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BERLIN: On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog announced that its director-general would accept an invitation from the Iranian government to attend high-level meetings in Tehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, made the announcement a few days after reporting that uranium particles with an enrichment level of up to 83.7% had been discovered at Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, will hold a press conference on Saturday after arriving in Vienna from Iran, the IAEA tweeted.
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program between the West and Iran are likely to increase as a result of the IAEA’s confidential quarterly report, which was distributed to member states on Tuesday.
According to the IAEA report, inspectors found that two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges at Iran’s Fordo facility had been set up “substantially different” than what had been previously declared on January 21. The following day, the IAEA collected samples, which revealed particles with up to 83.7% purity, according to the report.
The IAEA report only mentioned “particles,” indicating that Iran isn’t creating a stockpile of uranium that is more than 60% enriched, which is the level at which it has been enriching for a while.
The agency did add, though, that following the discovery, it would “further increase the frequency and intensity of agency verification activities” at Fordo.
Iran has been producing uranium that has been purified to a level of 60% enrichment, for which nonproliferation experts have already stated that Tehran has no civilian use.
In other words, if Iran so chooses, any stockpile of that material could be quickly used to produce an atomic bomb. Uranium is almost at weapons-grade levels of 90% at this point.
The 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran limited Tehran’s uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and its level of enrichment to 3.67%, which is sufficient to power a nuclear power plant. In 2018, the United States unilaterally left the agreement.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons and insists that its program is non-militaristic.
The last time Grossi traveled to Iran was in March 2022.
