1676856440 Near weapons grade enriched uranium detected in Iran The Wall Street

Near-weapons-grade enriched uranium detected in Iran

Inspectors at the United Nations nuclear agency have discovered uranium being near weapons-grade enriched in Iran in recent weeks, three senior diplomats said on Sunday, a finding that will deepen concerns about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran has been producing highly enriched weapons-grade material with a purity of 60% since early 2021, but the material found was 84% ​​pure, according to the diplomats. Weapons grade enriched uranium is generally considered to be about 90% enriched uranium.

The diplomats said they have been informed that Iran does not appear to be stockpiling the 84 percent material.

Bloomberg News previously reported the findings from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA said late Sunday it was aware of media reports of the findings and was “discussing with Iran the findings of the agency’s recent work” to review Iran’s nuclear activities.

It has not yet issued a report on the findings to member states, which it usually does when Iran makes progress on its nuclear activities. The agency said in its statement that it would inform member states if necessary.

Iran has ramped up its nuclear work since 2019, a year after the Trump administration pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal. President Biden’s efforts to revive the deal that lifted most international sanctions against Tehran in exchange for strict but temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear work have so far failed.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran was only supposed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% for 15 years.

Should Iran intentionally start producing weapons-grade material, it could trigger a major crisis over Iran’s nuclear activities. European diplomats have said this would be the trigger for them to officially end the 2015 nuclear deal. Western officials also say it could lead Israel to pursue a military attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli officials have not made their plans public.

“We are in close contact with our partners following reports that Iran may have enriched uranium to levels in excess of 80%,” said a senior diplomat from one of the three European countries that negotiated the nuclear deal. “If confirmed, it would be an unprecedented and extremely serious development.”

Iranian officials say they are still keen on reviving the deal but have imposed conditions that the US and its European partners have called unacceptable.

Near weapons grade enriched uranium detected in Iran The Wall Street

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi briefed the public in Vienna last year after his return from Tehran.

Photo: Lisa Leutner/Associated Press

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Iran now has a stockpile of enriched uranium that would allow it to fire multiple nuclear weapons if the material were converted into weapons-grade uranium. Tehran has also presented ambitious plans to expand its nuclear fuel production in the absence of a nuclear deal.

Sunday’s news comes as Western concerns mount over Iran’s possible nuclear weapons ambitions. Tehran says its nuclear work is purely peaceful.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his British, French and German counterparts at the Munich Security Conference to discuss Tehran’s “nuclear escalation,” the State Department said.

People familiar with the talks said the discussions were prompted in part by concerns whether Iran was considering producing weapons-grade material.

The news comes after the IAEA reported earlier in February that Iran had been conducting nuclear work at its heavily fortified underground Fordo enrichment facility that was not reported to it. At the time, two Western diplomats said they believed the work consisted of accelerating production of highly enriched uranium and experimenting with ways to produce weapons-grade material.

Iran informed the IAEA that it had no intention of carrying out the work.

Iran has a history of falling below or exceeding the target purity of enriched uranium, but only by a few percentage points. The agency has not recently reported a case in which Iran accidentally produced material far more enriched than intended.

On Sunday, Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told state news agency IRNA that “the presence of uranium particles above 60% in the enrichment process does not mean enrichment above 60%.”

1676856434 450 Near weapons grade enriched uranium detected in Iran The Wall Street

Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is monitored by satellite.

Photo: -/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected]

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