Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are in Tehran to “resolve ambiguities” over reports that Iran has enriched uranium to an all-time high of 84% purity, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.
(Bloomberg) — Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are in Tehran to “resolve ambiguities” over reports that Iran has enriched uranium to an all-time high of 84% purity, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters in Tehran that the inspectors have been “negotiating, visiting and inspecting” since Tuesday to address the enrichment issue, adding that it arose after an inspector formed an “incorrect impression” on an earlier visit.
Eslami didn’t say when the inspectors had arrived. His comments were made in response to a Bloomberg report that said near weapons-grade levels of enriched uranium had been detected by the agency earlier this month.
Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Hits a New High, Testing Diplomacy
On Sunday, two senior diplomats told Bloomberg that international atomic monitors in Iran had detected uranium enriched to 84%, 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.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday that he expects the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, to arrive in Tehran within the next few days. He repeated Iran’s long-standing position that it’s not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
On Tuesday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s nuclear organization, told Entekhab newspaper that it was “normal” to observe uranium particles enriched to 84% purity in the enrichment process and that it was a “technical matter.”
–With assistance from Khalid Al-Ansary.
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