IAEA finds higher grade uranium traces in Iran
Source: Agencies |
May 26, 2012, Saturday
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THE United Nations atomic agency has found evidence at an underground bunker in Iran that could mean the country has moved closer to producing the uranium threshold needed to arm nuclear missiles, diplomats said yesterday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 percent at Iran's Fordo enrichment plant, the diplomats said.
That is still substantially below the 90-percent level needed to make the fissile core of nuclear arms. But it is above Iran's highest-known enrichment grade, which is close to 20 percent, and which already can be turned into weapons-grade material much more quickly than the Islamic Republic's main stockpile, which can only be used for fuel at around 3.5 percent.
The diplomats said the find did not necessarily mean that Iran was covertly raising its enrichment threshold toward weapons-grade level. They said one likely explanation was that the centrifuges that produce enriched uranium initially over-enriched at the start as staff adjusted their output.
Iran is under several rounds of UN sanctions for its failure to disclose information on its controversial nuclear program. Tehran says it is enriching uranium to provide more nuclear energy for its growing population, while the United States and other nations fear it is doing that to have the ability to make nuclear weapons.
The latest attempts to persuade Iran to compromise and let UN experts view its nuclear program ended inconclusively at a meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday. At the talks, six nations - the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - failed to gain traction in efforts to persuade Iran to freeze its 20 percent enrichment. Envoys said the group will meet again next month in Moscow.
Despite Wednesday's impasse, diplomats saw hope in the promise of another meeting.
"It is clear that we both want to make progress and that there is some common ground," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is formally leading the talks, said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 percent at Iran's Fordo enrichment plant, the diplomats said.
That is still substantially below the 90-percent level needed to make the fissile core of nuclear arms. But it is above Iran's highest-known enrichment grade, which is close to 20 percent, and which already can be turned into weapons-grade material much more quickly than the Islamic Republic's main stockpile, which can only be used for fuel at around 3.5 percent.
The diplomats said the find did not necessarily mean that Iran was covertly raising its enrichment threshold toward weapons-grade level. They said one likely explanation was that the centrifuges that produce enriched uranium initially over-enriched at the start as staff adjusted their output.
Iran is under several rounds of UN sanctions for its failure to disclose information on its controversial nuclear program. Tehran says it is enriching uranium to provide more nuclear energy for its growing population, while the United States and other nations fear it is doing that to have the ability to make nuclear weapons.
The latest attempts to persuade Iran to compromise and let UN experts view its nuclear program ended inconclusively at a meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday. At the talks, six nations - the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - failed to gain traction in efforts to persuade Iran to freeze its 20 percent enrichment. Envoys said the group will meet again next month in Moscow.
Despite Wednesday's impasse, diplomats saw hope in the promise of another meeting.
"It is clear that we both want to make progress and that there is some common ground," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is formally leading the talks, said.
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