UN Inspectors in Iran Discover Uranium Enriched to 84% Purity

Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), discovered during a visit to Iran last week uranium enriched to 84% purity, according to a report by Bloomberg, citing two unnamed senior diplomats. In the wake of the report on Sunday, the IAEA said it was in discussions with Iran about the detection of the 84% enriched uranium. Until this recent inspection, Iran was only known to have enriched uranium to 60% purity; Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021.  Weapons-grade uranium requires 90% purity.

The IAEA now is working to determine if the higher enrichment level is an “unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes,” according to the report. It is not known where the higher-enriched uranium was discovered.