Vienna, (EFE).- Between mid-February and mid-May, Iran increased its reserves of uranium enriched with a purity of 60% by almost a third, a level close to that necessary to manufacture atomic bombs, warned the IAEA on Wednesday, the UN nuclear agency.
In a report issued in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specifies that the stocks of this material in Iran already reach 114.1 kilos, while uranium enriched up to 20% reaches 470.9 kilos, an 8 % more than in February.
Iran has offered all the information
Likewise, the IAEA recognizes that Iran has offered satisfactory information to clarify some doubts about the origin of fissile particles found in a facility that until now had not been declared nuclear.
A strong rise was also registered in the low enriched uranium reserves, at less than 2%, which went from 1,555 to 2,459 kilos, an increase of 58% in a three-month period.
Limit of 300 kilos of uranium at 3.67%
According to the nuclear agreement between Iran and six great powers, signed in 2015, and de facto suspended for several years, Iran should not have more than 300 kilos of uranium, enriched at most to 3.67%.
On the other hand, Iran informed the inspectors about the origins of some particles of uranium enriched to 83% that it had found in the underground plant of Fordo, in the south of Iran.
After the explanations of the Iranian technicians, the IAEA no longer needs more information in this regard, indicates the report that it sent today to the member countries of the IAEA, whose Board of Governors begins its summer meeting next Monday.
reinstallation of cameras
At the same time, and as agreed with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in a joint statement in March, Iran has allowed the reinstallation of surveillance cameras at two enrichment plants and at a workshop where it produces compounds for uranium processing.
In any case, Grossi points out in the report, doubts remain open and pending about traces found in two other facilities not declared as atomic in Iran.
Without the clarification of these pending issues, within the framework of the safeguards (controls) agreement between Iran and the IAEA, the nuclear agency cannot give guarantees about the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program.
IAEA expert access restriction
In early 2021, Iran significantly curtailed IAEA experts’ access to nuclear facilities in Iran, compromising the inspectors’ ability to verify nuclear activities in the Islamic Republic.
The United States, then under Republican President Donald Trump, left the agreement known as the JCPOA in 2018, while Iran began to default on its obligations a year later, both in terms of uranium production and at access granted to IAEA inspectors.
paralyzed negotiations
The current head of the White House, Democrat Joe Biden, tried to revive the agreement but negotiations with Iran and the other JCPOA powers (China, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom) stalled.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine and the violent repression of the protests in Iran, the talks have been completely suspended, with no notices of power that they will be reactivated for now.