IAEA Report Shows Iran Has Enough Uranium For A Nuclear Bomb

Illustration of Iran's Arak Nuclear reactor. (Wikimedia Commons/Nanking2012)

JAKARTA - Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent, close to weapons grade, has grown to be sufficient, if further enriched, for a nuclear bomb, a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

Crossing that threshold is a milestone in the unraveling of the 2015 Nuclear Deal between Iran and world powers, which caps the purity Iran is allowed to enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, well below the 20 percent reached before the deal and around 90 percent which is weapons grade. .

Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 Nuclear Deal under then President Donald Trump, followed by the reimposition of sanctions on Tehran that had been lifted under the deal, prompted Tehran to violate the deal's nuclear restrictions.

"Iran can now produce 25 kg (uranium) at 90 percent if they want to," a senior diplomat said in response to a Wednesday International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report seen by Reuters, when asked if Iran had enough enriched material up to 60 percent. percent for one bomb, as quoted September 8.

The report said Iran's stockpiles of uranium enriched up to 60 percent and in the form of uranium hexafluoride, a centrifugal enriching gas, were estimated at 55.6 kg, an increase of 12.5 kg from the previous quarterly report.

Iran would need roughly three to four weeks to produce enough material to make a bomb if it wanted to, the diplomat said, adding that the IAEA would need two to three days to detect movement in that direction. Iran denies intending to do so.

It is known that indirect talks between Iran and the United States have only made stagnating progress to restore the 2015 Nuclear Deal, which would have taken many of the advanced centrifuges Iran is now using offline, as the deal only allowed it to enrich it with first-generation IR-1 centrifuges.

The revived deal will also cut stockpiles of enriched uranium to varying degrees, currently around four tonnes, back to the deal limit of 202.8 kg.

US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe that Iran has a secret and coordinated nuclear weapons program that was discontinued in 2003.

However, Iran insists it has never had such a program. Most sites are thought to be from around 2003 or earlier.