According to diplomats, inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog found uranium enriched to 84% in Iran, which comes very close to being suitable for nuclear weapons.
One of the diplomats told the Portal news agency on Monday, confirming a Bloomberg report. Tehran denied.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has asked Iran for an explanation. The Vienna-based IAEA said it was in talks with leadership in Tehran about the latest findings.
Iran has denied allegations that it intends to build nuclear weapons, always saying its nuclear program is solely for energy production. Since April 2021, the country enriches uranium with a purity of up to 60%. Uranium enriched to about 90 percent is needed to build atomic bombs.
“Possible technical issues”
“So far we have not tried to enrich beyond 60 percent,” Iranian Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Behrus Kamalwandi said on Monday, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The presence of particles with an enrichment greater than 60% does not mean that there is production with an enrichment greater than 60%.
The highly enriched material could have been caused by technical problems in the operation of the centrifuges, a diplomat said. This has happened in the past.
Earlier this month, however, the IAEA criticized Iran for failing to provide information about a “significant” technical change to the centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to 60% at the Fordow plant. According to diplomats, this change will allow Iran to quickly switch to a higher level of enrichment.
business on hold
In the currently suspended international nuclear deal with Iran, a 3.67% limit on uranium enrichment was agreed in Vienna in 2015.
In 2018, however, the US, under then President Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement and called for stricter measures. As a result, Iran gradually withdrew and restricted inspections of its facilities.
Prospects for a revival of the deal are currently bleak amid tensions between Iran and the West over a crackdown on anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Iran’s advances in uranium enrichment add to the pressure.