Data to expose 'gaps' over Iran's uranium enrichment, says IAEA chief Rafael Grossi
Data to expose 'gaps' over Iran's uranium enrichment, says IAEA chief Rafael Grossi
New Delhi: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi has said that his experts would “not take a very long time” to determine whether Iran had made a deliberate attempt to enrich uranium close to 90 per cent purity or whether the spike had been unintended.
Speaking days after announcing that a new deal with Iran would allow the IAEA to conduct further monitoring activities, Grossi said that his inspectors would be undertaking “painstaking work” to reconstruct Iran’s recent nuclear progress.
“Things were happening constantly without us getting any information and hopefully this will now stop,” The National quoted Grossi as saying to reporters in Vienna.
“My inspectors will not only have to interpret and read this mass of information, but there will also be actual gaps, because what was not recorded or taped, we cannot re-enact,” added Grossi.
Iran disconnected surveillance cameras nine months ago after the UN agency asked for answers regarding unexplained traces of uranium in three areas that were not supposed to be dedicated to nuclear activity.
“There will be a need for us to sit down with our Iranian counterparts, look into records, agree on certain specific measures in order to try to reconstruct this jigsaw puzzle,” said the IAEA chief
Uranium enriched to 84 per cent purity
Nuclear inspectors in Iran last month discovered uranium in Iran that had been enriched to 84 per cent purity, just below the level needed to develop nuclear weapons.
According to a Bloomberg report, International atomic monitors in Iran detected uranium enriched to levels just below that needed for a nuclear weapon and that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was investigating how Iran managed to enrich uranium to 84 per cent, which the report says is the highest level found by inspectors to date.
To create a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to at least 90 per cent.
The IAEA had later said in a tweet that it was aware of the new reports of Iran’s uranium enrichment levels.
“The IAEA is aware of recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran,” the agency wrote on Twitter. “Director General @rafaelmgrossi is discussing with Iran the results of recent Agency verification activities and will inform the IAEA Board of Governors as appropriate.”
Grossi said this was a “serious development” which his inspectors are investigating, but he also noted that “spikes do occur”.
“I have to say it”, he told reporters, “or I would be jumping immediately to conclusions that it was part of a deliberate campaign of enrichment at almost 90 per cent that would have serious consequences.”
Inspectors will be able to determine whether “this is a one shot, or a one-time occurrence, or whether there was a more dedicated activity,” said Grossi.
A joint statement issued on Saturday after Grossi’s return from Tehran said Iran “expressed its readiness to … provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues” — a reference to the uranium traces.
Iran will also allow on a voluntary basis the agency to implement further monitoring activities.
“Modalities will be agreed between the two sides in the course of a technical meeting which will take place soon in Tehran,” the statement said.
With inputs from agencies
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