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IAEA report reveals Iran continues to increase nuclear capacity
The latest quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed yesterday that Iran is continuing to increase its capacity to enrich uranium.
Although it has not yet been officially released, the IAEA Safeguards Report is already widely available and is being extensively reported in the media. The report says that the installation of advanced next-generation equipment at locations such as the Natanz plant has been intensified. In total, Iran now has 700 of these centrifuges available, with 100 added in the last month alone. These centrifuges are capable of speeding up the enrichment of uranium which Western countries fear will be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
Crucially, the report also details that Iran has increased its stockpile of 20 per cent enriched uranium by 15kg over the last three months to a total of 182kg. Uranium that is enriched to 20 per cent is considered just a small step away from weapons grade quality. In September, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his “red line” which may precipitate action against Iran’s nuclear facilities is enough medium enriched uranium to make one bomb if further enriched, which is understood to mean about 240kg of 20% enriched material.
The IAEA report also gives significant attention to the ongoing development of the Arak heavy water reactor, where a reactor vessel has been transported although it is not yet operational. Iran predicts that Arak will be operational by the third quarter of 2014. The plant could be used to produce plutonium, which can be used to make smaller, even more powerful nuclear warheads than weapons-grade uranium.
The IAEA report comes just weeks after talks broke down between the IAEA and Iran over allowing international inspectors access to Iranian nuclear sites, officials and documents. A parallel diplomatic track, between the so-called P5+1 forum (United States, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany) and Iran has failed to make any real progress in resolving international concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme.