Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched To 84% Purity

Bloomberg: Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched to 84% Purity 

(Bloomberg) -- International atomic monitors in Iran last week detected uranium enriched to levels just below that needed for a nuclear weapon, according to two senior diplomats, underscoring the risk that the country’s unrestrained atomic activities could prompt a new crisis. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date, and a concentration just 6% below what’s needed for a weapon. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity. 

Inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material, or whether the concentration was an unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes. It’s the second time this month that monitors have detected suspicious enrichment-related activities.  

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WNU Editor: Iran is denying these reports .... Iran denies enriching uranium to 84 percent purity amid IAEA row (Al Jazeera). 

Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched To 84% Purity  

Iran’s uranium processing has almost reached nuclear weapons-grade purity: inspectors -- FOX News 

Iran 'takes major step towards acquiring a nuclear weapon' -- Telegraph  

IAEA says it is in discussions with Iran after report of enrichment -- Reuters  

Report: UN inspectors find Iran has enriched uranium to 84%, near weapons-grade -- Times of Israel

IAEA Chief Warns That There Is Iranian Nuclear Activity We Know Nothing About

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi at an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, September 13. (photo credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters) 

Jerusalem Post: IAEA chief: There is Iranian nuclear activity we know nothing about  

Want to meet with Iran, but they must resolve doubts. 

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on Wednesday said at a press conference that regarding Iran's nuclear program, that there is a "mass of activity about which we don't know anything." 

Grossi's comments came on the sidelines of his speech to the quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors who he told that he sincerely wants to meet with the Islamic Republic to resolve nuclear violation and oversight issues, but that any such meetings should resolve the outstanding issues and not simply be opportunities to negotiate endlessly. 

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IAEA Chief Warns That There Is Iranian Nuclear Activity We Know Nothing About 

Iran must cooperate with uranium probe, says IAEA board resolution -- Reuters

IAEA board orders Iran to cooperate with probe into 3 undeclared sites -- Axios  

New IAEA resolution censures Iran over insufficient cooperation -- Al Jazeera 

Iran Atomic Escalation Seen Hurtling Toward Dangerous Crisis -- Bloomberg

Iranian Nuclear Work Unhindered By Sanctions, CIA Report Says

Photo: (May. 8) - A CIA report concluded that international sanctions have not significantly slowed work at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment complex, shown in 2007 (Majid/Getty Images).

From Global Security Newswire:

A CIA report issued to Congress in March warns that economic penalties have done little to slow Iranian nuclear activities that could support nuclear-weapon development, the Washington Times reported yesterday (see GSN, May 7).

"During the reporting period [2008], Iran continued to expand its nuclear infrastructure and continued uranium enrichment and activities related to its heavy-water research reactor, despite multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions since late 2006 calling for the suspension of those activities," says the report, which was authored by the CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center and endorsed by the National Intelligence Council.

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My Comment: Not a comforting report when one accepts the realization that Iran is dedicated to developing nuclear technologies and (I can assume) nuclear weapons.