Iran just shy of a nuclear bomb, enriched uranium at 84% purity: IAEA

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

A senior Iranian nuclear official denied Iran had enriched uranium beyond 60 per cent purity “so far” and dismissed the development as “a smear and a distortion of the facts.”

“The existence of uranium particles above 60 per cent does not mean the same thing as enrichment above 60 per cent,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.   

The IAEA responded on Sunday and said it is discussing with Iran the results of the agency’s recent verification activities and will inform its board of directors as appropriate, according to a tweet citing IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi.  

The development comes as Iran is increasingly isolated from the West and nuclear talks with world powers remain suspended. The country has also faced condemnation for its deadly crackdown on major protests and US and EU have tightened sanctions on Iran over its military support for Russia’s war.

The IAEA has repeatedly said levels even at 60 per cent are indistinguishable from the level needed for a nuclear weapon. Most reactors use material enriched to 5 per cent purity.