The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Thursday (February 28th) that it had detected 83.7% enriched uranium particles in Iran, just below the 90% needed to produce an atomic bomb, according to a report. consulted on Tuesday 28 February by Agence France-Presse. They were discovered following the collection of samples in January in the underground factory of Fordo, specified the UN body, which thus confirms information given by diplomatic sources.
The IAEA has requested “clarifications” And “Discussions are still ongoing” to determine the origin of these particles, adds the report which will be presented next week at the Board of Governors of the agency, in Vienna. Iran, which denies wanting to acquire atomic weapons, has for its part reported “involuntary fluctuations” during the enrichment process, in a letter to the agency.
Last week, Tehran claimed “having made no attempt to enrich beyond 60%”. “The presence of particles beyond 60% does not mean that there is an enrichment [d’uranium] more than 60%”reacted the spokesman for the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi.
moribund accord
This information comes as negotiations to revive the agreement reached in 2015 to limit Iran’s atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions have stalled. They had started in April 2021 in Vienna between Tehran and the great powers, but they have been blocked since August 2022 in a context of growing tensions.
The agreement, known by the acronym JCPOA, has been moribund since the withdrawal of the United States, decided in 2018 by President Donald Trump. In the process, the Islamic Republic gradually freed itself from its commitments.
Its total stock of enriched uranium thus amounted to 3,760.8 kilos on February 12 (compared to 3,673.7 kilos in October), more than eighteen times the limit authorized by the JCPOA, according to the IAEA estimates. Above all, Iran is always enriching at high levels, far from the limit set at 3.67%: it thus has 434.7 kilos at 20% (compared to 386.4 kilos previously) and 87.5 kilos at 60 % (compared to 62.3 kilos).