IAEA: Iran has recently sharply increased its enriched uranium stocks, raising concerns

Iran has significantly increased its stockpile of enriched uranium in recent months, although it has slightly reduced the amount enriched to a level close to that needed to produce a nuclear bomb. This was revealed today in a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which Reuters and AFP obtained and reviewed. In a separate report, the IAEA expressed growing concerns about the country's ability to produce nuclear weapons.

In its regular quarterly report, the agency said Iran's total stockpile of enriched uranium stood at 5,525.5 kilograms as of 10 February, up from 4,486.8 kilograms at the end of October. According to the IAEA, this is more than 27 times the limit permitted under the 2015 international agreement, which governed Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Iran is thus continuing to expand its nuclear programme, despite denying that its ultimate goal is to acquire a nuclear weapon, AFP noted.

In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with world powers that included easing sanctions in exchange for limits on Tehran's nuclear ambitions and guarantees that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. The agreement allowed Iran to enrich uranium to a maximum of 3.67 percent. However, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reinstated sanctions. Iran then began violating the agreement, and talks on restoring it have stalled. They have also been complicated by revelations of military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow during Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

“Iran is making public statements about its technical capabilities, which further heightens our concerns,” the agency's Director General Rafael Grossi said in the report, again urging Tehran to “cooperate fully”.

Reuters noted that, according to the IAEA report, Iran diluted 32 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent to produce 98 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 20 percent. Iran's total stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent—the level from which it is only one step away from the 90 percent grade needed to produce a nuclear weapon—is estimated to have fallen by just 6.8 kilograms over the past quarter, to 121.5 kilograms.

A senior unnamed diplomat told Reuters today, however, that Iran is currently producing uranium enriched to up to 60 percent at a rate of approximately nine kilograms per month, a pace it returned to at the end of November after slowing production last year. In an interview with Reuters last week, Grossi spoke of a rate of seven kilograms per month.

In recent months, the IAEA has said it does not have full oversight of activities at Iran's nuclear facilities, for example because Iran has dismantled monitoring equipment. Iran has revoked the accreditation of some agency inspectors, the IAEA said in earlier reports.