Iran’s uranium stockpiles grow
But watchdog says inspectors also being allowed more access
VIENNA — Iran continues to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium in violation of limitations set in a landmark deal with world powers, but it has begun providing access to sites where it was suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material and possibly conducted nuclear-related activities, the U.N.’S atomic watchdog agency said Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document distributed to member countries that Iran as of Aug. 25 had stockpiled 2.32 tons of low-enriched uranium, up from 1.73 tons last reported on May 20.
Iran signed the nuclear deal in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia. Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, it allows Iran to keep a stockpile of only 447 pounds.
The IAEA reported that Iran has also continued to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5 percent, higher than the 3.67 percent allowed under the JCPOA. However, it said Iran’s stockpile of heavy water, which helps cool nuclear reactors, had decreased and is now back within the JCPOA limits.
The nuclear deal promised Iran economic incentives in return for the curbs on its nuclear program. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal unilaterally in 2018, saying it needed to be renegotiated.
Since then, Iran has slowly violated the restrictions to try to pressure the remaining nations to increase the incentives to offset new, economy-crippling U.S. sanctions.
Those countries maintain that even though Iran has been violating many of the pact’s restrictions, it is important to keep the deal alive because the country has continued providing the IAEA with critical access to inspect its nuclear facilities.
The agency had been at a monthslong impasse over two locations thought to be from the early 2000s, however, which Iran argued that inspectors had no right to visit because they dated to before the deal.
But after IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi personally visited Tehran in late August for meetings with top officials, he said Iran had agreed to provide inspectors access.
The ultimate goal of the JCPOA is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, which Iran insists it does not want to do.
Still, since the the U.S. withdrawal, it has stockpiled enough enriched uranium to produce a weapon.
Before agreeing to the nuclear deal, Iran had enriched its uranium up to 20 percent purity, which is just a short technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90 percent.