Daily Alert Archives

IAEA Chief Sounds Alarm over Iran's Nuclear Program

(Financial Times-UK) Andrew England - Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that Iran is enriching uranium at purity levels that "only countries making bombs are reaching." He told the Financial Times, "A country enriching at 60% is a very serious thing - only countries making bombs are reaching this level. 60% is almost weapons grade." A purity level of 60%, announced last month by Tehran, far exceeds the 3.67% purity agreed in the 2015 nuclear agreement. Iran told the IAEA that its increased enrichment of uranium was for medical purposes and research. But Grossi said, "We don't seem to find much need for that at the current level of industrial, medical activity in Iran." Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was now more than 10 times the 300-kg. limit agreed in the accord, he said. "You cannot put the genie back into the bottle - once you know how to do stuff, you know, and the only way to check this is through verification. The Iranian program has grown, become more sophisticated, so the linear return to 2015 is no longer possible. What you can do is keep their activities below the parameters of 2015....It's obvious that with a program with the degree of ambition, sophistication that Iran has, you need a very robust, very strong verification system."
2021-05-26 00:00:00
Full Article