IAEA: Iran’s near weapons-grade uranium reaches over 15 times its 2015 nuclear deal limit
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which nears weapons-grade, is more than 15 times the limit set out in the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
The country’s stock includes 33.2 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent purity, the report seen by Reuters said, an increase of 15.5 kg.
It takes around 25 kg of weapons-grade uranium, which is around 90 per cent purity, to make an atom bomb.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran of having more than 12 times the amount of enriched uranium permitted under a 2015 nuclear deal in November 2020.
Iran has said it only wants to bolster its uranium for civil uses – but many suspect it is looking to get closer to producing a nuclear weapon.
The US imposed a set of economic sanctions on Iran in 2017 in response to its own Iranian programme that has meant the country does not need to cap its bomb-making projects.
Since the US under the Trump administration pulled out of the deal in 2018, Iran has breached a number of its deal’s restrictions designed to stretch the ‘breakout time’ – the amount of time it would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb – from two to three months to around a year.
There have been a number of attempts over the years to breathe life back into the 2015 nuclear deal, in which world powers agree to cap their nuclear weaponry capabilities.