] was so controversial. Neither India (nor Pakistan, nor Israel) have signed the NPT.
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferatio...
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_States_Ci...