VIENNA — Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched up to 83.7% in Iran‘s underground Fordo nuclear site, a report seen Tuesday by The Associated Press said.
The confidential quarterly report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency distributed to member states likely will renew tensions between Iran and the West over its program.
The IAEA report, which only speaks about “particles,” suggests that Iran isn’t building a stockpile of uranium enriched above 60% — the level it has been enriching at from some time.
The IAEA report described inspectors discovering on Jan. 21 that the two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges in Fordo had been configured in a way “substantially different” to what had been previously declared. The IAEA took samples the following day, which showed particles up to 83.7% purity, the report said.
“Iran informed the agency that ‘unintended fluctuations’ in enrichment levels may have occurred during the transition period,” the IAEA report said. “Discussions between the agency and Iran to clarify the matter are ongoing.”
Iranian officials could not be immediately reached for comment regarding the report, details of which had been circulating for about a week.
A spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear program, Behrouz Kamalvandi, sought last week to portray any detection of uranium particles enriched to that level as a momentary side…
