Uranium enrichment reaches new high: IAEA

LONDON — Iran has enriched uranium closer to the level required to arm nuclear missiles, according to evidence found at an underground facility by United Nations nuclear inspectors.

In its latest report on Iran’s nuclear activity, the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) said it had found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 per cent at the Fordow enrichment plant near Qom.

That is well below the 90- per- cent level needed to make the fissile core of modern nuclear arms, but above Iran’s highest- known enrichment grade of 20 per cent, the level from which uranium can be turned into weapons- grade material.

The IAEA said Iran claimed the higher- grade enrichment may have happened “for technical reasons beyond the operator’s control.”

However, the finding will intensify concerns that Iran is using the current round of international talks to play for time while it pursues its nuclear ambitions.

The IAEA’S report also confirmed that Iran had added a further 350 centrifuges — capable of churning out 20 per cent uranium — this year at the Fordow facility, in addition to 700 installed previously.

The disclosures came the day after the conclusion of the first direct meeting between Iran and the international community in years and will undermine confidence that a breakthrough can be reached when talks resume in Moscow on June 17.

The main bone of contention was — and will remain — whether the Islamic republic meets demands to stop 20- per- cent enrichment and hand over its stockpile of uranium of that grade.

In exchange, Tehran expects some of the tough sanctions it is under to be relaxed.