The UN nuclear watchdog has re-installed only some monitoring equipment originally put in place under the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers that Iran then ordered removed last year, the watchdog said in two reports yesterday seen by Reuters.
The re-installed equipment is a fraction of what the International Atomic Energy Agency had planned to set up to improve its surveillance of Iran’s nuclear activities, as the IAEA said it had agreed with Iran in March in a bid to defuse a standoff between both sides over Iran’s co-operation.
The limited progress described in the reports did, however, include the installation of real-time enrichment monitoring equipment on the only lines of centrifuges enriching uranium to up to 60 per cent purity, near weapons grade, at Natanz and Fordow, a senior diplomat said.
At the same time, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60pc has continued to grow and is now roughly enough for two nuclear bombs, one of the two confidential quarterly reports to member states showed.
One IAEA report said Iran now had 114.1kg of uranium enriched to up to 60pc and in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which can easily be enriched further – an increase of 26.6kg from the previous quarter.
About 42kg of uranium enriched to 60pc is what the IAEA calls a ‘significant quantity’, defined as “the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded”.
A senior diplomat has cautioned, however, that in practice it would take more than 55kg of uranium enriched to 60pc to make one bomb because some material is wasted during enrichment. In addition, Iran’s total stockpile of enriched uranium continues to grow and is now 23 times the 202.8-kg limit imposed by a 2015 deal, at 4.7 tonnes, the report said.
The IAEA also reported that after years of investigation and lack of progress with Iran on explaining uranium particles found at three sites, Iran had given a satisfactory answer on one of them to explain the presence of uranium particles there.
While the particles could be explained by the presence of a Soviet-operated mine and lab there and the IAEA had no further questions, a senior diplomat said, the IAEA’s assessment remained that Iran carried out explosives testing there decades ago that was relevant to nuclear weapons.