By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has agreed to tougher monitoring by the U.N. nuclear watchdog at its Fordow site dug into a mountain after it greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade there, the watchdog said on Thursday in a report seen by Reuters.
Last week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported Iran had multiplied the pace of its enrichment to up to 60% purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, at Fordow, which Western powers called an extremely serious escalation in their standoff with Iran over its nuclear programme.
At that time the agency said it would discuss the need for tougher so-called safeguards measures, such as inspections, at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), one of two sites where Iran is enriching to that highest level.
“Iran agreed to the Agency’s request to increase the frequency and intensity of the implementation of safeguards measures at FFEP and is facilitating the implementation of this strengthened safeguards approach,” the IAEA said in Thursday’s confidential report to member states.
By switching to up to 20% from up to 5% the enrichment level of the uranium hexafluoride feedstock for centrifuges at Fordow already enriching to up to 60%, Iran has multiplied the pace at which it produces uranium in that highest enrichment bracket.
The IAEA has said it will now be able to produce more than 34 kg a month of uranium enriched to up to 60% at Fordow, around six times the 5-7 kg it was producing in total at both Fordow and an above-ground pilot plant at Natanz in recent months.
Around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is theoretically enough, if enriched further, for a nuclear bomb, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran already has more than four times that amount, and enough for more weapons at lower enrichment levels.
Western powers say there is no civil justification for Iran enriching to that level since no other country has done so without producing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies having such intentions, saying its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Mark Potter, William Maclean)
