New IAEA Report Shows Iranian Nuclear Advances
Iran has made several nuclear advances ahead of talks next week in Kazakhstan, according to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, reports Barbara Slavin.
Days before Iran sits down with the United States and five other countries to discuss its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran is planning to use an ostensibly civilian facility to test fuel for a reactor that can yield plutonium.
The finding was among several troubling elements in the new report, which also said that since November, Iran has installed more than 2,250 additional centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz for a total of 12,669 centrifuges.
Iran has also begun to place more advanced centrifuges at Natanz and has increased its stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium from 135 kilograms to 167 kilograms— closer to, if still below, a threshold of 240-250 kilograms necessary to produce enough material for one nuclear weapon.
“The trend is not good,” David Albright, president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, told Al-Monitor.
