IranIAEA: Iran's stockpile of 20% enriched uranium shrunk under interim nuclear agreement
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports in its quarterly inspections assessment that the quantity of 20 percent enriched uranium in Iran’s hands has been reduced since last November, when the world’s six powers (P5+1) and Iran have reached an interim agreement on Iran’s nuclear activities. Iran now has 354 pounds of the material — or about one-fifth less than what it had in November. With the right type of centrifuges, it is quicker to enrich uranium from 20 percent to weapon-grade 90 percent than it is to enrich uranium from 1 or 2 percent to 20 percent, so that the smaller the amount of 20 percent uranium a country has, the longer the “breakout” time — the time it would take a country to assemble a nuclear bomb once a decision to do so has been made.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports in its quarterly inspections assessment that the quantity of 20 percent enriched uranium in Iran’s hands has been reduced since last November, when the world’s six powers (P5+1) and Iran have reached an interim agreement on Iran’s nuclear activities. The agreement has gone into effect on 20 January.
The IAEA reports that Iran now has 354 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent – or about one-fifth less than what it had in November.
With the right type of centrifuges, it is quicker to increase the level of enrichment from 20 percent to weapon-grade 90 percent than it is to enrich uranium from 1 or 2 percent to 20 percent. This is why the larger the quantity of 20 percent uranium a country has, the shorter the country’s nuclear weapon “breakout” time – the time it would take a country to assemble a nuclear bomb once a decision to do so has been made.
The IAEA finding comes four weeks after the 20 January implementation of the P+5-Iran accord which requires Iran to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent for six months.
Iran “ceased the production” of 20 percent-enriched uranium hexafluoride gas on 20 January, when the deal took effect, the IAEA said in the report to its 35-nation governing board.
The report added that Iran “began down-blending some of what it had produced” to lower-grade uranium, which would make the process of converting the uranium into bomb fuel longer, allowing outside powers more time to detect such activity and respond to it.
The UN agency noted that since 20 January, Iran has been cooperating with an intensified and intrusive inspections regime which is part of the interim nuclear accord, as well as with inspection measures under a separate UN probe into suspected Iranian activities in the past which are related to nuclear weapons, such as the testing of nuclear weapon triggering mechanism at the military testing site in Parchin.
