![]() ![]() “But the other two legs of the stool, meaning enrichment programs, they’ve obviously advanced very far.”īurns also expressed concern about the growing partnership between Russia and Iran. “To the best of our knowledge, we don’t believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponisation program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003,” Burns said. On Sunday, CIA director William Burns told CBS News that Iran s nuclear enrichment program is more advanced than previously known and “if they chose to cross that line,” Tehran would only need a “matter of weeks” to enrich uranium capable of powering a nuclear weapon. US president Joe Biden has attempted to revive the agreement - Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - but talks have failed so far. The 2015 deal was designed to give Iran much-needed sanctions relief in return for curbs on its atomic programme. Under the 2015 agreement, Iran was only supposed to enrich uranium up to 3.67 per cent for 15 years. Iran has greatly expanded its nuclear work since 2019, a year after the Trump administration pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear accord. “Now it would take about 12 days,” he said. In fact, on Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said that “Iran’s nuclear progress since” the Trump administration withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal “has been remarkable,” adding that in 2018, when the US withdrew, “it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one fissile, one bomb’s worth of fissile material.” What is important is the amount of material that is stored after production.”Įslami further said that the IAEA inspectors “observed the material that had come out of the process and found that its purity was not more than 60 per cent”.Įven as Iran maintains that it only wants to master nuclear technology for civil uses, there are growing concerns that the country is in fact building up its nuclear weapons program. He was quoted as telling Tasnim News agency, “Regarding the 84 per cent particle, which was a sample from the side of a tap in the process, the particle cannot be even seen with a microscope. The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Mohammad Eslami played down the significance of the discovery and said he expected it to be “put to rest” soon. However, in practice it takes more than 55 kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent to make one bomb because some material is wasted during enrichment. The total stockpile of uranium enriched to that and lower levels is estimated at 3,760.8 kg, the report said.Īccording to IAEA terminology, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity is a “significant quantity”, defined as “the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded”. ![]() The report also said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent, which is being produced at two sites, had grown by 25.2 kg to 87.5 kg since the last quarterly report. The IAEA subsequently informed Iran that these findings were “inconsistent with the level of enrichment at the Fordow plant as declared by Iran and requested Iran to clarify the origins of these particles,” added the report. ![]() The report says that in January, the IAEA took environmental samples at the Fordow plant, which showed the presence of high enriched uranium particles up to 83.7 per cent purity. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, has found uranium particles enriched to 83.7 per cent purity - very close to weapons grade - at Iran’s underground Fordow site. Weapons-grade uranium is 90 per cent enriched or more. Highly enriched uranium has a purity of 20 per cent or more and is used in research reactors. Low-enriched uranium, which typically has a 3-5 per cent concentration of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. The remaining 99.3 per cent is mostly the U-238 isotope which does not contribute directly to the fission process (though it does so indirectly by the formation of fissile isotopes of plutonium). Natural uranium contains 0.7 per cent of the U-235 isotope. ![]() U-235 is the main fissile isotope of uranium. The production of energy in nuclear reactors is from the ‘fission’ or splitting of the U-235 atoms, a process which releases energy in the form of heat. Uranium found in nature consists largely of two isotopes, U-235 and U-238. Uranium is a naturally-occurring element that can have nuclear-related uses once it has been refined, or enriched. ![]()
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