Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found up to 83.7% enriched uranium particles at the underground nuclear facility in Iran’s Fordo, according to a report consulted by the Associated Press (AP) agency on Tuesday.
The confidential quarterly report from the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency, the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency, handed over to member states could fuel tensions between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program as 84% uranium is close to 90 levels. % is for nuclear weapons, which means any reserve of this material could be quickly used to make a nuclear bomb.
The IAEA document consulted by the AP suggests that Iran is not building up enriched uranium reserves above 60%, the level it has been enriching for some time.
A spokesman for Iran’s civil nuclear program, Behrouz Kamalvandi, last week sought to classify any detection of uranium particles enriched to that level as a temporary side effect of the pursuit of a 60% purity end product.
However, experts say such a wide variation in purity, even at the atomic level, seemed suspicious to inspectors.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal limited Tehran’s uranium enrichment to 3.67%, enough to fuel a nuclear power plant.
The unilateral US withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 sparked a series of escalating tensions with Tehran over its program.
Iran produces enriched uranium of up to 60% purity, a level for which nonproliferation experts say Tehran has no civilian use.
While IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has warned that Iran now has enough uranium to produce “several” nuclear bombs, it would likely take months to build and scale down a weapon to fit a missile.
Grossi is expected in Iran in the “coming days” to “create the foundations for greater cooperation and a clearer horizon between Iran and the IAEA,” a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an entity that controls Iran, announced on Tuesday. Argentine diplomat.
The US intelligence community maintained its position until last weekend that Iran is not trying to build a nuclear bomb.
However, this position may not be enough to satisfy Israel, Iran’s regional enemy.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing coalition government in Israel’s history, has already threatened military action against Tehran.
Germany’s foreign minister also stressed on Tuesday that both Germans and Israelis are concerned about allegations that Iran has 84% enriched uranium.
In Berlin, the head of Israeli diplomacy, Eli Cohen, pointed to two options for dealing with Iran, such as using the so-called “snapback” mechanism in the Security Council resolution establishing the 2015 nuclear deal, to re-impose UN sanctions. and “also have a credible military option on the table”.
Since the United States’ unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from the 2015 agreement between the major powers and Iran to limit nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, the Islamic Republic, which has always denied planning to drop a nuclear bomb to acquire or produce, bomb, has phased out the obligations required by the pact.
Negotiations to resume the deal, which started again in April 2021, have stalled due to rising tensions between Iran and the major Western powers.
Source: DN
